Shutter
| Name: | Gavin Wesley Albright |
| Nickname/Alias: | Shutter, Shutterbug, Gav-Gav |
| Gender: | Cisgender Male |
| Sexuality: | |
| Age: | 30 as of 2021 |
| Height: | 180 cm |
| Ethnicity: | Mixed, [Italian], [Anglo], [Japanese], [Chinese], and [Cebuano] |
| Birthday: | June 12, 1991 |
| Attribute: | N/A |
| Trainer ID: | |
| Home: | Kinkan City, North Mandarin Island, Orange Islands; later Castelia City, Unova |
| Pokéform: | Helioptile |
| Starter: | Gimbal or Giacoma, depending on who you ask |
| Status: | Alive |
Gavin Wesley Albright, known by his nickname Shutter, is a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist originally hailing from North Mandarin Island in the Orange Archipelago. He is the nominal primary PC made by JG-says-things-and-stuff.
Contents
Appearance
Shutter is a lanky man about 1.8 meters tall with tan skin and brown shaggy hair. Frequently, he dresses in light clothing such as a T-shirt, buttondown and shorts and wears a flat cap. He is often seen with various implements in the colors of a rotom, more often than not a camera on a gimbal stabilizer on hand. He often carries a large backpack that turns out to be much heavier than it looks. He frequently walks with earphones stuck to his ears; his mp3 player plays bad music from the 1990s. He dons an oversized green hoodie in cold weather.
At the time of writing, he is 30 years old.
Personal History
Gavin is of Orange Islander and Alto Marean descent and the first of two children born to Richard and Rachel Albright. His paternal grandfather, Reynard Albright, is an Alto Marean, and his late grandmother Nora was from North Mandarin; his maternal grandparents, Terrence and Veronica Caktiong, both came from Shamouti Island. His parents were contractors working toward the salvaging of the massive airship that crashed off the coast of the Shamouti group in 1999 and largely spent the 2000s away from home, leaving him in the care of his grandparents. Gavin developed a passion for film-making and photography early in life. His nickname was coined by his grandparents, who called him "Shutterbug," which was later shortened by friends to Shutter.
He enjoys close relations with both sets of grandparents while they were alive and he manages to remain in contact with his only surviving grandparent, Reynard, despite the overwhelming physical distance between them. However, he has cooler and somewhat distant relations with his parents, who are often absent due to their job working in salvaging large capital vehicles left behind by various villain teams. His father tries to make amends for lost time by supporting his expensive hobbies, but Gavin retained some resentment over the idea that material objects could be used as an alternative for lost time. Gavin shares a somewhat antagonistic and mutually resentful relationship with his younger brother Galen, a relationship that he has only recently started to make amends for.
He was transferred to the Geographic Society headquarters in Unova after a successful stint working with two documentaries at the North Mandarin branch. No stranger to travel, Shutter had been based at the Stormchaser while on assignment. He was later joined by his assistant, the field photographer Tommy.
As of April 2019, his body now contains a bonded muk. In August 2019, it was revealed that he and Penelope "Flash" Grant had been dating for an undisclosed period of time.
Personality
Shutter is curious, inquisitive, and polite around strangers. He loves seeing what lies behind the veil, knowing full well that his inquisitive nature can (and frequently does) lead to a serious risk of injury. He loves to travel to breathtakingly beautiful places and capturing the most spectacular views on photos and video. He is a natural critic and shows a sarcastic side when faced with media that isn't up to his standard. He often shares snarky banter with friends, usually his rotom Gimbal. He isn't always so amicable. He like many other Orange Islanders have a strong and intense loathing for Lawrence III, and he has recently been revealed to have a bully hunter streak, which he expresses with gusto once under Edward's influence. Likewise, he was also responsible for the defining event in his conflict with his little brother Galen: after Galen destroyed one of his lenses by accident, he broke the latter's favorite toy—a Gligarman Action Figure—which not only got him into trouble with his grandfather but also led Galen to actively antagonize him for much of his life.
Job History
Shutter currently works for the Geographic Society and was assigned to work on the episode of one of its most anticipated documentary series The Pokemon Trainer. He had previously worked on two other documentaries with the Geographic Society:
- Islands Under Siege, a miniseries on the calamities that struck the Orange Islands. He worked as an assistant editor to the episode focusing on the Delta Pokemon invasion.
- A nature documentary, The Life of Bug Pokemon, where he provided some of the most spectacular shots in the series, including the Beedrill swarm. He considers this his big break (it paid off his college loans with a lot to spare) despite being one of the most dangerous of his assignments
Prior, he largely took odd photography, photojournalism, and videography jobs, most memorably as the cameraman for a YouTube channel focused on dares that turned out to be a Team Rocket front, though he only found out shortly after quitting because of their bad dental plan.
Personal Details
- He understands monese to a passable degree, courtesy of a class he took in college.
- He studied under a collegiate photography and cinematography program developed by Todd Snapp.
- He acquired his first pokemon, Gimbal, by accident; she came with a stabilizer he bought on the cheap on Craigslist.
- He frequently recalls rather unpleasant events that happened in the Orange Archipelago; he has especially vivid and unpleasant memories of the near-apocalyptic climate incident of the summer of 1999.
- He has had a longstanding desire to take a photographic tour of Kalos and was upset when his bosses passed him over.
- He is not a fan of Brad Van Darn.
- He only acquired trainer skills after being assigned to nature documentary work.
- The aforementioned Beedrill swarm shot was accomplished as a result of a terrible incident that, in his words, could've easily gotten him killed.
- He has a "lucky camera," an early Clavis C-series DSLR called Lucille, that Gimbal calls "a piece of junk."
In the Lillifuture
Gavin marries and has a child, who nearly dies of an engineered pokérus that had been spreading at the time. He eventually becomes a member of the editorial board of the Geographic Society and has become an outspoken critic of the Interpol Authority and its perceived abuses of power. This among other disagreements has created a rift between him and his son David, who works as a low-ranking member of its time-traveling organization, IDPD. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Unova division of the Geographic Society before retiring to make way for his longtime colleague Andrew.
In the Cyfuture
In this dark timeline, Gavin (known outside the RP as "Evil Shutter") becomes the chancellor of the Orange Islands, where he rules as a corrupt and murderous populist dictator. His short title is His majesty, the right and forever honorable dear leader Gavin Albright, the Benevolent and Mighty, Supreme Military Commander, Eternal Chancellor-for-Life, and King of Kings of the Orange Islands, Beloved of the Titans and Beast of the Sea. His son David is a party boy that has only barely towed the party line enough to avoid being outright disowned.
Shutter's Pokémon
Production Crew
Symbiont
Pet
Trivia
- He was originally designed to be a WAAPT version of the Cabbage Merchant.
- His middle name, Wesley, refers to Wesley Crusher, the fan-detested ensign from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- A "Gavin moment" describes moments where any character (usually Tommy) acts sarcastic, snarky and prone to mouthing off profanity, which is a general caricature of Shutter's behavior.
- Shutter does not have a weirdness filter, which makes him especially prone to reacting and overreacting to what people would usually eventually come to ignore.
- Evil Shutter's bombastic titles are based on both real life dictatorial titles and a reference to Abdul Fakkadi of Transformers G1.
- His "young intrepid journalist" schtick lends parallels to Belgian comics character Tintin.
- Most of Shutter's pokémon reflect save Edward and Xerox are based on their primary roles in the production process.
- Gimbal stabilizes and operates cameras.
- Charger charges equipment.
- Scout acts as a lookout.
- Gaffer is being trained to move leaves and branches to improve lighting conditions in forests.
- Edward, meanwhile, is named for Eddie Brock, the host of the symbiote Venom in Marvel Comics. In-universe, he is named after Edward Cullen, the male deuteroganist of the Twilight series of vampire romance novels.
- Xerox is named after a brand of photocopying machines as they occupy Gaffer's skin, which gives them a quality akin to a dodgy copy of Gaffer's old self.
- Although a parallel can be made between the duo of Shutter and Tommy with Ned Leeds and Peter Parker from the MCU (especially given that Jacob Batalon is of Filipino descent, like Shutter is meant to be analogous to), this was neither deliberate nor something leaned onto due to the differing dynamics between Shutter and Tommy. While Ned and Peter are technically equals (despite the former functioning like a sidekick from a narrative standpoint), Shutter is explicitly Tommy's immediate superior and seniority defines their professional and personal relationships.
