Gimbal
The specter of the late Stephania Ditkovic, Gimbal is Gavin Albright's Rotom and primary creative partner and, in her previous life, was Tommy Petersen's mother. Intelligent and curious, she has been nicknamed "DP" (Director of Photography) for her invaluable skill in operating filming equipment. She is Shutter's official starter, though not the first pokémon he has ever raised.
Contents
General Info
Species: Rotom
Gender: Genderless (Female personality)
Age: Unknown, has been with her partner for over 8 years
Obtained: [Craigslist]
Ball: A gimbal stabilizer designed for Clavis C-Series DSLR Cameras.
First Appearance: Page 21608, Post 540179
Ability: Levitate
Personality
Snarky and sarcastic, Gimbal shows no fear or favor on whom she sasses, including her partner Shutter, who she addresses by his first name. She is adept in the use of film making equipment and is versed enough in the art of guerilla film making, though her mastery of human culture outside of this niche is rather spotty. She and Shutter share a penchant for finding themselves in trouble they must run away from. Although a firm believer in "discretion is the better part of valor," she does display moments where she shows combat skill and creative problem solving. She is a pragmatist in battle but a mad artist in any other scenario.
Gimbal shares a passive-aggressive rivalry with Charger, whom she was instrumental in capturing. She calls him "that magnemite" and often describes him dismissively. Outside their rivalry, they are known to get along well when sharing a common interest; frequently, this takes the form of Scout, a pidgey chick they've helped raise.
Shutter tends to trust her more than all his other Pokémon and often lets her tag along with friends like Tommy when he feels that they need backup. Especially when it involves Tommy, she is quick to call this "babysitting duty." She tends to hold the role of "mom friend" to the group and is generally protective of Shutter and his closest friends.
In life, Stephania was a strong-willed yet caring woman, a trait she carried over when she was reborn as a rotom.
History
As a human
Stephania was born to Capt. Andrej Ditkovic and his wife. She had several brothers, among them a younger brother named Damir. She became journalist and writer who traveled a lot on assignment. She married a fictionist, Stanford, despite their often clashing personalities, and the two were blessed with one child, Thomas.
Her father was often working at sea and was not around during her major life milestones, up until her marriage. This strained their relationship over the years, which was only slowly starting to heal when she and her husband were murdered. The circumstances of her death are still unclear to her at present, but she knew foul play was involved. What was clear to the family was that it was likely an assassination attempt by a criminal group they have come into conflict in the past. It was later linked to an old student of her brother-in-law.
In the afterlife, Stephania was distraught at the iniquity of her death's circumstances; her pleas did not land on deaf ears and, with her husband's blessing, she took on the Spirit Games and returned. Meanwhile, he moved on to the afterlife. Much like her other memories, the circumstances and their details were obscured to her.
As a Rotom
Although she returned to life, her other wish of being returned to her family was not granted. She spent the next few years learning her abilities and re-learning human culture by possessing random objects.
She was later acquired by Shutter more or less by accident, having been purchased along with a discount gimbal on [Craigslist equivalent] shortly before his stint at the Geographic Society. Although they've had an immensely rough start, they've since developed a close (if vitriolic) bond. The two of them work closely with one another; they approach cinematography the way other players take to Pokemon Battles. Over the years, she and her partner have survived the many rigors of the wild, often getting into all manner of odd situations while on assignment. She frequently tags along with him and his other friends (including Tommy) on assignments.
Upon recovering her memories, she has spent more time with her son, though she continues to officially be Gavin's starter.
Personal Details
- She is of [Croatian] and [Dalmatian Italian] descent and came from a family of refugees from the former [Yugoslavia].
- As a human, she patterned herself after the muckrakers who exposed corrupt establishments. This habit undoubtedly did not endear her to powerful people, but did make it easy for her to bond with her trainer and her son.
- She was always argumentative and told things like it is.
- She had been good with children and adolescents long before she became a mother herself. At present, she treats her trainer as though she was her son, fittingly because he served as a big brother to her actual son.
- Gimbal did not recall much of her life as a human until recently and thus heavily still identifies with her current name rather than her old one. Shutter still calls her this, as did Tommy before she was revealed to be his mom. Phineas and Upton, however, learned of the relationship rather early upon meeting them and have taken to calling her "Mrs. Petersen."
- It was around her pregnancy that Stephania and her father started to reconcile, as she had later decided to give her son the middle name "Andrew."
- Because her father was mostly absent, she was far more understanding of Shutter's own abandonment issues from his own absent parents.
Trivia
- Her human name is a reference to Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man.
- Her maiden surname is derived from the Ditkovich family, Peter Parker's landlords in the second and third Raimi Spider-Man films. They in turn get their surname from Steve Ditko.
