Upton Braun
An alternate universe's version of Pokefutures' Adonis Project, the figure who identifies as Upton Braun is a chimerical glitch formed from Zapdos cells suspended over a human cell matrix. He found his way into the main timeline along with his team and has since settled in as an intern (and later field journalist) for the Geographic Society.
Contents
Appearance
On the surface, he has no major discernible differences from a human being. He outwardly resembles a tall, athletic person of mixed Caucasian ([German]) and indigenous Orren ([Puebloan]/[Hopi]) descent. He has blond hair (with a weird texture that people describe as "feathery") and tanned skin. His standard outfit consists of hiker and backpacker clothing. One outfit consists of baggy cargo pants, hiking shoes, a turtleneck shirt worn under a yellow jersey, often paired with a baggy black or gray fleece vest. He tends to wear colors in shades of blacks, browns, grays, and yellows.
He does, however, create a glitching effect around him. People often notice that reality seems to pixelate around his shoulders, which he often shrugs off as an optical illusion of some sort.
History
Creation
Upton began his life as one of the many biotech experiments commissioned by Pokefutures in one timeline as one of the assets made for its Adonis Project. The project's head, Dr. Phineas Braun, was motivated by curiosity and sought the approval to grow and use several tissue cultures based on the initial Zapdos DNA to create zygotes as part of their research. Much like other attempts to create a clone of a legendary, the resulting zygotes were prone to glitching, something that needed to be accounted when it came time to graft the tissue onto a FutureSeries mech.
In an attempt to contain the glitching and stabilize the resulting zygotes, they were suspended in a matrix comprising human cells. Two cellular lines drawn from the leading scientists, including Dr. Braun, were used. Fueled by curiosity and then later attachment, Dr. Braun and his partner continued to let at least one zygote grow on the pretext of observing what would happen.
It was believed at the time that the Zapdos cells were suspended on a human body to create a creature that was much easier to control. A human child was believed to be weaker than a Zapdos chick. In truth, the reasons were more hubristic: the scientists and higher ups believed that only human cells were capable of surviving being suspended among Zapdos cells.
Escape and Later Life
The resulting organism, resembling a glitchy human child, was raised in a Pokefutures facility by one of Dr. Braun's colleagues. Upon her death, Braun suspected foul play and proceeded to subtly interfere with the development of the FutureSeries legendaries, especially the one the now-dubbed Adonis Project would be destined for. Although he was murdered by orders of a higher-up, Phineas Braun's interference continued as a rotom, which culminated in him freeing the young Adonis project and escaping with him, destroying the facility and its research in the process.
As Pokefutures gradually grew in power, he and Dr. Braun's ghost (now a Rotom that goes by Phineas) joined the resistance movements against the company. Often addressed as Adonis or variants therein, he eventually took on the first name Upton, and used his creator's surname whenever he needed one. A temporal shift caused by the activities of Team Mobius caused him and his team to fall into the main timeline. With no means to go back home, they've decided to settle into the new timeline temporarily. They've had some difficulty adapting to the new reality, however. His glitching, which he had once kept in check, was now more difficult to control. Using their new jobs as Geographic Society correspondents, they investigated the fates of their counterparts in the new present.
On the 1st of April 2020, Upton ended up becoming a pawn of the Dr. Braun of another timeline, whose attempts to attain godhood required breaching PEFE HQ. He was later turned into the central component of a makeshift FutureZapdos, but was eventually freed during a battle against his robotic prison in Wyndon.
Relationships
Upton considers Phineas, the ghost of Dr. Braun, as his father. Phineas does not reciprocate these feelings (out loud) and they avoid bringing it up.
He has a poor habit of eating people's lunches. He ate Tommy Petersen's lunches at least ten times, much to the latter's chagrin.
He and Gavin ended up in space once and they've since become good friends. During his time in space, he also took a liking to Arthur Grant, who he saw as an uncle-figure who resembled either [Clark Kent] from the Awesomeguy movies or [Geralt] from [The Witcher].
Known Pokémon
Trivia
- Rather than a clone or a genetically modified organism, Upton is a chimera, formed from the cellular lines of three separate individuals (Zapdos and two humans).
- Upton's creation parallels the experiments that led to the creation of the Scythermen.
- He has much of the same abilities possessed by Zapdos, though due to his nature as a chimera, they are rarely as powerful, let alone useful. Because he is physically human-shaped and therefore flightless, he cannot actually perform any flying type moves outside of very specific circumstances (i.e., when he climbs up something and jumps off).
- With the exception of Phineas, his mon roster's names are derived from the deities of Canaanite and Syriac mythology. Adonis as a name comes from Canaanite adonai, which means "Lord".
- He was inadvertently given a mocking moniker of "Taser Man" by Hunter's Guild grunts that tried to rob him.
- To avoid excessive energy consumption, he sometimes falls into states of torpor. Waking up from a torpid state leaves his speech slurred and his mental state flighty, akin to a state of drunkenness, albeit without emotional volatility.
- Phineas speculates that the successful creation of Mewtwo in the original timeline nullified the need to suspend cloned Zapdos cells in a matrix of another organism. This ensured that the OTL's Dr. Braun had no need to suspend his own cells to stabilize his tissue cultures. Upton's genetic equivalent, thus, had no human component and was entirely tissue culture devoid of a central nervous system. This also indicates that his native timeline either didn't have a Mewtwo or Phineas did not have the documentation of Mewtwo's creation on hand.
