Gengirl's Marley

A mischievous, cunning soul with a love of cane dance. Also enjoys slapstick comedy. You might have seen him on the bus disguised as an old man with a walking stick. Named after the ghost of Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a ghostly name with a nod to the Pokemon's December birthday. Marley's Story Marley was born as an unusually dark, lollipop-scented Gastly in the Pokemon Tower, Lavender Town, on December 14th 2017 with some residual blood ectoplasm clinging to him from when he was murdered in his last life (though thankfully he has no memory of this traumatic event). The blood eventually all dripped off as he practised drifting through walls and emitting/controlling lights as a baby ghost. Marley would sometimes somehow bump his head and go crackers for up to half an hour until the concussion wore off, but became a master of melting into the shadows to the extent that he could occasionally scare other ghost Pokemon if he caught them off-guard. He enjoyed a happy childhood playing with the various toys in the tower’s playroom with those other Gastly who weren’t put off because he looked different. The ghost Pokemon would also play together by mixing up all their poison gas to transform into bigger, more interesting shapes. Due to the experience gained from encountering the many children, trainers and ghost hunters who visited the Pokemon Tower, Marley built up a repertoire of creepy shapes illustrating common phobias such as spiders, a selection of ghastly spirits, zombies and other mythological creatures of the horror variety. He was also taught by his older relatives how to make physically tangible shapes such as the useful one of a human hand so he could hold objects, engage in a wider variety of movement, make noise more easily or (most often) tap people on the shoulder. He rarely had to fight because he was so good at scaring people so his battle skills were underdeveloped. Consequently he remained a Gastly for a long time. Marley’s ability in possession was limited during his time as a baby ghost with only the occasional Rattata to practise on, but he enjoyed using a body equipped with a skeleton and muscles to walk, run and dance around despite it being a very small and strange one. This experience sparked his interest in dance, but he lamented that he could only dance “fully” while borrowing another form. He once possessed a little girl to try dancing in a human body but was expelled from her by a Channeler (who had noticed that the child’s eyes had turned completely white, plus her excited cries of “Gast! Gastly!”) to save her from being killed by his poison. Of course, Marley never realised he was doing any harm and was simply disappointed he couldn’t dance for longer. After that he understood that he could only possess a human body for as long as he liked if it was dead, but never tried to kill anyone for permanent use of their body. Instead he tried his best to copy a living body as well as he could, but though he could become tangible and copy movements his imitations were limited and he could not replicate joints or muscles precisely. As time passed Marley became bored of scaring people and would simply lurk in the shadows gaining sufficient nutrition from the fear his brothers and sisters elicited from guests. He was caught by accident when a visiting Pokemon trainer threw a Pokeball at a normal Gastly and missed, hitting the shadow he was sleeping in and capturing him. The trainer, confused on seeing her Pokeball apparently capture a shadow, was shocked and delighted to find she’d caught a strange black Gastly. She named him Marley and set about training him for battle, but found she had to go about it very slowly and gently since this Pokemon seemed far more interested in playing than in combat. By inventing games that helped Marley develop his powers, she was able to coach him to higher levels until he could evolve into Haunter. Marley was very happy that this new form came with his very own pair of disembodied hands and loved experimenting with them. He enjoyed doing jazz hands, playing clapping games, pressing buttons, carrying grocery shopping bags, juggling, yo-yoing and even playing marbles. He learned to use some basic battle moves involving his new hands like Shadow Punch and Sucker Punch. Marley also discovered that he could taste food better as a Haunter and went on a tasting spree to find out what his favourite things to eat were (gummies, Pokeblocks, chocolate and bitter tastes). His trainer knew he was capable of evolving further, and Marley had only seen the great elder Gengar back at the Pokemon Tower where he grew up so he never knew how to reach that form himself. When his trainer explained that a little visit somewhere else was known to help a Pokemon evolve, he agreed to give it a try. So when he went to visit Trebor, he found the strength to evolve into Gengar and returned to his trainer with a present of ghost gummies. Marley was elated with his new Gengar body complete with ears, arms for his hands, a tail and his own pair of short stubby legs with little feet on the end. Finally he had a natural form with limbs that was capable of dancing whenever he wanted! To congratulate him on evolution, his trainer gave him a top hat and a candy cane stick. Now that Marley can dance freely, he’s always practising some new move or another from ballet and tap to street dance. His favourite party piece is cane dancing with his stick. Evolution also granted him even more punching power, giving him access to more punching moves such as Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Focus Punch and Drain Punch. He jokes that Drain Punch is tasty but his favourite kind of punch is fruit punch. :P 24/01/2018 Marley was officially entrusted with Amethyst Farm's treasure: a Ghostium Z freely given by CorvidsAiden. <3 He regards it as a lucky talisman and pets it before important battles or dance performances. 27/01/2018 Reached Level 100 39th in Contest #92