PLAYER: Oscar 'Oz' Zaitsu	CHARACTER: Ozone
PRONOUNS: He/Him AGE: 27 ORIENTATION: Bisexual LOCATION: Toronto, ON, Canada OCCUPATION: Tattoo Artist	GENDER: <M> AGE: Adult ENABLE PKMN SPEECH? Yes PAIN THRESHOLD: Realistic TRAINER CLASS: Swimmer...for now

OUT OF THE GAME Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. This has been a life full of mistakes. Where to even begin when recounting them? Perhaps with the terrible moniker: Oz. O.Z. His initials, but yes, also because of the 'The Wizard of Oz' — it's a stupid nickname earned during his high school for even stupider reasons. Back then, in that public school in quiet Calgary, he had been the person who everyone knew could get you just about anything you needed as long as you paid him accordingly; from the morally reprehensible answer sheets to exams to even illegal substances in variety. "You're like a wizard." They'd say, and Oscar would roll his eyes because all of his classmates were just so lame and his friends from out of school were so much cooler. Even though when he had jokingly told them what his classmates had said, they had quickly realised the unfortunate coincidence: "Dude, you're like... their Wizard of Oz. Oz! O-Z! That's fuckin' hilarious!" And then they all had laughed in the way stoners do when they don't realise their jokes aren't actually that funny at all, and Oz had left with a few grams in his backpack as he usually did on days like those. His stay in high school had been cut short by a two year trip to oh-so-wonderful juvie (for unrelated reasons), but the nickname had stuck with him from that moment on. Needless to say, he had been acquainted with a lot of questionable people during his teenage years, and he had done a lot of questionable things as a result. Truly, it's nothing to write home about, and his family would very much prefer it if he didn't remind them of all the 'grief' he put them through with his behaviour at the time. "What did we ever do to deserve this, Oscar?" His parents and grandmother would say, as if oblivious to the high pressure environment they had created when demanding excellency from both him and his older sister, especially after Erika herself had "fallen from grace" by studying Orthodontics instead of "becoming a real doctor". Back then, when he was a fifteen year old kid who just wanted to draw and play videogames, he had blamed them, even if he knew that his family had gone through a lot to immigrate to Canada so they could all have "a better life", and that's why his parents pushed him and his sister so much. And, really, this knowledge in itself is undeniably the reason why Oz tried to redeem himself after his own definitely-much-worse-than-his-sister's fall from grace, even managing to get accepted into Engineering School just as his father had always wanted (although definitely not into the kind of prestigious university he had wanted). But, how had that attempt turned out? With him dropping out less than two years later with a proverbial mountain of student loans to pay regardless of his failure as a student, that's how. At twenty one years old, Oz still lived with his parents and had a no prospects, dead-end, soul-sucking job at Tim Hortons. Every moment at home was filled with tension and arguments, and every moment at work was filled with the scent of coffee and donuts and the sight of customers that looked as if they'd die if they didn't get some caffeine in their system as soon as possible. Of course, since as a teenager spending as little time as possible at home to avoid his parents had gone undeniably wrong for Oz, he turned to his art and to gaming instead — the door to his room being almost permanently closed although doing little to block out the sound of laughter and often-rude jokes spoken into a headset's microphone. Those were the good moments of that period in this life, but the best moments were when he made plans to leave Calgary once and for all. Between savings from various dead-end, soul-sucking jobs and those from the art commissions he had decided to occasionally do for fun, Oz moved to Toronto when he was almost twenty three years old, because who wouldn't want to live in Toronto? But, see, that's exactly what people from smaller Canadian cities often say... until they arrive at The Six and see how fucking expensive everything is. Renting a one bedroom or even a studio apartment while living off saving, paying off debt, and still job hunting? Not a chance. Even when split with his four roommates rent was expensive as hell, but at least he was in a city he liked and away from his family. Things were looking up, right? Well... yeah, but... considering that the only friends Oz had in Toronto at the time were people he met in juvie and that he definitely didn't want to go back to working a customer service job, let's just say that his relationship with the law continued to be a bit shaky for a while. Who could blame him? It was what he knew and what everyone he liked did too. Was he headed down a good path? Obviously not, but that wasn't something to which he gave any thought at the time. Later on, Oz would say that the turning point for him was the apprenticeship. He wasn't looking for it, he wasn't asking for it; he was just drawing to kill time while riding the subway, as he often did ever since having moved to Toronto last spring. It was winter now, and his fingers were freezing as he drew, so needless to say, he wasn't in the mood for the unsolicited advice and equally unsolicited compliment from a stranger while about ten stops away from his destination. So, of course, he had told the stranger to fuck right off without as much as a glance, and while the interaction could have ended right there, this insane person instead said words that have stuck with Oz even after years have passed: "You're rude, kid. Wanna work for me?" This heavily tattooed, middle aged (he was actually in his late 30s at the time) man would later on become Oz's mentor, and yes, Oz is still pretty damn sure he's just as insane as he was that winter day on the subway. The path to become a tattoo artist was hard work, and at the beginning, Oz's job didn't have anything to do with tattooing at all. It would have been easier to keep doing what he was doing despite the risks; to earn a considerable amount for a quick yet incredibly dangerous job, and then spend the rest of his day gaming online with his friends. It would have been easier, but it wouldn't have been fulfilling, because see, until the day he first steps into that tattoo studio in downtown Toronto, Oz had never before met anyone with true passion for their work. The worst part of all? It was a passion he could relate to. These were people he could relate to; people with whom he had more in common than just doing fucked up shit together or playing the same game. Imagine that? Crazy. These people became a family to him overtime, and they were the ones who unknowingly taught him that it was possible to dedicate his life to something he loved instead of trying to live up to someone's impossible expectations or doing what he thought he needed to do to survive. Oz began tattooing at the age of twenty five, and after a couple of incredibly busy years, he and a friend decided to open new studio. Honestly? It's been the best time of his life, and now that things have finally slowed down enough for him to return to some of his old hobbies. Most of his online friends are playing UNOVR these days, so after finding himself a second-hand WorldScreen for a decent price on Kijiji, he decided to give the game a try, even if he had never really been into Pokémon until now (aside from that fever dream time period when everyone was going crazy playing Pokémon Go back in 2016, remember that?).

INSIDE THE GAME I want us to remember the unreadable air. How it waits to be recast by the touch of our lungs.* Everything about the avatar exists by design. A dozen concept art sketches until finally settling for the thirteenth one. It's not about wanting to look the best or the coolest (although 'coolness' had doubtlessly been a very important factor when conceptualising Ozone's appearance), but it is about the fact that this avatar is another creation by Oz himself — completely up to his choice and judgement. He has always had a love-hate relationship with the character creation portion of games; the impulsive side that desperately wants to jump in and play being at war with the perfectionism of the artists who wants his custom character to match what he envisioned in his head. This is not what Oz would like to look like, he's more than content with his own appearance, but this is doubtlessly also a part of himself. After all, when the possibilities for self-expression are almost endless, why settle for what is most mundane? Such thought and care barely exist when it comes to Oz's behaviour in the game. When online, he sees little reason to hold back on impulses. From telling those he meets to just call him Oz despite the fact that 'Ozone' has been his handle for years, to often giving joking and sarcastic responses with no consideration for people's reactions, he acts as all his friends (both offline and online) have always known him to. He can be reckless, challenging rules and throwing himself into dangerous situations just because it might be a good time, and caring little for potential consequences despite the fact that he chose not to reduce the pain threshold when going through the game's settings. There's only one problem with that, though: in his over a decade of experience as a 'gamer', Oz has learned that usually when you throw yourself at something dangerous in-game, you have to be really fucking strong to come out on top. He takes gaming seriously, and when a game matters to him, that's where the perfectionist makes his triumphant return; in this case his craving for aesthetics extending even to what Pokémon he chooses to have in his team (it's all birds) and his craving for power narrowing down that already narrow list (some bird Pokémon have really shitty learnsets) while carefully selecting what upgrades to purchase first. Oz likes to win, but no, he doesn't care about being "the best" — he's not here to compete with anyone else. In truth, the simple fact is that he aims to be strong enough to do whatever he wants in the game. * Excerpt from Air by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

FACE CLAIMS IRL CHARACTER [u]JUJUTSU KAISEN[/u] Suguru Geto as [a href="https://unovr.boards.net/thread/2028"]Oscar 'Oz' Zaitsu[/a] Character Record art by @yud79317724 PLAYER CHARACTER [u]HONKAI: STAR RAIL[/u] Imbibitor Lunae as @ozone Character Record art by @aer007580

OOC NAME Stells

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