HL: Erving Application

Name: Winchester Erving Fredericks

Nickname: Erving, Erv

Age: 28

Gender: Male

Pokemon: Magmar

Height: 5ft11

Body Style: Athletic

Birthday: July 13

Orientation: Homosexual

Dominant Hand: Left

Home Island: Rapture Retreat

Ability: Flame Body

Moveset: Smoke Screen, Fire Spin, Lava Plume, Flare Blitz

Personality:

Now that Erving is in a better place in his life, he is a much happier person. Always one for a good or bad joke, he lacks the ability to be serious in most instances. As goofy as he can be, when it comes to his learned craft, he has an intense focus and has the habit of not paying attention to time or bodily needs (such as food or drink...and sometimes sleep).

Erving is a fierce lover, when he allows himself to be. Due to his past, he is afraid of opening his heart to others only to have it used against him one way or another. However, once in love, he would do anything for them-even at the cost of harm to himself.

History:

Raised in a strict household, Erving was brought up by parents that were extremely narrow-minded. They wanted a son they could be proud of when they mingled with other families. They wanted a son that they could brag about. His parents kept him busy with all sorts of after school activities that he never truly enjoyed, but he always knew better than to fight them. It wasn’t until middle school that they finally landed him in something that he enjoyed, track team.

When freshman year high school started, Erving voluntarily tried out for the track team. His parents were so proud. However, to their future dismay, it was through track that Erving realized that there was something different about himself. It was through the track team that he met his first boyfriend, Lucas. Erving kept their relationship secret until sophomore year. He couldn’t take it; the secret life was becoming toxic. It was Lucas that had finally given Erving the courage to come out to his parents. Lucas was originally supposed to go with him, but backed out at the last minute and left Erving on his own. The conversation with his parents went just about as well as he was expecting, ending in him being disowned and immediately kicked out of the house. Thankfully, a close friend, Chance,  had convinced her mother to let Erving stay in their spare bedroom throughout school as long as he could help out around the house, which he was more than glad to do.

School from then on out was miserable for him. Lucas had betrayed him to the track team and the rest of their so-called friends. Erving could only figure it was because Lucas was afraid of being bullied, but it didn’t stop it from hurting. At first, Erving had only left the track team due to their constant jeering and aggressive behavior, but soon it spread to the school’s hallways. The bullying was brutal: verbal assaults, and eventually beatings. A couple months before the end of his sophomore year, Erving dropped out. It wasn’t worth the daily torture.

That summer when he turned 16, he picked up a job as a dishwasher for a restaurant. Since he was no longer in school, he wanted to help out around his temporary home more. Paying rent seemed like a good next step. All the while, he set aside what money he could for the next 2 years to get an apartment.

Once in his own one bedroom apartment he set about trying to better himself. He attended night classes to get his GED, had finally worked his way up to being a waiter at the restaurant, and even found a second job as a backroom worker for a large department store. He was tired, but he knew it would all be worth it in the end.

It took a couple years, he was now 22, before he met the next stage in his life. A new love, that he had fallen helplessly and hopelessly for, a man by the name of Marshall. They had a wonderful year. Erving was finally able to be himself without worry of being judged or spit on from others. He didn’t care what others thought, he was happy. But like most good things, it came to an end.

Close to their year anniversary, Erving felt comfortable in his situation to quit one of his jobs, keeping his job as a waiter. Things were splendid for another week until the restaurant closed down due to a massive kitchen fire (they had no plans to rebuild within the immediate future), and later that same day Marshall told Erving he was leaving him for someone he had already been involved with for the past 4 months. Erving fell into a depression.

Sure he had found a replacement job as a janitor at a hotel, who thankfully had allowed him to stay there after he lost his apartment lease, but it did nothing to lift his spirits. He had the money in savings to take care of himself, but he didn’t see the point. It took a year of self destructive behavior for him to realize that he needed help. Serious help.

He found the help he needed through a psychiatrist, Dr. Theodore Lynch, who was more than willing to work with the young man. The first sessions with the doctor were little more than idle chatter about this and that around the office itself. It wasn’t until the third that Erving was a little more willing to speak up about what was going in his life. Things progressed over the next few months, and so did the bills, but Erving was becoming more and more stable. At the obscure suggestion of Dr. Lynch, the young Magmar started shadowing a local glassblower. It worked like a charm.

The gentleman that owned the workshop taught Erving everything he could about the business, and even paid him for his work, allowing Erving to quit the hotel and rent a room in his house. Erving was like a sponge, more than willing to give the art a shot, as odd as it had seemed when Dr. Lynch had told him about it. At first it was laughable, but as time went on, Erving found working with the glass enjoyable, even relaxing. Ralph, his mentor, let him run the shop itself when he needed to be in the workshop itself.

The two of them had an almost father-son relationship after a year or so, which Erving had desperately needed. This bond helped pull Erving out of the depression better than Dr. Lynch could’ve imagined, then again he didn’t expect them to become so close. Ralph would report back to Dr. Lynch about Erving’s behaviors every now and then, showing continued progress. The young man’s life was turning around for the better.

After a few years, Erving was stable enough to be dismissed from the care of Dr. Lynch. Sometime after his 27th birthday he felt it was time to move on. He felt he needed a complete change, to go somewhere no one knew who he was. In his hometown, no matter how much help he had received or how well he was feeling, it was still difficult to walk down the street and see those that he used to call his friends, his parents, his partners...that now refused to acknowledge his existence.

Saying farewell to just a handful of people, Erving packed his bags to leave. Ralph had given him a few tools in a handy carrying case as well as a little extra money, as a loan, to help get him started. The old man wouldn’t say it, but he was going to miss having Erving around the shop.

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Job: Business Owner

Shop Name: The Glassy Act

Slogan: “For all your functional and nonfunctional needs”

Shop Inventory: Blown glass goods

This shop consists of handmade items, all blown glass. Items include, but not limited to: vases, ornaments, glassware, wine bottles, milk bottles, and trinkets made solely from glass. Thus the “functional” and “nonfunctional” bits.

In front of the shop itself is a recycling bin where people can deposit glass goods that may have broken or aren’t of interest. These items will be used in future products.

Shop Hours

Tues-Fri: 8:30am-6:00pm

Sat-Mon: Closed (but will accommodate if needed)

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Cat Species: Skitty

Cat Name: Minerva
Gender: Female

Minerva was given to Erving as a housewarming gift when he first moved into his apartment from his previous residence. Both Chance and her mother thought it would be hilarious. However, the two became fast cuddle buddies.

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Funfacts:

~ wears glasses (only at home, otherwise has contacts)

~ has a collection of hats and bowties

~ Scared of chickens

~ Can be seen running in the evenings around the main streets after work

~ has a metabolism out of this world

~ has hotter than normal body temperature

~ did not graduate high school, but has a GED

~ keeps some contact with psychiatrist and mentor who likes to check in on him

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Gift References:

”This is amazing! Thank you!”

Loved gifts: bowties, vintage glass blowing tools

”Score!”

Liked gifts: Any kind of music (minus rap)

”Why...thank you~”

Neutral gifts: Newer glass blowing tools

”Ummm….sure.”

Disliked gifts: factory made glass items

“I don’t…...no. Nope.”

Loathed gifts: Rap music

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