Basic Details

Many people assume that Ghosts are spirits of the deceased; that there is not a Ghost without there first being a living being. Some extend this belief to Pokémon, believing that Ghost Pokémon are born when living Pokémon die. While this is sometimes true, it is not always the case – some Ghost Pokémon exist due to breeding; and others have just always been. Jinji is one of the latter kind – his actual origin is unknown, as is his true age. After all, in the Spirit Realm, time is infinite…

In his typical guise as a Gengar, Jinji most closely resembles the Gengar seen in the Third Generation era of Pokémon, with a darker purple colouration; and deep red eyes – in his case a shade of crimson, the colour of blood. It is however claimed that when seen up close, a thin yellow iris can be seen around his pupils. This is as yet unconfirmed, as staring at a Gengar’s eyes that closely is a dangerous prospect that usually leaves one wide open to a dose of hypnosis or worse.

However, Jinji’s appearance is unique among Gengar in more visible ways, and makes him easily told apart. Firstly, while Gengar are traditionally depicted as round and pudgy, Jinji is actually relatively flat-chested and far less “fat” compared to a normal Gengar; and in fact, his belly is relatively smooth and soft to the touch, not that he is likely to allow you to try. In contrast, Jinji’s spiky back – the hallmark of all Gengar – is spikier than a usual Gengar, with lengthier quills that are all sharpened to a point. Were someone to accidentally touch any part of Jinji’s back, a cut or graze is guaranteed; and even if he flattens the quills for safety, they will gradually return to straight over time.

Perhaps Jinji’s most visible difference however, is his tongue. Rather than the typical red or purple of most Gengar, Jinji’s tongue is unusually a green colour. Typically this green is quite bright, almost neon-like; though it has also been described on many other occasions as having a slime-like colouration and appearance instead. It is said Jinji gained his unusual tongue colouration as a result of drinking an unusual potion during one of his experiments studying chemistry; and while it is not yet known if the effect is permanent, Jinji takes full advantage of the fact many feel unnerved or even “grossed out” at the sight of it.

Attitude to Battle

Thankfully, Jinji is not the kind to prefer physical contact. Should he choose to make himself visible, he usually takes on an ethereal form, fully intact but incapable of being touched. This attitude also applies to his battle style – Jinji will usually try to avoid physical damage, instead preferring to attack people’s mentality instead. Being a Gengar, it is probably no surprise that Jinji is a serious trickster; and he will often confuse an enemy to buy time, or subject them to terrifying illusions to disturb them. As alluded to earlier, it is also not unknown for him to hypnotise an enemy and torment them with horrendous nightmares. It is his belief that mental scars are far more permanent and difficult to heal. Should this strategy fail, however, Jinji is fully capable of actual combat, with his Shadow Ball attack being both highly accurate and powerful; and he is also capable of conjuring strong poisons to infuse into his Sludge Bombs and other such attacks. He is also not afraid to use his spikes and claws to his advantage, as well.

Ability

Being a Third Generation Gengar, Jinji’s “Ability” is Levitation – although this is really a moot point, as like any Ghost Pokémon, he can be regularly seen not just floating, but actually gliding through the air; as well as ghosting through walls and other physical obstructions. Strangely, in his own home in the Spirit Realm, he usually prefers to act more human and actually walk and open doors; though if he is obstructed, he will revert to using his ethereal nature.

Communication

Jinji is highly-educated as a result of a habit of repeatedly studying to himself, and as a result has a strong mastery of the English language. Having existed for millennia, he has even learned how language has evolved over time; with the result that he is fully capable of understanding and responding to people at any level of English competence. Jinji never actually “talks” in his Gengar form – instead, his voice is communicated telepathically, sounding just like the ethereal being he is. To those without a psychic ability, though, he appears to only communicate in the traditional Gengar sounds and laughter. For such people, Jinji has two options. If a suitable surface exists for writing, Jinji is able to write his words by lighting his claws in ghostly flame, allowing him to burn paper and other materials such that the surface is marked, but the material is not set alight and the markings do not show through the other side.

Possession

The other option Jinji has to his disposal is possession. Jinji is capable of taking control of a human body, after which he is able to control the body’s movement and use it to talk and to interact with people and physical objects. The human is unconscious while possessed, but to an onlooker will appear completely normal, apart from a small loss of fine motor control due to the effort required to maintain possession being hugely straining to Jinji. Jinji is energetic enough to keep up a possession for many hours if necessary, but will always require rest upon its conclusion; and will usually set the body of the person he has possessed to sleep before leaving it, so that the person can “re-awake” naturally, while he returns to his realm to restore his own energies.

Attire

As a Gengar, Jinji is usually naked, as most Pokémon are want to be. However, there is one exception. Jinji is in possession of a mysterious pendant, a flat disk embossed with a 3-Dimensional Dusk Ball design and painted accordingly, with a central depressible button. Jinji is almost always wearing this pendant, the object dangling in front of his chest and kept in place with an unbreakable tether resembling a black string tied to one of his spikes, as though it were a necklace or scarf. Jinji will only take the pendant off while at home; and even if he should not be wearing it at any time, he is always aware of where it is, as though connected to it.

On occasion, Jinji will wear a Reaper Cloth he has fashioned into a coat or cape:

On the rare occasions that he wears actual clothing, however, his preferred attire is a full old world gentleman’s suit, of the style worn by Ed Tudor-Pole during his time on the British game show “The Crystal Maze”.

Jinji’s other “accessory”, if it can be so called, is a marking on his left arm. Here, taking up the width of the visible forearm, there is a patch of his body a noticeably different shade of purple to the rest of his body, which forms the shape of a crescent moon. It is unknown what, if anything, this may represent.

Likes

Jinji is still rather childish in spite of his wizened attitude; and takes a “Why So Serious” approach to life, preferring only to get serious where the need requires. As a result, he is very into playing pranks; and enjoys being as much the perpetrator as the victim. He also enjoys getting himself messy, and in his downtime will often be found playing with slime and sludge of various kinds – or having such materials used on him by the other Ghosts in their own pranks, since his brethren are equally fun-lovers like him.

Jinji has an extreme sweet tooth; and enjoys pigging out on all kinds of sugary treats. This is not just an indulgence – Ghosts feed on pure energy sources to provide them with their own energy, such as the dreams and life-force of living beings; and sugar is nature’s “energy source”, so he is able to digest the sugary food and absorb the energy from within despite lacking an actual digestive system. Because he only extracts the energy from the food, he suffers no ill effects from his diet; and considers it a safer and more reliable source of energy than hunting and eating dreams – although he still goes out with the other Ghosts every so often into the Mortal Realm for a night of spooking innocent humans, in which he may allow himself to feed on dreams like any Gengar should.

Jinji is also fascinated by pyrotechnics; and loves fireworks and explosions. After being introduced to dynamite and similar explosives on one occasion in the mortal realm, Jinji realised the ability to combine slime and other materials within the confines of an explosive to create humorous bombs which he and his friends often use in their pranks or on each other. His constant attempts to both make and defuse various types of explosive have given him real experience as both a demolitions expert and as a bomb squad candidate, although he would never set off an explosive where it was likely to cause harm to a structure or to humans. He has no qualms around the other Ghosts, however, as Ghost-types are unaffected by explosions.

Beliefs and Superstitions

Jinji is well-educated in the many superstitious beliefs of mortal beings, as they are an element of his multiple centuries of studies. While Jinji is himself not a superstitious spirit and generally considers most of these perceived fears and the concept of luck and chance as mere hokum, Jinji will sometimes utilise a person’s superstitions to their advantage, playing mind-games in order to feed on people’s fears. For example, if he knows that a planned haunt has a fear of numbers, Jinji will engineer situations whereby that number appears to become more prominent leading up to his haunt. Or if a person has a fear of thunderstorms, Jinji may utilise Rain Dance and Thunder to create a thunderstorm around a victim’s home later that night. This allows Jinji to put a potential victim on-edge so that a later haunting is more likely to be successful as they will be unprepared to defend themselves; and is part of Jinji’s arsenal of mental trickery that allows him to avoid direct confrontation, as mentioned in “Attitude to Battle” above.

Where Jinji does draw the line in this regard is religious imagery, which is something Jinji takes a dim view on. To him, the only true God is Arceus; and he does not permit any sort of religious imagery within his mansion. The reasons for this are twofold – firstly, he considers this another example of superstitious hogwash; and second and perhaps more importantly, he is aware that arguments over religion and belief often drive mortals to war and physical violence, something he does not condone and would rather avoid having any part in; and he applies this rule even within his own realm, despite knowing that Ghosts are immune to such things. To Jinji, it’s more important that him home remains a place of calmness and cordiality; and he strives to create an air of family friendliness between him and the other residents in the mansion; and would not want to introduce anything likely to cause tension or disagreement.

Motive

Jinji is the epitome of Yin-Yang, believing that nobody is ever fully “good” or “evil”, but that true harmony is achieved when everything finds a balance. As a result, Jinji is often blurring the lines: sometimes acting mischievous or even evil on occasion (especially around Halloween); but usually, he is more of a friendly and caring spirit, with a gentle nature. He doesn’t believe in harming mortal beings – at least not physically – but he also will not prevent a mortal becoming harmed if it is the consequence of their own actions – for example, if someone causes an accident, or becomes sick from tainted food or any other unfortunate occurrence, he is more likely to laugh at their misfortune than offer any assistance unless he genuinely feels the person is undeserving of such disaster. His brethren share his attitude and beliefs; and together they act like one big, happy family.

Jinji will, however, do anything he can to protect his realm and the Spirits within it; and will fight against anything that dares to threaten it. He is also never one to back down from a challenge, of any kind. Jinji is not the kind to anger easily, but should anyone ever enrage him, they will usually not last long enough to regret it. Jinji will also fiercely defend anyone he feels aligns with his views or who he believes to be pure and undeserving of the level of threat before them. In the end, his main aim is to ensure balance of not just the Spirit Realm, but the Mortal one too; and any day that ends with him playing with his friends – whether Pokémon or Human – and just generally enjoying existence is a good day to him.