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Terry is known for his bitter, spiky personality. His attitude toward his fellow human beings is one formed of the arrogant opinion that they're collectively stupid to unbearable levels, something that very few people that visit him have ever had much chance at dispelling, given that they do usually need a rather violent proof that their outlook on life is a bit rosy. He's managed not to insult anyone to their faces yet, at least, but ultimately, he'd rather be left alone. That being said, he's not without friends, but he is quite a handful to deal with, even to those he cares about.

His misanthropic outlook is, despite all appearances, not the result of an inherent destructive inclination. In a phrase, he's a bit of a slave to his own opinions and it's unlikely his true sentiments are ever going to surface - he's in his own way. He holds pokémon in high regard and humans much, much less so - and the more he observes mankind interacting with pokémon, the more he resents his own species, all the while feeling quite powerless to change the situation. His fondest wish would be for the gym circuit to be dissolved and its efforts to culminate in something of a (violent) revolution, instead, a radical rewriting of Sehto culture from the ground up to eliminate the abuse inherent to it.

He rationalises his own position in the circuit as a necessary evil - a way to, hopefully, if all works out, wake up the respective idiot putting their pokémon through the circuit. The fact he does serve as an effective deterrent for about 75% of circuiters certainly doesn't do anything to dampen the cruelty of his methods.

He deeply dislikes the current gym circuit setup for its perceived passivity… and for some of the people who are a part of it, Keith Sirius first and foremost, Jagdish Tsukinaka second. That he's a part of him intimidates him - he's not sure how he got there, even if he can retrace all the steps in his head and they all check out as sane. He does know being a gym leader gives him about as much power to change the status quo as he could hope for as an individual human being, but given Nahla City's population flux, he finds himself more frustrated at the chore than not (rather than seeing it as the opportunity to reach a wide audience as he could be doing), as he rarely sees the 'fruits of his labour'.

Terry has a begrudging respect for Jagdish Tsukinaka and the other gymleaders, but he can't be called an enthused supporter. He's certainly loyal, but it's a loyalty born less out of some fundamental belief in the goodness of it all, and more out of his decision that they're simply… less stupid people than average. The fact they could replace him in a heartbeat certainly helps - but while he's certainly intimidated by Jagdish and his ilk when they're exhibiting frightening behaviour, it's nothing that tends to weigh on him. He avoids dealing with Jagdish and Keith personally if at all possible, though, since as far as he's concerned, they always exhibit 'frightening behaviour'.

Ordered roughly from positive to negative, Terry…

• …feels pokémon deserve much better treatment than they tend to receive.
• …is quite fond of Rose Kaiki as, to his perception, she's the only gym leader whom can think of no criticism of beyond his token passivity complaint (that he doesn't directly hold against anyone but Jagdish, since Terry himself cannot claim more activity either).
• …has the mildest protective streak toward Dakarai N'Sehla, since Dakarai reminds him of his own dealings with the gym circuit, and occasionally tries to convince the boy to stop being a slave. He's certainly shouted at him over it before, but obviously gotten nowhere with that.
• …is wholly neutral toward human beings that do not own pokémon.
• …strongly dislikes his fellow human beings providing they deal with pokémon at all - he's never seen a human-pokémon relationship that wasn't at least a bit controlling, and he has a zero tolerance policy about it. (He does include himself in that, his position just makes it difficult not to deal with pokémon in that fashion, and he's bitterly accepted it in himself, but he's far removed from proud about it.)
• …loathes Jagdish Tsukinaka, both for his attitude and thanks to his personal dealings with him. He blames much of the state of Sehto on the Arbiter, since as far as he's gathered by now, he would have the power to change everything about the Sehto culture, but refuses to act.
• …loathes battle-prone pokémon trainers as an example of the worst human-pokémon interactions that are possible. This hatred fuels much of his visible gym circuit related gym leader personality.
• …is a declared enemy of Keith Sirius, (rightly) believing him to be a psychopath and (perhaps not so rightly) believing he should never have been given the position of power he has (something he certainly holds against Jagdish, in turn). Thanks to his personal dealings with Keith, he would quite literally kill the man if you put the two of them into the same room, since he won't tolerate Keith being any closer to him than twenty metres distance for any reason.

Terry polices Nahla City diligently and can be considered something of a sheriff in the frontier-like settlement, but his heart is not with the job. He's a dreamer about getting other things done with his position and nearly constantly frustrated at the limits of it, making him a rather harsh and unforgiving leader, but is not known for excessive unfairness - he may err on the side of punishment, but it's not a wide error margin. He has a good head on his shoulders and is very evidence-based.

Terry's influence goes much further than he realises. For one, he's discouraged many people from continuing the gym circuit and encouraged even more to treat their pokémon with more respect - they're just usually not permanent Nahla inhabitants. The permanent residents of Nahla City both respect and fear him, knowing that they don't want to have to see him - since if he's involved, someone is bound to be hurt, and it might be them. In that, he has something of a mythological angelic air: He's a harbinger of a destruction validated by justice.

Terry insists on spontaneous, freeform, standard rules, granting him the ability to literally crush his opponents - which he certainly does. He doesn't advertise the effect of the rules much anymore, suffering something of a certain ennui about it, but when he started in his role as gym leader, he frequently gave the trainers that came to him about a circuit battle an essay about how he won't go easy on their pokémon. Since that never discouraged anyone before the fact, he's just stopped bothering and let his actions speak louder than words.

…

…

• Tod (Sudowoodo)
• Zerstörung (Golem)
• …

Collected from Arsaga:

The very first knock is answered by the door getting torn open - Marcus' hand raised to continue its assault on the door, but instead batting somewhat uselessly at the air infront of Terry Kiran. Only the sound of dripping water slowly trickling down the sides of the chasm and soaking into the moist earth can be heard for long moments… as though Terry were silently demanding what amateurs are doing in his gym, standing in the doorway with his legs spread slightly, a soft orange glow coming from somewhere in his home, outlining his shape. He's shorter than average, and fairly average in build, it seems, though his expression reveals a confidence that runs deep. A slow blink, finally breaking the silence, cutting right across Devi who was about to ask for a gym battle. “You're here to fight me.” It's a statement, perhaps with a touch of scorn.

Terry's gaze drifts across those present, still standing in the doorway, gaze coming to rest on Nikki as though asking some unspoken question, then shrugging, his fingers sliding from the doorframe. “I'm rather busy right now, so in parallel will have to do,” he says, casually. “You,” he points to Devi. “One pokémon. And you,” he points to Nikki. “Also one pokémon. And you, sir,” he points at Marcus, evidently resisting the urge to poke at his chest in the process. “One pokémon. Against three of mine. Items are allowed, any and all types… blah, blah, blah.” A slight eyeroll, the twitch of his nose, and he looks back at Nikki, arching a slight brow, then shaking his head and glancing nowhere in particular. “Those are my rules.”