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TL;DR: nasty motherfucker spends a few decades fleeing from the batshit crazy interpersonal drama she creates until she ends up as the dark horse champion of galar in an otherwise mid gym season. Literally everybody hates this
BACKSTORY
OKAY, look. Here's the thing.
It's been a rough couple of decades. Most of that is your fault, but hey, it sucks anyways! You never end up sticking in one place for too long, always ready to pack your bags and take off the second things start getting bad. Maybe if every friend group yoy managed to weasel her way into didn't SOMEHOW end up blowing up spectacularly, you wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe. It's hard out here, you know?
So let's say you hit a big age (bigger than you'd ever expected to make it, anyways), like, say, 34? And let's say you decide that, right, looks like you're not gonna die young, so you've gotta clean up your act! Maybe find a whole new region to reinvent yourself in (again)! This is - what are they calling it? Growth era? This is your growth era, or whatever the fuck.
Alright, get yourself a map. Now cross off all the places you've reinvented yourself in, fucked up tremendously, and took off so you wouldn't have to deal with the interpersonal fallout. Not a lot of options left, right? But these are your options nonetheless.
Hoenn? Too hot, too much water. Next.
Paldea? The fuck is even in Paldea, anyways? Maybe it would be cool, in a fun, adventurous kind of way, but trying to pick up a new language sounds ass. Next.
Galar?
Hey, what about Galar?
Thinking about it, you like a few bands from out there. Maybe you can start a band! It can't be that hard, right? You've even earned some cash in the past from busking (before you got evicted and your landlord trashed all your instruments, but that's a whole other thing.) Maybe your band will even become, like, famous or something. Musicians make a lot of money, right?
So it's settled! You're taking a plane to Galar!
So maybe you end up in a whole new place, and it's kind of awful? To get back into music, you need an instrument, but to get an instrument, you need money. You have none. Your plans are dead on arrival. Tough luck. Maybe if you find out where the punks are hanging out, you can bum a guitar off someone and then you can start a band?
In the meantime, you need money for a place to live and food to eat. Battling random kids for their pocket change is enough to get fed, but you're behind on rent within a few months. Your plans are deader than dead, not that you'd put much stock in them anyways. All that does is give you room for new plans, better plans, plans that will make you a lot of money really fast.
Not that you'd done much research into the area before you moved (music? It might be kind of cold there?), but one of the things you weren't expecting was for everyone to be crazy into the whole gym thing. Most places you've been have them, but they're more or less something you send your kids off to do, not a massive spectacle like it is here. You can't just walk in and start fighting people, first off. There's, like, on and off seasons and sponsorships and everything. It's proper business. And most people are, like, really invested in it in a way you haven't seen before. You'll know if there's a match going on because pretty much every bar, every waiting room, will have it up on the TV. In some of the cities, there's even big electronic billboards up to flash ads at passersby, but even those will switch over to the current match, if it's a big enough deal. And people out running errands or whatever will stop in the middle of the streets and crane their necks up to watch. It's nuts. You've never seen anything like it.
It's after you've acclimated a little more and the newness of it all starts wearing off that you get your next big idea. You've been hanging around Spikemuth, schmoozing off the local punks, but no one's given you a free guitar yet. What you have seen is their gym leader holding concerts. The people here love it. The crowd's energetic, real good. And you know what? He's not bad. But sometimes, you see someone do something, and you think, "I can do that better."
So after enough begging, the guy gives you his endorsement, and you're signed up for the next gym season. Before you know it, you're thrust into this separate layer of society with prestige and paid-for hotel rooms and shit. If you're with the right people, you can just say, "Put it on his business card!" and the charges vanish. Not sure how that works, but it's crazy stuff. You still haven't gotten your hands on a guitar, but you'll do that any day now. And because you did all this stupid shit, your band will obviously get really famous whenever you get that done.
That's all beside the point. The point is, you're suddenly a member of what almost feels like an exclusive club, where all the people are friendly and encouraging and weirdly nice? Like, they talk to you even when you're not on camera together. You even follow Nessa on Spindagram the day after your match, and she follows you back and sends you a DM congratulating you on your victory. She even puts, like, a sparkle emoji in there.
And you know what? You're allowed to have some crushes. With all the hard work you're putting in, you've earned it. The heart wants what it wants, or whatever dumb platitude will make you accept that.
Right, someone might be thinking. That's all well and good, but what's with the old guy? And your answer is: Hey, shut the fuck up. My brain, my rules.
There's just one little problem with all of this: You weren't supposed to actually... Win?
Okay, look, you're doing your best, but nobody actually likes having you around. You're boring to watch, apparently, and you bomb pretty much every post-match interview. Apparently, the current champion's little brother is competing the same season as you, so pretty much all eyes are on him. Whatever. You'll just have to do really super good so people remember your name, and also so you can keep getting paid for your matches.
And then some shit happens with the CEO, someone summons a legendary Pokemon (typical), champion's little brother catches it. Awesome! He's the hero! Everyone loves him! Now all he has to do is win the title from his brother!
He doesn't. Because you beat him. And then you beat his brother.
This upsets people almost as much as the whole "evil legendary Pokemon getting summoned and almost killing everyone" thing. The whole region's watched this champion kid grow up. He's an excellent public speaker and performer, loves to do charity events and interact with the fans, all-around great bloke who might be one of the single most beloved figures in the region's history.
He is unceremoniously ousted by a hated contestant with an otherwise mid performance.
Everything ensues.
name: mina
