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❥ 35 when she first becomes champion, idk i jump around in the timeline a lot
❥ born to bisexual gender is a fuck catch em all 1989 i am trash she/they 410,757,864,530 DROPPED THERAPISTS
❥ born in sinnoh, bounced around from region to region before landing in galar and deciding to try out the gym challenge so she could use whatever winnings she got to get a guitar, start a band, and promote herself as a musician
❥ failed step 1 and never actually put out any music. this does not stop her from telling people she's a musician
❥ You haven't heard of her band. It's really underground, like, uhh, a lot of - a lot of new wave-- new wave, grunge inspired sludge metal. Yeah it's really good but you won't like it because it's kind of advanced so she won't show you any of her songs or tell you the name of it but it's, like, really good
❥ swooped in right after all the mess with the Darkest Day and took leon's seat. nobody liked this
❥ abrasive sleazy trash woman who's kind of trying to be better
❥ bleaches her own hair, but not often enough to keep her roots from showing
❥ no living family
❥ hates her job, but gets some kind of sick satisfaction out of ruining it for everyone else

╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ BUT ALSO, IF YOU WILL LET ME BE INSANE..

i do think that, if you make it to a certain point while sufficiently crazy, you get tired of it. doing stupid self-destructive things loses its novelty value and becomes incredibly boring. i think she's hit a point where she's realized that she's not going to die tragically young and is trying to quickly get her shit together while also being in the worst possible position to do that. so there's this feeling of, "oh god, i can't keep living like this, this is not sustainable," mixed with "i don't know how to do anything else."

being part of the league has been a net negative on almost every front for her, but if there's any positives, it's that she's forced into close proximity with people significantly more functional than the usual crowds she runs with. even if they're only with her because they have no other choice, and even though they're all coworkers first and foremost, it's probably the closest thing she's ever experienced to a genuine, non-transactional friend group. which i think puts her in a position where it's like, oh god, i need to learn interpersonal skills immediately.

╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ BRELATIONSHIPS

KABU: They like each otherrrrrrrrrr (and by that I mean they are married). I Could Say Everything

LEON: Ok so it's complicated, because he is inextricably linked from his role as the previous champion. I think it would be difficult for anyone to follow up on the champion title after him - he was essentially the closest possible thing to the platonic ideal of a Perfect Champion, face of the region for over a decade, almost universally beloved, visiting sick kids in the hospital and shit - and, even though she's still relatively new to the region, she's able to at the very least read that there is no possible way she could follow up all that with anything but disappointment. She hates that she's going to spend the rest of her career being compared to someone she couldn't measure up to no matter how hard she tries, so she just Doesn't. Defeatist mentality. I think this informs a lot of her antagonism towards the public and, conceptually, the world as a whole. Nothing Is Fair, I Got What Was Supposed To Be The Best Possible Thing And I'm Still The Same Person I Was Before, Fuck The World And Fuck Everyone In It type of deal.

But also, a lot of that isn't about Leon the person more than it is Leon the concept/the public image. Despite all that, she does legit like him, when she's not busy fucking with him. She does view him as someone she can go to for advice, which she needs a lot of, and they're both the only other (former) champion the other is in regular contact with, so there's a sort of mutual understanding going on.

RAIHAN: Mina would describe him as her best friend (he would not do the same for her). Person most often down to clown. One of the only people able to keep up with whatever she has going on. Even though they hang out together all the time, I don't think they're emotionally close... I think she has a lot of crazy baggage that he has no idea how to deal with. I think the kind of dynamic between people who drink together all the time but don't actually know much about each other outside of that to be very interesting. I don't think Mina's even able to read how superficial it is because she's never had close friends before. A relationship between them would result in fucking nuclear discourse

NESSA: They're friends. I think Mina puts Nessa on a pedestal in a way that kind of sucks. Mina views her as the first person from the League she'd met who was really nice and cool (Milo was friendly, but made no effort to reach out to her after their match because he finds her offputting). They're friendly, they hang out, but I think on some level - a level she won't think about for too long because it makes her feel awful - Nessa kind of hates that Mina likes her a lot more than she likes Mina.

PIERS: He's the one who initially endorsed her, as she was living in Spikemuth at the time and told him she would promote the music scene there. Mina lowkey thinks she's doing some Light Yagami shit and manipulating him for clout. He's fully aware of this and generally does not like her, but they have a shared interest in the city & its music scene, so they stay cordial.

GORDIE: They fucking hate each other