Name: Graham Linwood
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Region: Sinnoh
Appearance: 5'0" 100 lb. Bit short for his age.
He has dark brown eyes, with a tired look about them, and disheveled hair that matched, save for a reddish tint. He wears a simple outfit of jeans, a T-shirt, and boots, though he has a black hoodie and gloves in his backpack. The backpack itself is also black, and holds a few pokeballs (bought in Hearthome), the rest of the bag being devoted to potions and food, with his pokedex being in his front pocket.
History: Graham was born and raised just outside of Snowpoint City, to his nurse mother and fisherman father. The two didn't lack any affection for him, and frequently doted on him. At ten, his father helped him capture his first pokemon, a Snover. Feeling a name in order, and with the encouragement of his parents, he came up with Snowflower. They became acquainted with one another in his house, and the woods behind it. He learned that she was reasonably curious about the ways that humans performed various tasks. Of him, she discovered that Graham was interested in battles, rather more than she was.
Not long after, he attended the Snowpoint Trainer's School. He made a few friends there, and learned that basics of battle, including type match-ups and the different sorts of techniques pokemon could perform. His parents bought him a pokedex when he proved to have a quick grasp of it.
Upon his first battle, Graham realized that being a trainer was what he wanted to do, and he wanted to have more and more battles. Over the course of the next couple years, Graham bonded with Snowflower, and appeared to have come to the conclusion that this was the only bond he needed. As he defeated all of his friends time and time again, save for those with Fire pokemon (who he would have repeatedly challenged regardless, if not for Snowflower's sake), they no longer wanted to battle him. When his insistence annoyed them, he realized that he needed to leave in order to gain more battle experience. His parents accepted, eager to see him pursue the happiness that had seemed to fade in him of late. A friend of his father was delivering crab to Canalave, their company being based there.
While he knew that Snowflower would have a severe disadvantage, he didn't want to pass up a chance to battle Steel types. Snowflower agreed to fight one of the weaker members of the Gym, and luckily, the first pokemon the girl sent out was an Aron, who principally used Metal Claw on Snowflower. Snowflower defeated it with ease, though, with a liberal application of Grass Whistle and Razor Leaf. The strategy did not work quite so well on the girl's Skarmory, which was rather faster, and much fonder of Air Cutter than Aron had been. After having seen the impact the first attack had, Graham pulled Snowflower back when she was going to be hit by another one, to surrender. Snowflower later chose not to reveal whether or not she approved of withdrawing him. She herself was unsure.
Her mood was raised when they passed through Jubilife, and she was surrounded by the city's people, a place full of both human tech and trainers. While there, they visited the city's school, as well as the GTS. It occurred to Graham only after they'd left that trading living beings instantaneously over vast distances was perhaps more sobering a thing than he should have explained to Snowflower.
Her mixture of Grass and Ice allowed Snowfire to swiftly and soundly knock Roark aside, and they spent some time afterwords listening to Roark detail his affection for rock pokemon, as well as the pros and cons of offensive and defensive approaches to battle, most of which Graham did not quite follow. They spent the rest of their time in the city visiting the Oreburgh Mining Museum, because Graham, correctly, suspected Snowflower would find it interesting.
From there the pair progressed north - until they found that route inaccessible. They backtracked slightly, and continued on their journey. After passing through Floroma, they continued onward, to Eterna City. In Eterna, they fought Gardenia, for their most challenging battle yet. When Gardenia later poured admiration on Snowflower, and discussed her love of Grass types, it occurred to Graham that she may have even gone a bit easy on them. Graham and Snowflower also veiwed the place where Eterna's ancient statue once stood.
Onward, through the southern mountains, the pair moved to Hearthome, where they were defeated by Fantina, who was simply more powerful than they had counted on. At last, Graham faced the fact that he couldn't battle with Snowflower alone. While thinking of what to capture, they went south to explore the marsh, so different from their own home, and came upon a Marill battling a Staravia. The Flying pokemon proved more than a match for the Marill, and resoundingly whooped the water mouse, before flying off to whatever it was a Staravia did with its time. Graham thought for a moment, before approaching the wounded Marill. When he did, the mouse rose painfully, and puffed its chest as well as it could. A rare grin spread on Graham's face, an unnerving expression, and he spoke, "A warrior. I'm sure you could do better." The Marill, surprised by his response, and weakened from its recent battle, was easily captured. After healing up, Graham acquainted himself with his new pokemon, and the new dynamic of two pokemon, before challenging Fantina once more, and defeating her. Upon his victory, the recently captured Marill evolved into its proper form of Azumarill. With a smile, Graham congratulated the Marril. "You see, brave Warrior?" The name stuck.
Afterwords, the now-trio continued on their journey, through more mountains, and into Celestic Town, where they visited the ruins of the same name. Onward, they made the longer journey to Veilstone. The first place they went, after getting some proper food, was the Veilstone Gym. Snowflower didn't do overly well against Maylene's Fighting pokemon, but he had reminded her of the disadvantage and told her not to worry about it before they entered the Gym. Warrior, on the other hand, found the Fighting types to be worthy opponents, defeated one and matched the second evenly, losing to a particularly well-placed Karate chop.
When they were defeated, Maylene brought up the Master Quest, telling Graham about the training opportunity and the large reward. The fact that a reward came regardless of victory, plus the abundance of trainers from various lands, made Graham's decision. He called his parents, who had heard of the event, and they agreed that he should compete, provided that they see him before he leaves.
So Graham made his way back to Canalave, where he met his parents, answered their questions about his journey - in perhaps a dryer manner than was necessary - before his mother announced they were taking a vacation in Kanto. While Graham noticed his father's eyebrow's twitch in annoyance, his mother pointed out, "I had to practically drag your father out of Snowpoint!"
Fantastic, he thought. And so they set out on a ship that didn't-quite-qualify-as-a-cruise-ship south, to Vermillion.
Personality: Graham is glacial. He's possessed of a slow, but steady intelligence, and will often realize things at a fridge-logic pace. His knowledge of pokemon is also well-grounded, and his strategies not particularly complex.
He's also about as warm as a glacier, and doesn't usually make any effort to speak or socialize, but he's interested in talking to pokemon professionals, such as Gym Leaders and Researchers, in order to gain insights into not only pokemon and battles, but also to learn what the limits of people's knowledge in such matters were.
Pokémon:
1
- Species: Snover
- Nickname: Snowflower
- Gender: Female
- Personality/history: She'd been out exploring one day, when she found what she'd been searching for - Human tracks! It was a hobby of hers, and of her friends, to search for the tracks of humans. She was quite surprised when she came upon the two in person. She's learned a good deal more about humans at this point, or at least about Graham. In comparison to Graham, she recognizes that she has much less zeal for combat than he does, and much more curiosity about humans.
- Moves: Ice Shard, Razor Leaf, GrassWhistle, Leer, Swagger, Mist, Powder Snow
2
- Species: Azumarill
- Nickname: Warrior
- Gender: Male
- Personality/history: Proud and stubborn, the Marill later named Warrior did not initially care for Graham much, but his opinion was changed when Graham helped him evolve.
- Moves: Rollout, BubbleBeam, Aqua Ring, Tail Whip, Tackle, Defense Curl
