John

(John stands proud of his penmanship, art by @ask-guardian-gallade)

John, unlike his wife and son, is a Gumshoos, who moved from the Alolan islands to be with his girlfriend at the time, who would later be his wife. Nick somewhat inherited head stripes from him,  as well as his height and appetite, and indirectly, his being  overweight. He’s still slightly shorter than his own son though,  standing in at 2 feet 4 inches. John tends to speak in a loud voice,  although this voice is more of the “naturally high volumed” kind of  loud as opposed to authoritative or deafened loudness, and his words  tend to slur together into a relaxed accent. His tail drags along the ground for reasons that will be discussed later.

John has a normal fur color, although he has some beard-like markings on his face that are longer and scruffier than the rest of his face, and look like a darker shade of fur than the rest of his body. The focus sash, proudly hoisted by his own son, used to be his own when he worked as a custodian for some school. He is retired now, but he still finds time to work on hobbies and watch TV. His blue eyes sit behind rectangular bifocal glasses, for reasons not unlike Nick, being nearsighted. He also uses a cane to help get around, for important reasons.

John, as opposed to a lot of Gumshoos you might see, is not a bitter-looking man. You can see him smiling more than you’d ever see him scowl. He and Nick have a very positive relationship, with Nick wanting to hug him every chance he can get. He’s a bit of a joker, and Nick has fun laughing with him. He has been happily married to his wife Shelly for the past 17 years.

In John's past, he used to be a trainer pokemon for a Galarian trainer, who had brought his Greedent with him. The twosome met while he was a Yungoos, and Shelly gave him encouraging words of strength as he trained. After he evolved, romantic feelings started blossoming, eventually going as far as to start distracting them. But in lieu of being released, the two were instead retired, and given a treehouse in a tree near the trainer's old home, and in parting, gave them their own pokeballs, which were still bound to them, so they could live their life out together, without the risk of being separated.

Sometime in the recent past, John had a slip and fall accident in his work, where he crushed his spinal cord by falling in an unnatural position, slipping a disc. By the time he was discovered, the damage was done. The disc was corrected, but John lost feeling in his legs. He was temporarily paraplegic, however the legs eventually became ambulatory again much to the surprise of his doctors, although while he was capable of moving them and standing up, they were still completely numb, and John needs a walking cane to stabilize himself.