Profile
“Sometimes, even now, I’ll look at my reflection and not even recognize the face staring back at me.”
Ashley is the more levelheaded co-leader of Team Sparks, and ironically more cynical by the Pokémon world’s standards despite being considered “optimistically trusting” back on Earth. When Hydreigon first called her and countless other humans to the Pokémon world, she took the form of a Pikachu - and one with an unnatural sense of direction inside Mystery Dungeons, at that. At first, Ashley and Kez wondered if this was something granted to every human-Pokémon, but according to Hydreigon he didn’t give them anything of the sort. If it was something all human-Pokémon had, they’ll never know, thanks to Munna and Kyruem. As of now, it’s just a quirk of Ashley’s it seems. As for what exactly it does, she can picture a mental map of what the layout of the floor they’ve discovered so far looks like, and where they are in it - even if their surroundings look exactly the same as the last five intersecting corridors. It’s for this reason that she takes point in explorations.
Ashley knows the moves Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Feint, and Discharge, and has the ability Static. She wears an Insomniscope as her item of choice - she’d rather be confused and still able to use items rather than unconscious and helpless. Her favorite flavor is sour, and as such she greatly enjoys the taste of Sitrus and Oran berries for their lemon-lime and orange flavors respectively, even if she finds it weird eating what to her is a blueberry the size of a nectarine that tastes like an orange. She can’t stand spicy foods, though. Naturally, Ashley absolutely hates Cheri berries, often complaining that they don’t taste anything like cherries and that it’s false advertising, much to the amusement of her friends. In Pokémon terms, she would be described as having a Modest nature.
Trivia:
- Ashley’s name was originally Lightning
- Her suggestion for the team name, Sparks, comes from the book Bitterblue, the third installment of the Graceling series (which I was actually in the middle of reading when I started Gates to Infinity the first time)
- My cousin’s team actually happened to be the inverse of mine by coincidence, with Axew being the main character and Pikachu the partner
