Veronika

Personality: Veronika presents herself as yet another mysterious Psychic. However, the field of Psychics is much more vast than people believe; in Veronika's case, she is an astrologer and fortune teller. Thanks to the help of her Psychic Pokemon, especially her ace Gothitelle, she makes sure to live up to the potential of astrology and divination. Despite this, she refuses to use this ability for profit since she claims "either people believe too much into it or they just call her a liar".

Power aside, she is a very polite and mellow yet deceiving woman. She looooooooves tricking her opponents by taking advantage of accuracy and evasion. It's very rare that you see her use a move more than twice in a row. Due to this skill, she is highly praised in Galar and even was promoted to become a Gym leader of the region. However, she plans to drop the title as she feels the experience has become too repetitive.

Backstory:  Veronika's roots trace back to the Kalos region with her hometown  residing in Laverre City. She was born the first child of two from a  pair of fortune teller parents. While it's true that-- as Psychics-- they came from Anistar City, they ended up moving to Laverre City because they believed the magic energy there was stronger-- mostly due to it being closer tied to nature. Don't be too worried; their children were raised very well much like everyone else. 

As she grew up, she ended up becoming acquainted with the Furisode girls and they all became fast friends. The group was practically inseparable from adolescence to adulthood to the point that they promised to studying under the new Gym leader, Valerie, together. Life was great for them in the Laverre City gym! They discovered the powerful potential under the pink facades of Fairy types and everyone was kept busy.

Unfortunately, something would happen that would change their lives forever.

One night, after wrapping up work at the Laverre City gym, she encountered a group of orange delinquents hounding her parents about their fortune  telling. While their parents had their Pokemon to fight, it's clear these trespassers were about to get violent with them personally. The moment she saw one delinquent hit her mother, she snapped. The telekinetic power in her awoke and using this psychic power, rocks were fired at the no-do-gooders. The big rocks kept hitting them-- and even their Pokemon-- until the whole group was chased out of the city. Fortunately, Veronika's parents got her to snap out of it before anyone else got hurt. That burst of psychic power exhausted her greatly and she  had to rest for a few days. 

After recovering, life became a bit more strange. She was more emotionally unwell to the point where simple  mistakes upset her and objects were constantly moving around behind her. Another incident happened when a challenging trainer got too cocky after their triumph and greatly insulted her. What happened next? Let's just say that Trainer ended up with more than a black eye afterwards. Valerie and the Furisode Girls were all concerned, so they took her aside for an intervention and her parents joined in. As gentle as their parenting was, they never awakened Veronika's telekinetic skills as they  thought they had more time for normalcy. In turn, her telekinesis ended up emerging with a painful bang. This terrified Veronika as she was afraid of hurting her family and friends next.

She sought help in Anistar City since Olympia, the Psychic type Gym leader, resided there. There, she confided to the other woman about her painful struggles; although Olympia was disappointed in her parents for not telling her about this sooner, she was more than happy to comfort Veronika and even train her psychic abilities. Together, they trained to open the third eye and Veronika's psychic capabilities ascended into a whole new plane.

With Veronika's confidence restored, she embraced Olympia and returned home to Laverre City. Her friends were ecstatic to see her again and even brought insane news: the region of Galar is looking for a Psychic type Gym leader and Valerie secretly applied for her. In her hands was an  invitation for Veronika! While Veronika was a bit annoyed that this was done behind her back, she was also very happy to see a powerful Gym leader putting such faith in her. Everyone was rooting for her to go to Galar to show them what she can do now. At the Coumarine City port, the Kalos gym leaders, the Furisode Girls, and her family all wished her goodbye as she boarded the ship for Galar.

Today, she lives in Ballonlea and works as a minor division Psychic Gym leader. There are rumors that she's looking for a successor after her retirement and after traveling to the Master Dojo, she seems to have found the perfect candidate.

Additional

• According to her original creator, she was drawn up BEFORE the reveal of Avery, which is why she is meant to hint as a prequel to Avery.
• Her design I made was heavily inspired by Mona of "Genshin Impact" and Sana Tsukumo, former Hololive Vtuber
• She collects many items as part of her divination practices like tarot cards, crystals, and tea leaves.
• Her ace is a male Gothitelle which was her first Pokemon from her parents.
• She carries a mega Gardevoir from her time in Kalos, but after moving to  Galar, she retired him in exchange for an Espeon. She also has a Sylveon as a gift from Valerie.
• Her specialty typing switching from Fairy to Psychic is an inverted reference to Bede.
• The  player can meet Veronika in Ballonlea and receive a daily divination  that temporarily boosts a random Pokemon's stats in exchange for one  Star Piece.
• If the player does have the Expansion Pass for Sword/Shield, they can meet Veronika in her home; there, they can talk to Veronika and see her reminiscing about her plans for the future after this Gym leader career. If they completed the Isle of Armor story, the player can see her talking to Avery about handing  the title to him.
• If the player does not have the Expansion Pass, they can still meet Veronika but she does not give a name on who she plans for succeeding her.