Taph is known to have very few close to them, albeit their connections can be considered vast they barely keep in contact with many on a day-to-day basis. Overall they are considered quite avoidant, even slightly timid. Preferring to walk in the shadows to their daily hotspots rather than drawing attention to themself.

However, the ones that they consider close relations to themself see a completely different side of Taph. Albeit still very awkward in spots, it's all humorous to see them fumble. He cares about his friends, being the type to send pictures throughout the day of little things that reminds them of them. They are prone to panic attacks, which they show to even less people (the very few being mostly their Cofagrigus and begrudginly Corbeau later down the line).

Early Life

Overall leading a generally boring life, things started to get more interesting once they befriended their first pokemon: a Rowlet! While never catching them due to being a child, the Rowlet and Taph closely bonded. However, after a few years of this friendship, the Rowlet had evolved into Dartrix and started to look worse for wear. Not knowing what was wrong, Taph attempted to assist, but their efforts was in vain and the Dartrix ended up passing away due to an untreated illness due to overextersion. Wrought with grief, Taph vowed to not use Pokemon and instead never become a trainer. They carried this with them until they managed along the Ghost-Grass type Decidueye, a hint of familiarity gleamed between the two of them. This piqued Taph's interest in Ghost types, and while they struggled with the concept of owning pokemon for many years to come (therefore didn't engage with the Decidueye, let it vanish into the forest) they'd let the interest fester for a long time.

Early Adulthood

With this interest peaked, Taph started a rather ridiculous endevour of ameteur ghost hunting, urban exploring into dark and abandoned places to seek out the spiritual fauna that inhabited there. This made them end up with many bumps and scrapes along the way, as they never actually fought nor caught any of these pokemon. This leads into them creating a personal journal, logging the ghost types and where they find them and so forth. One of these locations documented is where they caught their first ever pokemon: a Litwick, living in the backyard of their soon-to-be-best-friend. Taph had met them at a coffee shop, scribbling down notes when Etty came over to ask if the seat across was taken. Being a chatterbox, Etty asked about it and Taph explained awkwardly about what they do for a 'living'. Etty offered for them to come over to her place, a Litwick in the backyward that keeps accidentally setting leaves on fire. Taph agrees, and while documenting and with gentle encouragement they catch it, and with extreme hesitance they manage to in a pokeball! They'd eventually name him Flint.

Adulthood

Their hobby extended well into them getting a stable job of being a tattoo artist, with most of their time off being used to traveling with their friend Etty (sometimes without, but more often then not). With Flint now being a Lampet and Taph's extreme hesitation to catch pokemon, they decided to bite the bullet and create a team. Over the years they had studied and developed appreciation for a myriad of a lot of different Ghost types, and so alongside their travels they started to select a few pokemon to take on their journey. The first acquired was a Duskull, whom they named Requiem. There were a plethora of them around where Taph usually haunts, and the nature of their evolutions fascinated Taph. From there they collected Ebony the Phantump as well as Zipz the Shuppet while on their travels, but there was one Ghost type they were itching to get their hands on... Golurk. They weren't native to any region Taph had visisted, so they decided to take a dedicated trip to Unova just to catch one, and while exploring ancient ruins they came across a curious Pokemon they had never heard of before: Cofagrigus! The one they found was relatively large, an alpha, and their meeting wasn't amicable. The Cofagrigus waited dormantly until Taph passed and then crawled in pursuit, looking to hurt them. In a frenzy to get away, they threw items from their bag that bonked the pokemon on the head--soon accidentally throwing a luxury ball and catching him first try. From then it was history, and Taph named him Relic! They ended up obtaining the rest of their team (A Golett named Elysium, Shedinja named Angel, and eventually a Pumpkaboo named Turnip). Taph eventually ended up slowly stopping ghost hunting when they started to train hard, wanting to become eligable to be the Ghost type Gym Leader of their region. With working through the ranks this eventually came to pass when they got strong enough. Their ace pokemon was supposed to be Elysium, the now Golurk, but when Relic heard about this it decided to attempt to win Taph's attention and worked hard to become their ace instead. Relic ends up becoming a tank of a pokemon, a slow yet heavy hitter who uses its bulky defence and size to it's advantage. Taph accepted this roll of the dice!

Eventually Taph and Etty decided to travel once more to a more popular touristy town in the center of Kalos: Lumiouse City. From there the events of Legends ZA essentially happens, Taph and Etty both serving as the MC of the timeline. Taph ends up helping Taunie out with the debt to the Rust Syndicate, despite their extreme hesitance. Corbeau and them butt heads a bit in the beginning, but the more that they interact the more Taph ends up swooning for him... Every night they tell Etty of him, and like in the past with their encouragement they are convinced to try to see it work out. Taph decides not to attempt to flirt first and sort of waits for it to happen, and before they know it there's an unspoken relationship that starts! Quiet, nothing labeled. This spirals into denials to exchange 'I love yous' and dinners every Friday (mostly due to Corbeau's very busy schedule). Philippe also is not excluded from the mix, though stands back to give them time: Corbeau would have to decided whether he'd LET him be in on the relationship or not. Time will tell...