Satomi

Short introduction and Personality

Satomi Ando is a young adult, born in the Sinnoh region. Her hairstyle was inspired by the in-universe version of the Sailor Moon anime, later in her life, after she grew out her hair. Is a very capable trainer, having collected all badges in Sinnoh and becoming a Champion for whole 7 minute, before opting out of the title, and even out of being a reserve Champion. A few years later did a full Island Challenge in Alola, but ended up not taking the final Elite Four, ending her career of a professional trainer there.

After living in Alola for about two years, she moved to Paldea for therapeutic reasons, and after about a year there, moved to Unova, with the intention to see more of the world, before getting a more concrete goal in life. Currently lives in Nimbasa city, dating her boyfriend and genuinely contemplating settling down already.

In casual interactions, she acts generally friendly, albeit a bit blunt and sometimes even too pushy. While she follows general societal rules, if there’s something she wants, she is very straight-forward about it. Generally speaks her mind, though usually makes sure to not sound too harsh, or just stays quiet when she knows she has nothing good to say, and she doesn’t want to insult the other person. Genuinely thinks that the best thing she can be to someone else is honest. If they don’t like it, then she did them both a favor by not pretending from the start.

Also has an almost weirdly casual and easy acceptance of things that most would find strange or uncomfortable. Someone has something about themselves they're ashamed of? Why be ashamed of it? It's part of you. You do this super specific ritual everyone else finds not socially acceptable? Who cares? Do what you need to, she doesn't mind. Generally she's very accepting of other people's quirks and oddities, prefering they be truthful with themseves and her, rather than try to create a 'perfect' facade for her 'convenience'. She's also open about her own quirks, like her weird sense of humour, stimming, very specific hobbies and interests, etc.

Depending on how comfortable she is with the person, she begins to add teasing and joking to the interactions, though her humour is a bit peculiar. She avoids personal conversations about her family and past when the relationship is not deep enough, usually not getting into too many details, or just straight up brushing it off as nothing unusual. She will gladly yap about things she enjoys though – her Pokémon, cooking, mythology, space and her minerals collection. She also tends to be the listener in a conversation, almost always able to listen and be interested, even if the topic is something she doesn’t understand yet.

Has a very caring side that borders on motherly and even overbearing if given the chance to show it. Very tactile – once she is comfortable with someone, unless asked not to, she loves to initiate physical contact, whether platonic or romantic. Her love language, besides touch, is cooking – she’s very good at it and is very set on making sure the people she cares for are well fed and feel at home. Can be very stubborn – if she decided on something, her resolve doesn’t waver despite the potential difficulties. Perseverance is one of her most prominent traits.

Her biggest hobby is collecting minerals. In Sinnoh, she spent weeks in the underground just digging out treasures, and while she can’t do it anymore after moving away, she loves any kind of treasure hunt. Even if it’s just finding cool stuff on the ground. She also loves to explore creepy abandoned places sometimes, usually with her Drifblim as company, learning about space on an amateur level and about mythology of different regions, especially if they’re connected to constellations.

Can be considered a gyaru. She didn't seek out the subculture, but rather naturally adapted a lot of its features unknowingly, as they simply fit her, and only later learned of the movement, deciding it fits her well enough, despite not liking to lable herself as anything specific.

Backstory

Satomi was born in Twinleaf town in Sinnoh. She lived in a house with her parents. Her father was an office worker who worked in a different city, so Satomi didn’t see him often. Satomi’s mother was an ex-pop idol, turned housewife. She tended to leave Satomi on her own a lot and generally ignored her often since very young age.

When Satomi was around 6 and started school, her parents began fighting a lot, and the fights only got more serious with years. Her mother became way more harsh in words and actions, so Satomi ended up spending most of her time either playing by herself in a the forest near the house, or at home hiding in her room or closet, and occasionally in other dark places.

When Satomi was 11, her dad stopped showing up at home one day, and on that night Satomi and her mother had a physical fight that resulted in a lot of bodily harm for Satomi, and it was the first time she tried to physically fight back, instead of just hiding. After a week of weird radio silence, one morning, her mother threw her out of the house and told her to go wherever she wanted, since the house has been sold, and the mother is leaving, and isn’t planning to take Satomi with her. That left Satomi with a lasting trauma and abandonment issues, along with a bouquet of other unhealthy mindsets and insecurities she accumulated in the past 11 years.

Satomi ended up deciding that the best way for her to survive now would be to take on a Pokémon Journey, like she knew kids her age could – it would give her money from the battles, and access to Pokémon Centers as temporarily free roof over her head.

She walked through tall grass to the town nearby, found an empty unused Pokéball on her way and tried to approach wild Pokémon, asking them if they want to be her partner, even though several of those encounters ended up with her getting injured and having to run away. After several tries, she made it to Sandgem Town, where she met an abandoned Piplup near the Pokémon Center. After convincing it to become her partner and promising to take care of it the best she can, the Piplup accepted her proposal and got caught out of his own will. From there, she started her journey officially, and began to partake in Gym battles, to earn money from them.

At 13, she received a digging kit. From there, she ended up spending many hours underground, digging up different treasures. She found that she really loves digging up cool things from dirt, so she would go underground very often, sometimes spending days there without seeing the light of day. Some finds she ended up keeping for a collection, but most of her finds she would sell. With how many treasures she found in the years she spent in Sinnoh, she ended up getting a lot of money, especially when added to the money she won from battles after getting actually good at them. So much so, she ended up living off of it for a while later. 

Satomi roamed the region for several years, basically raising herself along with her Pokémon, and being on the road most times, living off whatever cash she has at the moment and building up her team. She ended up becoming really good at battles, and when she was 17, she beat the current Champion of Sinnoh. But once the excitement of doing so wore off, she realized that becoming a Champion was a whole lot of responsibility she simply was not ready for, and ended up refusing the title, as well as a title of a reserve Champion, choosing to not pursue it as a career, at least for now.

Once she completely explored Sinnoh and ended her League run, a lot of unresolved emotional problems began to show themselves, as she stopped focusing on the feeling of discovery and the need to survive all the time. She was not ready to deal with that, and since nothing was holding her down in Sinnoh, rather it was reminding her too much of things she did not want to remember, she moved to Alola, to try and have another Pokémon journey and get some more serotonin by travelling somewhere she’s never been to before. Especially a place that is so drastically different to her home region.

Satomi took the island challenge and almost completed it, but bailed right before the League, since she already knew that she didn’t want to be a Champion anyway, this time absolutely sure Pokémon battles are not at all what she wants to do her whole life. She found a group of friends on her journey who she actually felt very comfortable with, and was seriously considering settling down with what she though was her found family.

However, these people ended up betraying and isolating Satomi, with two of the three friends also later leaving the region altogether without establishing some sort of way of keeping in touch with her, and it was a big blow at her mental health. That made the old unresolved emotional problems resurface and multiplied them, and Satomi spiraled very hard, and almost ended her life, persevering only with the thought that if she dies, her Pokémon will not have anyone to take care of them.

She spent almost half a year cooped up in her house in Alola, barely leaving it and taking very bad care of herself, most notably almost stopping eating, to the point of losing way too much weight to be considered healthy. She ended up developing an eating disorder during that time that she struggles with occasionally to this day.

Her Pokémon actually managed to convince her to take care of herself again, adapting the roles of caregivers for her in reverse, until Satomi returned back to life with her inner self now shattered and in the process of getting rebuilt. This is when the most major shift happened in her personality. Meek, shy and constantly anxious in childhood and teenage years, Satomi completely flipped and began to learn how to be confident and herself unapologetically. Because if other people can’t love her for how she is, then she will make sure she loves herself, out of spite.

She began to slowly recover and eventually, at the age of 21, left Alola to go to Paldea instead, this time not to have another Pokémon journey, but rather to fall in love with the world and life, which she was unable to do until now. Paldea ended up being a great place to make Satomi take a breath and slow down, enjoy nature, peace, fall in love with food again, learn to be kind to herself and just allow herself to go through her inner changes. By the age of 23, she was a completely new person than she was before.

She ended up moving away again, deciding that the next thing she wants to do is to travel some more, To see what else the world has to offer, before she takes her time and decides in how she wants to spend the rest of her life and decide on what her ideals are, what is most important to her.

In her searches for that, she ended up moving to Unova, getting an apartment, a simple job and trying out what big city life is like, settling in Nimbasa city. The plan was initially to spend a few years there and then move again, to see what else is out there, but after finding her first ever love and an actual relationship, as well as a few but actually meaningful friendships, Satomi realized the last important things about herself:

First – the most important thing to her is family and loved ones. After having been deprived of those her whole life, and after finally understanding what it’s like to have them, she knows that she will do anything and everything to make sure they are happy and have a warm meal and a cozy home to return to after a long day.

Second – she never wanted a big career, or a flashy position, like a Champion. All she ever truly wanted was be part of a cozy, stable family life, while being able to take care of those she treasures most. She craves the kind of life most would consider boring and stifling, but she finds comforting and reassuring. And she may have found her place at last, deciding that she actually gets immense satisfaction from being a housewife, being a homemaker while spending her free alone time rediscovering herself and indulging in her hobbies.

Team

Plapp the Piplup, Male, Lvl 70, Quiet nature.

Satomi’s starter. She found him as an abandoned starter at 11 years old. Satomi has the strongest bond with him out of anyone else on her team. They imprinted on eachother a lot in terms of behavior - for example, Piplup's idle animation of swaying left and right in a circular motion is now Satomi’s "idle animation" too.  He refused to evolve at some point, later Satomi realized it was because he wants to keep being small and easy to carry around and help Satomi deal with anxiety, by allowing her to pet his fuzz. If she can’t hold him for any reason, she will fiddle with the edges of her clothes instead. Satomi’s very grateful to him for that, though she still sometimes worries her issues forced Plapp not develop his full battling potential. He trained hard to make up for it and is very good in fights, despite his size and being unevolved. A bit of a brat, but a lovable one. Is Satomi's comfort Pokémon. Can be often seen being carried by Satomi and her fiddling with his flippers. Satomi is the only one who's allowed to do that with him. She also cuddles him in bed, as it helps her feel less anxious when falling asleep and helps keeping the nightmares away. 

Comet the Luxray, Male, Lvl 73, Relaxed nature

Satomi’s second Pokémon. She caught him as a Shinx at the beginning of her journey. She babied him a lot since he was small, and that made him both very protective of Satomi, and also very spoiled. Will look at you in a scary way if you so much as look at Satomi wrong, but is the biggest cuddlebug with people he considers family, i.e. Satomi and the team. He’s on the bigger side, but still thinks he's a lap cat and does not care that his weight is crushing Satomi, he often rests on her, and grooms her, which also ends up with Satomi being covered in fur and slobber. Though really, she's his biggest enabler, despite her unconvincing complaining. Comet sleeps a lot when not in battle. Requires a lot of grooming. You know that tiktok of a lady with a cat "blooping"? "the "he's NOT a predator!" one? that's Satomi with Comet.

Vivaldi the Roserade. Female. Lvl 70. Jolly nature.

Satomi caught her as a Budew. She was very young and way too tiny and underdeveloped, and obviously not able to take care of herself yet, to the point she couldn't even use her legs properly to walk. Whether she was abandoned, or something happened to her family, Satomi ended up taking her by evening, after spending almost the whole day watching her, to make sure she really has no one and that she really is essentially just easy prey in her state. Has very expressive body language and loves mimicking other people's and Pokémon’s movements. Satomi spoiled her a lot too, essentially carrying her as a baby when she was a Budew.

Ribbon the Drifblim. Lvl 71. Female. Docile nature.

One day, Satomi was making her way through a field on a very windy day and was trying to figure out the map in her hands, when a Drifloon suddenly latched onto her shoulder and refused to let go. Initially she was just trying not to get blown away by the wind, and decided this random preteen was a safe enough option, since there weren’t any trees nearby, but ended up sticking around when the wind finally died down and they made it to a forest, and Satomi welcomed her as a new member of the team. Ribbon grew up into a very gentle and loving Drifblim. Satomi taught her Fly and often uses her to fly around. Ribbon is the reason Satomi get a soft spot for ghost Pokémon. They also love to explore abandoned and creepy places together.

Sakura the Blissey. Lvl 69. Female. Bold nature.

One day, during her travels on a bike, Satomi had an accident while getting through tall grass in a forest between Hearthome and Solaceon, and injured her knee, badly enough that she couldn’t really walk. A wild Chancey saw that and leaped out of the nearby bushes, healing the girl’s injury. Satomi thanked the Pokémon, but as she was getting up, the Chancey realized that Satomi didn’t look like she took very good care of herself. The Chancey was scandalized, and before Satomi even knew what was happening, the Chancey was already nudging an empty Pokeball out of the girl’s bag, basically demanding to be caught. Satomi couldn’t argue with that, and today she has a Blissey who’s very adamant on making sure Satomi is healthy, because apparently no one else will, not even Satomi herself. Satomi to this day feels kind of awkward to be taken care of like that, by a Pokémon no less, but she owes her life to her. She basically forced Satomi to keep fighting when she ended up with an eating disorder later in life.

Mamoru the Lucario. Lvl 72. Male. Serious nature.

He hatched from an egg she came across at a Pokémon center in Canalive. It was abandoned, and feeling very personally hurt by that Satomi adopted it and took it with her. He was very affectionate with Satomi when he was a Riolu, but after evolving, he became more aloof and edgy, kind of like a teenager. Satomi ended up starting to take taking special care of her Pokémon very seriously when she had him and learned specific things specific species of Pokémon need to realize their full potential and stay healthy. She especially got into physical training and exercise for fighting type Pokémon, including massages for the muscles.