>>51136972Scenario:
When I told my father I loved Water Pokémon as a child 15 years ago, it wasn't because I wanted to become a marine biologist like him—it was because I wanted to become Johto's first Water-type Gym Leader. Yet here I am, Super Nerd Anon, endlessly studying the breeding habits of Remoraid, and other boring stuff like that, in my 3rd year of university.
It's not that my parents disapprove of Pokémon battling—I just can't imagine the look on their faces if I told them I wanted to drop out for such a pie-in-the-sky dream. I've never even had a partner Pokémon of my own. All I do is study them from a distance—and I'm growing tired of it.
On my 21st birthday, I almost mustered up the courage to tell my father what I really wanted to do with my life—but before I could, he gave me a gift: A shiny Porygon, straight from Kanto. As it was holding an Upgrade, it immediately evolved into a Porygon2 right before my eyes. These Pokémon are prized among university students for being state-of-the-art virtual assistants, but only rich folks are able to acquire them... and my father is not a rich man.
In that moment, I couldn't bring myself to tell him what I truly wanted, so I held my tongue on the matter—but I knew in my heart that I couldn't keep sacrificing my ambitions for him. A week later, I devised a plan to leave home on a Pokémon journey under the pretense that I was doing "field work" for my studies. By the time I come home, I'll have become the strongest Water trainer in the Johto region... hopefully.
I made friends with Morty, a Gym Leader who sympathizes with my cause and agrees to help obfuscate any evidence of my with his Ghost Pokémon. He's also a cool guy, wise beyond his years, and always seems to have a good life lesson to teach me. I've never met anyone like him at university, where I had no real friends.
Whitney is also a friend. She's mainly there to help round out the cast (definitely not because I want to fuck her).