Quoted By:
While I properly outline Merry's story, I've finalized her current team, taking some of the thread's suggestions into account:
>Polteageist, as I said before a Ghost/Fighting coffee variant that's stuck in a coffee pot (its pre-evo wields a mug). Snuck into Merry's morning coffee once, and since then it has entered a contractual relationship where it energizes her for short periods of time then reaps her spiritual energy afterwards. (Includes the shitty name I'd give it if this were an alternate species like Sinistcha)
>Banette: one bad day at work that saw Merry at her most miserable also saw a Shuppet stick to her on her way home, and she was too tired to shoo it away so she let it join her. Nowadays it's a friendly, docile Banette, kept well-fed by its trainer's constant output of negative emotions.
>Rotom: she had to flush it out of her office's break room after nobody else wanted to take the job. It's become lazy within her apartment's microwave, much to her chagrin. (She'd rather have it on her fridge)
>Magnemite: she found it stuck at the antenna on her apartment's terrace one day, and she felt bad enough to let it stay with her. Curious, tends to wander.
>Porygon: an "office assistant" that became virtually hers after nobody else wanted to look after it. This reason being that it's clumsy and unoptimized, despite its good intentions.
>Lampent: Merry's old Pokemon, one that has been her ever since she was little and her dreams weren't crushed yet. It's her closest friend and it cares for her deeply, but it's lost its aptitude for battle after years without training. (I'd also considered a regional variant for the Litwick line, but figured two variants on a single OC would be overkill so I'm shelving it for now)
Region-wise I'm thinking of using the East Coast as a base for now. I also thought of South Korea as a noticeably capitalistic hellhole, but it's too foreign for me to portray properly (same reason I'm not going for Russia, as another anon suggested).