>>56435655Me again, adding a bit more to this concept:
I was planning for Sabrina to feel guilty of being able to mind-read people and even using that to lowkey manipulate others (not mindcontrol per se, but she wasn't scared of using mindreading to her advantage), by the time of chapter 1 she was rejected from the Pokemon League and got a bad reputation in her hometown, Saffron city.
Red had a self-proclaimed "girlfriend" from early childhood, the girl was a control-freak that wanted to monopolize Red for herself and gaslighted him, not in a sexual way, more like she wanted Red to only interact with her and do everything for her, so she demanded him to train throwing pokeballs at moving targets hanging from trees, like ropes with a target attached that would swing in circles, Red needed to hit a certain amount in a row for the childhood "friend" to be satisfied (she wanted him to be able to catch any Pokemon, even tricky Flying-types). In one of those long days is when he meets a strange Cubone with a black pattern between his eyes (implied to be an Alolan Cubone, how that's possible is explained later), he becomes friends with the Cubone and together they pratice throwing, Red learning from the Cubone. One day this Cubone would become his starter. Red has enough balls to end the relationship in ch1 and the ex-gf will become a rival later on.
As for the Dawn/Marnie (pending), I already explained her backstory in the post above. I intend the first scene to be a show with Roxie+Dawn+Marnie, so one of them quits the band by smashing her guitar in true rock'n roll spirit, for the public and their fans it seems she's quitting in friendly terms, but that's just a front and they had some problems behind the scenes.
So all the 3 of them are kind of "rejects" and that's a recurring theme of their common ground. I don't want it to be the characters licking each other's wounds, it's a bit more upbeat than that, while still having humor and darker parts.
