[hider=Pete]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NrwSJrW.png[/img]

[color=d6baae][i]"Hey, everyone has bad days sometimes, right Luna? Want to go for a walk with us and talk or something? It'll clear your head.”[/i][/color][/center]


[u][b][color=d6baae]Full Name:[/color][/b][/u] Pete Johnson

[u][b][color=d6baae]Age:[/color][/b][/u] 17

[u][b][color=d6baae]Favorite Color:[/color][/b][/u] “Whatever color Luna is - that's my favorite” (Tan)

[u][b][color=d6baae]Favorite Subject:[/color][/b][/u] Health [*I'm assuming we start the semester after MC, so this would be available – but if this is not the case I can edit!]

[u][b][color=d6baae]Favorite Teacher:[/color][/b][/u] Mr. Jacq, for never giving up on him

[u][b][color=d6baae]Appearance:[/color][/b][/u] Clocking in at 6'2” and about 215lbs, Pete's hulking frame is the first thing people notice about him. A result of both an insatiable love of protein and a ton of daily heavy lifting, his weight is entirely muscle. His intimidating size is usually offset by a friendly grin, however he's pretty awful at hiding emotions, so if he's upset, you will know it. He is very expressive in general with his movements and vocal inflection, with excitement and sorrow alike conveyed unmistakably through his chocolatey brown eyes.

Pete doesn't have much of a fashion sense, preferring either plaid or solid-colored t-shirts paired with blue or black jeans and sneakers or work boots outside of school. For class, he usually opts for the summer uniform but sometimes chooses the spring or autumn uniform (the winter one is too warm for his liking). He always wears a string of wooden beads on his left wrist. It was made by his grandfather and used to belong to his grandmother, who wore it as a necklace. Their initials are carved into the clasp, encircled by a heart.

[u][b][color=d6baae]Personality:[/color][/b][/u] Pete's brother would describe him as a sensitive, overemotional dumbass. His sister would describe him as a friend to everyone, but with a disclaimer that his big heart and endless loyalty will be the death of him one day. Pete would shrug and agree with both reviews. He has a naturally friendly and easygoing disposition to everybody, being very non-judgmental of people different than him but slow to recognize when his presence is not desired. He cares deeply for those he considers friends and would listen without complaint for hours about their interests or about something that was bothering them. Though empathetic, he's not the best at detecting emotion, which leads to him asking “are you okay?” a lot, and accepting it at face value if told the affirmative. He also loves to joke around and tease people he's close to. There's no better example of Pete's large heart than his relationship with his rockruff, Luna, who is his little princess and does everything with him, including sharing his bed and all of his meals.

Although Pete doesn't offend easily over things like quips on his appearance, appetite, or opinions, his grades are a particular sore spot, and any insinuation that he isn't smart enough to be in the health track will upset him. His many failed midterms have made him aware that he's not the brightest student at Papas Academy, and he can sometimes be slow to understand something explained to him, especially if the words used are large or plentiful. Similarly, he's quite bad with nuance and can't take a hint. Your best bet to get a point across is to be as direct as possible - though at the same time he can be sensitive and easily stung by social rejection, making handling him a difficult affair at times. His opinion on most things can be very easily swayed, and he's quite easy to bribe (especially with food). He tends to jump to conclusions very quickly, which has led to him initiating fights over misunderstandings.

If you didn't know any better, you would think Pete lived in a constant state of hunger. He will eat just about anything at any time and is known to complain about being hungry even after he's just eaten. Food is a definite way into his heart. He uses the extra calories to exercise whenever he's given the opportunity. He claims it grounds him and makes him focus better, perhaps outside of the dopamine boost because it's something he's confident he's good at, which is why he's often found at the gym instead of the library before a big test. 

[u][b][color=d6baae]Backstory:[/color][/b][/u] Pete was born and raised in a large farmhouse on the outskirts of Cortondo, Paldea, and grew up with his parents, older brother (Jack), younger sister (Mila), and his paternal grandparents. His siblings were both two years apart from him. His grandfather, who passed away when Pete was six, had built the house himself fifty years before Pete was born, and despite the creaking doors and patchwork repairs, Pete wouldn't have his childhood any other way. As far back as he can remember, he started chores at 6am every day, stopped for breakfast, more chores, lunch, homeschooling, more chores, and then after dinner he was free to do whatever he wanted. There was pretty much no task that was off limits, whether it be feeding the pokemon, plowing the fields, sheering the mareep, harvesting olives, clearing out pest nacli, or repairing fences. His grandmother, “Granny”, was a retired schoolteacher, so she was Pete's teacher his entire childhood. Of the three children, Pete always caught on the fastest and was also the only one to enjoy reading and learning in his spare time. In hindsight, it really wasn't much of a contest – he once found his brother caught halfway over the tauros fence by his pants after locking himself in and then failing to climb out, and his sister once asked him if the moon and the sun were the same thing... and also if they were behind or in front of the clouds. As a kid though, Pete assumed he must be a genius.

Pete's older brother Jack heckled him continuously growing up, picking up quickly on Pete's sensitivity and mocking him when he'd fuss over an injured mareep in the flock or shared his dinner with a sad lechonk to make it feel better. His parents mostly ignored this behavior, figuring they may as well let their older son toughen their younger one up a bit. Granny was the only one who showed him any sympathy, so she was always the one to dry his tears and reassure him that empathy was an admirable quality. The pokemon also responded more favorably to Pete, so as the years went on, he slowly took over more of those duties.

This is likely why the family's herding midday lycanroc, Stella, chose Pete to present with an egg when he was fourteen. The imminent new life took everyone by surprise, and they were more careful about letting Stella roam outside alone after that, but Pete took his responsibility as surrogate mother extremely seriously. Stella happily followed him around for weeks as he toted the egg with him through his daily chores-food-school ritual. One fateful day, the egg hatched into a little female rockruff which Pete named Luna, and the two were inseparable from that moment on. 

In Pete's mid-teen years, Granny started to slow down tremendously. She could barely leave bed anymore, and Pete and Luna spent much of their free time talking to her, or helping her up to the dinner table or bathroom. One night when they were talking, Granny mentioned that he should consider going to the Papas Academy. Pete laughed at this notion at first – Granny was the only one in the family who had any sort of formal education, and he'd made peace with being a farmer for the rest of his life. But she insisted – he was different from his siblings – he had a special spark – he and Luna could do it together.

He began to look more seriously into education. It wasn't impossible, especially as his sister had taken over most of his chores when he shifted to looking after their grandmother, but he would never leave Granny, so he figured it would be far in his future when he finally got to go. One quiet night, he excitedly told his grandmother his decision that he would attend the academy in the future, just like she wanted him to. He vividly remembers her smiling softly and telling him how proud of him she was.  

The next morning, they'd found Granny had quietly slipped away in her sleep. Pete was devastated but determined to follow through on his promise, and though his application to Papas Academy was littered with tear stains, he was accepted. Nobody else in his family really cared aside from being annoyed that his chores would be shifted onto them, but he knew his Granny was out there somewhere, watching with pride. He started wearing her necklace to keep a part of her with him at the academy, as it was small enough to fit onto his large wrist.

As excited as Pete was to attend the academy, he quickly realized his lack of prior formal education was going to come as a massive hurdle. Studying? Tests? He had no experience or strategies for such things. Luna was highly offended when the school officials insisted she needed to be in a ball during class, so Pete had to go and buy one for her (a luxury ball, of course). He fell behind in the curriculum very quickly, finding the pace impossible to keep up with, and failed every midterm he wrote. He also refused to use Luna in battle studies, which was basically an automatic fail since he didn't have any other pokemon. By the time he'd gotten over his embarrassment and sought help from Mr. Jacq, there wasn't enough time in the school year to make up the credits and was advised that he would need to retake all of his courses next year.

Maybe his grandmother was wrong about him. He was good at farmwork, he knew how to do it, and he'd certainly never failed a dozen tests on it – home was where he was meant to be. He and Luna stopped at the graveyard on the way home, but Pete froze at the entrance. He remembered the last words she ever said to him, and broke into a sobbing mess at the cemetery gate.

He couldn't tell Granny he was dropping out; she was the only one who ever believed in him. Luna gently tapped his leg and pointed her nose back to Mesagoza with a smile. He engulfed the little rockruff in a hug. Luna believed in him, too.

He consulted with Mr. Jacq, who worked with him over the summer to help get a kickstart on some concepts he was struggling with, and also advised that this year there would be new health classes offered. Pete even went so far as to go catch a nacli to use in battle studies instead of Luna. They were pest pokemon on the farm, as they were attracted to the crop fertilizer but left behind salt that would damage roots. Pete figured he'd never get attached to one of those little buggers, and even left the nacli without a nickname... but inevitably he grew attached, and even caught himself calling him “Nackles”.

Now Pete feels fully ready for the upcoming year and is prepared for the challenge this time. He's even honed in on a new Treasure Hunt goal. He'd heard rumors from Arven about the mythical herbs that were said to cure all ailments, and when confronted, informed Pete of their previous locations, but that the last of them were gone now. If Pete could even discover seeds of those herbs, he had the farming ability to grow them, and the health classes could give him the knowledge to use them. This was his chance to make a huge impact on the world, and he was going to take it!


[hider=Pokemon]
[hider=Starter]
[img]https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/img/pokedex/full/744.png[/img]
[u][b][color=d6baae]Pokémon:[/color][/b][/u] Rockruff
[u][b][color=d6baae]Nickname:[/color][/b][/u] Luna
[u][b][color=d6baae]Personality:[/color][/b][/u] Full of energy and spirit, Luna could brighten a room in an instant with her bubbly, contagious happiness. Pete has spoiled her and she is used to being treated like a human – she will turn her nose up at pokemon treats and dislikes going in her pokeball. She loves to battle, but Pete still hates to use her to fight.
[u][b][color=d6baae]Ability:[/color][/b][/u] Vital Spirit
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[hider=Team]
[img]https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/gamewith/article_tools/pokemon-sv/gacha/963.png[/img]
[u][b][color=d6baae]Pokémon:[/color][/b][/u] Nacli
[u][b][color=d6baae]Nickname:[/color][/b][/u] Nackles
[u][b][color=d6baae]Personality:[/color][/b][/u] Nackles is quiet and very low maintenance, not even being able to eat, and much more content with his pokeball than Luna is. His favorite thing to do is sit in the dirt and sunbathe.
[u][b][color=d6baae]Ability:[/color][/b][/u] Purifying Salt
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[u][b][color=d6baae]Quirks:[/color][/b][/u] 

• Pete has a standard 45lb barbell in his dorm room
• During his last year at the academy, he dated a few different students, though none of the relationships lasted long. He's tried to stave off it this year to avoid more distractions and heartache
• He is pretty new to using a rotom phone, only getting one a year ago, and still just has it in a standard case
• He has never been outside of Paldea, or has even traveled much within Paldea
• [url=https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRrPqSrEJty-GhfnP4E8W-wksWPDfKid8]This is his playlist so far, but it's pretty small atm, more will be added later[/url]

[u][b][color=d6baae]Relationships:[/color][/b][/u] [Blank for now, but I'm very open to brainstorming possible current or future relationships!]
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