Profile
Name: Melissa Hartford
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Hometown: Sootopolis, Hoenn
Appearance: Melissa isn’t tall, topping out at a hair under five feet tall, and tends to prefer cozy clothes, big sweaters and coats, despite being from a rather tropical region….Unless she’s swimming, then it’s down to swimsuit and diving gear. Oh, and she prefers longer skirts! Of course she has quite the wardrobe she mostly left behind.
Personality: Energetic, excitable, and eccentric, Melissa rarely sees things as dull or boring and often makes the best of a situation. If she can’t, things’re definitely bad. She is very much not a competitive person, despite often being good at things, when she puts her mind to it, and so shies away from such things.
Backstory: Melissa is a daughter of man from a family known for it’s business practices, and a talented musician from Sootopolis. Unfortunately, her father is the unsuccessful brother of his generation and a bitter jackass and her mom couldn’t quite stand him once the shine wore off and the grime started showing, so they split. Little Melissa was left largely to her own devices, being bounced between their homes whenever each parent got sick of her (Her father saw her alternatingly as an opportunity and as a symbol of yet another of his failures, and her mother saw her as a reminder of him), which meant she spent her childhood swimming, exploring underwater, reading, and picking up various hobbies and dropping them as her attention wandered. She turned out to be a pretty weird kid, which only alienated her further from her parents….
Though she did sort-of patch things up with her mother as the years went on, her relationship with her father has only ever soured. He’d try to get her to do something, usually for some business scheme or another of his, and if it didn’t match up with her whims and wiles, it’d go poorly, at best. Which is to say it never went well, she didn’t want to be some advertising helper or star, she didn’t want to model, and if she was going to play music, well, it would be to her whims and not some nonsense of his! It got worse as she got older, of course, when his schemes got more bitter and less savory (trying to off the successful brother and his family, for example) and she distanced herself further, staying out later at night to avoid him, when she was stuck at his home.
Which is when the first of a pair of events that changed her course happened. Nothing bad, actually, but walking by the twilit shore one evening, she found a trainer trying to shoo away a little blue Pokemon away, telling it to go live free. She asked why, and the trainer said: “Well, I don’t need her, and otherwise she’d just be stuck in a box or wherever, yeah? Sootopolis is a safeish place for a li’l thing like this to grow up, y’know?” And the trainer sighed, then, turning back to the little Pokemon. “G’wan, you’ll make friends.” It just refused, staying out of the water.
So Melissa said: “Can I have her?” And wow, did that get the trainer’s attention! He turned to face her, and leaned in and looked at her, and went “Hrm.” And then he asked: “Why?”
And she said: “I know what it is to be unwanted.” Somber and still for the first time in a long time.
And the trainer hummed. And nodded, and handed a Pokeball–bog standard red-and-white-with-a-bit-of-black, to her, and looked at the little Pokemon. “Well, you heard her, you’re hers. G’wan.” And the little Pokemon hopped over to Melissa, and stared up at her. And Melissa picked her up, and smiled.
The trainer smiled, too, genuine. “And there ya go. Just remember.” He started. “With a Pokemon, you can go wherever you want.” And he turned and walked off. And Melissa went home, not even paying attention, just holding her new companion, whom she dubbed “Lonitt”
The second event happened right when she got home. Her computer had a weird ad offering a job researching Pokemon someplace far, far, away, and it didn’t take much thought for her to send in her application, pack her things, and be off. Without telling anyone where she was going, of course.
Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: She is almost always in some sort of motion, without even realizing it; where someone else would stand patiently in line, she’d sway from side to side or even spin, and going places? She moves fast!
She is a very good swimmer and diver, of course, and likes to make little things. She can sew, she can draw, she can even sing and play a few instruments (Though she’s only good with a piano)
She really does like chewing gum.
She wants to stay well away from home, and also meet and train/get along with cute Pokemon. Her wishlist looks like some kid’s desires to see Legendary Pokemon and then also a Nosepass and other things like that.
Investigating ancient ruins, wherever she can find them.
Favorite Kind of Pokémon: I love Ghost types and Steel types. And cute things, especially! People say my definition of cute is weird, though, but I'm pretty sure they're the weird ones. Who doesn't think a Registeel is adorable?! or a Nosepass or...
Inventory
Pokédollars: 1000p.
Items:Potion x1
Sewing kit
Diving Gear
Notebook, writing implements
First Aid Kit (For herself)
Member
Xaltwind,
slushiousCup,
Hope Lover,
vue2026,
Eviledd1984,
Ryik,
RPM,
Azure Bubbles,
Feline,
TruckKun
