Author's note: Hi, this is just a personal project I have on the side. If you are interested in more please do let me known and I will be more inclined to update.
Sophia
(Corvnight, Milotic, Oricorio, Gengar, Mianshao)
When the teacher asked the classroom what they wanted to be when they grow up, many had enthusiastically replied a Pokémon Master. When Sophia answered, she said she wanted to be a Dugtrio.
The class had laughed and thought she was silly. But the idea of being with friends forever sounded awesome. A never-ending sleepover.
She is older now and with age came confidence. She knows what she wants to be. A Pokémon researcher, an ethologist, to be specific. It is nothing she expect spouted from the mouths of young children sitting in a classroom.
In fact, they'd ask her what does a Pokémon ethologist even do?
And Sophia would tell them with a bright smile, a Pokémon ethologist is a person who studies Pokémon's way of life. Studies to understand their behaviours and culture. It means travelling around the world and seeing them in their symbiotic lifestyle with humans and with other Pokémons. To ensure the everchanging world still had a place for Pokémon's and their way of life.
It is as fascinating as it sounds.
But Sophia is not a Pokémon ethologist. Not yet. Still in pyjamas she walks anxiously back and forth in her room. Staring at her laptop and then to the clock, 8:59AM. Just one more minute.
To be a recognised Pokémon ethologist she needs to conduct her own field research. And to do that she needed a research institute to sponsor and approve her field research proposal. Like any passionate person, she has proposed to the footwork herself. She's a seasoned Pokémon trainer and had travelled extensively already, but that was as a trainer. Not a researcher.
Ping.
She's on the computer in a flash. The email arrives at 9:00AM on the dot. Her heart sinks in her stomach when she reads the sender. Oak's Research Institute. Her hand does not move to open it.
What if she was rejected?
As if sensing Sophia's anxiety Oricoio let's herself out of the pokéball.
The bright yellow bird flaps her wings, already singing a happy song and a dance to match. It would have been comforting, if it was not happening right over her keyboard.
"Ori!" Sophia says in panic, "Watch it!"
It is too late. With the sound of a click, Sophia and Ori look to the screen.
We are pleased to address you as a representative of Oak's Research Institute, and sponsor your field-research.
"We got in?" Sophia asks, disbelief in her voice.
"We got in!" The confidence sets in with the realisation that is most definitely not a dream. She jumps from her seat fist pumping the air.
Ori circles her enthusiastically with a celebratory trill.
The email gives her a reason to get out of her pyjamas and into gear. To pull out her dusty Pokémon equipment and pack her bag for a long trip.
She says goodbye to her mother with a hug and walks out the door. She feels like she is ten again. The world had offered her so much then.
She takes her first step into the tall gross. The world still has so much to offer.
End-Note: The structure of this fic is that every chapter (after this one) will center around Sophia studying the ethology of a particular Pokémon species. Chapter 2 will be her first Pokémon to study, and it is a spooky one. One that resides in a tour and has a unique symbiotic with the locals. :)
If you have a pokemon that you'd like me to write about and even have headcanons about please let me know!