This is my entry for *ShikakuSuika's Original Trainer Contest. Since I'm the coolest person ever, I decided to make myself into a trainer (although, admittedly, I named her Leigh, which is actually my middle name).

I'm excited to finally enter a contest but I'm really frustrated by how the scan turned out. Normally, it bothers me when people whine about this, but I actually had a purple boarder along the picture, but the scan insisted on scanning lopsided, so part of the border was gone, no matter what I did. Since I have to go to work in ten minutes, I just gave in.

Of course, I'm not pretending that the scan made her skin tones so... ugly. : P Coloring is scary. I might have liked the lineart more.

Either way, enough of my insecure blathering.

Leigh is a twenty year old, which is a little strange considering most Pokemon trainers are old hands by the time they're twenty. However, Leigh is a bit unusual. She came from a family of trainers but was a bit of a black sheep. Quiet and bookish, her parents focused on her schooling more than they did her future as a Pokemon trainer because she was so academically adept. Secretly, she'd wanted to be a trainer all this time, however, but was convinced that she just wasn't good enough to pull it off.

Fastforward a few years. Leigh is beginning her career as a Pokemon researcher with a specialty in the fossil Pokemon and somewhat miserable. She likes school, but she keeps feeling as though she's missing something in her life. Once day, one of her peers at school brings in an Abra-runt (read: oops, I drew the Abra like a foot too small), complaining about how useless it is ("all the stupid thing does is teleport... how can I be expected to fight with it?"). Since Leigh never had a Pokemon of her own, she decides to take the Abra in as her own.

She doesn't really focus on training it, allowing it instead to just sort of acclimate. Over time, the Abra begins to become less timid and starts to listen to Leigh. Soon, she finds herself in possession of a Pokemon that she can actually battle. Her peer is surprised and Leigh gets a reputation for being able to handle unmanagable Pokemon.

Save the Venonat, which was a gift from a teacher, Leigh has a team of those obnoxious Pokemon that don't learn a single attack move (or, like Zubat, have an attack like leech life which only does two freaking damage and has no defense and faints all the time) for a long time. Which is to say, Leigh has Abra, Zubat, Jigglypuff, and Butterfree (although she started it from a Metapod). In short, Leigh specializes in that special type of Pokemon that you have to stick first in your list so you can spend hours training them by using other Pokemon who can actually attack. However, she's surprisingly adept with her seemingly useless team. Her patience and kindness have fostered a loyalty and spirit in the team which shows in battle.

I'm so silly. XP

Copics and inking pens, Time: like five and a half hours or so.