Ugh, this took far longer than I wanted it to. But there you have it.
Name: Iolana Kalili
Gender: Female
Hometown: Malie City, Ula'ula Island, Alola
Age: 16
Height: 1.65m
Weight: 65 kg.
Hair: Long, dark brown, slightly wavy, falls to about the middle of her back. She generally wears it down.
Eyes: Dark brown.
Clothing: She generally wears functional outfits designed for hiking - light, and made out of robust, breathing fabrics that still provide protection from branches, stones, what have you. You'll generally find her wearing leather hiking boots, zip-off trousers, tank tops or long-sleeved shirts (depending on the weather) and, if the weather calls for it, a fleece coat with a detachable waterproof shell layer. Muted greens and light tans are her preferred colors in this sense - and she is rather unimpressed with people who expect floral prints and bright colors on her because she's from Alola. Tapu save us from tourists.
There is however one thing that is somewhat brightly colored on her - she wears her collection of 18 Z-Crystals as on a belt, designed so she can easily detach whatever crystal she wishes to use and plonk it on her Z-ring whenever she needs to. She keeps it arranged more or less by the color spectrum. It is the only item of jewelry that she wears.
Identifying Marks: None in particular.
Musculature: Toned from traveling and hiking.
Personality: Active, with a bit of a propensity for wanderlust and a thirst for adventure and stories. As evident from her collection of Z-crystals she is also a bit of a completionist, and once she sets herself off to a task, she will get it done, come hell or high water. Her current target is the 16 badges of Kanto and Johto, and while she hasn't set herself an impossible deadline, she would rather take less than four years for the completion of THIS particular collection. She's likely to stray off the beaten path to follow the trail of something interesting - but all too aware of the importance of being prepared and of the fact that she is not here with the full power of her team behind her, she will exercise discretion when necessary.
Skills: Having traveled for as long as she has, she has survival and first aid skills for both human and Pokémon issues (and she always keeps her Pokémon Refresh kit stocked, primed and ready). She knows a great deal about Alola, its flora and fauna and the potential uses thereof when out in the wilderness (and a rudimentary knowledge of Kanto's, as she read about it but hasn't had the practice with it). She's got her battle experience from her past adventures and her practice with Z-Moves... and that's basically it. She's rather hoping that adventuring through new places will teach her new things about herself and about being a trainer.
Past: The first five years of Iolana Kalili's life were nothing particularly remarkable - just a regular young child's life in Malie.
Until the twins, of course. They weren't an accident - Iolana's parents wanted another child - but they did not expect twins, and having two siblings that are very demanding on your parents' attention dropped on you from absolutely no where would be a bit of an earthquake in the life of any five-year-old. Between her parents' jobs and the added stress of having to deal with three children when they were only planning on two meant that they had to lean on their parents for support a lot more than they anticipated - and fortunately, both sets of grandparents were happy to help as much as they could.
Needless to say, Iolana spent quite a bit of time with her grandparents in her younger years - and she often found that she preferred her grandparents' company, because when you're a child and you feel like the new additions to the household are monopolizing your parents' time even when they try to spend time with you, you can be a spiteful bugger like that. Besides, it meant that she could spend time in the company of her maternal grandmother - who was originally from Johto, but was a well traveled woman who eventually settled in Malie City, because it reminded her of home - and listen to her stories (and those of her Pokémon who just had to add their two cents' worth). It is probably from her grandmother that Iolana inherited her thirst for adventure.
At the age of 11 - like most children in Alola around that age - she set off on her Island Challenge, conquering the trials and totems of the time along a fairly straightforward path, building a team of Pokémon to be reckoned with spearheaded by the Vulpix (later Ninetales) that she began her journey with. But even after she has completed her final trial - battling the Kahunas of the four islands in succession on top of Mount Lanakila (as this was a time before Professor Kukui had the mental idea of a Pokémon League) - and thus completed her rite of passage - Iolana could not help but feel that something was missing. There was still more of Alola to be seen by stepping off the beaten path - something that conventional wisdom would advise an unproven trainer to avoid - and having now proven herself and with a mighty team of allies to protect her, the girl decided to set off on her own personal challenge - with the primary goal of completing her collection of Z-Crystals for each and every type (and after all, even with one received for each Captain and Kahuna that she defeated, that was still only eleven - meaning there were at least seven more to be found!)
On her return home, Iolana spent a great deal of time in Malie City's great library, looking up clues and reading up on ancient legends and traditions, marking off new destinations to visit on her map - historical trial grounds and the last locations where ancient and unusual Pokémon have been spotted - and just as much time keeping her team in battle-ready state and herself in practice with Z-moves, in preparation for starting her new journey. This somewhat strained her relationship with her parents - who would have much preferred that she continued her studies, settled down - leave the fantasies of childhood behind and "grew up", if you will. However, now having to deal with a pair of rambunctious six-year-olds, they really did not have the energy to fight her decisions (and her grandmother's encouragement) and let her do what she wanted - provided that she could continue supporting herself on her journeys - something which she managed to do just fine during her initial challenge.
And so Iolana was off again. Over the next four years of her life, she thoroughly explored Alola - visiting ancient ruins and lost shrines, blooming meadows, fiery mountains, scorching deserts and lush jungles. She listened to the stories of retired trial captains and even battled some of them, for old times' sake. She encountered Totem Pokémon that returned to the wild once their trial was no longer relevant - great beasts, some whose auras have all but faded away and others whose auras were still as fierce. She bonded with and captured a few more Pokémon - and finally, at the last leg of her journey, at the site of an ancient trial ground on Exeggutor Island - she found the last Z-crystal that she sought and completed her collection at last.
With the goal that she set out to accomplish completed, Iolana had to turn her thoughts to the next step. Having seen all that Alola had to offer her, she set her sights on the greater, wider world. Longing to challenge herself again, she decided on a fairly fresh start in a new region - only taking her first Pokémon and her most recent capture which she has yet to have had the time to become properly familiarized with, to whatever new region she would travel. Initially she considered Johto - between the region's culture having a great deal of influence on her hometown and her maternal grandmother, Iolana was curious to see the region where it all came from. By the time that she decided to finally set off on her own new journey (delaying her departure a bit so she could see her younger siblings off at the start of their own island challenge), traveling to the adjacent Kanto region from Alola was a cheaper option - and from her preliminary research into it, she found herself entertaining the notion of covering both regions in one extended journey - and ultimately, that is precisely what she decided to do.
Family: Her parents are still together and happily married, and she has two younger siblings - a brother-and-sister pair of fraternal twins five years younger than her.
In spite of her parents not being particularly happy with her wandering-trainer lifestyle, they love her and still try to show her as much support as they can bring themselves to (though they sometimes do nag her over the phone, and she rolls her eyes at them as any sixteen year old would).
Shaky beginnings aside, the fact that Iolana spent most of the past few years away from home more often than not meant that her siblings and her did not step on each other's toes often - and the fact that when she came back she often came back with new stories and with her cool, cute and powerful Pokémon, and often with a little something for them as well - leads the twins to look up to her (but they'll never admit it to anyone). Iolana also cares about her siblings a great deal, and she very much has a "Oh sure, they're obnoxious little shits but they're MY obnoxious little shits and you mess with them, you mess with me" sort of attitude regarding them. It was very important for her to see them off on their own island challenge - and she's definitely going to keep in touch with them and catch up on their journey while they catch up on hers.
Her grandparents (all of whom are still alive) are also a fairly major presence in her life, her maternal grandmother in particular. She probably has some relatives in Johto - but they're not really going to play much of a part in this story.
Love Relationships?: None.
Pokémon:
Species: Ninetales (Alola Form)
Nickname: Kea
Gender: Female
Ability: Snow Cloak
Special Features: None in particular.
History: Kea was Iolana's first Pokémon and is her most trusted companion to this day. Received as a Vulpix on her 11th birthday, the fox and the girl bonded nigh-instantly - and the two have been inseparable since, setting off on their Island Challenge together. As an Ice-type, Kea had a bit of a struggle through the Trials of Ula'ula Island (and particularly the Trial of Mount Hokulani, as then-captain Molayne was a user of the Steel type), leading her to developing an increased reliance on the other moves in her repertoire, primarily Ghost and Dark type moves - giving her somewhat of a knack for misdirection and illusion in combat. This remained true even as her ice powers developed further and she learned to generate hailstorms and conceal herself in them through the use of her ability, striking undetected.
Kea became a Ninetails about midway through Iolana's island challenge, when the Vulpix was strangely drawn to a stone that she spotted in a particular market stall in Konikoni City that specialized in evolution stones. The stone - labeled as an "Ice Stone" - was significantly higher priced than some of the more 'traditional' evolution stones, and purchasing it would have been a very major setback for the trainer, but she was willing to make that investment for the sake of her partner.
The owner of the stall, however, had other ideas. The bond between Iolana and Kea reminded her of her own bond with her own partner Pokémon (a Midnight Form Lycanroc who, as a Rockruff, was her first Pokémon, and nowadays helps her dig for evolution stones by a combination of Brick Break and using its mane as a mining pick) - and she proposed that she would make a gift of the stone should the trainer and the Vulpix defeated her and her own partner - in a test of strong bonds. Iolana and Kea accepted the challenge - and in the evening of that day, when the market stalls closed, the two had their battle.
This was a very difficult battle - the stall owner had the type advantage but the Vulpix had evasiveness on her side, and through the bond between trainer and Pokémon and one final, fierce clash of Z-moves between Kea's Subzero Slammer and the Lycanroc's Continental Crush - the girl and her Vulpix stood victorious, barely.
True to her word - and as she hasn't had a battle this fun in years - the stall owner gifted Iolana and Kea the Ice Stone, knowing that they would use it well. And so, on Akala Island, in the light of the full moon - Kea was reborn as a Ninetales.
Iolana and Kea continued their Island Challenge and Eventually triumphed over it together. Even after the challenge was done and over with the two continued to be inseparable. Thus, when Iolana decided to put her skill to the test in Kanto, as a new beginning - she took Kea with her as her most trusted companion.
Personality: On first encounter with Kea you would probably imagine that she is cold, aloof, mysterious and just a bit ominous - a dramatic figure wreathed in Aurora and snow that you should approach at your own peril. She is none of these things, but she is fully aware of the stereotypes about her species' demeanor and she delights in striking the pose before completely shattering it with a textbook blep and rolling in the pile of snow she rained down while you were gawking. She's quite affectionate with people she trusts and enjoys pets and scritches. In battle, her playful mischievous side takes a darker turn as her combat technique is often based in illusion and misdirection - and she is quite fond of utilizing Hail to her benefit, combining Snow Cloak and Aurora Veil to protect herself and strike unseen. As she has a great deal of combat experience built over five years - she prefers to gauge her foes' strength and conserve her own, not using more energy than is necessary for a battle.
Species: Exeggutor (Alola Form)
Nickname: Dracaena
Gender: Female
Ability: Harvest
Special Features: Being rather young, she is somewhat short for Alolan Exeggutor standards - which doesn't stop her from comically towering over her trainer and pretty much everything else, while the girl next to tree-beast that's like four to five times her height pets its tail-head and says that "She's still a growing child".
History: Iolana's final capture in the Alola region before her trip to Kanto, Dracaena was a wild-caught Alolan Exeggutor found on Exeggutor Island. She evolved earlier than most - and the great power boost combined with her age led her to feel somewhat drunk with power and nigh-invincible. Unfortunately, she discovered how wrong she was when she overconfidently challenged Iolana for a battle and was frozen solid by her Ninetales.
Even though the Alolan sun would have probably thawed the Coconut Pokémon fairly quickly anyway, Iolana still couldn't bring herself to just leave her there - and sped up the process using an Ice Heal. Still somewhat weak from the aftereffects of the attack and coming down from the rush of her evolution, the Exeggutor sort of... sat there and sulked for a while. To cheer her up, Iolana told the Exeggutor of some of her own major losses in battle (with Kea speaking of her own) - and asked the Exeggutor if she would like to join her team and train with her so she could actually become that strong someday. This perked the Exeggutor up somewhat, and after pondering it for a bit, she accepted.
Iolana used the newly-named Dracaena in a battle or two, but the Exeggutor is still very new to her team and she is still becoming familiar with her capabilities. When she decided to journey through Kanto, she decided to bring the Exeggutor with her and giving her the training time that she deserved.
Personality: Dracaena is a rather young Exeggutor and is often bright and cheery - and isn't always fully aware of her own size and strength. Mercifully, she has a very good innate sense of balance (and a tail-head for "ground level camera" observation along with the bird's eye view of her three heads), sparing her trainer the need to shout "Timber!" and pay a lot of compensation fees in case the creature tripped and fell and she hasn't managed to return it to its ball on time.
She enjoys basking in sunlight - and as Kanto does not get as much sunlight as Alola does, Iolana tends to send the Exeggutor out to soak up whatever sunlight she can during rest stops along the road in the daytime hours. Iolana worries sometimes that the lesser sunlight might stunt Dracaena's growth, but the Exeggutor doesn't seem to be particularly worried about it.
Having evolved young, Dracaena's control over her Dragon powers is still somewhat tentative, and her newly-learned Dragon Hammer attack may fail to manifest the Dragon-element energies usually infused into it, resulting in a potentially impressive, but not particularly elemental thwack. Iolana encourages her to keep her Psionic abilities in practice as well - and the creature is capable of telepathic communication to an extent.
