last bit of backlog (i think) is some more recent art i did... pokemon trainer au mercury and pyrite because i have a lot of thoughts about them.
mercury's team started off with minccino, who he was reluctant to even catch, but he ended up really enjoying having a ready source of comfort around to pet when he was overwhelmed. as he got dragged around to various locations by pyrite, his team ended up expanding without him ever really meaning for it to happen. a lot of them function more as service pokemon than battle partners, and a lot of them ended up deciding to stick around because he clearly needed all the help he could get LOL alolan ninetales is about as prickly as he is about needing space and will not hesitate to show annoying people the door for both of their sake. and absol's dark typing and penchant for sensing disasters soothes his anxieties, both that there are no imminent dangers and that pyrite's ghosts won't bother him. milcery is just around because of mercury's interest in sweets and baking (and probably evolves when pyrite gets excited and gives mercury a good spin), while meowstic was given to him as an espurr by pyrite who swears they're very similar!!!
pyrite started out with sewaddle and met mercury when they kiiiinda forced his hand into helping them battle so he could get experience to evolve. both of their ghosts were won over through pyrite's passion for sewing and some simple kindness, but they're really only friendly towards them... the rest of their team is perfectly friendly, though, and all of them have eccentric tastes to match their trainer! which is why projects with pyrite are a favorite team activity. meowstic doesn't really have much talent for sewing or making thread or patterns, but he's an expert at quality control! patpatpat (pyrite was explicitly banned from naming him little mercury, unfortunately)
