Yan's ex (affectionate). her Guardian Star/soul takes the form of a Cherrim
.
multi-generational cult survivor and recovered drug addict, but don't you fucking dare feel sorry for her. owns one of the most prestigious hair & beauty salons of Lumiose. cheery despite everything that happened in her life, but she’s not afraid to call out bullshit when she sees it anymore. can be brutally honest at times, even with the best intentions, she wants to be surrounded by people who welcome actionable advice. that doesn’t mean she can’t recognize others’ hardships, she just won’t coddle them.
independent to a fault. extremely proactive, since she feels she wasted too much of her life. loves learning and trying new things and will jump in between interests constantly. probably should get checked for adhd. has a complicated relationship with pokemon due to her upbringing.
Gabbie grew up in a religious cult commune, somewhere in rural Kalos. an extremist offshoot of the more widespread religion which worships Arceus, they took the basic beliefs of the old Hisuian Clans and Sinnoh myths and wrapped them to extremes. they were expected to be self-sufficient and live untainted by larger society. they couldn't use pokemon as a workforce or retaliate when attacked, only the “Wardens” were allowed to befriend and use pokemon. even materials related to a pokemon type were monitored, including water, fire and electricity.
she always felt like the black sheep of her family, always messing up and asking too many questions. her brother Raphael would barely acknowledge her out of embarrassment; and her sister Michelle, who she was constantly compared to, was a paragon beloved by everyone in the community. still, they had a close relationship and Mitch loved her deeply, even when she couldn't always defend her.
when Mitch had turned 18, she confided in Gabbie that she'd been chosen to move to Lumiose and act as a representative, a role reserved for trusted individuals that were tasked to deal with trades and bureaucracy. bringing Gabbie with her however, who was 16 at the time, would take a little more convincing, but she believed they'd be able to leave the cult that way. Gabbie was shocked to say the least, she never would've guessed her sister shared those escapist fantasies.
as soon as they deviated from what was expected from them, they were hounded and ultimately cut off. so these two extremely sheltered and repressed girls were left without any guidance or support network in the biggest city of the region. they managed to fend for themselves for a while, learning about life on the outside, getting an apartment in some shady neighborhood, working odd jobs, meeting new people. Gabbie realized her passion was hairdressing and cosmetology —something unthinkable in their previously frugal lifestyle—, and Mitch wanted to help her by getting into accounting. but things inevitably started going south as people took advantage of them, one issue led to another, they ended deep in bad habits, debt, and hard drugs to cope. Mitch, being the oldest and used to taking on all responsibility, started cracking. and well, Gabbie never found out if her overdose was an accident or a suicide.
what followed was a bit of a blur as she fell into a deep high functioning depression, now having lost the only person she could truly trust, only able to keep going by binges. she tried quitting multiple times but it never stuck, and she’d lose friends every time, so why bother.
she met Yan not long after he moved in next to her. they grew closer◇, most of the time enabling each other’s worst tendencies, but at least they both found respite in having someone there. four months of their situationship had passed when Gabbie, now aware of Yan’s powers, realized something was off. things came to a boiling point when she confronted him and he admitted to seeing Mitch’s ghost and keeping it from her. after she was done screaming her throat raw and he was done groveling, they both had to look at themselves and accept they needed to swallow their pride and do something about their situations◇.
he helped her quit for good, despite Gabbie often cussing him out for enjoying taking care of her way too much while she felt useless through the worst of her withdrawals. but slowly they learned how to find joy again. Gabbie realized that despite all her trauma, she still wanted to believe in something.
and over the span of a year, she managed to get back on her feet. she learned to gauge better when to trust people and how to delegate work, which allowed her to grow her business. finally, around the time her grant got approved to rent a space to open her own saloon, Yan realized he hadn't seen Mitch's ghost in a while.
however, as Gabbie got better, Yan felt he wasn't improving at the same rate. he started feeling out of place now she didn't need him, and she started getting irritated that he didn't seem to have any long term goals for himself and kept piggybacking on her accomplishments.
they dragged their relationship for a couple more months, feeling more disconnected with each conversation, until Gabbie gave him an ultimatum: either Yan got his shit together or they broke up. she didn't actually expect him to choose the latter, it was only meant as a wake-up call, but he had already made up his mind, just waiting for her to take initiative. and then he just moved away again.
understandably she was fucking furious with him afterwards, but at least now she had a stable job and supportive friends. while she did have a couple relapses, she could bounce back each time and hold onto her new life.
by the time Yan showed up to her saloon two years later with a group of strangers, most of her anger had fizzled out, now having enough perspective to realize their relationship had stagnated beyond repair and they were simply incompatible 
. his attitude did worry her a bit but the best she could do was repeat his own advice back to him. they had a mostly pleasant conversation in that short visit and she tried to make it clear she was willing to reconnect as friends.
he hasn't called her back yet but she's still hoping.
no pokemon! tho i've been thinking about her getting a Lillipup/Herdier in the future, cause somehow nearly every hairstylist i've met has a Yorkshire Terrier.
