#and they're SCRUFFY STRANGE LITTLE ANIMALS. THAT'S HIM. THAT'S JEREMY.

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

pokemon partner headcanons for as much of the nfb cast as i can justify giving pokemon to. loosely inspired by this post by @chrswlls. and by 'inspired' i mean i was thinking abt a pokemon crossover in my own time and then i saw the post and then i said "oh well now i have to make my own post about it"

[MILD SPOILERS FOR DAY 296 AND BEYOND]

JEREMY has a male zigzagoon named Scout. Despite being his partner for a long time, Scout's never been much of a battler, so he's never evolved. His extra inquisitive nature and eye for sleuthing has made him the perfect partner for a flourishing news anchor, and Jeremy doubts he would have ever uncovered the Hamilton-Mann scandal if it wasn't for the help of his pokemon partner. Generally, he has a rather lax demeanor when he isn't snooping around for secrets, and tends to be as scruffy and personable as his trainer is.

JENNY has a female minccino named Gingersnap- or just Ginger for short. She first adopted her to have some company in her empty home after the death of her late partner. She was supposed to be a pokemon exclusively for home, but it turns out she's just as helpful at home as she is at Channel 1. Ginger is always astute, keeping an eye out for anything (or anyone) in need of tidying in between ad breaks and cutaways. She has a very sweet temperament, though normally won't leave her perch on Jenny's shoulder.

MEGAN has a female sneasel named Opal, who she took in a while after she gained notoriety as Channel 1's culture correspondent. If she's being honest, a part of her thought it would help bolster her popularity- maybe increase her chance at rising through the ranks of her career… Jeremy and Scout always made quite a pair, after all… Perhaps there was a method somewhere in there she could exploit. She doesn't really know if it worked or not, but she ended up growing quite attached to the sly little devil as time went on. It's unclear who's personality rubbed off on the other's first, but Opal acts quite like her trainer, able to switch from professional and demure to dangerously sharp at a moment's notice.

PATRICK has a male watchog he never gave a name to. Much like Scout is to Jeremy, Watchog is an astute observer that greatly helps Patrick out when he's on the field- be it during a Sportsboard game, or a more serious news related outing. The two of them end up bickering quite a bit, but when they really hone in on what they're focusing on, they can get some pretty significant work done. Watchog did his fair share of sleuthing on the Hamilton-Mann case as well- although Patrick tends to take the majority of the credit for it.

FRANCIS has a bidoof named Flapjack. Or, at least, he was named Flapjack... But after she was forced to assimilate Patrick's position after his disappearance, her pokemon partner had to do the same in Watchog's sudden absence. After a while, the two of them fall into the swing of things, but Flapjack was never really meant to be a work pokemon, let alone for the news of all things... He never really grows out of his sense of camera shyness the same way Patrick inevitably does.

ROBYN has a male midday lycanroc named Cadburry- or just Caddy, for short. Technically, he was the family dog, but out of all of her siblings, Caddy had the closest bond with her. He was her partner ever since he was a little rockruff- helping her to sniff out stories good enough to earn her position at the Swinstead Middle School Enquirer. He doesn't do as much sniffing now that he's older, but he's a great conversation starter, and a big help in luring in potential bystanders for public opinion interviews.

BOSEMAN has a female mabosstiff named Brutus. He didn't check to see what her gender was before he named her, and by the time he figured it out she wouldn't respond to anything else. She's a scruffy family pokemon he doesn't often bring with him to work. He needed something that wouldn't be too dangerous to leave at home- and especially something that wouldn't trample his daughter when he wasn't looking... She never hurt a hair on Petunia's head, though. The two of them are practically inseparable.

JULIA has a female bewear named Sherbert. They've known each other since Julia was a little girl, although she didn't evolve until a little while after she became Prime Minister. If you were to ask her, she would claim that a bewear is a perfect way to represent Advance's values; loving like a mother, powerful like a bear. For the most part, Sherbert upholds those values, and is rather docile and well behaved in public... Although those who don't trust Advance question whether or not there's any darker potential to owning such a powerful pokemon.

PETER currently has a male timburr named Chipper. He took him on a little after he started Just the Job, and the charismatic creature quickly became a mainstay on the show. He wasn't quite as vocal as Chizzel was, though, it was rather obvious he was more popular than him. He was always handy with a tool, a drink, or a bark of caution when sensitive equipment was getting too close to the edge of the table... And he always put Peter's tools in the exact spots he liked them best in.

... Peter used to have a different pokemon, though. A gorgeous mudsdale named Axel- raised it from a humble mudbray when he was younger. When he went to war, it came with him. Someway or another, it didn't survive the slaughter in Konislava... Peter doesn't like to talk about what exactly happened on that expedition- let alone the specifics regarding Axel. Some people think the toxic gas did him in. Others assumed he was simply shot amidst the chaos. Sometimes, rumors go around that he and Ivan ate the pokemon to escape starvation in that abandoned cellar. He really doesn't take kindly to those sorts of rumors...

ALAN has a natu named Pandora- though he doesn't have enough knowledge about birds to know whether its male or female. Generally, he has an extreme distrust of any and all psychic pokemon ("they're a psionic instrument wielded by the government to invade our minds"). Pandora, however, is his singular exception to this rule... How is he supposed to protect his mind from psychic assaults without a psychic pokemon? It's a give and take.

During routes where Jeremy dies during the Heatwave broadcast, it stays a natu for its entire life. However, when encountering Jeremy post his initial escape from Betterment, the raw potential he has to alter the course of the future is enough to force it to evolve into a xatu. Jeremy doesn't know enough about pokemon to know what that means but he has a feeling its. bad.

DAVE 'had' a rotom that went by many names. "Bastard", mainly. Sometimes "Bugger Off" and "Cut That Out". And when I say 'had', I mean it just sort of started haunting the equipment in the broadcast room one day, and he never cared enough to catch the thing or shoo it away. It's a completely wild rotom, just a particularly passive one (he likes to claim he 'tamed' it with pizza and crisps). This also means that after Alex takes his job, the rotom becomes 'theirs', in a strange sense. Although it definitely prefers Dave to Alex. Sometimes it'll cause havoc in the broadcast room if it thinks they aren't doing a good enough job editing- swapping cameras on its own accord and so on.