he's a dual type fire and electric specialist. My primary reasoning for this is that:
1. he looks like Flint and Volkners love child, and if I didn't have a pre-existing emotional attachment to his actual, canonical parents, I would absolutely make him Flint and Volkners love child. Also due to red + yellow being very prominent in his design and
2. Flareon and Jolteon both seem like the objectively correct choices for him, TO ME, but I can never pick between the two. Flareon feels right in my soul, and is my personal choice, but Jolteon also feels right, and is the most canon-adjacent choice. Which transitions into headcanon #2.
2. He has a flareon AND a jolteon. Flareon was a gift from his father. Jolteon was actually a gift from big bro Wes. He caught him in the wild during a trip to Unova and gave him to Michael as a birthday present.
3. Flareon [or well, eevee, at that point] has been with him since he was a wee tiny lad. Like, 5. She was quite literally an egg when he first got her. [This plays into a pocket headcanon of mine that Michaels dad was an eevee breeder on the side, and Michaels eevee is actually the offspring of his own leafeon and Lily's sylveon, but I'll touch on that later when I make my headcanon post about his papa, art in the works, trust me ; D]. Anyway, he's extremely close to Flareon. She's his primary partner and best friend, they quite literally grew up together. They're each other's ride or die.
4. His flareon is named Cayenne. The two of them both really like spicy food. Michael is also a hungry bastard and that sneaks its way into what he names his children. Exhibit b: His camerupt, Potato. [to be fair...Potato really is a potato]
5. He let Cayenne choose how she wanted to evolve. When the man at the shop offered him a stone, he allowed her to decide for herself. Mushy mushy goop goop logic tells me she put her paw on the red stone because she wanted to match her trainer
5.5 [late addition, im not redoing these damn numbers]:
...I like to imagine Cayenne absorbed a little bit of Michaels ego and whenever anyone praises her she puffs out her chest shamelessly. Like, oh yeah. I'm cute. I'm pretty. I'm a good girl. I'm great at battling. Tell me more. Oh im amazing? Damn right I am. LOL
6. His Jolteon is the only pokemon in his party that was caught in the wild, though indirectly, as he didn't catch him himself. Cayenne was a gift, every other pokemon is a former shadow.
7. Flareon and Jolteon are in love <3 Big tanky fluffy orange wife and speedy yellow husband. They act like parents to all of his other pokemon. Nitro isnt the stepdad hes the DAD WHO STEPPED UP!!!
8. My full team for Michael is as follows:
-Flareon [female] - Cayenne [like the pepper]
-Jolteon [male] - Nitro
-Ampharos [female] - Pixel
-Camerupt [male] - Potato
-Manectric [male] - Tazer
-Ninetales [female] - Willow [like will-o-wisp]
9. He released lugia after it was purified, but she always comes back. [I see her as a girl :3] She visits him often, and I have a headcanon that they have something of a light psychic bond and if he's ever in major distress she will show up to rock some peoples shit.
10. His former shadow pokemon can be skittish and nervous around humans other than himself. Luckily this has improved with time.
He uh. Has most definitely had a few depressing ass moments where he gets emotional and hugs his former shadow pokemon close and tells them he's never going to let anyone hurt them again over and over. Sorry, did I say that? Oops.
11. Each of the mons has a second favorite non-Michael human they go crazy for. These are as follows.
Cay- Jovi. She loves Jovi, and much like her trainer, is very protective of her. She will allow Jovi to use her as a pillow.
Nitro- Wes and Kells. Heart eyes. Turbo zoomies around the outside of the house 27 times.
Pixel- Prof Krane. Why? We dont know. She loves him, and is constantly trying to be "helpful" by bapping at things in his lab.
Potato- Maxie. Potato ADORES Maxie. The problem here is he tends to show this adoration by...sitting on Maxie. Yes ive drawn this. Yes I will share one day. I also like to imagine Maxies camerupt as this war-hardened, grizzly old man just getting licked on the forehead by this goofy ass baby creature.
