WHO’S THAT TRAINER ?
coming from seoul, south korea and settling into the geumjeong district here in busan as an environmental science student and write for the busan pokelife foundation, she’s not participating in league! but don’t underestimate her, can you guess who she is?
IT’S HSU LIYUN !
ADDITIONAL POKEMON
trubbish
POKEDEX ENTRY
Her heart was always too big, her parents always said. From the moment she could walk and talk, the idea of something being hurt would put the young Liyun in tears. Stepped on bugs, death scenes in the most lighthearted and innocent of movies. Compared to her rich and elite parents, Liyun’s heart bled for those in need, asking her parents about the homeless on the street or those who needed money and food. their cold and selfish nature was a contrast to their daughter’s. Father: a mogul who moved to South Korea for business. Mother: a talented and innovative fashion designer. Neither of which would be caught dead anywhere near the homeless. It wasn’t long until she started to bring sick or hurt pokemon home, begging her parents to keep them, at least until they could go to a pokemon society where they could run around and be free. Many of those she found were abandon by trainers, either the loosing pokemon from an encounter or a former companions being tossed away. Crying, finding books so she could tend to them in secret behind her parents back.
Her activism started young, as well. By secondary school, Liyun found herself disgusted by trainers who used their pokemon as pawns in battle. Cowardly, in her mind, to have a pokemon fight in your place. Years of tending to sick pokemon made disdain unyielding. In front of gyms, trainer schools, the South Korean National League, Liyun didn’t care. She would protest. Liyun took to a blog, documenting all the hardships she faced taking care of neglected and abused pokemon that were abandoned by heartless trainers. She didn’t care that some trainers truly cared about their pokemon or that some pokemon liked to fight. There were selections of people who were not being addressed: those who do not treat their pokemon with respect and force them to fight.
At first, she refused a starter pokemon. A hypocrite she would have been handling a pokemon after fighting against it for so long. A group of kids were being cruel to a trubbish. Throwing food, rocks at him. Calling it ugly and disgusting. Leaving the poor creature with bumps, bruises and a hurt conscious. Liyun did her best to comfort the little pokemon, giving him berries and some needed cart to his minor injuries. The smallest act of kindness was a bond to the trubbish, following close after her once she decided to part ways. No matter how much she explained to the little pokemon that she didn’t think it was right for her to be his ‘trainer’, the trubbish followed her home. Sat outside her house for hours before Liyun eventually caved. Not that her parents enjoyed having a trubbish in the house, and Lyun’s adamant requests that he not be put outside, but they allowed him to stay. Even if they wanted him to leave, he would merely sit outside the house and wait for Liyun to bring him back in.
The choice of degree was easy for her. Liyun wanted to work with pokemon, study them in their environment. She wanted to work at a reservoir, watching pokemon live happy and fulfilled lives without the need to be hurt by human trainers.
Articles, being impressive, eventually landed her a job as a writer for the PokeLife Foundation. It wasn’t much money, but it does help spread her message.
It isn’t uncommon to see her and Picaso, her trubbish, out in front of gyms still, waving their banners and signs against the practices of battling. She may be a party pooper or can be seen as a zealot, but her point is something she stands behind. Either the problem with how pokemon are treated is fixed or there shouldn’t be any battling at all.