[ task 01: meet the team ]
houndoom [ cerberus | dark/fire | ♂ ] ; his nonhuman best friend, his companion. honestly it seemed by chance that avery got him. a then four-going-on-five year old stumbling upon a field egg, not really knowing what else to do with it besides showing his dad. they weren’t home in sinnoh at the time --- anthony had “business” he needed to tend to in kalos --- but he told his son all he could. and within time, the egg hatched and a baby houndour appeared. he was so excited; his first and own pokémon. the rest was history as the two bonded quicker than anyone expected (and them barking back and forth in some way to communicate was just mildly amusing). unfortunately the houndour went without a name for years, until avery was seven and got his hands on a book of greek mythology. cerberus seemed fitting for his helldog, he thought, and the dog agreed (it was a miracle he finally responded to the name as many have been tried before). fast forward years later and cerberus evolved to houndoom, and as always, remains by avery’s side.
infernape [ flint | fire/fighting | ♂ ] ; this pokémon was a gift from his mom when he was ten. isabella knew avery always loved her monferno, so when said monferno evolved into infernape, she decided it was a good opportunity to give him to her son. definitely one of his favorite gifts that year.
golbat [ drac | poison/flying | ♂ ] ; it was almost a cliché to name the vampire bat after dracula, wasn’t it? either way, avery didn’t particularly care. if it wasn’t for his adventuring in turnback cave (something he never wants to do again, admittedly), he never would’ve found this bloodsucker. he was fifteen when he got drac and honestly the scolding his mother gave him after when he returned home was worth it.
absol [ melinoë | dark | ♀ ] ; on another venture to kalos at age seventeen, this time by himself, avery found himself visiting the friend safari facility in kiloude city. of course while he came prepared, he didn’t expect to find an absol, much less managing to obtain it. the absol was named after the chthonic greek goddess (or nymph) invoked in an orphic hymn, propitiated as a bringer of nightmares and madness.
skuntank [ ahkyls | poison/dark | ♀ ] ; ahkyls (named after the greek goddess of misery and poison) was found on route 221 in his home region, sinnoh, when avery was walking with his sister and their companions. at the time ahkyls was only a stunky, but true to avery’s typical fashion, he was immediately drawn to her (by this point it was hardly a secret he had an affinity towards dark types and their dual-types). however initially, he was going to let his sister take the pokémon, but she insisted he should keep the pokémon --- to this day, he believes the only reason she let him was because of the whole skunk thing.