Jason Yew
"You can't learn everything in a lab! It's time to get our hands dirty!
Full Name: Jason Yew
Age: 25
Year at the Institute: Fourth Year
Favorite Color: Violet
Thesis Subject: Pokémon Epigenetics and how Environmental Changes may Induce Evolution
Appearance: To an observer, Jason seems like the stereotypical "messy student". His hair is unkempt, his clothes tend to be wrinkled, and his lab coat is always covered in a variety of stains. He typically carries protective gear in his satchel due to the number of Poison-Type Pokémon he has in his possession. You would have hardly recognized him during his first semester at the Institute. In stark contrast to his current state, he used to be a rather put together student. He was consistently well groomed, kept his clothes clean, and he was notoriously concerned about his self-image.
Personlity: Jason is notorious among his classmates for his devil may care attitude. While his grades are consistently among the top in his class, he spends most of his time either skipping class, or using his thesis work as an excuse to travel the world and pursue whatever topic has captured his interest. To many, this would seem like the hallmarks of a lazy student, but many teachers acknowledge Jason's skill as a budding professor and will turn a blind eye to some of his more 'eccentric' tendencies.
Much like his appearance, Jason wasn't always like this. He used to have a very Type-A personality where he took extensive notes and ran his life on a constant schedule. Near the end of his first semester however, a chance meeting with his idol Professor Oak changed his entire worldview. Shortly afterwards, Jason began to loosen up and become more sociable towards his classmates. By the time his second year rolled around, Jason was practically a different person!
These days, Jason's motto is "Limit your interests, and you limit your life!" While he remains dedicated to his work and his thesis, Jason has a penchant for getting distracted will endeavor to learn everything he can about a particular subject that takes his interest. while his new approach to life has garnered the interest of several of his classmates, Jason can be denser than a brick and will often fail to pick up the clues that someone has interest in him for more than his knowledge.
Bio: Despite technically being born in Pewter City, Jason Yew would be hard pressed to say the Kanto Region is his home. In fact, he's unsure if there's any region that he really belongs to. Jason's parents were renowned Pokémon Doctors and the duo spent much of their time travelling from region to region as they moved for work or travelled to attend medical conferences. As you might expect, Jason was dragged along whether he wanted to go or not. Despite being privileged to see much of the world at a very early age, Jason never developed close relationships with many children his age and he could never take part in gym challenges because his family never stayed in one region long enough.
Knowing their child was going to be lonely travelling all the time, Jason's parents opted to give him a Pokemon at a young age. Before leaving Pewter City, Jason's father took him out on Route 3 and let him choose from the wild Pokémon roaming the area. By sheer chance, a male Nidoran appeared. Excitedly choosing the purple Pokémon Jason was ecstatic when his father caught it and presented him with its new Pokeball. Naming his new partner Rex, Nidoran and Jason became inseparable as they traveled the world together and both were fans of Prof. Oak's TVand radio shows after the latter became a world famous celebrity.
It was during one of these trips that Jason began to notice how certain Pokémon of the same species would develop different traits depending on the region they lived in. Why did the Slowpoke in Galar evolve differently than the Slowpoke in the rest of the world? Why was Alolan Muk multicolored? Why do only FEMALE Salandit evolve? His burning desire to understand just what caused these unique mutations is what drove him to begin studying for the Laventon Institute. Despite not having much formal educations, his parents' reputation and homeschooling enabled him to be accepted at the earliest opportunity.
Because the Institute would be the first time Jason was staying in one place for an extended period of time, he was extremely self-conscious and tried... a bit too hard to fit in. He was top of his class as a student, was on good terms with his teachers, and even excelled in extracurricular activities. This had the effect of making other students distance themselves from him. During this time, Professor Oak was visiting the Laventon Institute as a guest speaker. During a chance meeting with his childhood hero, Jason and Oak wound up having a two hour long conversation in which Jason's eyes were opened to just how much he'd already managed to achieve. Oak assured the young man that he was doing just fine and could let his guard down around his classmates. From that day onward, Jason began to loosen up at school and people began to see his 'true self' more and more.
Pokémon:
Name: Rex
Species: Nidoking
Ability: Poison Point
Bio: Caught by Jason's father as a Nidoran, Jason and Rex have been together for as long as either can remember. Despite being a battle hardened species, Rex has picked up several of Jason's more inquisitive traits over the years and gets invested in new subjects just as easily as his trainer.
Name: Ricin
Species: Salandit
Ability: Corrosion
Bio: Sometimes you nearly die for your Pokémon. This was the case with Ricin. During an extended family trip to the Alola region, Jason was exploring Wela Volcano Park with Rex when the two happened upon a white Salandit that promptly stole their lunches. Rather than get angry, Jason decided to take an interest in the Salandit. He practically stalked the Pokemon from a distance until he saw it slip into a cavern in the volcano. Only after following it inside did Jason realize his mistake: he'd walked right into a Salazzle's Den!
Jason was soon overrun by the horde of Salandit, and he wouldn't have made it out if the white Salandit hadn't suddenly reappeared. Despite being a male, this Salandit had developed an immunity to Salazzle's pheromones and was robbing the evolved Pokémon of her food! After disorienting the enemy Pokémon with its toxic gas, the Salandit guided Jason to safety where he convinced it to join him with the promise of more food. Ricin has gone on to become a critical part of Jason's research and he belives he can 'unlock' the Salandit genome and cause an Evolution.
Name: Toxin
Species: Galarian Slowbro
Ability: Quick Draw
Bio: If brains were cars, Toxin would be a motorized tricycle. Jason found this curious little Pokémon during his first research trip to the Galar Region. After accidentally wandering onto an Isle of Armor train as a Slowpoke, the conductor was going to throw it off at the Wedgehurst station until Jason stepped in. One Pokeball later, and there was a new member for the research team! It wasn't until they were due to leave the Galar region that Toxin broke into Jason's suitcase and found the Galarica Cuff he'd been planning to keep as a souvenir...
Toxin shows unusually high intelligence even for a Slowbro, but he still spends most of his time thinking about napping or finding his next meal. One of Toxin's favorite things to do is snipe berries from trees using his Shellder side-arm. This has made him popular with Jason's team whenever they want to eat out in the field. Jason has tried numerous times to break Shellder off Toxin's arm, but he's since learned the shell Pokémon is essentially in a vegetable state due to the poison in Toxin's body.
Quirks:
-Despite its dirty appearance, Jason actually does clean his lab coat. It just gets dirty again by the end of each day!
-Rex has poisoned Jason multiple times over the years. It's gotten to the point where Jason has a natural immunity to venom from the Nidoran line.
-Jason has a secret desire to learn Mega Evolution for himself. He hopes there's a mega stone for Nidoking out there that hasn't been discovered yet