Name: Gemma Edelstein

Age: 26

Height: 155 cm

Weight: 52.1 kg


Beyond the tendrils of meticulously straightened hair a pair of oceanic blue eyes peek through thick horn-rimmed glasses with a look as calm and calculated as the sea on a still summer's night. The youthful woman's college cultivated logic is easy to miss at a glance, lost among her other exterior features and deeply masked by her subtle simper which occasionally reaches upward to grace her high cheekbones. While care, prudence, and patience have all been mixed together in the researcher's daily grooming routine she falls short in the fashion department, the inventive quality her mind failing entirely to extend beyond her standard dress off loose fitting button ups and formless monotone maxi skirts. Some might say she's a diamond in the rough, that all she needs is a touch of makeup and an outfit with a smattering of color or a nice print, but convincing Gemma to break from her habits is much easier said than done.




Everyone sometimes has that feeling of being torn between decisions or the idle musings of paths that might have been if we'd just chosen a different fork in the road. Gemma felt like she had that more than most though, she was generally a pretty happy and optimistic person but occasionally those thoughts wore on her, even to the point of outright exasperation. It wasn't that she hadn't lived a good life, she'd never really wanted for much, but she'd be lying if she said she hadn't gotten stir crazy from time to time. She'd never even taking a pause to so much as go on a vacation over the years...all work and no play makes a dull girl, or so they say. Maybe she really had allowed herself to become boring? Or maybe the colorful characters in her life just made her pale in comparison?

She'd occasionally recall her grandmother's attempts to sway her destiny in those daydreams of recollection. Back when she was only a child the family matriarch had been dead set on Gemma taking her place as head priestess of the temple. So many nights spent there, out under the stars listening to the old woman talk about the underline mystical energies that flow through the air and wisp through the forest, and how, with time, Gemma could master the arts of a sage and learn their secrets. It was all intriguing of course, but to a young child the thought of being tied to a temple that was only a kilometer from her home for the rest of her life was, well...unexciting. If only she could have known how long she would end up being glued in place anyways, maybe she wouldn't have consistently told the elderly woman no?

The little girl had fought the possibility tooth and nail from the time she could barely walk, but for what? This class, that class, school, school, school. It's what practical people do after all and she was practical first and foremost. Unlike her older brother Mason, he had always been a wild child, the kind of person who carves their own path in the world. Father always said he took after their mother, that he had that inner fire and drive to prove himself no matter how many punches life threw at him. It was enough to give the much younger girl a tick of jealousy for her much cooler sibling. There she was with her nose in books day in and out and meanwhile he'd left home early, flown by the seat of his pants into getting a pokemon licence and crossed the country making a name for himself as a scrappy underdog trainer.

Her father was right, Mason really did take after her mother, she'd done the same thing back when she was younger, but that notoriety fades over time and before you know it you're second in command at the local gym. Not that there was anything wrong with ending up there, but Gemma wanted something more grand, she wanted what every researcher wants...her name in the science books. In that way she'd followed in her father's footsteps just as her brother had followed in her mothers. The young woman had focusedly studied her time away until she'd garnered enough knowledge to be more her father's partner than his apprentice. The pair were, honestly, more alike than she would ever like to admit; they even dressed the same, her swapping slacks for a skirt was the only defining difference.

If she had a pokédollar for every time her mother had called her father's name after catching a corner-of-the-eye glimpse through the kitchen...well, she wouldn't be struggling to find the necessary funding the lab needed to cross that cusp into a the pages of the library at the upscale college she'd attended for years. There was something strangely poetic about the fact that she didn't have a choice but to uproot herself before she could achieve her goals though. Especially after all of her inward deliberation about feeling stuck. Now here she was a 26 year old that had never left her city, never moved from her her childhood home, whos mother still made breakfast for her every morning...and she'd been gathering her travel necessities all morning, equal parts nervous and excited to set out on an expedition beyond the scope of anything she'd imagined. Gemma had only seen the world through musty tombs, maybe it wouldn't be the same with her own eyes? Only time will tell and shes certainly got plenty to learn out there.