Relationships - Crystal Lear
Crystal Lear has met many characters during her adventures across Kanto and Kalos, and as a main character in Pokemon: New Horizons Crystal has met most of the main, recurring, and characters-of-the-day that are introduced. Chronicling each and every one here is beyond the scope of this article, which will focus only on relationships that are notable, important, or influential to her in some way—whether positive or negatively.
Crystal’s mother was once a hopeful trainer herself before becoming pregnant and subsequently abandoned by the baby-daddy at only 15. Carlita struggled and worked hard to provide for Crystal, moving to a new country to escape the Great War and essentially sacrificing her teens and her twenties in order to be a mother for her. Crystal is deeply inspired by her mother, and has inherited many of her best traits—determination, compassion, honesty, and loyalty chief among them. She’s also inherited some of her mother’s less helpful traits, such as her temper. Growing up, Crystal and her mom often butt heads given Crystal’s tomboy nature, but with time the two grew to understand each other and even made certain compromises for the other.
She and her mother are very close, and Carlita is quite protective of Crystal even into adulthood. Hearing about Riley breaking Crystal’s heart nearly resulted in Carlita flying out to Pewter City and has instilled a lifelong hatred of Riley in her. She is skeptical, suspicious, and critical of any men Crystal has dated, been interested in, or friends with. Carlita has experienced being taken advantage of and abandoned, and more than anything she wants to protect Crystal from that.
Despite how close they are, Crystal is often embarrassed by her mother’s antics at times, such as her reaction to Carlita having a “chat” with Mige during New Horizons: Wish Upon a Star and her reluctance to tell Carlita about her scars or the trouble at work. Crystal knowsthat everything Carlita does comes from a place of love, though, and can’t hold it against her too much.
Big Greg is Crystal’s adoptive father. While she almost always refers to him as “Big Greg”, she is very clear in the idea that she sees him as her “real” dad, and calls him “dad” or “daddy” sometimes during special moments. Since she was little, Big Greg has been her biggest supporter, encouraging her to be herself and helping her find ways to pursue her interests. Big Greg taught her not to listen to the people who just want to make her feel bad. Big Greg is man who believes in community and helping others, and he instilled in Crystal those same ideals; Big Greg gave Crystal a strong sense of right and wrong, a sense of justice, and the drive to protect people no matter the cost, and she learned these things
by watching him.
It was Big Greg who got her in to see Koga, who signed her up for kickboxing classes, who taught her what he knew about outdoor survival and sports, and who got her both of her starter Pokemon; Big Greg is the one who gave Crystal Helioptile and an Alolan Pikachu.
They share a very deep bond and when she’s feeling lost or when she’s struggling, it’s often Big Greg who can help her out of her funk. Crystal is deeply grateful to have had a dad as patient, understanding, and smart as him.
Crystal named her Snorlax “Little Greg” in a loving tribute to her dad. He thought it was hilarious.
Yolanda Castillo is Crystal’s abuela, or her maternal grandmother. While Crystal has only met her in person a few times, she nevertheless holds a strong admiration and a deep love for her. The two have talked on the phone regularly since Crystal was a little girl, and she regularly received books, toys, and other gifts from her grandmother.
Crystal admires Yoland for her strength, having weathered a difficult life full of many hardships, loss, and tragedy. Yolanda helped her teenage daughter through a surprise pregnancy, was forced to let her daughter and granddaughter go so they could have a better life away from the war, and lost her own husband and her son in that same War. She survived in Paldea during one of the most difficult and brutal periods in its recent history, and through it all she never stopped being a compassionate and generous woman. Crystal likewise hopes to live up to that legacy, and always hopes that she can make her abuela proud.
Crystal and Alexa aren’t especially close, but they’re very familiar with each other through being mutual close friends with Mige, and Alexa has accompanied them through numerous situations. Crystal admires Alexa quite a bit, finding her ambition and relentless pursuit of the truth to be inspiring. She also sympathizes with Alexa’s struggle to be taken seriously in her field. Crystal and Alexa are also adults who have lived and worked in the world outside of Pokemon training, and are able to sympathize with each other on a level the other characters might not understand.
Celosia isn’t Crystal’s “friend” per se, but the two are nevertheless around one another quite a bit thanks to their mutual friendship with Mige. Crystal has never really had a problem with Celosia, despite Celosia’s flippant attitude and often mean demeanor toward her; she sees Celosia as a dumb kid that’s acting out. Still, the two don’t see eye to eye and Celosia often grates at Crystal’s nerves, frustrating her immensely.
Crystal does think Celosia is a pretty remarkable girl, admiring her intelligence and easy wit. Celosia is a good trainer, too, and Crystal likes how she’s seen Celosia treat her Pokemon. Importantly, Celosia is a good and supportive friend to Mige—if a little possessive at times.
In more recent weeks, Crystal has noticed this behavior worsening considerably; while Celosia has always been rude, she’s started becoming more and more vicious in her behavior toward not just Crystal but all of Mige’s female friends. Crystal understands why, believing that Celosia has had a crush on Mige for a while and is lashing out due to her own insecurity.
As always, Crystal is trying her best to ignore it, but is finding that hard to do thanks to Celosia’s psychic powers and tendency to attack with your deepest insecurities. She’s also wondered if Celosia might not be at least partially to blame for her recent surge of nightmares and intrusive thoughts, considering Crystal only experiences them while in Lumiose City.
Elesa is a fellow model, a pro Coordinator, a former Idol in Kalos, Unova, and Sinnoh, a beloved celbrity, and a gym leader in her home country of Unova. However, Crystal knew Elesa when she was just a young coordinator with stars in her eyes at the beginning of her career. The two didn’t get along when they first met, with Crystal’s rough edges and tomboy nature clashing with Elesa’s more delicate personality. However, the two eventually found common ground in their love of Pokemon and began to learn from one another. After Elesa helped Crystal win her Earth Badge, the two became best friends.
Crystal supported Elesa during the Grand Festival, and Elesa did the same during the Indigo Conference. Elesa was also among Crystal’s chief supporters after she was eliminated by Riley. Elesa is also the person most responsible for Crystal becoming a model. During Crystal’s return to the Indigo Plateau in 2020, Elesa surprised her by joining Tania and Crystal’s family in the stands to cheer her on.
The two are still very close, regularly texting and calling each other when their busy schedules will allow. Crystal respects and loves Elesa very much, finding Elesa’s strength, dignity, and resolve to be among the most unbreakable she’s ever seen. Crystal is grateful for their friendship and for all of the things that Elesa taught her.
Kai Yammamoto is a food critic from Ransei, one of her traveling companions, and her other best friend beside Mige. She really likes and admires Kai, seeing him as someone who is kind, respectful, intelligent, creative, and loyal to his friends. The trainer’s life constantly pushes Kai out of his comfort zone, and despite his fear and exhaustion, he never stops stepping up. Sure, he complains about it sometimes but he’s always there for his friends. She actually thinks that Kai is much braver than he thinks, considering that he braved the Santalune Forest, he never ran away during the Bunker Incident, and even in the face of a mysterious and monolithic enemy, refuses to cut ties or run. Instead, he’s pushing himself to grow and get stronger so he can help his friends.
Crystal finds Kai to be very funny, witty, and even insightful. She always appreciates his upbeat attitude and is grateful for his support. He also treats her with respect, and despite occasionally flirting with her when he was drunk when they first started traveling together, she is grateful that he’s not trying to get with her. Really, Kai’s kind of a cinnamon roll and she can’t help but adore his socially-awkward charm and genuinely enjoys his company. Being someone with more world experience than some of her friends, she also recognizes how sophisticated he really is, and is very impressed at his knowledge of languages, culture, food, and art.
Crystal really likes Kia, a young trainer who is traveling Kalos with their group as Mige’s apprentice. Kia works hard, knows her limits, and constantly strives to surpass them. Crystal sees a lot of herself in Kia, albeit a version of herself that’s more well-adjusted. She also just
thinks that Kia is cool; she has great fashion sense, is very intelligent and creative, has good taste in music, and doesn’t seem to be intimidated by people who are older or bigger than her, or by people who are famous. Despite being a rookie trainer, Kia traveled with the group to find Jirachi and survived all of those ordeals—including a confrontation with Shadow Jirachi itself in its reality-bending monolith—without missing a step.
Kia is also a deeply intuitive and caring trainer, a trait that Crystal respects and admires almost more than any other. Crystal also finds Kia’s motivation to train and grow—love---to be so incredibly sweet and moving, and she can’t help but root for Kia to win over Aerik’s
heart one day.
Crystal really doesn’t know Lara, but she sees the effect she’s had on the people around her. Her friends gathered together to find a literal god in a desperate attempt to save her. She also heard the way Mige talked about her, how she seems to have moved him, and even past her own jealousy, Crystal can’t help but acknowledge that Lara is a genuinely good person and wishes her nothing but the best
Crystal and Rudy met during the events of the New Horizons: Wish Upon a Star special, as they were both on the team assembled to save Lara by finding Jirachi. The two formed a surprisingly strong friendship over their adventures in Fiore, with Crystal finding his honesty, integrity, unflinching courage, and deep loyalty to be extremely admirable. She respects Rudy a lot, and is grateful that he was with her through some of the worst of what happened. As the city crumbled around them due to the attack from Shadow Jirachi, and she was battered and broken, Rudy tried to care for her and made her both comfortable and safe. She remembers thinking that if she were about to die, she was happy it was with a good person like Rudy.
Crystal also just thinks that Rudy is a fun guy with a good sense of humor. When she wasn’t with Mige, she usually hung out with Rudy. The two often did what they could to make the other laugh and were playfully flirtatious. Of course, that did sort of escalate to Rudy actually confessing his feelings for her after the Jirachi incident and passionately kissing her. She was surprised, and while she was humbled and flattered that he felt that way about her, she couldn’t return the feelings. She apologized and explained that she had feelings for Mige that she had to figure out, and to her relief Rudy was understanding, kind, and super cool about it. In another life, under different circumstances, Rudy is the kind of guy she might have given a chance to. Life on a farm wouldn’t be so bad. In another world, maybe,
but not this one.
The two decided to remain friends, to Crystal’s pleasure. They text on and off, sending each other silly memes and words of encouragement.
Tania is Crystal’s oldest friend and one of her closest. She met the strange, hippy girl in dance class when they were kids and they became fast friends. They were both weird, both outsiders, and they found acceptance and camaraderie with each other. Crystal has always admired Tania’s ability to just be herself and exist in her own little world, and as they got older she found she respected Tania’s deep sense of empathy, her willingness to help others, and her gentle care of her Pokemon. While their paths would eventually diverge, their bond would remain as the two continue to talk and keep in contact, despite Crystal’s busy whirlwind of a life.
A fun fact that Crystal hasn’t ever told anybody is that Tania is technically her first kiss, since Tania kissed her when they were 14 as Tania began to realize that she was a lesbian. Crystal was a bit shocked and while she didn’t return the feelings, she has always been honored and kind of found it sweet that Tania expressed that to her way back when.
Crystal really likes Viola, and thinks that she’s a lot of fun. Crystal admires the younger woman for her own drive, passion, and ambition. The two have a lot in common, and usually have a lot to talk about. Crystal thinks Viola’s life and work is incredibly interesting and she’s rooting for Viola to make her big break soon.
The two also both love to have a good time, with both of them having a tendency to let loose and go a little wild when they party. They also have similar taste in alcohol. Crystal thinks that Viola’s carefree attitude and bottomless well of self confidence are extremely cool and she’s honestly a little envious of her. She also thinks that Viola is a very caring and skilled trainer, more than she gives herself credit for.
Crystal and Will met at the Indigo Plateau, long before Crystal joined the group he assembled to save Lara during the New Horizons: Wish Upon a Star special. The two chatted during the initial “Trainer Welcome Party” at the Plateau, was coincidentally placed near him during the Opening Ceremonies, and danced with him during the Top 32 Press Function Afterparty when he asked. She thought he was a decent guy, kinda funny and ultimately harmless.
Crystal and Will were matched up for the Top 32 battle, and while Will gave it a good go, Crystal was just the better battler. She respected the way he took the loss well; she always likes a sense of good sportsmanship. She also appreciated when he came to offer his support after she lost to Mikki in the Top 8 battle a few days later. They exchanged numbers, but she didn’t see much of him after that.
Ultimately, the incident in Fiore has given her a new impression of Will Tahjiri. He is someone whose love and loyalty run deep, and someone who refuses to give up until it’s over. Facing his cousin’s death, in spite of people telling him how stupid or dangerous it was, he never stopped. He fought cartels and bounty hunters and mercenaries, he hiked across a frozen island, braved a crumbling underground temple, and ran headfirst at one of the most dangerous people in the world without hesitation, because it was that or lose Lara. Even when the city was falling apart, he drove a forklift through the flaming city to find her.
Will Tahjiri is a dork and tends to fail more than he succeeds, but he takes losses and setbacks in stride. He gets knocked down, but he never stays down. Crystal deeply admires that spirit, and she thinks Will is a very good man. At the end of the day, despite his
shortcomings, he’s the kind of friend she would want in her corner when things get tough.
Crystal has never personally met the Persons Unknown, but she is very familiar with their work. Crystal hates them with a passion; the thought of them is enough to get her blood boiling. She doesn’t believe that anybody is purely evil; there’s got to be something in the hearts of most people. But the Persons Unknown and their entire shitty organization? She believes that they’re true, pure evil and she hates them all for what they’re doing to Mige and the other Candidates, and the horror they’re willing to unleash on the world as “tests”.
Crystal has never personally met Josephine, but she’s heard plenty about her from Mige. To Crystal, Josephine is more or less the face of Team Relic, and she despises the woman as a result.
She wishes she had been there to help Mige and the others, and she blames herself and her own weakness for what happened that night.
Crystal finds that she really likes the eccentric scientist, and she admires his intellect and his compassion. Sycamore seems to be a really, truly good person who goes out of his way to help people. He’s always quick to volunteer his time and energy, offer a hand to someone who is struggling, and doggedly pursues knowledge. She admires the man and always hopes in the back of her mind that he’d be proud of her or think she was a good trainer. His gifting Froakie to her, and redirecting her storage system to go to his lab, both deeply touched her. His generosity in letting Mige and all of his friends, including her, just live at the mansion is actually awe inspiring to her. He’s a master of doing good deeds while
making it look effortless on his part.
Crystal does think that while his curiosity is admirable, since it pushes him to never stop learning or growing, but she’s concerned that it seems like he’s trying to satisfy his curiosity and accumulate knowledge for his own sake, rather than using it to make the world a better place.
Of course Crystal is a fangirl for Bill. He’s what every trainer in her generation wants to be! His battles during the 2000 Indigo Conference are legendary, and Crystal has lost count of the number of times she’d watched those battles over the years, studying his moves and tactics. That’s all not even mentioning the creation of the Pokemon Storage System: the most revolutionary advancement in history since the Poke Ball, which he insists on remaining free and accessible to everyone.
When she finally met him, she was secretly extremely pleased that he was as every bit a cool and kind person as he seemed. She also got to see a different side of him that she liked even more: a good father who loved his son deeply and was willing to do anything to protect him.
Crystal has looked up to Diantha for years. She basically wrote the book on being a worldclass trainer and looking good doing it. She has a long and esteemed career as a trainer, is the Master Champion of Kalos, and is a successful model and actress on top of it all. Crystal actually really likes Diantha’s movies. When Crystal got back into training in 2019, Diantha was one of her primary inspirations and in part, Crystal modeled parts of her public persona during that time on Diantha. Or at least, Diantha inspired her.
Crystal is extremely honored that Diantha seemed to single her out among the other Top 32 contestants, and is even more honored when Diantha offered her a job doing a shoot in Kalos. But more than the actual job itself, she was genuinely grateful to her for giving her an
excuse to travel aboard and do another League Conference.
She hopes to impress Diantha, of course, but more than anything she hopes to challenge her one day and maybe even win the title of Master Champion from her. Probably not, but it’s a motivating dream!
Her original inspiration. Big Greg was somehow able to get Crystal an opportunity watch Koga in his gym for a day when she was 12, and the experience was what inspired her to devote her life to becoming a world-class trainer. His advice to her—“When you feel like you’ve gone as far as you can, when you have nothing left to give, it’s then that you need to work harder”—that still serves as her primary motivation to keep going when things get hard.
Winning the Soul Badge from him in 2019 was probably one of the most cathartic and moving experiences she ever had. To battle her hero, to finally earn her hometown badge, and for Koga to show her respect as a fellow trainer, was almost more than she could handle. That experience reminded her why she wanted to train in the first place. Even now, across the ocean in Kalos, she strives to make Koga proud.
Valerie is another trainer who struck a balance between graceful and deadly; delicate but strong. While the Laverre City gym leader has a reputation for partying and reckless behavior sometimes—having become a somewhat controversial gym leader---Valerie nevertheless exudes everything that a trainer needs to be. She takes her role as gym leader seriously, and it’s clear that she never stops trying to better her community and inspire other little girls around the world.
Crystal really likes Valerie. She fangirled around Valerie when they met, stumbling over her words and kind of embarrassing herself whenever she tried to talk. Despite that, she finds Valerie an incredibly cool, chill, and strong woman. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s Mige’s
aunt.
Crystal has only worked with Alberto the once, on the PokeStar Studios shoot, but she thinks he’s a decent enough guy. A total himbo, he is one of the few men that Crystal doesn’t feel super cautious about. He’s enthusiastic and, while he can’t speak a word of Gallish (or more accurately, he can speak exactly one word of Gallish), he has shown himself to be open minded and cool with a love of laughing and dancing.
Crystal has worked with Ava many times before, and the two get along well enough. Ava is ambitious and is the only other model Crystal works with that even has a Pokemon. The two are sometimes able to bond over that, though Ava’s Pokemon is a companion and not a battler. Regardless, Ava’s cool.
Crystal doesn’t know Gia well; the two have worked together three times, and never closely. She also always seems to be on her phone, which Crystal finds a little annoying and definitely kind of rude. Despite that, she sees Gia as pretty harmless overall.
Crystal likes Natasha. She mostly did local work and community theater in Nimbasa City, her hometown, before getting lucky and hitting it big when she signed with Crystal’s agency. Since then, Crystal and Natasha have worked together a few times, often finding themselves
both at professional functions and other events.
Pamela is an old friend of Crystal’s; the two knew started with the agency around the same time and worked a bunch of small jobs together for the first two years before Pamela moved to Kalos and ultimately signed with a different agency. Despite that, Crystal likes Pamela, finding her to be a down to earth sort of girl. She’s surprised that Pamela is battling Pokemon now, but she did hear that some other agencies were purposely sending out models to do the gym circuit after Crystal’s own endeavor kind of blew up online.
Phoebe Trainer is Crystal’s agent. The two bicker constantly, and Crystal often butts heads with her, but ultimately Phoebe is supportive of Crystal’s desires and tries her to best to keep Crystal working. Phoebe doesn’t seem to understand Crystal’s “obsession” with training, but it was thanks to her that Crystal was able to go back out in 2019 without violating any contracts. Crystal might not like how tough the older woman is on her all the time, but she recognizes Phoebe’s talent, passion, and experiencing. Phoebe really believes in Crystal, and has stuck out her neck and fought for Crystal more times than Crystal can count.
Much of why Crystal still does modeling work is due to her gratitude and loyalty to Phoebe. She knows that she’s Phoebe’s biggest client, and is also aware that her quitting would devastate Phoebe’s financial stability and maybe even her career. After everything Phoebe has done for Crystal, for all of the opportunities Phoebe has afforded to her, the least Crystal can do is smile in front of the cameras every once in a while.
Their relationship is becoming more and more strained the longer Crystal is in Kalos, however, and the two mostly just fight when they talk now. This, among many other things, is stressing Crystal out.
Stefano Dyer is a face she’s seen around at professional events before, and someone she’s worked with a number of times in the past. She finds him to be extremely handsome, smart, sophisticated, and fun. He’s a hardcore party boy, and she’d be lying if she said that she’d never been drawn in by her charms. The two of them have kissed more than once and even slept together in past. These were minor dalliances to them both, though, so there’s no hard feelings between either of them.
She appreciates Stefano’s professionalism and his willingness to learn. He always gets people to talk about themselves and their interests, and he has a talent for making people feel like the most important person in the room. He’s a nice guy, even if in her heart she knows he’s probably just as conniving and ambitious as many in her profession.
From the day they met at the Founding Day Tournament, Eloise rubbed Crystal the wrong way. She detests Eloise’s haughty demeanor, as well as the way she tends to look down her nose at others. Crystal was eager to get a shot at humbling her, but was defeated by Haley Comet before she got a chance to. Regardless, it felt just as good to watch Mige do it instead. She DID get a chance to battle her in the third-place bout, and she DID manage to defeat her. Watching Eloise’s ego deflate a little bit after that was extremely validating.
That would be where Crystal’s opinion of Eloise started and ended if not for the incident with the Cretins only a week or so later. When a little girl was reported to have been abducted by a dangerous gang, Eloise took the streets to find her. Crystal and her friends crossed paths with Eloise during their own investigation. While Eloise inserted herself into things in a way that nearly ruined everything, it came from a place of genuinely wanting to protect a little girl. When they discovered that a local politician had likely arranged the whole thing to frame the gang in an effort to demolish a skate park, Eloise was incensed and practically enraged, vowing to “do something about it”. That gave Crystal the barest
spark of respect for Eloise.
She may be a stuck-up bitch, but she’s not all bad.
Estella is one of the first friends that she made in the modeling business, starting the business at the same time and living together with a group of other girls in an apartment in Saffron City. The atmosphere was cutthroat, but Crystal and Estella bonded and got through it all together. Their careers took them to different paths, but they were able to work with each other enough that Crystal considered Estella a friend.
However, she has been slowly realizing that Estella isn’t really a very good friend. She’s gossipy, makes Crystal feel self-conscious and tries to undermine her confidence, and has tried to steal every body that Crystal is interested in—and some Estella only thought Crystal was interested in—for a long time. She even tried doing it with Mige. Crystal doesn’t know how to process this realization, so instead she’s just internalizing everything and pretending it isn’t happening for now. Regardless, Estella seems to have moved solidly into the rival category for her.
Another 2020 Indigo Top 32 member, Crystal and Haley actually became friendly with each other through the press junket, and they hung out together more than once over the week of the Conference. They both made it as far as the Top 8, and they both got wine drunk in Haley’s hotel room that night. It was nice, and Crystal was grateful to have met someone as cool as Haley.
Seeing her again in Kalos was great, if surprising. Crystal and Haley were happy to catch up, and they were both looking forward to battling each other in the Founding Day Tournament. They eventually go the chance, though Haley simply outfought Crystal, in part because Crystal only had three Pokemon and Haley was able to set up a good strategy against them. Crystal was pretty upset by the loss; she wasn’t a sore-loser about it, graciously congratulating Haley on her earned victory, but she was hard on herself for the loss.
The two ran into each other later at the carnival, where they more or less unofficially decided to be rivals for each other. Crystal promised Haley they’d battle again at the Lumiose Conference and when that happens she was gonna win. Haley replied that she was looking forward to seeing Crystal try. That promise is a good motivator to keep Crystal moving and striving to get stronger so that the next time she and Haley face each other, she’ll make good on her word.
Crystal doesn’t actually like Jenn all that much. By all accounts they should! Crystal and Jenn have a lot in common, including the way that they think people should be treated. They are also both close friends to Mige, and that is actually the problem. To put it bluntly, Crystal thinks Jenn is a bitch who hurt her best friend and doesn’t like the fact that Mige used to like her.
It’s obvious that Jenn is still in love with Mige—she’d have been able to tell even if she wasn’t familiar with the situation between Jenn and Mige—and that fact boils Crystal’s blood. Seeing Mige and Jenn be friendly confounds her: Jenn kissed him, freaked out and got mad at him despite Jenn being the one who was more at fault, dated another guy and broke HIS heart to make Mige jealous, then abandoned Mige to take a job in Unova like a total drama queen, then quit that job to COME BACK to Mige after a few months and just expects everything to be fine. While that’s a fairly skewed perception of events, that’s how Crystal sees it and she really dislikes Jenn because of it.
Of course, that’s not the whole story. Crystal is also very, very jealous of Jenn. Not just for how close she and Mige are, or for the fact that Mige used to like her, but Jenn had the courage to leave her old life behind and start a new one—something Crystal has never had the courage to do. Jenn has lived a happier life because of it, and Crystal kind of resents her for being able to do that.
Mikki Hansen is the Champion of the 2020 Indigo Conference, and was the trainer who knocked Crystal out of the competition in the Top 8. Crystal took the loss in stride, despite her immense disappointment. In the end, Mikki was younger, hungrier, and fought harder. She had something to prove: a young, blonde tomboy who needed to win. Maybe to prove something to herself. Crystal saw so much of herself in Mikki, and was genuinely thrilled to see her win the whole thing.
After the conference, Mikki sought out Crystal and asked if they could battle again someday. Mikki believed she got lucky when she beat Crystal and wanted to prove to herself that she could do it. Crystal just smiled and told Mikki that she had nothing to prove to anybody; she beat Crystal fair and square. Crystal had given the battle her all, but in the end the better trainer won. But, Crystal continued, she promised that they’d battle again anyway: Crystal just needed to grow and learn a little more so she could get her win back. The girls shared a handshake, and Crystal very much intends to do face Mikki again one day. Whether she beats or not is irrelevant. The journey to get back to there is the point to Crystal.
Crystal and Mige met during the Rocket Attack during the Opening Ceremonies at the 2020 Indigo Conference, and even then she was impressed with his bravery and skill. She singled him out as one of the six trainers she was most excited to battle, though she never got to.
They were both in the Top 32, as well, and she had some limited interactions with him during the Press Junket and then again when they did the second round of press for the Top 8. She found Mige to be a bit strange but kind.
When they eventually met up again in Lumiose City some moths later, she originally decided to travel with him mostly on a whim. He was cool and weird, and she had fun with him. While the arrangement was originally temporary, they quickly formed a bond and became fast friends. Since then, the two have gone on numerous adventures and gotten to know each other, both as people and as trainers.
She has seen repeatedly that Mige is a selfless and courageous person. He’s honest and compassionate, willing to help others at his own expense. He’s a good and loyal friend, a gentle and loving trainer, and a highly skilled battler. He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he does it with the acknowledgement that he might be the only one who can. Crystal sees him as a real, genuine, heroic sort of person.
More than that even, Mige is a good friend to Crystal. They challenge and push each other to keep getting stronger and to improve, while also supporting each other and rooting for the other every step of the way. Mige treats her with respect and like an equal. She didn’t have to fight for it, he freely offered it.
Through everything they’ve been through, he’s done it while asking for nothing in return. Mige understands her, values her opinion, and doesn’t treat her like she’s some helpless girl. She sees Mige as a real rival, someone who is helping her to learn and grow, and who she is helping in return. She wants to battle him at full strength one day at the Lumiose Conference, and she made him promise not to throw the fight for her sake. If she wins, she wants it to: for him to give the battle everything he has. Whether she wins or lose, she wants to have that kind of battle with him.
Crystal loves talking to him and hearing his thoughts and opinion on things; she likes talking with him about anything and everything. She also likes when they don’t talk, instead just walking or driving or sitting together in silence. Crystal doesn’t really like silence, but she doesn’t mind it with him. Somehow, Mige just makes the silence seem peaceful.
Mige is her best friend, someone she cares about more than almost anybody else. She admires and respects him, both as a man and as a trainer. But over time, things started to change. She refused to admit it at first, however. The feelings for Mige started bubbling up around the time they went clubbing before Mige went to Kiloude City. Something about Estella trying to flirt with him just made her upset and angry in a way she didn’t understand. Getting the text from him later that night, that he’d miss her, made her heart skip a beat. But of course she beat those feelings down. Since then, things have just been building, resulting in a number of drunken kisses and stolen glances. While she still doesn’t want to admit it, Crystal’s starting to realize that she can’t pretend it isn’t happening much longer.
It was easy enough to pretend for awhile, until Mige kissed her at the cottage in Cape Cerulean. The kiss was real; it was passionate and warm, and she felt like she could keep kissing him through the entire night. She wanted to hold him then, and she wanted to tell him everything that was building inside her and she wanted to hear him say it, too. Getting interrupted by Kia brought her back to her senses and she realized what she was doing and what was happening.
Crystal ended up running away from it, lying to Mige about her feelings and leaving the group with the intention of not meeting back up again. She regrets it, and despite how she tries to justify it, in the end, Crystal is just scared. She’s afraid of putting herself out there
and she’s afraid of being hurt.
More than anything, she’s afraid of losing Mige and destroying the friendship they have that means so much to her. But despite that, she also feels that maybe friendship isn’t enough. She wants a deeper connection with Mige, while simultaneously being scared to death of that.
Crystal also believes that she is not good enough for Mige. He’s so good, and there’s so many other people who also have feelings for him that could make him happier. Every relationship she’s had ended when the guy decided she wasn’t enough. She is terrified of Mige thinking that. She’s terrified that he’ll see her scars and won’t think she’s beautiful. She’s scared he’ll think she’s clingy or too girly or not girly enough. There’s so many fears and what-ifs running through her head, and she can’t stand the idea that trusting him enough to let him in and might still end in tears and heartbreak. Every other relationship she’s has, so why would this be different? Is she able to make the trade of temporary
happiness for another horrible breakup and the end of a friendship?
Or…maybe Mige, and the small chance at being happy and sharing in life and adventures with him, might just be worth the risk.
Riley was Crystal’s first boyfriend, her first love, and her first everything. They met when she saved him from a Shellder on the Fuchsia City beach before they started their adventure, and they traveled across together earning badges to compete in the Indigo Conference. Riley was a nice guy; he was smart, funny, and had a drive and ambition to become a real trainer just like her. Their training styles differed, but that made things fun. They challenged each other as both friends and rivals, and even if he was sore loser sometimes and tended to sulk, she came to see him as her best friend.
When he kissed her and confessed his feelings, she was taken aback and it took more than a week for her to address it afterward. The two started dating after that, and she was relieved that they could carry on their friendship but got to make out sometimes. She learned a lot about love and compromise with Riley, and she genuinely felt that they were happy together. He even gave her a cute little ring for her to wear, a gesture that deeply touched and moved her.
At that time, Crystal was a tomboy; no makeup, she wore loose boys’ clothes, and had short, messy hair. Boys had never noticed her in that way before, and she’d never wanted them to. But Riley was different, treating her like a girl without babying her. They battled together, traveled together, and she started to grow her hair out and wear some jewelry just because she loved him.
But things changed. One day, after losing a gym match, Riley exploded at her and said a series of hurtful things that Crystal still remembers with perfect clarity: she wasn’t girly enough, that she was selfish for not supporting him more, and that he was embarrassed to be with her sometimes. They fought and that night Riley left without even leaving a note. Crystal was devastated. She had given Riley everything—her heart, her trust, everything— and he just left. She wasn’t good enough. He just left without a word. She was THAT unimportant to him, while he had come to mean the world to her. Was it really that easy to forget her?
The next time they saw each other was at the Indigo Conference, where he defeated her in the Top 64. He responded that she should try coordinating, as she “clearly wasn’t cut out” for “real training”. Crystal trusted him with her heart and he crushed it twice.
In a way, that heartbreak has bled into every relationship she’d had ever since, poisoning the well so to speak. She’s got trust and abandonment issues, and struggles with her confidence and self-worth sometimes because of how badly he’d hurt her. She desperately doesn’t want that to happen again. It did of course, over and over. Each time a guy broke up with her or cheated on her, she could hear Riley again, telling her that she just wasn’t enough.
She hates Riley now. Little can send her into a panic spiral or into a rage quite like he can. She wants to crush him on the battlefield, but she’s also a little afraid of facing him again. If she loses to him again, she’s not sure she can handle it---or the obvious implications that Riley would have been right the entire time.
