It is indeed, anonymous!
Unfortunately, because the flying type consists of species such as butterfree, jumpluff, minior, pidgeot, charizard, and so on and so forth, the answer to your final question is…
…all of them can suspend their bodies in the air and can be taught, either naturally or through tutoring, flying-type techniques.
Offering tips for caring for an entire type class is a tricky subject, anonymous, because members of a type can vary wildly in terms of physiology. For example, any tip I have regarding caring for a butterfree absolutely cannot apply to charizard, mantine, or minior, and the kinds of concerns one may have for training a sigilyph or scyther aren’t the same as the concerns one may have for training a hoppip. Care comes to down to species, not to type, and that goes especially for a type affiliation that’s as diverse as flying is.
However, I can at least comment on which would make good partners. In truth, all of them would, but I presume you mean for someone who’s new to raising flying-types. In that case, the flying type consists of not only one starter (rowlet) but also many pokémon commonly found among “beginner” routes, such as pidgey, hoothoot, taillow, and so forth. All of these adapt well to human interaction, and they’re often loyal or otherwise receptive to instruction, making them easiest to train. For those interested in training for tournaments and the like, skarmory, hawlucha, and starly (or, more accurately, staraptor) tend to be popular choices, but zubat (or, more accurately, crobat) and wingull/pelipper are both fairly common choices. Finally, if you don’t mind raising a non-flying-type for a bit, there’s a lot that can be said about gyarados, salamence, dragonite, and charizard. (Yes, contrary to popular belief, training a magikarp is worthwhile. In my personal opinion, even if magikarp didn’t evolve into gyarados, they’re fascinating pokémon worthy of being trained, but that’s neither here nor there.)
So in short, it would perhaps be dependent on what you wish to do, anonymous, but there are plenty of good choices for flying-type partners … and plenty of different ways one could care for them.
That isn’t so surprising. Lopunny in general are very sensitive about their fur, and if their owners can avoid trimming them, that’s all the better.
Instead, try these steps:
Follow these steps vigorously at first, and your lopunny will find it easier to adjust to life in Alola. Granted, you should follow these steps regardless, but at the very least, making her comfortable by following the above will allow her to nurture a tolerance to heat in as stress-free a manner as possible.
Best of luck, anonymous!
As with all team issues (even though your friend’s pokémon is technically not on your team), it’s important to communicate in order to determine the actual cause of negative behavior. In this case, your friend should be the one to take his nidorino (I believe? I apologize if it actually is a nidorina, as mentioned in the first line.) aside and determine the root cause of his behavior, then work with you in order to find a workable solution. There’s not much you can do on your own, as it sounds like your mimikyu is well-behaved as it is, which means the issue lies with your friend’s nidorino alone.
However, I can offer a bit of insight as to what may be causing the rift between your mimikyu and your friend’s nidorino. You see, as a ghost/fairy-type, mimikyu sit at a rather unique crossroads. Both types are notorious for their mischievousness, and as such, even other pokémon tend to be wary about them. It doesn’t help that mimikyu are often either shy or the vindictive sort of envious, so it’s honestly no wonder that your friend’s nidorino is especially cautious when he sees your mimikyu.
For this reason, it may be prudent for your friend to teach his nidorino that not all mimikyu aim to trick humans or attack them out of envy. Consider proposing exposure therapy, wherein you introduce both pokémon in a comfortable setting for short periods at a time and work your way up to a point where your friend’s nidorino can safely exist in a room with your mimikyu without attacking her. Either way, the process would be gradual, but it’s up to your friend to work with his pokémon.
Best of luck to the both of you!
Phantump.
I hope you realize you’re a terrible person, even if you do give to youth-focused charities. —LH
Edit: First and foremost, I could have said dhelmise, but I did not.
In all seriousness, anonymous, short of the notoriously difficult to handle pokémon (namely spiritomb and dhelmise), practically any ghost-type may be an excellent partner for beginning trainers. The only thing about ghost-types is that quite a few of them require patience to raise. For example, both gastly and misdreavus are known for their mischievous sides, but if a trainer is constantly vigilant and establishes clear boundaries early on, handling either species isn’t outside the capacity for even a beginning trainer.
Moreover, some pokémon—such as litwick and honedge—can be quite dangerous if handled improperly. (Never touch either a litwick’s flame or a honedge’s hilt, even if the litwick or honedge themselves are friendly with you.) However, so long as you know the physical dangers of a pokémon, it’s fairly easy to avoid them. And in any case, the truth is that ghost-types are no more dangerous than fire-types, so by all means, never let this warning scare you away from the type.
If we must narrow it down, yamask tend to be the most responsive to human commands, although training yamask can be a bit of a taboo to certain cultures (given the fact that some people believe yamask are human spirits incarnated into pokémon form). Alternatively, duskull is generally docile; it’s not known for either the mischievous streak or the possessiveness (no pun intended) of some other members of the ghost type. Pumpkaboo likewise is relatively easy to train, as are frillish and golett. But above all, gastly tends to be the most popular, in part due to its ready availability and in part because they’re quite affectionate and eager to please once one gets past their prankster sides.
And of course, there’s also phantump, but these carry even more ethical questions than yamask, even if they are possibly the easiest to train ghost-types one can catch.
Finally, should anyone ask, dhelmise itself is not that difficult to train either. It’s just that it’s a seaweed pokémon that prefers wrapping itself around anchors meant for cruise liners, and thus, they are quite literally difficult to handle. For comparison’s sake, starting your journey with a dhelmise would be very much like starting your journey with an onix: it’s not impossible, but quite frankly, you may wish to consider saving yourself (and Nurse Joy) a headache by starting with something smaller.
Soot on any part of a fire-type’s body is an indicator that its body temperature is dropping. That, in turn, is typically caused by exhaustion, stress, or a mild cold. My advice would be to let your fennekin rest and perhaps take her to the pokémon center if she seems lethargic, her nose feels dry, or she’s having trouble eating.
Best of luck, anonymous!
You have a couple of options, anonymous.
The easiest would be to use your gardevoir’s empathic abilities to detect the location of the ghost and determine what it might want. (It’s unlikely that you have a ghost/dark-type on your hands—that is, a pokémon who can resist your gardevoir’s psychic abilities—as most of those have clear, tangible forms, which means you would already know where it is.) Have your gardevoir follow its mental signature or its emotions back to the source, then either try to reason with it or use your mimikyu’s ghost-type techniques to draw it out into the open. Once in the open, you may wish to battle and capture it, or simply chase it out of your shop. (I would recommend capturing it, however, as letting it go risks amusing it with your reaction and thus encouraging it to return.)
The second easiest would be to hire a trainer or a channeler to remove the spirit for you. Of the two, the trainer would likely be the more desirable route, as a channeler’s methods can sometimes lead to unpredictable results, including more violent hauntings.
The third and possibly the hardest would be to acquire a pokémon that can use either Odor Sleuth or Keen Eye, both of which are techniques capable of locating or uncovering ghost-type pokémon, even when disguised. Use either of these techniques, then attempt to calm and reason with the pokémon (again, by having your gardevoir detect what it may want and then using a bit of verbal diplomacy to reach a compromise) or battle and capture it (by using either the pokémon who identified it or your mimikyu—or perhaps even both).
In short, the most important first step is to find a way to locate this pokémon and draw it out into the open. From there, what happens next may be a simple matter of befriending a pokémon, either by simply talking to it and helping it get what it needs or by battling it, depending on its preference or actual aggression levels. However, in my opinion, it seems that this ghost-type in question may simply be playing with you, which is why I say this part may be far, far easier than you would think—at least, compared to locating it in the first place.
Best of luck, anonymous!
Actually, it’s very rare for ghost-types to possess people. It only really happens if the human invites a ghost to do so. (This is why channelers and hex maniacs tend to be more susceptible to it: they’re often working with ghosts to the point where they run at a risk of accidentally inviting such behavior.)
More often than naught, though, hex maniacs are simply eccentric people who are very fond of white contacts, not victims of possession. The behavior you’ve just described, for example, actually sounds pretty accurate for the average hex maniac.
One of the most difficult things to fight against is cultural opinion. So I’ll begin by saying this: if your granddaughter is serious about her love for ghost-types, she’ll be fine. Despite their reputation, ghost-types are harmless when tamed; they’re simply mischievous and difficult to handle initially because of that. Your granddaughter may be aware of this, but if she isn’t, be sure to teach her to be clever and ever-alert in the presence of a ghost-type.
Wild ghosts, meanwhile, will let you know if they prefer not to be bothered. These are how violent hauntings come about—that is, hauntings that put humans in danger of physical harm. This is typically distinct from a mischievous haunting—the sort in which you may see objects floating about or in which ghosts pop up out of nowhere to scare you—in that when a violent haunting occurs, you may see anything from possession to ominous voices telling you to leave to a ghost physically attacking you (either through thrown objects or through an all-out battle). Often, even inexperienced ghost hunters are able to tell the difference; it’s when you grow to be an expert and thus a little overconfident that you let you guard down and come into harm’s way. Your granddaughter may already know this as well.
If your concern is more towards other people, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Your granddaughter may already be aware of the stigma ghosts have in many cultures, even if ghost-type pokémon are nowhere near the malevolent forces human ghosts apparently are according to folklore. She may encounter resistance from the people she meets. Others may judge her or even bully her or her pokémon. But if she shows confidence in handling her pokémon and kindness towards her team, she may convince at least a few people that she and her pokémon are harmless. I would say, for your part, that you should support your granddaughter whenever possible, to show her that at least you believe in the best in her.
As for starters, for the most part, starter distribution centers will never offer a starter considered to be too difficult to handle for a new trainer. (There was one exception involving a boy from Kanto and a pikachu, I’m told, but even then, that was a rather unusual circumstance.) For that reason, your granddaughter will likely not be given anything like litwick or drifloon, but if she is, rest assured that so long as she knows how to handle them (that is, if she knows not to touch a litwick’s flame or a drifloon’s strings), then she should be fine.
Best of luck to your granddaughter, anonymous!
Very occasionally, Alolan vulpix will be born with spots of red fur due to a slight genetic abnormality, anonymous. However, rest assured that the genes for fur color are not linked to the ones that control elemental affinities in most pokémon, and as such, the difference is purely aesthetic in nature. Your vulpix kit is still an ice-type, and you won’t have to treat him any different than his siblings.
The Pokédex According to Bill 