12, 33, 42, 44 for Layla!

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12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up?

Layla prides herself on her cool, rational, logical mind which she considers to be key for her work in Interpol. While investigating UBs and disappearances she has to be able to keep a level head to ensure everything goes smoothly. As a result, she can come across as very stern and stuffy and doesn’t do well when working with people who are more impulsive and outwardly emotional – not that that stopped her superiors from pairing her up with Noelle in the hopes they’d balance each other out.

33. If your character wanted to be alone, where would they go?

Layla prefers to be alone rather than socialize. She’s not particularly awkward with others, but simply doesn’t see the point in fraternizing too much with her peers when she could be getting work done. As a result, she has a lot of places she considers her quiet places, such as her office and her apartment where she lives alone. (Noelle still keeps dragging her out to bars and after work get-togethers though much to her chagrin.)

42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change?

She often wonders what her life would be like if her mother hadn’t gone missing, but whenever she does she can never decide if she’d prefer it that way or not. She feels guilty about these thoughts, comparing them to directly being glad Anabel fell through a wormhole, but had that not happened then her parents probably wouldn’t have gotten together, her little brothers and sister wouldn’t have been born, and she wouldn’t have joined Interpol and met her alternate mother and all the other people she admires at the organization. (And she wouldn’t have met Noelle but she tells herself that’s the one silver lining.)

44. Is there a particular event that would emotionally devastate your character?

Anything going catastrophically wrong on a mission. Being close with so many Fallers means that Layla is painfully aware of the consequences of slipping up while on a case and she would never forgive herself if her mistake led to someone else suffering such a fate, or worse. She tends to place all the burden of responsibility on herself, so even if something wasn’t directly her fault she’d still blame herself, hence why she’s so serious about protocol and safety while on the job.

How do Lisia/May, Tory/Max, and their families interact?

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(This has also been sitting in my ask box for way too long but yesterday’s ep gave me the dosage of Lisia I needed to motivate me)

May and Max remain fairly close as adults! They both still live in Hoenn, though in different cities. May lives in Sootopolis, but travels a lot for her work as a Frontier Brain, spending a lot of time at the Battle Frontier while Lisia remains closer to home as the Sootopolis Gym Leader. Max took over the Petalburg Gym from Norman and was the Leader there for a while, but later moves to Mauville with Tory, giving the Petalburg Gym to one of his top assistants and becoming Tory’s right hand at the Mauville Gym. He and Tory are also (part-time) Researchers! They mainly use the high-tech available to them in Mauville (and thanks to Tory’s expertise) to collaborate with Brendan and the other scientists in Mossdeep.

As for the various relationships, they also all get along pretty well!
Lisia – Max: Lisia easily comes to consider Max as her little brother as well, but Max finds her (and her fanbase) a bit overwhelming, especially back when they first met during his and May’s initial journey through Hoenn with Ash and Brock. While he prefers to spend time with her in smaller doses, Max respects Lisia as a trainer and Gym Leader, and enjoys discussing that with her as it’s their main common point (apart from May). Lisia on the other hand would rather take her baby brother shopping or out to a cute cafe then talk about work! She has definitely invited him over for training only to turn it into a trip into town instead. Max will complain, but he does enjoy spending time with her! They’re a lot closer than he lets on.

Lisia – Tory: Similarly to Max, Lisia easily thinks of Tory as a younger sibling and the two actually get along a lot more “obviously” than she and Max do. When he first started his journey, Tory tried out quite a few different paths, including coordinating. Lisia was someone he admired for her confidence and ability to bring a smile to others, so they had a lot to bond over from the start! He does enjoy going out to cafes with her and they regularly meet up, both to catch up as friends and as Gym Leaders.

May – Tory: They’re very close! Having known him, essentially, for as long as Max has, May was very pleased when she found out he and her brother were a couple (which is why Max tried to keep her from finding out for as long as possible). When Tory first started trying out contests, he was hesitant to reach out to May for advice, but the moment she found out he was interested in them she took him under her wing. It was actually thanks to May becoming his mentor that Tory reunited with Max and grew close with him. They remain very good friends and Tory still views May as a mentor, often visiting the Battle Stage to train with her. In turn, May also considers Tory an inspiration as he’s grown and come into his own as a trainer, adopting his own unique style she can learn from.

The Cousins: Levi’s quite a bit older than Trixie and Nils, so he’s not as close with them growing up. Later on, however, Nils ends up coming to him for advice quite a bit once he begins exploring different paths for his future. Nils becomes interested in fashion, eventually becoming a PokeStylist. While Ione is also in coordinating/performing world, being the same age as Nils she doesn’t have quite the same experience as her older brother. Nils goes on to design quite a few outfits for Ione (and Henry) once they’re teenagers and rising stars in the performing/coordinating/fashion world.

Trixie and Evan realllly don’t get along that well, both being very stubborn, aggressive, and direct/blunt. While she’s only a couple years younger, Evan sees Trixie as just a little kid who’s just trying to ride his coattails, while Trixie sees Evan as a pompous, rude [expletive] who thinks he’s hot stuff just since he got lucky and did well as a rookie. They’re not each other’s primary rivals, but they definitely are rivals.

Trixie has a mixed relationship with Ione. On the one hand, she doesn’t like how Ione used to tease her baby brother, but on the other hand she’s also (totally not that much!!!) afraid of Ione’s affinity for ghosts and ghost-types. They’re one of her weak spots, so while Ione doesn’t go out of her way to bother Trixie or anything, nonetheless Trixie is wary of her. The fact that Nils is nonplussed by the ghosts and teasing and even grows to love designing spooky themed outfits for Ione, Henry and their pokemon… she doesn’t get it. He’s stronger than her.

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Misc. fankid concept art from the past few weeks.

Clockwise from the top left:
– Carmen Kanetsuki: Ethan/Whitney/(Lance) Gavin’s main rival in Pokemon Research who he competes with for a coveted spot as Prof. Sycamore’s intern. Very blunt and opinionated, not afraid to speak her mind. She travels with Cress/Jasmine’s daughter Rosemary who I drew back during Fankidtober.

– Ted Yamamoto-Elm: Casey/Vincent Tipha’s main rival as a PokeAthlete, but even more of her rival in baseball. He’s a huge fan of the Olivine Electabuzz like his mother, while Tipha is a huge fan of Nimbasa Thunder (whose mascot is Zebstrika) and there can only be one best team with a striped electric-type mascot.

– Reece Birch-Fáng: Brendan/Wally A contest idol, rock star, guitarist and the traveling companion and boyfriend of Levi (the eldest May/Lisia kid). Odette, Serena and Calem’s youngest daughter and an aspiring performer/coordinator, is a huge fan of the duo.

– Lynette Rozanova: Reggie/Maylene Emery’s cousin and first rival. The two are childhood friends and have a very friendly and casual rivalry. Their energy is very much ‘two dorky goth/scene/(furry in Lyn’s case) young teens filming each other dancing to anime music in the mall’ and tbh they might be cringe but they are free. Despite being a Cat Girl her starter is a Riolu.

Lore Masterpost

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I realized that I’ve never made a post just outlining how I use Legendary Pokemon in this AU and the details and lore behind so I’ll take the opportunity to do that now. I’ll most likely add this to my Legendaries and lore pages on here as well so it won’t be buried in just this post!

Legendary Pokemon: Legendary Pokemon are supernatural, mythical beings that exist as their own category. Their origins are mysterious, but they all seem to draw from the same type of power and share some commonalities.

  • They all were created by an external force and were originally not Legendary Pokemon. This has been proven via the historical record of people becoming certain Legendaries, as most Legendaries were formed from famous historical figures (such as the Founder King of Unova). Other Legendaries are too old to know their origins or it was simply never recorded, but it’s assumed their origin is the same. Most were humans, but in theory a supernatural could become a Legendary as well. The most recently created Legendaries were the Lunar Duo, created about 200 years ago, and the Beast Trio, created about 150 years ago. The oldest known, and assumed first, Legendaries are the Creation Quartet, who have existed for all of recorded history.
  • They can be created by either an unknown force or another legendary. Arceus, Giratina, Dialga, Palkia, Xerneas, and Yveltal all have unknown origins and are thus known as Prime Legendaries. In turn, Arceus, Giratina, Xerneas, and Yveltal have the power to create new legendaries themselves, and all others (barring Dialga and Palkia) were made by one of these four. It was presumed Prime Legendaries had prior forms as well, but this wasn’t proven until the acts of Team Oracle reverted all Legendaries – including Primes – to their original forms.
  • Due to their origins, all Legendary Pokemon are unique. There is only one of each and they’re immortal. However, many have the ability to traverse vast distances very quickly, thus sightings of the same Legendary on opposites ends of the world within a short period of time have led to some believing there are multiples of them.

I classify Legendaries somewhat differently than in canon, so some pokemon that are legendary in canon I don’t count as such in my AU and some that are mythical in canon I class as legendary. The full list along with their original names in their original forms can be found on the Legendaries page and Directory.

Mythical Pokemon: Any Pokemon that’s not a Legendary, but is significant for being especially rare, important, or having unusual abilities. This includes all canon mythicals not on my list, along with any legendaries that didn’t make my list (such as the Weather Trio and Alola Legendaries). Some Mythical Pokemon are unique like Legendaries (such as Hoenn’s Weather Trio and the Tapus of Alola), but due to having different origins, are not classed as Legendaries. The one exception to this is Rayquaza who, 1000 years ago, merged with a human Lorekeeper in order to Mega Evolve for the first time thanks to intervention from a Prime Legendary, making it the only hybrid Mythical/Legendary known to exist.

Mew: Pokemon are believed to be aliens that arrived to Earth 10s of millions of years ago, and Mew is believed to the original form of the entire species. Over time, Pokemon adapted and evolved to their new environment (driving out other species of prehistoric animal in the process), leading to the vast number of different types today. However, Mew is their common ancestor and whether or not this ‘living fossil’ could have survived to modern times in some form is a subject of heated debate, some believing it to be likely and citing supposed sightings while others see Mew as being firmly in cryptid territory.

Deities: While almost all Legendaries and many Mythical Pokemon are worshiped in some form as deities, there also exist ‘non-Pokemon’ deities in this world, similar to the wide variety found in real life religions. Many people don’t necessarily make a distinction between the two, however, and worship both Legendary/Mythical Pokemon and local deities in the same manner. Generally, most people around the world observe some form of polytheistic religious practice, though some are much more spiritual than others.

Supernatural Beings: Alongside humans and Pokemon, a vast variety of supernatural beings exist. In modern times, most live in parallel/pocket worlds due to increasing conflicts with human populations, but generally everyone has had some kind of supernatural encounter in their life – be it ghosts, meeting someone not human, or any other kind of incident. Unlike humans, most supernaturals do not train or have a significant relationship with Pokemon, but there are many Pokemon who evolved to mimic or resemble supernatural beings (like Froslass or most dragon types). Despite living separately now, many humans still have some supernatural ancestry and there are still cases where humans and supernaturals become close in modern times.

If you’re still taking these, maybe 1, 21 & 37 for Eglantine?

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01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded?

Eglantines are a type of flower also known as the eglantine rose or sweetbriar! The name comes from a Latin word meaning “prickly”, since being roses the plants are thorny. Eglantines are known to have a sweet, apple-like smell and their rosehips can be used to make jams and teas rich with Vitamin C. In Victorian floriography, eglantines represent “a wound to heal”.

Eggie’s name was chosen main since it was an elegant, if slightly old fashioned, flower name that I thought fit something Diantha would pick (as Cressida’s name was chosen by Cynthia). However, the various meanings and symbolism of the plant also relate to her somewhat abrasive and aggressive character and her role in helping bring closure to Cynthia’s family after many years of unknowns and questions (thus ‘healing the wound’.)

21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear?

One of Églantine’s biggest fears is losing control. While she often comes across as spontaneous and unpredictable, in reality she carefully plans all her actions. When the unexpected happens, she panics easily and isn’t very good at making impulsive or quick decisions. As a result, she tends to freeze up in tense situations that she hasn’t accounted for, so dreads such moments. She often ends up overanalyzing and overplanning in order to avoid being caught off guard, which can lead to her getting quite stressed out. When things don’t go to plan, Églantine can get aggressive, trying to hide how scared she is by the unknown.

Related to this, she also fears being “out of the loop” and not knowing an important piece of information she really should have known to get the full picture, which leads to her intensive studies of Sinnoh’s myths and legends, trying to ensure she doesn’t miss a single detail. She’s somewhat aware of these fears and views them as weaknesses to overcome. She already feels a bit like the odd one out of her family, energetic and easily irritated compared to her composed and elegant mothers and siblings, so takes every opportunity to face her fears head on in the hopes of becoming more like them.

37. What are some of your character’s pet peeves? What are some things that annoy them or disgust them?

Églantine is quite impatient and is the type of person who needs to be doing something she feels is productive as much as possible, so people who are leisurely, often late, or easily distracted get on her nerves to no end. She’s prone to snapping at people if she feels they’re wasting her time, and is hyper-vigilant about tardiness of any sort. People who talk slowly also fall into this list and she cannot stand them.

Eggie is also easily irritated by distracting or annoying repetitive noises, like leaky faucets, rusty hinges, or snoring (if she’s camping or rooming with another person). Being stuck in an environment with such noises will slowly drive her to the breaking point until she ends up either leaving in a storm (“I can’t hear myself THINK!”) or dealing with the annoyance herself (often with prejudice). People loudly chewing also bothers her a lot and she considers it disgusting. Her ideal working environment for maximum productivity is either silent or full of pleasing ambience like birdsong (but NOT windchimes she hates those too).

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Janus has new profile art!

First is a redraw of his original/default/Unovan design, how he looks from the beginning of his journey up through the Hisui Arc. He’s depicted at around 16/17 for this art.

Second is an entirely new art depicting his Hisuian Form! This is how he looks after being taken in by the Gingko Guild when he becomes a Faller in Hisui in search of his uncle later on in the story. He’s around 20/21 for this art.

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[hands you a silly meme instead of making a proper PLA lore post] “Cynthia’s origin story” (Irene: [finds an amnesiac faller in the celestic shrine] “Arceus listened and sent me a boyfriend! :)”) 

07, 15 and/or 42 with Janus for the ask meme >:3

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07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)?

In terms of catchphrases, Janus tends to use a lot of train terminology in his speech the same way his dads do. This was something he simply picked up due to growing up in and around the Battle Subway and while he’ll sometimes play up the puns for fun, a lot of it is subconscious. Otherwise, when he doesn’t really know what to say (or doesn’t want to respond) he usually just goes “Ah” with a big :> smile. Janus’s “Ah” can mean anything from “That’s nice but I don’t really care” to “Oops, haha I just messed up this will be fun” to “Do you realize what you just said honey you’ve got a big storm coming.”

15. Is there a certain person in this world that they cannot stand? The very mention of this person’s name makes them tremble with anger or fear.

Janus simply isn’t really the type to hate someone that much, a trait he gets more from Ingo than Emmet or Cordy (who can both hold a mean grudge). He certainly has people he doesn’t like, but he’d simply rather not waste the energy getting angry about them. There are much better things he can be doing with his time. That’s not to say he’s above retaliation if someone hurts him or those he cares about though. He takes threats deadly serious and will step up to defend himself/others if he feels the need, but he just won’t go out of his way to track someone down for revenge or get upset about them after the fact. Once he deals with a situation/person, he’s done with them, even if it’s just pretending they don’t exist. He has a pretty high tolerance for annoying people though as long as they’re ultimately harmless – in fact he loves those types of people since they’re fun to mess with!

42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change?

Well…. this really hinges on when in his story we’re talking about. During the earlier days of his journey – not really! Janus is the type who’d rather move on quick than linger with regrets. And at that point, he’s had a pretty straightforwardly happy childhood. Nothing that upsetting has happened to him. Later on, he begins to accumulate some regrets, however. He wishes he was there more for Bertie, then maybe… If only he had spent more time at home, then maybe his dad… He doesn’t like to dwell on these thoughts, preferring to take action, especially since that has worked in the past to resolve things (Bertie came home safe and they’re still on good terms!), so he keeps that attitude when looking for Ingo.

Of course… none of that really ends up mattering when he loses his memory on his way to Falling into Hisui. Amnesiac Janus is still Janus though, so he doesn’t really let his missing memories bother him. Sure, there are half-remembered things he’d sure love to recall – like why he came here in the first place, but the way he sees it, trying to force things isn’t going to make the memories return sooner and moping over them isn’t productive, so he’s just doing his best to live his life in this strange new place. Finding out who he is and what (who) he’s forgotten is a goal, but it’s not the only thing he’s focusing on. Once everything is said and done, Janus doesn’t regret coming to Hisui one bit. He made new friends and a new found family, found his dad, and helped save the world – how could he regret that?

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New Design for Edmond Sycamore! Edmond is the middle child and only son of Calem and Serena. He’s a Pokemon Art Historian who specializes in medieval art and depictions of Legendary Pokemon in art, though he also studies pre-medieval art. In addition to art, Edmond … Continue reading