…. Well it only took me a couple days to get annoyed with my self imposed schedule, so now rather than have set topics per day, I’ll just ramble about whatever, haha. My friend Sydney at @pkmnomegaverse is sharing her Striation Triplets/Shadow Triad hcs, so I though it might be fun for me to do the same! 

The three brothers are not originally from Unova, though they ended up there at some point during their childhood. They also started out with different names than the ones the go by as adults. Cress was known as Lir, Chili was known as Aodh, and Cilan was known as Nuada, though they were never attached to those names. They were orphaned for as long as they could remember and initially lived on the streets before getting involved with some bad people and being taken to Unova. Part of the reason they were endangered is due to the fact that all three are dark mages, which are quite rare (mages in general are rare, but dark mages are rare even among mages). This trait is also what drew Ghetsis to them. He was looking for a team of undercover operatives to act as spies/bodyguards for him, and a trio of dark mage brothers who already had a very close bond was perfect. As a bonus to him, they were young (around 9 years old) and in a very bad situation, which was something he could use to his advantage. Acting as a savior, he managed to get the brothers under his care and used his ‘savior’ status to ensure their loyalty. He also encouraged their codependency, as it meant less of a chance of one of them trying to escape without his brothers. They were trained in martial arts, infiltration, and espionage, as well as honing their magic talents to the point they essentially became one with the shadows.

The three worked as one well-oiled, loyal machine to Ghetsis, but they weren’t entirely devoid of a sense of self. When not on duty, the three enjoyed spending time honing their skills, teasing each other, competing, and pursuing some minor hobbies – in particular cooking, something they had learned early in life and stuck with even up through, both as a practicality (better to know where your meals are coming from) and as a useful skill (food is a good place to hide poison after all). As soon as they were old enough at age 19, Ghetsis assigned them their first (and last) long term deep cover mission. They were to pose as rookie Gym Leaders, with new names and identities, in order to gather information on the League. They had the battling skills and came on good recommendation as Ghetsis was still in decent standing with his former government coworkers. The triplets also had a ‘gimmick’, a secondary occupation or hobby that would help provide draw to the gym and the town they would be leading – cooking, with ingredient-themed names to match. The Restaurant Gym of Striation had been born.

They had a degree of freedom in customizing their presentation at the Gym, and they had the idea to go for a ‘Three Elements’ style rather than focus on training just one type. While the brothers’ hair is naturally white, Cress, Chili, and Cilan’s eyes are naturally blue, red, and green, so Cress proposed they follow a water, fire, and grass theme to match their own looks and new names. It was Chili’s idea to add in the wigs – colored and styled to match their type specialization and working as an extra bit of disguise as a bonus. The even got a blue wig that covered Cress’ missing eye in a way that didn’t draw attention to it like an eye-patch would. In the end, they got way into running the Gym and restaurant, coordinating events, and even helping out at the local trainer school. For a time, they could almost pretend this was their real life and not just an undercover mission Eventually all good things must come to an end, however, and when it came time for Plasma’s grand plan to unfold, the three had to give up their charade and return to their old jobs full time. However, after the death of Ghetsis two years later, they found themselves without a place to go, and their experience living ‘normal lives’ proved invaluable. They headed to Kalos to try and start something new, eventually finding their own paths and settling down and starting families of their own, something they had never even dreamed of before. As a way of saying goodbye to their Plasma days, the brothers took on their Gym Leader names permanently, leaving behind ‘Lir, Aodh, and Nuada’ in their pasts.