Little Update!
Lance’s eldest daughter, Noelle, was now adopted, rather than being the daughter of Lance and his late wife. Him being previously married just wasn’t working for me as his story developed, so now Noelle was an orphan who he took in and raised as a single father. Her story from that point is the same aka she dies young and there’s an adult faller version of her, just her backstory and relationship to Lance is different.
who is more likely to get injured doing small tasks – Whitney. She has a bit of a clumsy streak in the sense that she often doesn’t pay attention to her environment while focusing on something else, so she’s the type to trip while walking and looking at her phone, or cut her finger when her favorite song comes on the radio while she’s cooking and she’s too busy jamming out to pay attention to the knife.
who worries more about the other – Whitney and Ethan both worry about Lance a lot. He’s the type who will bury his own struggles and focus on helping others and his duties as Champion. They often have to remind him that it’s ok to talk about things that are bothering him or his own insecurities. Actually, worrying about Lance and wanting to help him out after Noelle’s death is half the reason the couple ended up spending so much time with him that led to them eventually being together in the first place.
who is more afraid about the other leaving them – Lance. He has a complicated relationship with relationships. For a long time, he felt like he couldn’t trust anyone, and was only out for himself. Then he got married, and it was arranged, but he grew to care a lot about his wife, then he lost her. Then he lost their daughter and he worries that he won’t be able to protect his son after this happens. Ethan and Whitney becoming a part of his life is something he’s so grateful for. They helped him through the lowest point in his life, and continue to support him and love him and keep him going through each day. He cherishes them and their children so much and knows that losing any of them would probably break him.
who is more likely to leave (for any reason) – Lance. Because he cares about his family so much, he’s the one who’d leave them behind if he thought they’d be better off or safer without him. It’d hurt him terribly to do so, but if it came down to it it would be the choice he’d make.
who is more likely to drunkenly confess – Ethan. Whitney would as well, but she’s the type who’d declare her love for anyone while drunk – a very affectionate drunk. Ethan’s drunk confession would be the type where he wasn’t ready to say it sober but now that he’s tipsy it all comes spilling out.
who is more likely to push the other away (for any reason) – Lance, for similar reasons to the reasons he would leave. He also might feel like he’s imposing on Ethan and Whitney and want to keep his distance. Messing up their perfect relationship and family with his own issues. This was more so in the earlier days of their relationship however.
who picks fights more often – Whitney. She gets easily frustrated and can lash out when that happens, but it’s usually over petty things and never lasts. She always apologizes after. Lance might also get snappy when he’s stressed, but he’s more just standoffish rather than picking a fight. He and Whitney probably butt heads the most of the trio, with Ethan mediating and trying not to get dragged into one or the other side of the argument. When Ethan picks fights though… he’s the one who will drag them out for a long time since he doesn’t want to back down. Basically shorter tempers that burn out quicker vs a milder temper that will simmer for a while.
who usually apologizes first – Both Whitney and Lance! They always feel really bad if their frustration or bad mood ended up causing a fight, especially with each other since they know it upsets Ethan a lot to see them argue, so once they’ve calmed down they’ll apologize to him and/or each other. Ethan on the other hand usually takes a while to properly apologize since he’s a bit stubborn about things like that, but will go above and beyond when he does since is pretty sheepish about being that stubborn. Date night and home cooked dinner on him type stuff.
who is more likely to withhold their feelings for the other – Depends on when in the relationship. Earlier on, Ethan for Lance, since he felt like Lance probably wouldn’t reciprocate and that he was betraying Whitney (this would be before he told her and she said she liked Lance too so what was the problem if they both like him?). Later on, Lance for both Ethan and Whitney. He would be in denial about any feelings and try to suppress them, not wanting to get hurt if he was rejected, reading too much into things, or worrying that getting attached to someone would just end in tragedy again.
who is more likely to lash out at the other – Whitney, over some frustration or other. Usually just getting snappy or shouting if someone talks to her while she’s upset, which then will often lead to an apology and maybe some tears.
who gets more jealous – Lance. Less by others showing interest in Ethan or Whitney, and more in seeing them having a moment together without him. He hates that he feels this way, but he sometimes feels like a third wheel. They’re the two that are married, live together, are more domestic. Sort of the “ideal couple” in his eyes, and he can get jealous of that, wanting that life but feeling like he’s lost his chance, doesn’t deserve it, etc. Ethan and Whitney will always assure him otherwise in a heartbeat though and shower him in extra affection so he knows he’s loved!
who is more likely to support the other in a relationship with someone else “as long as they’re happy” – All of them, in a way? Lance, for the reasons said above, but also Ethan and Whitney since what they want, ultimately, is Lance to be happy, and if it’s with someone else, then so be it. They know that they’ll still all be important to each other no matter what happens and they’d wish him all the best. (Ngl Whitney would probably not see what the huge problem was since can’t they still keep seeing each other even if Lance gets another partner? And Ethan has to remind her that not everyone is necessarily ok with open relationships.)
9. What is something that would break them emotionally?
Morgan is very empathetic and sensitive person, under his withdrawn and sarcastic exterior, and he cares about his friends and family deeply. Anything happening to them, especially if he feels like it was his fault, or he didn’t do enough to help them, would be devastating. He’s already had a taste of this fear after accidentally hurting Ash (not too badly thankfully) while his father was trying to help him train his aura powers. After that incident, Morgan has become terrified of his powers accidentally going out of control again, and tries not to use them (which causes its own problems as that’s not healthy for him.) If he hurt someone he loved again, or they were in a situation where he could have saved them with his powers and didn’t out of fear, it would break him. He’s trying desperately to avoid such a situation… but who knows how long his luck will last when he’s stretching himself so thin by not using his aura or training it.
17. Who is their favorite person(s) to spend time with?
Personal relationships are definitely not Draco’s strong suit (and that’s an understatement). He has far more enemies than friends, and even people he wants to get along with he often ends up pushing away. That said, he does have some people he’s very close with and would do anything for. The primary one being his father, Lance. In Draco’s eyes, Lance is perfect and an ideal role model. He’s someone that Draco tries to emulate and someone that he’s always happy to spend time with. Lance is a very comforting presence for him, a constant in his life. That said, due to idealizing Lance so much, Draco also can be very anxious about their relationship, especially if he’s gotten into trouble or fears that Lance might be disappointed in him or be too busy to spend time with him. In those cases, Draco often prefers to spend time with Roy, his traveling companion and friend. Roy is very non-judgmental and is a good listener, making sure Draco knows he’s not being annoying or a burden when he needs to vent. They’ve known each other since childhood and “get” each other. Draco is also close with Renato, though that relationship is kinda strained for a while after Renato’s own insecurities lead to him ghosting Draco a bit, which Draco does not take well.
27. Do they have any cool scar stories?
One winter when Tipha was around 11 or so, it snowed heavily in the White Forest, at least a few feet of snow building up, and she got an idea. Tipha convinced Euphie to help her pile up the snow next to their house to build a slide leading from their roof down into their backyard that they could then sled down. While Euphie thought it would be dangerous, the challenge of constructing the slide was enticing so he agreed to help her and they got to work.
Then Hilbert looked out the kitchen window to check on them and got Very Upset that they were doing something so likely to result in injury and gave them a light scolding. At dinner, after N had been told, he also warned them against such stunts, his worried voice successfully making the twins feel a bit guilty. Worrying their dad was never something they wanted to do. All the same… that night, Euphie just could not stop thinking about the idea. How glorious it would be when completed. He couldn’t sleep, and it turned out that his sister had been having similar thoughts, as she showed up at his bedroom door with her snowsuit already on and bearing a flashlight and diabolical grin.
Their construction from that afternoon was still intact, so the twins began working again, finishing the slide soon enough. Tipha then climbed onto the roof, using a trellis on the side of the house and window ledges for help Assassin’s Creed style making it to the top of the slide. Euphie handed a sled up to her then stood back to watch her in action. She placed the sled at the top of the incline, where the snow ramp met the snow-covered roof and sat down… only to be startled by a loud “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!?!” coming from one of the windows below. Hilbert had woken up, hearing her climbing past his and N’s bedroom, and looked outside just in time to see her preparing her epic descent. The shock of the unexpected shout meant that Tipha started down the slide without preparing, and she lost control of the sled halfway through. It almost fell off of the ramp, so she rolled off the sled and onto her belly, continuing to slide at high speeds… down the ramp… and right into a tree in the yard, cutting open the top of her head, right on the hairline. As her parents rushed outside and blood ran down her forehead all Tipha could do was look to her brother running over to her, wide-eyed, and grin. “That. Was. AWESOME!”
Euphie agreed wholeheartedly and wished he’d gotten the whole thing on film. N and Hilbert did not agree and took her to the hospital where she had to get seven stiches. They left a scar that’s still there, though hard to see, on her forhead and she loves to tell the story.
(Oliver managed to sleep through the entire incident and was quite annoyed he missed all the fun, even if he was upset that his sister got hurt.)
@sydchan posted the clean version of this meme so how could I resist? I decided to not include any protagonists or rivals on here just to spice things up a a bit, and only included three characters for each rank, but this is all pretty … Continue reading
More changes because as usual I’m indecisive.
After thinking it over, I decided I wanted Ethan, Whitney, and Lance to be a more proper OT3 and this ended up changing some things in regard to Carmen.
Basically, the big catalyst of this was that I wasn’t really feeling motivated about Carmen’s current role in the family and how her, Ethan and Whitney’s side of the family fit into things. Long story short, Carmen is now Ethan and Whitney’s biological child rather than being adopted. I do like her original backstory and will probably use it for another fankid (maybe a Galar one? who knows), but for her it just wasn’t 100% working for me.
All the old posts about her are still up, but I’m probably going to amend them with a ‘no longer canon’ tag. Her profile has been de-linked from the page until I can update things like her looks, backstory, etc, though her personality is still pretty much the same. Sorry for anyone who really liked the original Carmen, I just was having trouble with her ;;;;
This is a pretty difficult question since for generally my “favorite” family is the one I’m working the most on at any given time, so the answer would change. I can answer for who I’m enjoying working on the most at this point in time though.
Kanto: I haven’t really worked in depth on any Kanto families recently, but I’d say right now I’m feeling very fond of the NamelessShipping fam. I’ve been having a lot of fun with Roy and Sage’s dynamic in particular, as antagonistic siblings is always fun. I also like how they both have some of Green’s arrogance, since cocky characters are fun to work with.
Johto: Hands down the HonorShipping family just since they have so much drama. A very close second is Whitney, Ethan, and Lance’s family, since there’s a lot of fun dynamics going on there as well. I think the sheer outrageous soap-opera levels of drama in the former family are what make me like it more though, as well as how quirky all the kids are.
Hoenn: Probably a tie between TensionShipping and ContestQueenShipping at the moment. ContestQueen will always be my forever Hoenn OTP, so they’re going to be a favorite no matter what, but I’ve been having so much fun with Drew and Harley’s family (and their dynamics with Lisia and May’s family) that I feel like they deserve a shoutout as well.
Sinnoh: The BrokenShipping family is a forever favorite just since it’s one of my weirdest ships. It was basically an in-universe crackship to start out and then the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be great. They’re an unconventional family but one I love working on. Shout-out/runner up goes to the ComaShipping family though since how could I not love Paul and Ash and their goth babies.
Unova: I know this is kind of cheating since it’s like five families but… the Montfort family. All of them. I don’t know how it got so big but all of them are so much fun to work with and I’ve just put some of my most effort into worldbuilding Unova that they’re kind of my babies. Even if some are trash babies like Grimsley and Hymnia and Mindy. And while this isn’t set in stone yet… there’s a good chance the family’s going to be expanding once I incorporate Galar 😉
Kalos: PerfectWorldShipping. Hands down. I have… trouble with Kalos, mainly due to lack of inspiration, so I think it’s probably no wonder that the couple/family with a convoluted story and angst and drama is the one I like best. Florian’s one of my older fankids as well and while he’s changed a bit over the years he’s still one I’m very fond of. I really like thinking of him and his dads being soft together.
Alola: Another region I find myself having a bit more trouble with, but I’d say maybe SnowLilyShipping? Mainly just since they start out very typical but end up being very unconventional with their half-alien meme son, sort-of a zombie son, and then adorable baby daughter. Another fun one is the NineIronShipping fam (Guzma/Molayne/Kahili) just since it’s full of shenanigans and all three kids are gremlins.
And then I have some other regions, but those only have one-two families each so I’ll exclude them. Honestly I think it’s just become obvious that the families I tend to enjoy working with are the ones with more drama/unconventional elements. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the more typical families – I do immensely! It’s just that when it comes down to picking favorites, I tend to go with the ones like that. Really, this AU is more of a personal/self-indulgent project than anything, which is why things get over the top or dark sometimes. I simply want to explore lots of different ideas I find interesting and use this world as a way to do so.
Oh my goodness I can’t believe I forget this but, going back to the “Dead Canon Characters” anon – Liza from Johto (the one who lives in Charizard Valley) is also dead. She passed away shortly after giving birth to her and Lance’s daughter, Noelle, due to unexpected complications.
There are also two very minor deceased canon characters. The first is Nita’s late wife, Elise, who was a character of the day from the XY series (she was the granddaughter of the woman who owned the mansion and had an Espurr). I don’t have the specifics for her death, though it was most likely an accident of some kind. Mostly I just liked the idea of Nita as a rich widow. The other is the late husband of Hugh’s sister, Fiona, who… sort of counts as a canon character? He’s based on one of the Aspertia Gym Trainers seen in BW2 called Pedro, so technically exists as a character in the games. He passed away due to a work accident.
Noelle and Cruz/Aqua/Aquaria
Being from another world where the demo pokemon are canon, Noelle is familiar with a different pokedex than everyone else. For the most part, the pokemon she knows are the same as what’s found in her current world, but there are a few that are different. In her homeworld, as the demo starters were canon, trainers who wanted to pick a Water-type starter from Professor Elm would receive a Cruz instead of a Totodile. For Noelle however, her Cruz was actually her fourth pokemon. She already had a Dratini from Lance and two Charmander siblings from Liza, but she also wanted to “do things properly” when she set out on her journey and pick one of the traditional Johto starters as well.
Arriving at the Newbark Lab, Noelle knew that she wanted either Chikorita or Cruz. She already had two Fire-types on her team and was planning on following in her father’s footsteps to train Dragon-types and similar pokemon. Meganium and Aquaria both resemble reptiles or dragons of a sort, so either one would be a good addition to the three pokemon she already had. In fact, she found that she was having quite a bit of trouble deciding which one she actually wanted. Both were so cute, and would grow up to be so strong… she couldn’t choose! Luckily, she didn’t have to. Cruz, getting impatient at how long this prospective trainer was deliberating, decided to show off her strength by leaping off the table and picking a fight with Noelle’s Dratini, who had been minding his one business at his trainer’s side. Once the fight was broken up, Noelle couldn’t help but be impressed at Cruz’s boldness, so she was confident in choosing the Water-type to bring with her.
Years later, when Noelle Falls, Cruz, now fully evolved into Aquaria, comes with her along with the rest of Noelle’s pokemon. Once Noelle is taken in by Interpol, there’s a bit of fuss over Aquaria since, while they have encountered various strange pokemon that came from other worlds, Aquaria is the first of her kind recorded. Noelle is a bit nervous to let these guys study her partner, but once she’s assured she can be there the whole time – and probably should be since she knows Aquaria better than any of the scientists at this point – she agrees to let them take some observations and tell them what she knows about Aquaria’s biology and the like. Interpol has a list of other-world pokemon that is sent out to the various Leagues so Noelle doesn’t have to worry about getting questioned for having such an unusual pokemon, but they still get plenty of stares in public. Aquaria on her part, loves the attention, preening at the fact she’s considered rare and special, the only one of her kind to exist here. Noelle finds her pokemon’s attitude pretty amusing and will answer any questions people may have about her, always happy to show off her beloved pokemon.
Draco and Kingdra
While Noelle having a pokemon from another world makes perfect sense, somehow all of Ethan’s other children end up with them as well. Whether this is merely coincidence or some kind of cosmic conspiracy is a well-debated subject in the family. In Draco’s case, it’s his Kingdra that turns out to be from another world, though he has no idea of this until he evolves and grows arms and small wings. Draco initially panics, wondering if somehow he interfered while Seadra was evolving and that messed things up, but once he calms down a bit and tries to think through what could have happened, he remembers that Ethan has a strange Tangrowth-like pokemon that supposedly evolved from a normal Tangela. At this point, Draco is a sullen teenager who currently despises his father for a variety of mostly petty reasons, so he immediately blames Ethan and Gela for what happened to Kingdra. Somehow, Gela must have corrupted Seadra or something since they did always like playing with each other.
Draco storms home to confront his father, but before he can do so, he runs into Noelle, who’s visiting home during a break from work. When she sees her little brother’s Kingdra, she exclaims that it looks just like the Kingdra did back in her original world and is shocked when Draco explains that this is what his Seadra evolved to look like. Later on, after dinner, the whole family sits down to try and figure out just how exactly this whole ordeal came to pass. After some debate, it’s Ethan who supplies the most likely answer, recalling how Draco first met his Horsea. When Draco was just a wee child of 7, he was quite jealous of how his cousin Arethusa had a Horsea and he did not. He wanted one of his own and begged and begged his parents to take him to Kanto so he could catch one. After all, Arethusa had gotten her Horsea from Clair, so if Draco could catch his own, he’d prove that he was better than her. Eventually, they relent, and Ethan and Draco head out to Route 12 for a day trip that weekend, ready to do some fishing.
It turns out that Horsea are fairly rare, however, so the trip ends up entailing quite a bit of sitting and waiting around. For Draco, it’s incredibly frustrating and boring. They’ve tried fishing, placing food in the water to lure pokemon, they even borrowed a nearby fisher’s Starmie that knew Surf to head out onto the water to search, but to no avail. The only pokemon they’ve found are the usual Magikarp and Tentacool. Just as Draco is beginning to give up hope, he notices a nearby commotion. Gela, who had been sitting on the edge of the dock splashing water with her tentacles seems to be interacting with another pokemon. Draco looks for his father, but Ethan is busy talking to a fisherman, so he heads over by himself. Lo and behold, Gela is playing with a Horsea! Draco can scarcely believe his luck as he fumbles for one of the pokeballs Ethan gave him and tries to carefully approach the pair. Horsea notices the incoming boy and beings to dart away, scared off from his new playmate by the approaching human, but pauses when he hears Draco’s desperate cries for him to come back, “Please! Please don’t go! I really want to be your friend!” Moved by this human’s sincerity, Horsea turns around and slowly approaches the docks again, as Draco himself is doing his best puppy-dog eyes in the hopes that Horsea will know just how much he wants to befriend him. Horsea glances at Gela, who nods encouragingly, then slowly approaches Draco’s outstretched hand and bumps against the pokeball, successfully being caught. Draco runs back to Ethan with his new pokemon, babbling excitedly about how he succeeded, and the two return home triumphant, Draco getting to ride on his father’s shoulders, pokeball in one hand and the ice cream cone Ethan bought him as a special treat in the other.
After recounting those fond memories of simpler, pre-sullen teen times, Ethan concludes that Horsea must have recognized Gela as being a pokemon from his own homeworld and approached her as a result. Draco has to admit that that explanation makes the most sense, but… on the one hand, he doesn’t want to acknowledge that Ethan was right about something so is grumpy, while on the other hand, this does prove that Seadra evolving into an odd Kingdra was Ethan’s fault after all so he wants to be smug… in the end he just mumbles something incoherent and sulks out of the room, though deep down he’s quite pleased to have such a rare and unique pokemon. Down the line, once the grumpy teen years are over and Draco is admitting he loves his father again, he does thank Ethan for being the reason he and Kingdra ultimately got to meet, and apologizes for blaming him for “breaking” Kingdra and thinking that Ethan’s Gelanla was weird, as his pokemon is perfect the way he is, just like Gela.
42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change?
Noelle’s past before she Fell was not particularly happy. Her world was in a period of great turmoil, having been taken over by an evil team. Noelle fought to protect her region and family, but ultimately lost both when Johto was taken over and her wife and daughter were killed. Following this, Noelle simply lost her will to live, wandering in the wreckage of what was once her home. One day, she ended up targeted by a group of Ultra Beasts who were under the control of the evil team. Noelle didn’t care enough to fight back and simply let herself be attacked, but her starter and partner, Shohei the Dragonite, shielded her from the attack and attempted to escape with his trainer, which is what ultimately led to them falling through the wormhole the UBs arrived in. When Noelle awakens, her only memory is a feeling of emptiness that is quickly overridden by concern when she sees Shohei lying injured nearby. In the following months, as she travels around trying to figure out what happened and when she’s taken in by Interpol, Noelle begins to understand that something very bad must have happened to her that she’s forgotten. She struggles with depression and PTSD yet can’t recall her past enough to know why beyond that ‘something really terrible must have happened.’ Noelle generally doesn’t really want to remember though. Her past was surely awful and she’s doing so well in her new life that she doesn’t want to ruin things by remembering something so traumatic.
48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious?
Noelle isn’t usually the jealous or envious type, knowing she’s got it pretty lucky to have such a cool job and friends and a family despite being a Faller, but there are certain things that ignite her envy. In particular, she often gets jealous of Draco, Gal, and Carmen. Those three have years and years of family memories with each other and their parents, while Noelle only remembers the past few years. She longs for a ‘true family’, which is her subconscious remembering how she lost her entire family in her home world, but she also feels like an outsider to her family’s counterparts here. She’s not a real member of the family – the other Noelle died years ago and she can’t replace her, that’s wrong isn’t it? It’s true that Ethan, Lance, and Whitney have told her multiple times she’s always welcome in their homes, but still, Noelle can’t help but wonder if she’s intruding. Just close knit families in general make her a bit envious, even if she can’t fully explain why. When she and Basile start dating, she tends to be a bit clingy, subconsciously not wanting to lose him like she lost her loved ones before.
49. What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood?
Noelle often has nightmares of her memories before she Fell. She doesn’t remember most of them, but that’s perhaps for the best as they often concern the deaths of her friends and family and all the other horrible things that happened. One of the most frequent ones is of when she came home from fighting off the creatures (both UBs and supernatural beings) under the control of the evil team to find her wife and young daughter brutally killed. Some of the beasts had managed to slip past the line of defense and targeted Blackthorn, killing the civilians there. Often in Noelle’s nightmares, the horrific scene is twisted to become even worse – seeing them die before her eyes rather than just finding the aftermath, their mangled bodies blaming her for letting them die, and any number of other horrors. Especially in the earlier months, Noelle would often wake up screaming from her nightmares, and they’d put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day, depressed and irritable. She’s the type who tries to stay positive but this can be particularly difficult if she’s had a rough night. She still gets nightmares as the years progress, though the frequency decreases from almost every night to only once in a while, for the most part. Noelle also got into the habit of taking sleep aids since they help keep her from dreaming. She doesn’t mind losing out on potentially nice dreams if it just means the nightmares go away.
[This content is out of date and no longer canon]
This is a part of their story that I’m still developing, so I’m sorry that I can’t give a more detailed answer, but Cypress likely found out ‘through the grapevine’ so to speak. Most of the Champions of the regions keep in touch, so Iris and Lance know each other and trade news about their families as well as what is going on in their respective regions. Iris is aware of her son’s poor relationship with Draco, so she tries to avoid talking about him when Cypress is around, but accidents happen. It’s likely that Cypress overheard that Draco has a son and though he initially would react with disinterest (why would I care what he’s getting up to?) his curiosity would get the better of him and he would want to try and find information on his ex’s child.
Cypress finds a picture of Noel either through social media or a mutual acquaintance and can’t deny the similarities he shares with the child, not to mention that doing the math puts Noel’s conception right around when he and Draco were still in a relationship. While I know Cypress definitely reacts poorly to the revelation, the details are still not entirely worked out, so I can’t say what exactly he does. I do know that he and Draco are able to come to a resolution eventually, where they agree to give Noel the option of contacting Cypress when he’s old enough to understand the situation. Whether or not Noel decides to do this is still unknown, however, since his character right now pretty much amounts to ‘Draco’s drama baby’, haha!
Pokémon Legends & Legacies 