aka the fankid whose design and backstory change every time i draw her
Noelle is the adoptive daughter of Lance, however when she was little she was presumed deceased after an accident that may have involved a UB. Years and years later, her little brother Draco meets a strikingly familiar Interpol agent… It’s unclear if the confident UB squad agent is the same Noelle who went missing that day… or just another world’s counterpart, considering her amnesia, but either way she’s going to be a huge influence on Draco changing his outlook and starting on the path to examining his own behavior, a good mentor even if she’s not the same sister. And when she’s not being dragged into family drama, she’s busy flirting with her coworker Layla, much to the latter’s dismay (she’s not flustered-SHUT IT)
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.
Fankid Week Day 6: With Other’s Kids One of my fave genres of fankid is “Fallers who solve crimes/mysteries”. Featuring: My Noelle, @pkmn-nextgenadventures‘s Nancy, and @pkmnomegaverse‘s Lonan. They should star in their own tv show tbh, I’d watch that.
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.
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.
As mentioned in my previous post, somehow all of Ethan’s children end up with pokemon from the demo. In Carmen’s chase, she has a similar experience to Draco when a previously assumed to be normal pokemon suddenly evolves into something… odd. Carmen caught her Ditto, Squishy, completely by chance. The little pink blob someone managed to disguise itself as her other pokemon for an entire day before Carmen realized something was up. She was quite embarrassed when she realized what was going on, and ended up catching the Ditto since it seemed to like hanging around. Carmen’s not a competitive trainer, so her pokemon mostly help her with her field work for her junior research program. Squishy is good at getting close to wild pokemon thanks to its transformation abilities, and also just proves to be a good friend to have around.
Carmen never expected Squishy was unusual in any way until one time she and Rosemary were exploring the old Kanto Power Plant, hearing rumors that there might be rare pokemon there. The Ditto found a Metal Coat somewhere in the abandoned building and seemed very pleased with it. Carmen paid Squishy no mind until she saw the telltale glow of evolution out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed Rosemary and asked her what was going on as the two girls watched in shock as Squishy… Evolved??? Ditto were definitely not meant to do that. And when the evolution was complete… well… Squishy sure looked different. Poor Carmen was so confused by what had just happened while Rosemary was squealing about how Carmen had a “real cryptid pokemon” right under their noses this whole time.
The mystery of Squishy is solved yet again by Noelle, when Carmen sends pictures of her new pokemon to her parents, who then send them on to Noelle as she’s the one who would know about weird pokemon. Noelle confirms that Carmen’s got herself an Animon, but unlike with Draco and his Kingdra, the entire family is stumped as to how this came to be apart from simple luck. In the end, this seems to really just be a coincidence. Carmen was initially a bit wary of how different Squishy was, but when it became clear her pokemon was its same mischievous self, she warmed to the idea of having a unique evolution very quickly.
Gal and Madame
Now Gal, as the youngest, got to see all their older siblings find themselves with unique pokemon from other worlds, and they were certainly jealous. If Noelle and Draco and Carmen and Dad got cool pokemon, they should as well! So not long after setting out on their journey, Gal makes it their mission to find an alternate world pokemon. They ask Noelle for a list of ones she knows aren’t native to this world before setting out, using it as a guide so they’d know if they met any potential teammates.
Along their journey, Gal meets many interesting pokemon, catches some, makes many friends and fond memories… but doesn’t see a single “Faller pokemon” as their family has taken to calling these lost pokemon from other worlds (borrowing Noelle’s Interpol Lingo). They’re beginning to give up hope when, while in Kalos, they start getting followed around by a Farfetch’d. At this point, Gal has a nearly full team of strong and beautiful pokemon and has no time or patience for this little drab bird. It’s Morgan who eventually convinces them to let the cute little guy tag along, since how could anyone resist those sweet eyes. Gal gives in for their boyfriend, but makes it clear they’re only begrudgingly allowing this. Nonetheless, Farfetch’d worms his way into Gal’s heart and eventually they have to admit they have some affection for the bird. It’s not long after this that Gal decides to start training Farfetch’d a bit, since even if he’s never going to be a particularly conventional contest star or gym battle ace… might as well get him up to par with the rest of Gal’s pokemon.
It’s during this training that the unbelievable happens. Farfetch’d starts evolving and Gal can’t believe their eyes. Did their superior training regimen somehow unlock new, never-before-seen, potential in their pokemon?! They knew they were good but this is on a whole different level! And when they see Farfetch’d’s new form, they feel in their heart that this was an evolution just for them. A beautiful swan. This is the True Ugly Duckling Tale and Gal is the Prince and it’s perfect and meant to be. It’s Morgan who actually proposes that Gal’s little bird friend might have been one of those Faller pokemon all along rather than this being some kind of miracle, since even Gal’s not good enough to create new evolutions out of nowhere. Farfetch’d’s evolution is soon confirmed by Noelle to be one of the pokemon from her homeworld and marks the birth of a new dream team as Gal and Madame take the world by storm.
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.
It’s been a year and I’m late to the bandwagon as usual but I decided that I really like these beta pokemon so I changed up a few teams. The origins of these unusual pokemon vary so I’ll be posting about how each character met their strange little friends.
Ethan and Tangel/Gelanla
The first beta pokemon I decided to add was this funky little fellow. I was reworking Ethan’s team and gave him a Tangela since he mentions having one in HGSS. Then I got to thinking about how my Ethan is a bit… odd and has a knack for bonding with pokemon (even if he doesn’t catch many) and decided that having this alternate Tangela line would suit him very well.
Tangel was Ethan’s second pokemon, after his Marill. They met when Ethan was around 6 years old and he was visiting his grandparents, the Daycare Couple, with his father. While he usually loved playing with all the pokemon at the daycare, today Ethan wanted to go exploring a bit. His father let him run off down Route 34, knowing Ethan had Marill to look out for him and telling him not to go further than the edge of Ilex Forest. Ethan happily runs off, exploring the tall grass, chatting with passing trainers, and eventually reached the edge of the woods.
Now, Ethan knew he wasn’t supposed to go in, but he really wanted to see what other kinds of pokemon might be living there. Surely, a little peek wouldn’t hurt? He wouldn’t go far and Marill was right there with him, so he’d definitely be fine. His mind set, Ethan carefully makes his way deeper into the forest and while he initially makes sure to keep the edge of the woods in sight, eventually he wanders a bit too far and finds that he no longer knows which way is the way out. At first, he doesn’t want to panic, he’s only a little bit lost, so surely if he just picks a direction and walks he’ll find his way out. He also decides that Marill has a better nose than him, so he surely can smell the right way home. So, Ethan asks Marill which way to go and little Marill, also quite lost but not wanting to disappoint his trainer, picks a direction that feels right and the two set out.
After about half an hour of walking, the trees are still as thick as ever and Ethan is starting to get scared. What if they never make it out and become forest spirits? He’s heard stories about children who get lost in the woods and turn into ghost trees… Just as he’s starting to really panic, the trees clear and he and Marill find themselves on the edge of a vernal pool. It seems Marill’s nose led them in the direction of the nearest body of water rather than out of the woods. At this point, Ethan breaks down for real. He’s never getting home, is he? He’ll be lost in the woods forever and ever. As he’s sitting at the edge of the pond crying, Marill doing his best to comfort him but on the verge of tears himself, they hear a rustling in the bushes and Ethan looks up just in time to come face to face with a little pokemon that looks like a small, less vine-y Tangela. The Tangel seems shocked to see a human so deep into the woods and scurries back into the bushes almost immediately. Ethan’s not quite sure what he just saw, but then realizes that even the local pokemon are running away from him and he’s all alone and just starts crying again.
Tangel, now feeling a bit braver after seeing how small this human is, and that they’re with another pokemon, decides to try going back to the pool to investigate, being quite the curious pokemon. When she emerges again to find Ethan in tears, she’s a bit confused by what’s going on and approaches him, concerned. Ethan is still a bit too upset to notice the Tangel much but Marill decides to ask the little pokemon for help, communicating that he and Ethan are lost and need to find their way out of the woods. Tangel, wanting to be helpful and also still very curious about this first ever human she’s seen, tugs on Ethan’s sleeve to get him to get him to notice her, then runs a little way into the woods, gesturing to him and Marill to follow. Ethan quickly wipes his tears then gets up to follow Tangel, not really worrying if she actually knows the way or not, since this is at least a chance. After a while of following Tangel through the trees, eventually light begins to break through and the trio find themselves near Azalea. Tangel is quite pleased to have guided this human out of the forest but poor Ethan realizes this is the wrong side of the woods and begins tearing up again, causing Tangel to hop up on his shoulders in concern, emboldened by her little adventure.
Ethan and the two pokemon are eventually found by Kurt, who brings them to the Pokemon Center, Tangel now tucked into Ethan’s shirt and peering out his collar while Marill is being carried. Once they’re at the center, the nurses give Ethan a checkup while calling his father to tell him that his son’s safe and sound. When Nurse Joy asks to see Ethan’s Tangela, she’s in quite a shock when he pulls out… not a Tangela. When she asks Ethan where he met such an odd little pokemon, he looks up at her in confusion “She’s not weird, she’s just a baby Tangela! Don’t be mean!” and then refuses to part with Tangel since the grownups were “being mean to her”. This continues even when Zack comes to pick Ethan up and in the end, Tangel just ends up going home with them. Ethan remains convinced that Tangel, who he names “Gela”, is just a baby Tangela for a long time, especially when she evolves into one, despite actually seeing Tangela and not Tangel hatch from eggs at the daycare. Even when Gela evolves into Gelanla and not Tangrowth when he’s a teenager… nope, still a normal Tangela you all are just being mean. So what if she’s a little different? Don’t call her weird you’re hurting her feelings!
Gela on her part loves her new life with Ethan and happily plays with Marill and eventually the other pokemon Ethan catches, though she remains closest with Marill, the two even evolving into Azumarill and Gelanla together. People often double take when they see her and realize she’s not just a … small Tangrowth, but neither she nor Ethan care. She’s perfect just the way she is. It’s only years and years later when he meets Faller Noelle for the first time that Ethan finds out his friend might actually be from another world like her. Noelle’s world is one where those beta pokemon are common and she’s very surprised that her sort-of step-father has a Gelanla when she was sure they don’t exist in this world. Gelanla herself hadn’t even realized she was in a different world! Ethan’s quite happy with this explanation after years of people assuming Gelanla was some kind of mutant. He was right all along that she was perfect and not broken. Not to mention, at this point Ethan had learned that he and his father came from another world themselves, so in a way, he and Gela are kindred souls.
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.
I still haven’t figured out exactly everyone Draco hooks up with but Basile is definitely up there. He and Draco were fighting for dominance lol. And then Baz ends up dating Draco’s dead sister from another dimension. Family reunions must be fun.
Pokémon Legends & Legacies 