This ask has been sitting here a while and their families have gone through some pretty big changes since then, but I think I’m now in a comfortable place with the Alola protags to answer this!

Selene & Elio spent most of their childhoods living a very unstable and transitory lifestyle with their single father, Orion. He lost most of his memories when the twins were toddlers, but due to a distrust of authority he never sought help for this, simply doing his best to raise his children on his own and provide for them. When Elio & Selene were around 7 or 8, they moved to Vermillion, Kanto where Orion befriended a woman named Clarissa, who often babysat the twins while Orion worked his various odd-jobs, and even eventually offered them a place to live with her. Only a few years after getting settled, however, Orion up and left with very minimal warning to his roommate and children, leaving Clarissa to take custody of Selene & Elio as they had no other relatives. With this backdrop, when one of Clarissa’s cousins announced they were selling their house in Alola, she took the opportunity to move there for the sake of a fresh start for the children. When they set out on their island trials, Selene & Elio are still coming to terms with the disappearance of their father as well as moving regions, a plotline I thought would work well in tandem with Gladion & Lillie’s stories! (Also they find out that Actually they and their father are Fallers and that’s the true cause of his amnesia, they were just too little to have noticed any lost memories. How things resolve on that end is still WiP!)

Selene and Elio trade off the Champion seat every year or so for a while, but by the next-gen era the title has gone to Acerola! She and Selene are married, and Selene now works full time as a photographer, both artistically and for documenting the variety of pokemon and other creatures that inhabit Alola (her specialty is spirit photography!) Elio is married to current Aether President Gladion, and is an Pokémon Ranger who works closely with the organization, helping to protect habitats and bringing in injured wild pokémon for care. More details on their families under the cut!

Selene has always had a fascination with the macabre and ghost stories, lending her otherwise cheerful and somewhat airheaded demeanor a sinister tinge (aka she will happily discuss the ghost standing right next to you with her usual smile). When she first got her Rotom Dex and discovered it had a camera, she became obsessed with documenting her Trial through photographs, and Acerola’s trial ignited a love of photographing ghosts and ghost-types. She loves the idea of being able to capture the intangible on film, both for artistic merit and scientific research. After the events of the game, Selene remains in Alola and is the one who works with Interpol to catch UBs, which is how she and Acerola grew closer and eventually form a romantic relationship! After their first child, Lirio, is born is when Selene decides to retire as a trainer to pursue her photography full time and when Acerola became the Champion (where she remains). The two go on to have a second child, Eugenia, a few years later. Lirio is a very serious boy who can sometimes be a bit of a stick in the mud, though he’s also a fiercely competitive trainer. Eugenia on the other hand is a very cheerful and somewhat ditzy girl who is known for losing track of time and wandering off (Lirio worries about her as much as he complains about her).

Elio did his best to keep his spirits up throughout his childhood, but in many ways felt that he had to do so in order for Selene to not grow despondent when times were tough as well. This carried over when they moved to Alola, Elio keeping a happy expression even when venting his frustrations or being a bit mean (or manipulative). This exacerbated his rivalry with Gladion, who resented him for being “fake”. Over the course of the game, however, the two realize they have more in common than it initially appeared, forming a close bond of friendship and rivalry. After the end of the game, the two of them decide to travel together to other regions and challenge more leagues, eventually forming a romantic relationship along the way. This is also when Elio learns about Pokémon Rangers! When they return to Alola, Elio and Selene compete for the Champion seat together for a while, trading it off every so often, but once they both decide Acerola is the better fit, he revisits the idea of being a Ranger, something he prefers to working directly for Aether as he doesn’t like dealing with people, so it’s something he can do on his own terms! He and Gladion have two children – Primrose, who is a timid coordinator, and Enzian, an energetic and adventurous boy fond of playing pranks.