tot pokemon au where a lot is the same and a lot isnt and also theres pokemon
aka i just started putting together teams for the nxx boys and my brain started choosing pokemon 50% of the time thru sheer vibes alone and the other 50% of the time the method was MAKING UP ENTIRE BACKSTORIES FOR THE POKEMON CHOSEN and then it was a domino effect from there
disclaimer: im biased towards the earlier gens cuz i didnt have the consoles to play the later games, also i mash canon into fun playdoh. did i get inspiration from the games or from the pokemon special manga or did this come to me in a vision? ur guess is as good as mine. also the detail i go into here is varied, u can see where my biases shine, LOL, anyhoo
luke, as a kid, was a textbook "oh this kid is soooo gonna go do the gym challenge and make his way to the elite four" and together with mc that was their dream! to embark on it together through the Stellis region! but mc's parents told em to like, finish high school first at the very least and luke and mc were like fiiiiiine
then luke goes to Central for his studies and there he gets caught up with counterorganization-for-the-evil-pokemon-organization (like, if pokemon canon actually had ppl assigned doing shit against team magma etc and is not tasking 12 year olds to nearly die) aka the NSB and becomes an agent. which is only marginally better than tasking 12 year olds, the NSB tasked and recruited a 16 year old luke pearce! TOTALLY FINE (NOT FINE)
but yea, luke in this au is an NSB agent but the NSB takes way more cases involving ppl tryna get a bit too Conquer The World with pokemon alongside them. CAN THE TEAM OF THE YEAR STOP AWAKENING LEGENDARIES FOR LIKE, ONE DAY!!!!
luke's team (once canon age range):
corviknight, mightyena, and arcanine were the pokemon that the NSB gave to luke as his pokemon partners for investigations. all three pokemon started as their earliest evolutions and evolved while he was doing his own training for himself
flareon evolved from an eevee he had ever since childhood. he and mc both got eevees from mc's parents. this was basically their starter.
chatot is literally just peanut but a pokemon. hes the best thing ever in luke's team cuz u got all these strong/intimidating looking fellas and then just a chatty bird. despite the discrepancy, peanut the chatot gets along very well with the rest of luke's pokemon, and the other pokemon respect peanut the chatot muchly cuz like. the others' primary job is to keep luke safe. peanut's job is to keep luke happy. sir, that is his emotional support pokemon.
the canon mission mentioned in luke's perso story 2 still happens in this au. yknow, the mission where luke was the only survivor.
and as he was basically dying, this absol found him and kept him company until he lost consciousness. at the time, in his near-death daze, he thought the absol was a sign that his time was up. afterall, all the legends and stories about absols dub it as the Disaster Pokemon. when it's here, something bad is going to happen
then luke wakes up in the hospital and aaron tells him that this absol (by virtue of not having been in a pokeball at the time, since it was still a wild pokemon) actually helped the rescue team find luke. if it werent for the absol, aaron isnt sure they wouldve gotten to luke in time to save him.
the absol has been in luke's team ever since
artem in this au is much like artem in regular canon. going into law doesnt exactly necessarily require he have pokemon, but his parents---since they were so busy---did encourage him to catch some and also gave some to him so he wouldnt be lonely
but artem is largely the same, still the youngest to make senior attorney in stellis and all that. however, people have noticed that pokemon eggs hatch like, way faster if hes looking after them. he had to look after one as a favor from celestine once and he came back like 3 days later with a hatched snubull and she was like WHAT?? HOW DID IT HATCH SO FAST??
it seems baby pokemon really just like artem, is the answer
artem's team (once canon age range, actually, why am i putting this for everybody, just assume the team's are once it's 2030):
blastoise evolved from a squirtle and that squirtle was artem's first ever pokemon, ever since he was a little kid, those two were INSEPARABLE. squirtle was given as a gift from his parents
kangaskhan has been with artem just as long as the now-blastoise, but she wasnt really Artem's until later on. she belonged to artem's mom, and artem's mom often just had kangaskhan frigging BABYSIT ARTEM back then. when artem grows up though, his mom lets him have the kangaskhan permanently for his team.
(and honestly my entire rationale for picking kangaskhan was that wow Big and INtimidating but at its core, this pokemon is a Mom. and thats big artem vibes)
luxray evolved from a shinx that artem caught in his childhood, the First ever pokemon that he caught himself. this pokemon was one that did all its evolution during artem's mentee-ship under neil. neil loved this pokemon as much as he loved artem, it was kinda like a symbol of artem's growth as well!
luxray has always been a bit more sullen now that neil is missing, though...
swablue, litleo, and mudkip were pokemon artem caught later on, like, LATER LATER ON, like when he starts helping out at the orphanage in his personal story 1. the kids there like him but say his pokemon lineup is too scary, HE NEEDS SOME LITTLE GUYS and artem takes that mission very seriously. dont ask me about the pokemon ecosystem surrounding stellis city, dont worry about it.
VYN'S family back in the svart region, the haspran lineage, was a pokemon gym lineage and aside from getting trained for all the noble responsibilities, vyn was getting trained to take on the haspran gym as leader eventually as well. that didnt happen tho since he skedaddled to stellis and once he got to stellis, he was wholly uninterested in pokemon battling as a whole.
like canon, hes still a psychiatrist and still founds the giannovyn research center. additionally, hes put a lot of work into pokemon assisted therapies and this is also an additional specialty for him as a practitioner
ok like. for full transparency, my method for choosing a lot of these pokemon was "oh i GOTTA give vyn the cutest team. and people around him are always baffled because vyn gives off some really...Intimidating And/Or Unsettling Vibes.....but hE HAS A JIGGLYPUFF?????"
that aside, even the cute ones are important. ralts, musharna, and jigglypuff are all pokemon vyn works with for psychology shit. ralts helps out in letting patients gauge their own emotions a bit better, jigglypuff's singing easily can put someone to sleep and/or get them chill enough to not be freaking out, and musharna is there to eat any nightmares that happen during hypnotherapy
(later, when the nxx team is formed, understand that there are SO MANY JOKES at vyn about him and his musharna. the dex entry for musharna in pokemon shield is "It drowses and dreams all the time. It's best to leave it be if it's just woken up, as it's a terrible grump when freshly roused from sleep." and marius reads this out like "HAHA, JUST LIKE YOU VYN" and then vyn makes jigglypuff knock him out)
mawile was a pokemon he had caught back in his time in svart. he went exploring in a cave near the estate and was fascinated by how beautiful and prim it looked at first, only to be hiding a giant fearsome maw behind it.
decidueye evolved from a rowlet he had since birth. the rowlet was a gift to him from his father.
aaaaand skitty is just a stray cat he adopted in stellis
my buddy beckthebeetle made the genius suggestion that the von hagen family is a pokemon gym family, specializing in dragon types. and HELL YEA, I LOVE THAT SO MUCH, AND SO IT IS TRUE! aside from heading Pax Group (and just add certain pokemon industries into its already long list of industries it has JHVSKJFH) the von hagens have also headed the orchidshine district pokemon gym for centuries
marius wasnt in line to inherit both pax and the gym, but then giann disappears. and well...
full transparency again: my method for a lot of these choices is "noodle. pokemon that is noodle ala aquarian serpent"
milotic, hydreigon, and gyarados are all pretty traditional pokemon in the von hagen history lineup. when marius returns back to stellis, he has to take responsibility of the gym too and spends a lot of time catching these guys (first at their earliest evolution) and then training them to final evolution
the ditto is a pokemon hes had since childhood and his was basically his best friend, since all his other peers were either assholes to him or using him. and the smeargle is a pokemon he met when he was overseas studying art. both of these pokemon...he did not catch them, They caught Him. like, both of them respectively saw marius and decided "friend shaped." and the rest is history
the dragonaire is not marius' pokemon, it's giann's. hes just looking after it until giann gets back.
and the dragonaire was very distant towards marius at first (it missed giann too and marius is Not Giann) but it warms up to marius after it catches him in giann's room crying. maybe they can be sad together, then, it thinks
i mentioned mc has an eevee earlier and it does evolve into something but RAINCHECK ON THAT, IM STILL FIGURING OUT HER TEAM
nxx team still happens and the nxx drug also messes with pokemon
thats.....thats it for now. who knows if my brain will make more, HAHA, thanks for reading
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