#Alder is the Official Dad of Unova

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

Alder: We call that a "traumatic experience".

Alder: *turns to Benga* Not a "bruh moment".

Alder: *turns to N* Not a "Major L".

Alder: *turns to Colress* And certainly not "oof lmao".

[bearballing]

so while i was working today my mind was just like going over all my headcanons for clay and like. updating them and shit since i first did them all when i was 18-19 which was a LONG ass time ago now

mostly for my own reference since clay had at the very most like, 4 fans at once lol

> his full name is clay judas turner [turner is his german name but imo it really fits as a surname] >he’s in his 50s and his birthday is 1st december so he’s a sagittarius. [i have an exact birth year too but like pokemon world time is vague, even though i like to think bw = 2010 and bw2 = 2012] >he’s from pyrite town in orre originally >he’s from a family of miners, his dad and older brothers were all miners

>his first pokemon was a sandshrew that he befriended as a kid, and later he saved up to buy a poke ball to officially catch her with. >he wanted to be a pokemon trainer and go on the typical journey trainers go on. he left orre when he was 18 >he goes to unova since it’s the closest region with a pokemon league >while he’s travelling he meets alder and they then travel together and become like best friends. >the first pokemon he catches in unova is a drilburr, he later catches a sandile and a palpitoad [which are NOT the same ones he has in his gym team. the excadrill IS the same]. sandshrew evolves at some point >he and alder both go around unova collecting the gym badges, and they both challenge the pokemon league. clay doesn’t get very far, alder becomes champion [they’re both in their early 20s here] >alder wants to keep on getting stronger but clay wants some stability in his life, so he moves to driftveil city since there’s a mine there. alder goes off and does his own thing. they kind of drift apart for a while, don’t communicate very much. >in his mid-late 20s, clay has a fair amount of authority at his job because he’s good at it (and lots of people don’t stay at it for long, he’s been there for several years) >his sandslash dies. around the same time alder’s original volcarona dies. >to cope, clay just works non stop. >he discovers crystals in the mine [they were mining for something else idk coal maybe]. since the mining company is fairly small he gets most of the say in how they’re sold and all that and obv these crystals end up being super valuable and within a few years he’s very well off >he learns how to like, keep making money and expanding the mine and the business and such and this is fiction so i can say he absolutely does not fucking exploit his workers or anything, he treats them all fairly and pays them a good wage etc etc >he misses being a trainer so he wonders if he can go to other regions to challenge their pokemon leagues since he can afford to go wherever now. business™ keeps him too busy to actually do that though. he decides to just do a short trip around unova again >he catches an onix, a baltoy, a golett, another sandile, a tympole [the previous sandile and palpitoad are fully evolved now] and another sandshrew (which he was extremely surprised to find) and trains those.  >on this trip he meets up with alder again and they reconnect.  >the business™ is too demanding for clay to get much training done so he goes back to driftveil and gets the idea to open a gym, so he can stay there and train at the same time. it’s built over the mine. he also tries harder to stay in contact with alder again (alder does too) >in pokemon origins it showed that all gym leaders have a variety of pokemon to battle with according to how many badges the challenger has right. so he now has a bunch of pokemon ready for the gym

>as his wealth increases he makes sure to not hoard it for dumb shit and uses it for things like rebuilding a lot of the city to be better, funding things in the rest of unova, funding the subway system [used to be for around nimbasa city only, now it’s region-wide], building the marvellous bridge, giving funding to the nacrene museum for research (and he gives them a load of fossils saved from mining) >however he DOES buy some gold furniture for the gym lobby. for show. because he can. and some spotlights outside.  >he donates to a lot of charities too, and particularly for organisations that deal with grief/loss of loved ones and pokemon/etc.  >he gets the idea for a worldwide pokemon tournament hosted in driftveil city but he doesn’t ever get round to it until the cold storage gets moved (yes moved, not demolished) so it can be built by the ports >while this is being built he also has clay road built which makes travelling around unova easier for trainers who don’t necessarily want to just go on the subway. >also i know it’s clay tunnel in the games, in japanese it’s a road though so in bw2 it’s still a work in progress and isn’t like completed until a while later.

OTHER THINGS >he doesn’t know if he’s gay or bi but he’s definitely not straight. >he’s 5′6″ >he’s /always/ been fat but years of mining have given him some pretty good muscle too >he calls all smartphones iphones and texts with one finger at a time. it’s a work in progress >he secretly loves musicals >to be very predictable and boring he also loves westerns, even if/especially if they’re terrible >>THEREFORE his favourite movie ever is Paint Your Wagon >>The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas is a close second >he has a vendetta against lemons but no one is ever allowed to know why >he speaks good spanish. not quite fluent but good >he’s only really loud On The Job, in private he’s pretty quiet and reserved

>when he visits other regions later on he gets more pokemon: a piloswine (evolves into mammoswine), a mudsdale, a camerupt and an alolan sandshrew. he also gets a numel from an egg.

>HE’S MARRIED TO MY SELF INSERT :^) >he’s with burgh in an AU where i’m not in it or something

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

People seem to really like Whumptober story number 20 (it's called "Safety Beneath Volcarona Wings" on AO3).

I'm quite glad, actually. I really like my idea of Alder becoming a father figure to Colress and N, so I'm really happy that it's receiving so much positive feedback.

Although I don't have many ideas for this found family at the moment, the positive feedback I've received already has given me the confidence to hopefully do more for this trio in the future.

I might even do a few drawings or comics! :3