#Trainer Alain

[drinkabletoxicdishsoap]

the whole mega evolution 4 part special xy had is really underrated and not talked about enough as it should be. It provides backstory to how alain and mairin first met, what really happened to her Chespin, and it even had the primal Groudon vs primal Kyogre + Mega Rayquaza fight which was really cool to see!!

this is probably one of my favorite scenes to come out of it though. It’s so cute to see how much Alain went absolutely crazy that Mairin was going through so much pain. You can really see how much he cares for her and it’s just GUAGGHH MY HEART 💔💔 TO ME: they’re so sibling coded i love them so much <333 just a big brother wanting to protect his little sister !!

[sage-nebula]

"the Legends Z-A protagonists look like Sycamore they must be his kid"

INCORRECT

First of all, they don't look that much like him. Neither has his eye color, Harmony doesn't have his hair color or style either, and Paxton only has the bangs, which can be explained by a salon. also, notably, neither one is from Lumiose City, which, unless Sycamore is a deadbeat dad, kind of rules that out! (also, they came to sightsee, not to meet up with their dad, sooooooo)

Second of all, he already HAS a kid who DOES look startlingly like him despite not being blood related, AND is from Lumiose City, AND spent a bunch of time at the lab as an assistant before leaving on his own journey, WHICH he asked permission from Sycamore to go on, AND Sycamore only okayed it so long as said kid checked in with him regularly while traveling! (said kid stopped checking in after awhile but that was due to villain interference)

"but that kid is anime only" ALSO INCORRECT, HE HAS BEEN REFERENCED IN THE GAMES TWICE

(ORAS, Delta Episode; I can't get a screenshot but right before this Steven says that he battled alongside "the trainer with the black Charizard" against Rayquaza. This is a reference to The Strongest Mega Evolution Act II, indicating that the events of that anime special also occurred in the game universe at some point.)

(Pokémon Masters EX Anniversary 2021, once again referencing TSME II, indicating that, again, those events must have happened in the game universe at some point. And yes, PMEX referenced events are canon; PMEX will never contradict game canon, it has been officially stated.)

IN CONCLUSION

Alan will be an NPC in Pokémon Legends Z-A. COUNT ON IT.

[jadeazora]

Y'know, this was the arc that really brought me back to watching the Pokemon anime, and aside from the MegaEvo specials, the first episodes I actually covered on my blog.

Man tho, from the betrayal of trust between Alain and Lysandre (like, no wonder the kid has a breakdown. Imagine being, like, 15-17, and basically tricked into assisting with a genocide, and the whole time you were thinking that the Mega Evolution energy you were collecting would be used to help people, only now people are getting hurt and maybe even dying because of you), to actually having a villain leader fight using his own Pokemon (Giovanni did it first, but Pikachu vs. Persian was barely a battle in Unova, how the hell did it take THAT long?), to the Kalos Gym Leaders showing up to assist the heroes a la the BW League climax from the game, to just how PERSISTENT Lysandre was in that fight, like it took two Champions, the Kalos Gym Leaders, the Kalos League victor and runner-up, Malva, Sycamore, Meyer, a good chunk of whom were using Megas, to put a stop to him and the Megalith Zygarde. This arc was so peak 😭

[potahun]

just checking if i still remember how to draw them

[syncstones]

fluffyriceshipping contribution

[papilio-roseus]

He’s not entirely sure how this happened, but it did

[honeyuuyuu]

idk what came to me but it did after playing V13.5 and it’s not (so) related to plot at all 😭😭

(also- I’m changing laptop so no tablet for a while- back to paper and pencil-)

[mamasplat]

I continue to fall into old 2016 amourshipping kalosshipping wars (it’s so fun I’d love to talk about it more I was on both sides of this) and I’m just-

We can all agree now with hindsight that ash and calem aren’t counterparts? Like yeah ash stole the guys clothes and left him for dead in the river i guess- but they’re nothing alike

Alain is a much more accurate and obvious calem fill in if you ask me.

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

dw about it. he's just like that.

og images under cut:

[seitosokusha]

dripping like a saturated sunrise 42

Volo snarled, yanking the knife free. Blood spattered across the ground in a beautiful arc, spilling staining the grass crimson red. The stark contrast of red on green.

“I won’t let anyone stop me!” Volo shouted. “You’ll be the first sacrifice!”

Professor Sycamore lightly touched the bleeding wound, staring at his bloodstained hand. Shock was written all over his face, as he staggered, knees giving out. Professor Laventon caught him as he fell.

Alain snapped.

His world was stained with crimson red. The rage roared in his blood, that sharp, dark edge deep inside of him, cutting through his heart. A singular focus, narrowing down seeing the threat before him. Noise surrounding him, words falling to deaf ears.

“You’ll help Chespin, won’t you, Alain?”

All Alain could see was red.

read on ao3

[lavyyulu]

Day three - Break

actually todays theme is break because i need a break

[lorekeeper-backset]

Love this caption. It's like "The Champions are here! And also Alain! He is also here!"

[sage-nebula]

PKMN - Well, Well, Well, How the Turn Tables . . .

Notes: This idea hit me out of nowhere, but I knew I had to write it. Manon is nineteen, Alan is twenty-four, and the mentioned Yvette is a rival I made for her ages ago. - - -

Manon paused outside of Alan’s office in the League building, listening. Not for him—she knew that he was working on the other side of the doors, Lizardon likely napping in his preferred spot in the sun behind Alan’s chair. But for any other sounds that might be following her down the hallway: rushed footsteps, and a too-loud, too-persistent voice.

All was quiet. Manon and Hari-san shared a sigh of relief, and then Manon threw the doors to Alan’s office open wide.

If not for all she had been through in the past week, Manon would have laughed at how accurate her prediction was. Alan was seated at his desk, chin in hand as he eyed something on his computer, and he didn’t even bother to look up as she entered. Sprawled in the sunlight behind him was Lizardon, snoozing the day away. It was funny, hilarious even, how lazy he looked napping like that. Anyone who didn’t know better would guess that he was a pampered pet, rather than the most ferocious dragon the Kalos region had ever seen.

And, well, Manon supposed they wouldn’t be wrong for assuming Lizardon was pampered, no matter how offended Alan would be by the derogatory connotation of the word. But for everything else, they would be.

Regardless, the fact that Alan spoiled Lizardon wasn’t the reason for her visit. Manon crossed the room and, with as loud a sigh as she could manage, flopped face down on the office’s sofa, Hari-san scampering up to sit on the back of the couch. All that met her ears was the clack-clack-clack of Alan’s keyboard as he typed something out, and so—after huffing an annoyed sigh that he was still ignoring her—Manon said, as loudly as she could manage with her face smushed into the cushions, “Alaaan, I’m being stalked.”

The clack-clack-clack of the keyboard ceased abruptly. Manon grinned a little as she heard a distinctive grunt that told her Lizardon had woken up, and after a couple seconds passed she heard Alan join in and say, “What?”

“I’m being stalked,” she repeated. She stayed flat against the cushions for a second longer before she finally pushed herself up into a seated position on the couch. Both Alan and Lizardon were staring at her, as she knew they would be. Alan had even rolled his chair a little to the side, so that he could see her without the computer being in the way. She fought the urge to smile; it was nice to know that he cared so much.

“I heard you the first time,” he said, and that doused the urge to smile. If he had heard her the first time, then why did he— “When did this start? Are you hurt?”

“It’s been a week, and no. He couldn’t hurt us if he tried,” Manon said, waving a hand first toward Hari-san and then toward her belt, where the other five members of her team rested comfortably in their pokéballs. “But he’s so annoying I can’t stand it. I need you to do something about it.”

Though he had relaxed a little when she said she wasn’t hurt, Alan’s frown hadn’t wavered. “Tell me what’s going on first. Start from the top.”

Manon heaved another sigh, and flopped back against the couch cushions. Hari-san jumped down to sit in her lap. “Like I said, it started a week ago. You know how I was spending some time out at Grandpa’s place in Coumarine? Well, about a week ago when I went down to the market to get some groceries for him I ran into Yvette, and one thing led to another and we battled. And of course I kicked her butt and it was great and everyone clapped—”

“I’m going back to work,” Alan muttered, turning toward his computer as Lizardon snorted and laid his head down again.

Manon glared at the pair of them. “No, listen! We battled, and during the battle we mega evolved our pokémon, and after Yvette got her butt handed to her and left, this kid ran up to me to ask me about how Fushi-kun mega evolved.”

Alan raised an eyebrow, and after exchanging a look with Lizardon, said, “A kid?”

Pleased that she had once again regained their attention, Manon nodded. “Yeah. Not like a little kid, but like, a twelve-year-old or something like that. He came up and started asking all these questions, and I answered all the questions he had and let him know that he’d need a Key Stone and a mega stone if he wanted to mega evolve—”

“If his pokémon wanted to mega evolve.”

If Manon could have set Alan on fire with the force of her glare alone, she was sure she would have. “’Cause I know that’s really important information to have if it’s something he’s really interested in. And he could do it, probably, if he found the stones and stuff, because he had a sableye, and that’s one of the pokémon that have been reported to be capable of mega evolution, isn’t it?”

Alan nodded.

“So, see? He has a pokémon that could mega evolve, if only he had the right stones. And I told him that, and explained a bit more about how it all works and stuff, and I thought that would be it. But it wasn’t. He followed me back to Grandpa’s place, asking me all these questions about where I got my Key Stone and Venusaurite, and how and where he could get some, and even after I said I didn’t know where he could find Sablenite, he wouldn’t leave! He knocked on the door all through the night, and even after Grandpa and I went to sleep, when we woke up the next morning we found him camping out on the front lawn. He said he wouldn’t leave until I helped him mega evolve—”

“You got him saying that, too?”

“—mega evolve his sableye, and I felt so bad for bothering Grandpa that I left just to get the kid away from there. But he’s been following me ever since. I tried to shake him off at just about every town on the way here, but no matter where I go he keeps managing to track me down again. He even found me in Lumiose. Lumiose! Even I get lost in Lumiose, but he found me! And each time he tracks me down he’s even angrier than he was the last time, yelling about how I can’t get ahead of him that easily and he knows I’m going to lead him to where he can get a Key Stone and Sablenite, and . . .”

So wrapped up was she in recalling how unbearably annoying the sableye trainer had been that, for a moment, Manon had ceased to be in Alan’s office. Instead, she was back in the most recent Pokémon Center he’d yelled at her in after tracking her down, or on another route when she heard his feet kicking up dust as he stampeded down the route after her. But as she neared the end of her story her attention pinged on Alan’s expression, and how it had changed as she’d been talking. At first, his brow had been furrowed in confusion and concern, but now . . .

“Why are you laughing?” Manon demanded.

“I’m not,” Alan said, and she had to hand it to him: it was true that he wasn’t laughing. But he was smiling, and wide enough for him to look like he was on the verge of laughter, his blue eyes sparkling.

“Yes you are,” Manon said, even though he wasn’t. Alan pressed his still grinning lips together, and exchanged another look with Lizardon—who had a reptilian smile of his own on his snout. “Why are you two laughing? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Alan said, and he rolled his chair back to the center of his desk, resuming work on his computer. “Your story just reminded me of something, that’s all.”

“Reminded you of what?” When Alan didn’t answer save for a little shake of suppressed laughter behind his stupid grin, Manon felt a thrill of offense run through her. “Oh, you better not—”

“‘I want to mega evolve, too,’” Alan said, his voice pitched up in a little sing-song. “‘And if I stick with you, I know I—’”

“I was nothing like—!”

“HEY! Manon!” The loud, grating voice of a young boy carried down the hall on the other side of Alan’s ajar office door, cutting off Manon’s furious retort. “I know you’re here! You can’t hide the mega stones from me that easily!”

Alan hummed as he stood up from his desk, and pushed the tall window behind him open. “It sounds like you have company.”

“I do not,” Manon said, and she jumped to her feet as Lizardon spread his wings and flew through the window. “You have company. You’re the mega evolution expert; if anyone can help him get what he wants, it’s—!”

“Your turn,” Alan said, grinning more broadly than ever as he stepped up onto the windowsill.

“Alan—!”

Manon sprinted toward the window, but she was too late; Alan let himself fall from the ledge, and a second later Lizardon shot up from under the window, Alan on his back, an orange streak trailing smoke into the sky.

Manon stared hopelessly after them, not sure if she felt more enraged or despaired. But there was no time to think on it as Alan’s office door banged against the wall, admitting a furious preteen into the room.

“There you are,” Uruto snarled, and Manon hung her head. “What’s it going to take to get you to stop leaving me behind?!”

“Karma,” Manon groaned, as Hari-san used a vine to pat her shoulder in sympathy.

[jadeazora]

Honestly, I was always able to write Alain's Charizard of as just having more experience than Ash's Greninja in the end. Like, you can probably argue plot armor to a degree, but we'd at least see the crazy training and battles Alain put Charizard thru: he'd fought several Legends, was putting up some decent effort against Steven's Metagross, and fought against a ten-Mega gauntlet topped off by an E4 member, and Malva wasn't even the first E4 member he fought. His Charizard was also already a Charizard while Ash still had Froakie.

Tobias was just straight-up bullshit tho. It really gave me the impression they had figured nobody else would have been able to take Ash down after Paul, so might as well introduce some rando who has these two unexplained Legends and have him just fuck off into the sunset never to be seen again after smashing Ash's Sinnoh League dreams to pieces. (Honestly, the reason this one isn't my least favorite League is because taking down two Legendaries was a pretty awesome feat for Ash.)

[potahun]

HAPPY 11TH ANNIVERSARY TO TSME! ! ! ! 🥂🎉

3rd April 2025 marks the 11th year since the release of Act I in Japan. I haven't drawn them much lately, but I continue to wish for these babies to have many adventures out there, somewhere, for a very long time ♡

[totheadhdgodsletmebe]

Very fun idea, to me.

Alain did not know that Meyer was Blaziken Mask. Like he was there when Meyer mask got blown off, but because of everything going on in his life at that point that detail did not stick. As well as the fact he was in and out of the lab for a while before everything settled he did even get to see the little hits to it either.

So long into Sycamore and Meyer dating, Alain walks in on Meyer taking off his mask. Meyer of course is like “Hi kiddo, how’s your day been?”, while Alain is questioning everything the professor told him about his boyfriend.