#also sorry addition but i hate the hc that theyre descended from laventon.

[rivalhughs]

I like hearing about your verse's Leon and Hop awhile back!! Do you have anything about their family dynamic? Or their teams? :)

MY LOVES oh i adore leon and hop theyre so . blorbo from my game... the sillies...... (special luv to all the 3 swsh rivals + their family issues ngl . very important and special to me.)

ramble ahead... :) (cws for mentions of parental death, big financial difficulty, and leon's mental health being absolute shit, & rose being a twat)

SOOOOOOO . the malik brothers

first and foremost Very Important. they're pakistani-british. this is just me projecting bc the area of north england that i'm from there's a lot of pakistani communities <3

their ma's name is Sana & their pa's name is Farhad

originally born in hulbury, the family moved to postwick when leon was ~10 and hop ~5 to be with Sana's parents after pa passed away suddenly (rapid decline after a cancer diagnosis :( ) leon is trans; hop is he/they nonbinary (but doesnt crack his egg til partway thru his gym challenge)

they had it quite rough for a while after farhad's passing. sana was struggling to find a job due to her lingering grief, and while her parents did everything they could to keep food on the table, it was incredibly tough.

one day, while staying out far past his curfew, leon met sonia & her grandma magnolia gifted him his charmander! he calls her charlene because he's very creative <3

he gets in trouble with his ma for staying out late, but she's very quickly enamoured with the charmander so he's not in that much trouble...

leon quickly develops a talent for pokemon battles, wiping the floor with even adult trainers when he enters a for-fun battling tournament in a local park, intended for casual trainers.

(un)fortunately for him, one certain chairman rose happened to be watching. and seeing how leon's talent was not only incredible, but also just in its infancy, he instantly recognised someone who he could have as a star. his star.

he becomes a mentor figure to leon, rose is an accomplished battler after all, and even sponsors him to join the league! leon... honestly would much rather keep his battling and pokemon training to just be a hobby, but... well, his family need money. and he loves his family. so of course he accepts, and battles his way to the top, all the way above the poverty line and into upper-middle-class life. all by the time he's twelve. he hasn't even properly started secondary school; he's missed basically his entire first year to the league and promotional events, acting as Galar's newest rising star.

he's upset. he's lonely. his friendships feel forced and strained. he misses his family, he misses his hobbies. he's camera shy and doesnt like all the questions people ask him, as if he's a prop, as if he's an actor, as if he's not even a kid anymore.

but it's worth it, right? his family are doing better financially- great, even! they've moved out of that crummy, damp filled (cozy. it sucks, but he misses it. misses what it represented. family. being close.) little cottage, and moved into a huge, three storey house in the nicest part of postwick! he can afford to get his family extravagant gifts whenever he wants- even though technically rose manages his finances, but rose lets him do whatever he wants with it. it's his money, after all.

it's fine. his family are happy. they're comfortable. his ma or grandparents no longer have to skip on meals for him and hop to eat. they could afford to have a three course meal for every mealtime if they wanted. it's fine. he's fine. he can do this. he loves his family.

he loves them. he wishes he could tell them, but it's so hard to find time to go home anymore. every magazine, every tabloid, every news program and newspaper and website and every single person wants an interview and a thousand photographs. he's signing autographs for hours, replying to letters by hand so much his wrist aches. he wants to go home, but he needs to stay where the work is, where the money is. he's thirteen, he loves his family. he's fine. he's eighteen and he loves his family. and he's fine. he's twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two... he loves his family. he's still not processed his father's death properly; busywork drowns him and his whole body aches, and he hates battling these days, everything's all so fake, so scripted, he's always advertising something or other, something he doesn't care for, but he's fine. he's getting paid. his family is comfortable. they're fine, so he is, too.

hop doesn't really remember much from before leon became champion. he remembers a bit of hulbury, of course- that's where he met vic, after all- but... not much else. grief and poverty wound together for those couple of years, and thesedays, it's almost completely repressed. almost.

he misses his brother, but loves when he comes to visit- or when hop can go and visit him, down in wyndon. he can tell something's not quite right with leon, his smiles are always a little too wide, his eyes always so tired, he drops thoughts mid-sentence and stares off into nothingness too much... but lee never tells him what's wrong. eventually, hop stops asking, frustrated, feeling like leon doesn't trust him, or thinks he's too little, but he still tries to cheer him up.

hop's first pokemon is his wooloo, whistle. whistle is a little knowitall. he and charlene have a faux-rivalry, since charlene also loves to dote on hop, and whistle is like "Umm Ex-Cuuuse me, lady, this is My boy. fuck off." and charlene is like "dude ur a tiny sheep. u dont even have hands to ruffle his hair. pathetic." they're friends, really, when it comes down to it, but most of the time they are having beef over completely inconsequential things. hop thinks its incredibly funny. hop caught him on accident one day. vic- who already had a pokemon- had come by for a sleepover, and was showing hop how pokeballs work. hop was looking at one, and dropped it. it rolled down the hill, got boosted off a small rock, and hit whistle, who had been snoozing. insane.

hop loves his family just as fiercely as leon does. but because hes the youngest, because they're all adults, and he's not... he feels like they never take him seriously.

it's difficult. it's weird. they miss each other, but there's a rift there. battles, grief, naivete, fears said and silent... they'll cross it someday, but it's clear that something needs to change.

maybe one day, it will. and things will start to get better.

as for their teams:

leon:

charlene | charizard, f, she/her | leon's ace. can mega evolve, but they choose to gigantamax her bc of Branding. tough-love kinda gal, rough and tumble, loves to train herself, often wrestles lee's other pokemon for funsies. teases hop's pokemon affectionately. uchi villager kinda girl

holly | haxorus, f, she/her | first pokemon leon caught after setting out on his gym challenge. holly is camera shy, like leon, but loves to battle. she doesnt really like her role as a champion's pokemon, but leon is her best friend, so she sticks it out for him. she's very kind.

link | aegislash, m, he/it | yes named after link from LOZ. nobody tell shinon. gluttonous beast, please stop eating the automatic doors of rose tower. tough and reliable, but can easily be persuaded with snacks. sometimes, anyway. won't take anything from rose. rose's number 1 hater.

oceana | rhyperior, f, she/her | named after her favourite sweet treat- rock-stick candy from the beach :) . she's another shy one, and very much looks up to charlene. despite being shy, she can be quite argumentative, and butts heads with link a lot.

cinnamon | dragapult, m, he/him | weirdo who comes and goes as he pleases. he's a freak he's a weirdo what the hell is he doing here (on this mortal plane) he doesnt belong here (hes a ghost of a dragon that lived millions of years ago) . anyway. cinnamon is an edgelord loner who literally will steal leon's phone to listen to emo music. what a legend.

tango | rillaboom, f, she/her | super upbeat and happy-go-lucky. tango is the baby of the team, quite literally only having become a part of it in the last couple of years, after leon's previous 6th team member (a rapidash named Prince) had to retire from professional battling due to an injury. tango is very sweet and genuine, but her high energy does sometimes irritate the quieter members of the team. her bestie is cinnamon though. they listen to linkin park together :)

and for hop! darling hopscotch <3

whistle | dubwool, m, he/him | hop's ace. knowitall little man. this wooloo is a hater and he loves to be a hater <3 . he will chat shit about anyone who even looks at hop funny. watch out bede. def hop's number one, his best friend forever. so his confidence is knocked when hop's is, and when hop boxes him after the bede confrontation. is angry with hop for a long while after that, doesnt listen to him in battle, even when hop returns him to his team. it's not until the eternatus incident that whistle forgives him.

severn | inteleon, m, he/they | chatty and fun. severn likes to make sure everyone is included in things :) . he's very sweet and reliable, the unofficial leader of hop's team. very well respected and level-headed, even if he's not the best battler.

citrus | pincurchin, f, she/her | mysterious. quiet. oddly powerful. very chill, good listener. offers her teammates insanely good advice. why is this spiky blob so wise? who knows.

bex | cramorant, f, she/her | unlike most cramorant, who rarely have a thought in their heads, bex is ridiculously intelligent. like. scarily intelligent. this bird can do calculus. she's a little bit stuck up, which is funny, and sometimes her teammates (just whistle. who is jealous) find her to be annoying. but she is also patient and good at explaining things. she and severn like to come up with battling strategies together

teacup | snorlax, m, he/him | sleeby.... very reliable and gentle. likes to tuck his teammates in at night, hop included. makes sure they all rest well.

lingcod | corviknight, m, he/him | yes, named after the fish. this is the mon hop has had the most trouble with. lingcod was a rescue from a trainer who sucked BAD. lingcod was raised with a need to be unnecessarily aggressive, and to be strong above all else. he lashes out a lot at first, and is generally disliked by a lot of the team. he doesnt trust any of them, but hop slowly earns his trust by simply not giving up on him. eventually, lingcod learns to relax and settles in with the team. he likes teacup the best. they're snoozing buddies. hes still anxious and bitey, and doesnt like new people, but he's slowly doing a lot better, bit by bit :)

tldr i love u malik brothers ;w;