#i just want secretly doting dad norman who's so damn proud of his kid for becoming the champion

[aestheticitii]

do you think the gym leaders+steven all text norman to let him know how his kid is doing

because norman is the only one with a kid among the gym leaders. wattson's got a niece but she lives outside of hoenn and drake from the elite four has grandkids but like he's not a gym leader

and it's just a way to bond with norman since he clearly loves his family and the only time he gets soft is thinking of them

like roxanne gets beaten by a lvl15 mudkip and nothing else, and when she asks why, the kid is like, "actually, i want to be a water type only trainer so that i can also be a gym leader"

she lets wallace know in the group chat that he has competition

steven casually drops the fact that his kid beat up a few team magma grunts and his dad is apparently very fond of norman's kid now to one of the others and it spreads like wildfire

brawly says that his kid's been camping out for like the past three days, trying to fish for a tentacool, and then they show up to battle with like 20 potions and their tentacool as their ace

wallace pipes in briefly to tell norman that he and his wife should turn on a specific channel and watch it together.

afterwards, norman jokes that his kid really is gunning for wallace's spot and thanks him for letting him see their kid branching out. wallace starts commenting more on them because lisia tells him a lot and he's kind of happy his niece has a good friend she can hang out with

wattson happily tells him about he caught them giving pointers to wally and how they gave their marshtomp bulldoze specifically for this match and won by the skin of their teeth

and also how they nearly got into a fight with the guy who gives advice because he was like "you can't fight with water types in an electric gym!"

flannery is oddly quiet when they come to town and that is because they end up befriending each other because they WANT to be a gym leader but they know they have to live up to their dad while flannery's already trying to live up to the sort of reputation one should have

all she says is "it's a secret"

norman shares a picture of him, his wife, and their kid at a restaurant he found specifically because they like that sort of food. in it, tentacool has evolved and they now corphish and surskit and a togepi

the togepi belongs to his wife now but he mentions that it makes for a great excuse for his kid to come home more often

steven says something about how they're very passionate and when prompted to speak more about the topic, he says they nearly fought with kecleon because it was preventing them from going into the gym

winona is grateful that they asked the kecleon to go away. she's the one who has the least amount of conversation with them but she does note them trying to convince gyarados to fly, then begrudgingly resigning themselves to being a land and water dweller

(steven has to laugh at that when wallace tells him.

he never says why but when he comes back from his travels, he has a swanna for them)

the twins hear about the kid being in town but the first time they meet is at the department store while they're arguing with a kid about the last slakoth plush. they pull the "my dad is a gym leader" card and when that fails, they end up resorting to a pokemon battle

everyone floods the chat with questions after the team magma/team aqua incident. norman shuts down the gym for a bit to be there for his kid and also do gym leader stuff and the only time the kid shows up on tv is a few days later when they're trying to get to the gym and a reporter stops them

they very confidently say they can be champion, but only if they can make it past through the reporter because they need their eighth badge

norman is SO proud

for wallace, he mentions how the first thing they say after beating him is asking him where he got his milotic from. they're actually extremely mad that they couldn't find any feebas and they didn't actually want to battle him without one but they also just want to head onto victory road

this actually jogs a memory of norman's, where he remembers that he took the family to petalburg before he moved to show them littleroot and just spend time with them while they're still in johto

and on one of the screens is wallace and milotic, and after that, the three of them decide to take some time to watch one of his contests on tv, which spurs a family tradition and the declaration that they will also have a milotic

he promised to get a feebas for them, but they turned him down so he kinda regrets not pushing it a bit more

so he like talks to his kid and they basically confirm his suspicions

milotic = happy memories so my own milotic = more happy memories and since i want to be a gym leader like my old man = water types only

it's all very wholesome

norman can't stay away from petalburg much longer and his kid doesn't want him to watch the matches because they're afraid of an ungraceful showing, but they do promise to send a photo with steven after the match and verbal confirmation from the latter that they won

also norman's kid just looks up to their dad so much, like the coolest person ever, and once they become champion, they go to him for advice on pokemon—it's a running joke in the family that it should be the other way around since they're the youngest champion in hoenn

as for the feebas, someone from the weather institute finds out that they want one so they call norman to tell his kid this secret for a guaranteed feebas

the next beauty master rank has people making the spiderman meme because wallace also enters with a milotic. he wins the battle, but they win the day because their parents come to watch them and they spend the entire day together