“So you’re Professor Sycamore’s nephew? Wow, I can totally see it. You look just like him!” Augustine hoped that no one could hear the nervous note to his laughter.
“Yeah, I get that a lot. The family resemblance is pretty strong,” he said with a smile. He couldn’t help the relief he felt that no one he’d bumped into had thought to fact-check his claims. Otherwise, they would have learned that he was an only-child and couldn’t possibly have a nephew.
So, I made a post on tumblr a while back about thinking that Paxton (the boy character you can play as in Pokemon Legends ZA) resembled Professor Sycamore, the regional professor from the previous games that took place in the Kalos Region. (I still think that, at the very least, he looks like he could be the professor’s nephew)
But I made a joke about deaging shenanigans being the “real” explanation and it stuck in my head.
So, uh, potential new ZA au with Detective Conan esque antics.
For funky, unknown reasons (at the moment) Paxton actually IS Sycamore but he’s hiding it because who would honestly believe that some random teenager was really him? He’s either hoping that whatever’s happened to him will wear off or he’s looking for a cure. He came back to Lumiose because he was worried about the labs/city and stumbled into Plot completely by accident.
Mable, the one currently running the pokemon lab in Lumiose, was told and “Paxton” was listed as a new aid for labs. They are carefully divvying up work in a way that’s believable but also won’t draw too much attention to Sycamore and potentially set off a powder keg in the city.
Meanwhile, when not on her other cases, Emma is dogging Sycamore’s heels trying to figure out his “True Identity” because she’s sure he’s not actually Professor Sycamore’s Nephew but she isn’t 100% sure of who he really is.
I have to wonder how weird it is to claim to be your own relative and then come to realize how little the general populous actually knows about you. Especially when you’re a relatively famous person.
Had some fun using watercolors on this, though I think it’s pretty clear that it’s been a long time since I’ve used them last.
