MkaliYeen

+ Inventing is more of a side hobby that just so happens to occasionally aid in his main study. With the shift to more humane ways of treating pokemon, he no longer has a reason to invent things that force out potential, so most of his new devices assist with miscellaneous research--such as monitoring how often pokemon cry for help, or warping the very fabric of reality as we know it.

+ His curiosity is what drives him. He'll want to experiment on anything if it catches his attention. Humans are no exception, whether they agree to it or not. (He was forbidden from feeding grunts to Kyurem, much to his disappointment, but he proposed the idea several times over the course of two weeks; he only wanted to know if a person begging for their life might deter the dragon from eating them, even if only for a moment.)

+ It's not hard for him to come across as unattached and emotionless-- he really only smiles blankly in most interactions people have with him, but that's not to say he actually feels nothing. He's fairly enthusiastic and easy to distract with things that interest him, it's just his astoundingly low levels of empathy that give others this impression.

Being kind and friendly isn't in his nature, but he knows what it looks like and how to mimic it.

+ He subscribes to the Aperture Science mentality of: In Case of Implosion, Look Directly at Implosion, which as you can imagine, puts him in quite a bit of danger when things go wrong in the lab (or in general). His self preservation instinct is actually remarkably low, despite what you might expect from a self-centered scientist.

It's for this reason that Ghetsis had at least one of the Shadow Triad tagged to Colress at all times, just in case. The phenomenon of needing to physically pick up and move Colress actually became so common, it was jokingly dubbed the "Colress Carry" by the grunts.

Colress doesn't react to being picked up so long as he can keep observing whatever disaster of the day is currently unfolding.

+ The idea of being able to float is fascinating to him. He spent many years of his childhood simply exploring Chargestone Cave, as it was near his family's home nestled somewhere along Route 6, and he was enthralled by the giant gemstones that hovered about the place, pushed along by magnetism. It's part of what got him into science--he really wanted to know how it all worked.

Even into his adult years, he still has a fondness for the idea of escaping gravity, though he doesn't indulge it too often. It still manifests in small ways, such as the air balloons he ties to his pokemon (redundant in some cases, though useful in battle), or his insistence on granting the frigate flight capabilities. He'd stand atop some of his pokemon if they allowed him to, but he knows there isn't much practicality to that.

+ Klink was his first pokemon, caught the moment he was able to get his hands on a pokeball. He'd decided it would be his first partner pokemon pretty much as soon as he'd started seeing them around Chargestone Cave. There was just something so appealing about the gear shape and blue accents that called to him; it reminded him of the cave, but also a little of himself. Probably the only pokemon he's ever caught purely for sentimental purposes.

Elgyem was his second pokemon, caught much later in life when Colress was in university. He'd been traveling around the region with Ghetsis, his roommate and occasional friend at the time, while looking into their respective fields of study. This had brought them out to some old ruins, where Ghetsis was easily distracted by the ancient history, and Colress was locked into a stalemate with a mischievous Elgyem that wouldn't return the tablet it had stolen from him, not until it was caught.

Magnemite was his third pokemon, obtained many more years later while Colress was in Kalos, right around the time BW1's events would be occurring. There isn't much to the story of how he got it, just that it had started to follow him around while he explored the Lost Hotel. He assumes it was newly hatched, though likely abandoned. He decided to bring it along for practicality's sake, having an electric type around to help power some of his projects could really only be a positive. Plus, it floats (he finds that endearing, not that he'd admit it).

During the events of BW2, he ended up actually training his pokemon for research purposes, so these three all end up evolving over time. His first Magnemite is the one to eventually become a Magnezone.

Rotom was a gift from Ghetsis, offered as a suggestion (and slight jab) that he needs better type coverage. He didn't use it until after Neo Team Plasma had fallen, mostly out of stubbornness. Giving it a life orb to hold didn't mean anything in particular, so don't look too far into it...

Metang and his second Magneton were acquired some time in between the PWT and his battle aboard the frigate. While the rest of Neo Team Plasma was busy trying to catch Kyurem, Colress was instead looking for a Metang nearby, as they're very powerful and intelligent creatures. They remind him a little of Ghetsis's brutal style of battling, and he's always been curious how ingrained this behavior is for them.

He caught Magneton while going through files at the P2 Labs sometime afterwards. Similarly to how his first Magneton/Magnezone acted, this Magneton seemed content to just follow him around as he explored the lab. It seemed especially drawn to his Magnezone once it appeared, which played a small part in why he brought it along; he'd like to study more into why they connect so well--is it because they're magnetic, or...? He's still unsure to this day why they're so friendly to each other. It's a mystery.

+ His mild fascination with the poke beans in Alola spawned partly from their friendship boosting properties, but also from something he observed while in university. As previously mentioned, he and Ghetsis were roommates during their younger years, and while they weren't exactly close at first, they weren't exactly distant either.

On occasion, Ghetsis's family would send him various confections from around the region, most of which were overly sweet and not something he was a fan of, so he'd give them to Colress instead, who had a more noticeable sweet tooth. A transactional friendship was the interesting byproduct of this habit, though neither of them seemed particularly bothered by that outcome.

Gifts, usually sweets, were given whenever Ghetsis wanted something from Colress, and Colress would acquiesce assuming he liked whatever was given (some trial and error was needed before Ghetsis noticed any specific preferences). The requests started off fairly normal, such as help with classwork or for Colress to stop working on projects at 4am, but eventually, they turned towards assisting Ghetsis with the groundwork for what would later become Team Plasma years down the line.

Colress was perfectly content to set up the building blocks for Unova's unfortunate future all for a shalour sable, if that tells you anything. The usefulness of bribing potential assets was also noted and utilized by him later down the line as well.

+ He's in his mid to late thirties during BW2, not too far off from Ghetsis.

+ (Outside of specific shipping instances) Colress has no interest in romance, or even friendships in general. The desire to form these bonds pops up very rarely, and he usually ignores it either way. Any attempts from others to try and befriend him are met with annoyance, and he might respond by blatantly avoiding that person.

If you were to chart what his relationships look like, it'd be something like this:

His Parents: ...who are they again?

Ghetsis: An old friend of whom Colress claims to hate.

Rosa: An interesting test subject; quickly became annoying after several attempts on her part to befriend him.

Shadow Triad: Can't tell them apart, but he thinks their abilities are fascinating.

Zinzolin: Work acquaintance of whom he shoved all his leadership responsibilities onto.

Dulse and Zossie: Curious individuals who trust him far too easily.

Lusamine: No relation despite a few similar traits; her penchant for freezing pokemon is quite humorous to him, all things considered.

Faba: Someone Colress would like to dissect, as a compliment(??)

Wicke: A pleasant person Colress would like to stop talking to (he's pretty sure she sees right through him).

Lillie: A potential test subject; good enough to keep alive.

Moon/Selene: Someone worth keeping an eye on; she's annoyed by his battle style, something he finds funny.

Gladion: A potential test subject; the bond with his pokemon is fascinating.

Professor Kukui: A brilliant researcher, one Colress can tolerate if necessary.

Professor Burnet: Someone Colress tactfully avoids--he's unsure if she'd recognize him from her brief time in Unova.

Molayne: A strong individual that's shown interest in being friends, Colress is outwardly not very interested.

Grimsley: Another person Colress tactfully avoids, to minimal success; not quite a hostile dynamic, but definitely a confusing one.

+ He doesn't do well with being in one place for very long, which prompts a habit of wandering around. During his time as leader of Neo Team Plasma, he was frequently kicked off the frigate to disperse restless energy, mostly as a precautionary measure. It became apparent early on that spending too long on the ship resulted in bouts of hypomania, or mild existential spirals.

Workaholic tendencies were picked up instead of therapy. So long as his hands stay busy, he won't get lost in his own head. Tends to bounce between "I'm a genius, no one else can do what I do" to "nothing is working out, if I can't make progress what's the point of me" over long stretches of time.

+ He doesn't drink alcohol very often, mostly because he doesn't see a point, but also because he's a lightweight as well as a tired drunk. Any social gatherings where drinking was involved tended to result in him passing out, assuming he could be goaded into partaking. His polite facade tends to slip more while drowsy, so this is actually the best time to get straightforward opinions from him.

(The funniest revelation so far being a very annoyed sounding, "Zinzolin could get it," which led to a week of debate between the grunts over if Colress was using slang or being literal, seeing as both have very different implications, and the story had been twisted so many times no one knew what the context of the statement was anymore.)

((Colress claims to not remember this conversation at all, on account of being drunk.))

+ He's agender, though he doesn't care what he gets identified as so long as it doesn't get in the way of his research gathering. It's proven to be more beneficial presenting masculine than feminine, so that's what he tends to do. People are unfortunately more likely to listen to a man speak than a women in the scientific field, though there have definitely been strives towards a change in that--not that Colress is really paying it much attention.

He's worn dresses on a few occasions, but they aren't practical for lab environments, especially since he prefers somewhat flowy fabric.

(Whatever his biological sex is changes depending on the AU, and usually it's not even relevant in most of my works)

+ It's commonly assumed that he has an issue showing skin for one reason or another, but that's not entirely true. He likes to cover up simply to avoid spilling harmful chemicals on his skin, or otherwise hiding stains that might have appeared were it not for his black attire (excluding his lab coat).

While he doesn't like physical contact very much, avoiding it isn't his primary reason for how he dresses.

+ His blue hair swoop is naturally occurring, albeit very confusing. The blue coloring is natural, even if the rest of his hair is blond. He doesn't have to do anything to get it into that shape, though any attempts to get it out of that shape only last for so long.

Sometimes, he tugs on it when feeling stressed. It's an easy indicator.

+ A completely useless skill he has is the ability to balance things on his head even while moving. If his pokemon are bored, they might make a game out of stacking things on him until he notices. The record was four books and a container of pencils.

--

That's all I can think of for now, so it might be a good place to stop. This has been worked on for like, a month and a half now and has just been getting steadily longer as time goes by hhhh-

My hc's for him don't tend to change too much once they're in place, so I don't think there are many that contradict themselves just yet, but that's not accounting for the other iterations of him, which I do think of slightly differently

Like, I think Pokespe Colress is more flexible then his other counterparts just because of all the shit he gets up to where he's twisting around constantly. He also flirts more, though he still doesn't really feel attraction