Fankidtober Day 11: Layla
Full Name: Layla Birch-Fáng
Family: Wally Birch-Fáng & Anabel Endou (Parents), Brendan Birch-Fáng (Stepfather), Rhys, Eve & Henry Birch-Fáng (Younger Half-Siblings), Prof. Sean Birch (Step-Grandfather), Wanda Fáng (Cousin Once Removed), Landon & Lambert Fáng (Second Cousins), Drew Hayden (Cousin Once Removed), Francis & Lydia Hayden (Second Cousins)
Date of Birth: March 23, 3013
Age: 23
Hometown: Mossdeep, Hoenn
Occupation: Interpol Agent
Starter Pokémon: Electrike --> Manectric
Notes:
Prior to becoming Champion, Wally was a Hoenn Frontier Brain for a time in his late teens (alongside May, who stayed at the position). While working there, he ended up growing close to and dating Anabel. However, one day she completely vanished without a trace and Wally only found out he was expecting their child after this. Brendan helped Wally out with raising baby Layla, the two growing closer and eventually starting a relationship along the way, finally marrying when Layla was a toddler.
Layla grew up loved by her parents, of course, but also often felt like she was in her mother’s shadow, especially due to the strong physical resemblance. The mystery surrounding what happened to Anabel and the impact this had on Layla’s childhood led her to develop an interest in unsolved disappearances and cold cases in general.
Wanting to help find other people who had gone missing (and maybe one day solve her mother’s disappearance) led Layla to begin work as a detective, eventually landing her a job at Interpol, where she was at first confused by some of the looks/double takes she got... until she ran into her mother there!
After learning the full story from her superiors (as not telling her would just create more confusion), Layla realized that she finally had a likely answer to what happened to her own mother - Anabel likely fell into a wormhole and is now in another world. While her new coworker wasn’t the same mother she lost, Layla and Anabel still develop a close bond and consider each other family. They make a formidable team on the case.
Layla inherited some psychic abilities from her mother (confirmed by Wally), but the Anabel she met through Interpol doesn’t have any, leading her wonder if having psychic powers or not is some kind of marker for different universe iterations (though that’s a wormhole all its own to go down, pun intended.)
