Kaylan

Kaylan's self-demonstrating page is here.

Kaylan is Kimberly Bond's Grotle, and the fourth Pokemon she acquired on her journey.

Appearance

In his Pokemon form, Kaylan resembles a regular Grotle.

In his human form (Howie Volman), Kaylan appears as a 12-13-year-old boy with tan skin and short, scraggly blonde hair. He wears a light green undershirt and a darker green camo jacket over top of it, along with light green jeans, short white socks, and green shoes. He wears a yellow baseball cap on his head, and is sometimes seen carrying a dark green and yellow shield with him.

As Testudyne, Kaylan has traded in his yellow baseball cap for a green bandana, and now wears a pair of light green goggles. His undershirt is now dark green with a gold triangle on it, and the shirt he wears over it is a dark green camo suit with white stripes. He now wears a yellow cape over his back, and now wears camo-patterned jeans as well. He has long black socks and brown climbing shoes, and also wears white spikes on his knuckles. His shield is now a part of his hero attire.

Personality

Kaylan is a relatively lax and patient Pokemon- which makes sense, given his species. While he can be excitable from time to time, especially regarding music, he usually prefers to take things as slowly as possible. He is rather gluttonous and has a love of marshmallows, to the point where if he meets anyone, the first thing he will ask them is if they have marshmallows for him. In fact, his very first appearance was caused by a dream he had about marshmallows in which he accidentally bit Hanuman's tail, showing that sometimes his gluttony can get the better of him. Later on, said gluttony was exploited by Jigsaw on Halloween night during his torture and test-- Kaylan was given 2 hours to eat a whole buffet's worth of food or else get his face chopped into bits. Despite this, however, he immediately aborted the torture the second he found out about what Jigsaw had done to his Trainer, and was soon broken out by Braker and Caboose, showing that while he is gluttonous, Kaylan ultimately cares far more about his Trainer and his friends than he does about food.

While he's not as much of a worrywart as Freddie is, Kaylan can still get nervous about things sometimes, especially in regard to singing; his performance of "Don't Look Back in Anger" during the Battle of the Bands was a prime example, as he believed his voice wouldn't project well enough and that Kendall wouldn't like it. Even when Kendall later gave him constructive criticism on his singing, he was still generally nervous, and was only able to be fully pacified after Kim herself told him that she thought he sounded good. Similarly to Geddy, Kaylan doesn't like to see other Pokemon in pain and hates seeing others angry; when he heard Dio's story, for instance, he didn't even hesitate to comfort him. He is also extremely perceptive of his friends' emotions, as was shown after Dio's loss to Cof during the battle against Hoops at Wyndon Stadium. Kaylan was able to tell that something was up the second he saw Dio type elipses, and was subsequently extremely shocked and concerned when Dio dropped his typing quirk and switched to typing normally, as it was something he had never seen before. Despite his relatively gentle and patient nature, however, in battle Kaylan is an absolute beast; he took down a Dynamax Abomasnow with a few Sunny Days and a Max Steelspike, and during his battle against Nessa he used Protect to shield himself from Golisopod's First Impression, thereby costing the Golisopod his sole chance at a supereffective hit. Later on, during his battle against Melony, he used the same Max Steelspike strategy to take down Melony's Lapras.

After evolving into a Grotle, his personality didn't change all that much; indeed, the very first thing he asked Kim in his new form was if she had marshmallows for him. Due to his new size, though, he did manage to gain a bit more reliability when not in battle- this was shown during the Stow-on-Side Gym Puzzle, when his slow speed and massive bulk allowed Kim to navigate the puzzle without getting dizzy. He also became more of a tank in battle due to his increased defenses-- yet due to his Grass typing ultimately ended up not being as big of a tank as Joel. Due to him evolving at the same time as Kaylan-- and possibly due to them having opposite speed stats-- Kaylan has forged a bit of a friendship with Dalt. Their friendship was shown almost immediately following their evolutions, when both of them expressed a desire to learn Japanese from Yuki. Shortly afterwards, when Dalt expressed frustration and confusion regarding the infamous wa/ga particle divide, Kaylan patiently calmed him down and offered to help him understand it better. Later on, both of them joined the Riolu Rebels together, and it's implied that they helped each other pick their hero names of Testudyne (Kaylan) and Whizzard (Dalt), respectively. Both are also massive lovers of food-- although Dalt is not as big of a fan of marshmallows as Kaylan is, and instead prefers meat.

He plays the drums in New Dawn's Dreamers, and will sometimes serve as a singer, such as during his performance of "Don't Look Back in Anger".

Kim's personality file on him reads as follows:

"NEW POKEMON: KAYLAN THE TURTWIG. DESPITE HIS GENTLE NATURE, HE WON'T HESITATE TO BATTLE IF HE FEELS SOMETHING IS UNJUST OR IF NECESSARY. BASED ON WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE LEARNED DIO'S STORY, HE CARES DEEPLY FOR OTHER POKEMON AND IS GENERALLY VERY KIND. HE HATES IT WHEN OTHER POKEMON ARE ANGRY AT ANYONE- UNLESS HE'S ANGRY AT THEM IN RETURN. ALSO, HE LOVES MARSHMALLOWS. THAT SEEMS PRETTY FUNNY TO ME, BUT IT'S KIND OF CUTE."

Background

Prior to being captured by Kimberly Bond, Kaylan was one of the three starter Pokemon owned by Professor Rowan in his lab at the time-- the other two were the mons that would later be named Hanuman and Ritchie. Not much is known about his time there, but based on his first appearance, it's implied that he spent much of his time in the lab thinking and daydreaming about marshmallows, and was likely fed plenty of them by Professor Rowan. Other than that, however, not much is known about his past before he was selected by Rowan.

Details

• Met: Sandgem Town, Professor Rowan's Lab
• Birthday: June 22nd (shared with his namesake)
• Ability: Overgrow
• Favorite Move: Protect and Leech Seed
• Nature: Gentle
• Characteristic: Loves to eat
• Ball: Poke
• Likes: His Trainer, his friends, marshmallows, eating food, daydreaming, living his life without worries, Jimmy Buffett music, the music of the Turtles, the music of the Beach Boys, any bands that were influenced by them (such as Weezer), hanging out with Dalt, singing, battling, being kind to other people and Pokemon, the game show Chopped or any other cooking show
• Dislikes: Being deprived of marshmallows, being hungry, stress, seeing his Trainer or friends fight, the sound of his own voice, seeing his friends angry, having his mouth burned, Fire attacks, Flying attacks, Ice attacks, Poison attacks, Jigsaw
• Evolves in: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12971269370a74820100&page=22770
• Hasslemon typing quirk: All "O"'s are replaced with d[]uble brackets, and while elipses can get a little []verused at times... []verall it's n[]t t[][] bad. The d[]uble brackets are supp[]sed t[] represent a big fluffy marshmall[]w, which is Kaylan's fav[]rite f[][]d.

A prospective fullbody Kaylan gijinka, as done by Goldenheart388.

Kaylan as Testudyne, as done by Goldenheart388.

Known Moves

• Absorb, Razor Leaf, Leech Seed, Leaf Storm
• Protect
• Sunny Day
• Iron Tail

Trivia

• Kaylan was named after Howard Kaylan, lead singer of the Turtles, which serves as a pun on his species. He is the only member of Kimberly Bond's team to have his nickname not match up with his favorite artist or favorite genre; according to Goldenheart388, Kaylan's favorite artist is not the Turtles, but instead Jimmy Buffett, and his favorite genre of music is gulf and western.
• Kaylan's chat handle is iheartmarshmallowz, and his Hasslemon chat handle, according to Goldenheart388, is marshmallowLover (ML).
• According to Goldenheart388, Kaylan's character theme is "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" by Jimmy Buffett (making Kaylan the only member of Kim's team named after a musician to not share his character theme with said musician; it was "Happy Together" originally but the song was deemed too unfitting by Goldenheart388), his Broadway character theme is "Waving Through a Window" from Dear Evan Hansen, and his headcanon voice as both a Turtwig and a Grotle is Greg Ayres as Koda Kouji from My Hero Academia.
• Kaylan's human name, Howie Volman, is derived from the two main members of the Turtles: Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. His Rebel name, Testudyne, is derived from a combination of "testudines", the order that turtles are in, and "dynamite".
• Kaylan's birthday, June 22nd, is shared with that of his namesake Howard Kaylan. This holds true for all mons on Kimberly Bond's team save for Orwell, Peechee, and Boseman.