microsoftedge | MISC HEADCANON STUFF

flying by the seat of my pants here but it's all knocking about so i might as well get some of this down on metaphorical paper i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE + WARDROBE

Gonna ballpark that he's like 25 I guess why not

Surprisingly tall, I figure almost 6'?? He does not look or act like he should be that tall but then you get closer and it's like whoa

Has like. Negative muscle though. Skinny and a bit lanky under all the layers (which you'll probably never see because he loves his layers), classical nerd noodle arms. You'll never catch him actually running anywhere, mostly because it would be a very sad display. But look who needs muscles when you can just build a machine to lift whatever???

The glasses are prescription; he's nearsighted, and his eyesight in general has always been pretty terrible. Too many nights poring over bright screens in dark rooms has probably only made it worse actually, rip

The hair swirl is dyed. He touches it up himself as it's needed. Spends a decent chunk of time in the mornings on his hair tbh...

The white gloves he wears in B2W2 are shockproof, to minimize risk of accidental zapping as he manages his many Electric-type pokemon. They're also great for impromptu experiments involving possibly hazardous substances in general, so he wears them almost all the time. Less relevant to his stint in Sun/Moon/USUM, as he now has literal nintendo power gloves attached to his stupid fridge coat already smh!!

Runs cooler. Didn't seem to mind literally chilling in the Plasma Frigate next to an imprisoned Kyurem, the dragon embodiment of ice and cold which probably exudes as much in a wide radius, in nothing but a sleeved shirt and lab coat. Also hails from Unova, which is the rough equivalent of New York in the real world ig and tends to be a cool region most of the year--not as cold as Sinnoh, but can get decently chilly? He would also literally rather build a refrigerator coat than attempt to venture out in the Alolan heat to either die of heatstroke in his normal sweaters or wear a t-shirt goodness forbid.

SPEAKING OF WHICH according to concept art he calls his fridge coat an Achromatic Wearable Console because of course he does. Stuff this thing apparently/possibly has built in:
- A water-based cooling system (canon)
- As mentioned above: nintendo power gloves, with wrist consoles he's typing on almost 24-7 (canon); they probably contain multiple databases into which he records a metric fuckload of notes, likely synchronizing to other non-coat PDAs he owns for later review
- Colress Machine No. 1102, which is apparently a dimensional remote built into his gloves that can both read and "adjust" the "dimensional channel" of a given person or object, snapping the person/object back to their origin dimension if they are currently displaced (canon)
- An actual full-body invisibility field that can be switched on or off (canon)
- Camera lenses built in the palms of his gloves for pictures or recordings (canon concept art notes)
- If there aren't at least a dozen pockets for carrying all the bullshit he can't just build into it I would be very surprised
- There's probably at least one taser built into a glove for emergencies also

Sans coat and sans glasses refs I guess??? ~~cursed~~ rare footage

HISTORY + FAMILY + ETC

WHERE DID HE EVEN COME FROM well since his prized/highest-level Pokemon is a Klingklang which was probably his first acquired Pokemon, and the Klink evolutionary line can only be found most easily and naturally in Unova, I'm going to assume he at least spent his childhood in Unova and is a native Unovan at the end of the day.

An only child. Probably had at least one scientist parent?? Probably also had at least one Kalosian/stylist parent because jfc his hair styling......they were attentive but busy, tended to leave him to his own devices a lot. Having a fascination for all things scientific, kid Colress sank huge chunks of this free reign and time into learning as much as possible about Things and/or launching baby research projects himself, often out in the field (a few yards away from his house). Some of these projects were a bit...questionable....

Had his Pokemon Journey same as everyone else, probably when he was around ten or eleven. Took him a couple of years! Mostly because he found he liked travelling a lot and kept getting sidetracked by Neat Stuff. He obtained all eight Gym badges but never challenged the League or anything though. Caught a Klink, three Magnemites, and an Elgyem over the course of this, alongside other Pokemon he was not as attached to but attained for studying or Gym advantage purposes. Most of those side Pokemon would eventually be released after his journey.

Had fun as a garden variety Trainer, enjoyed managing Pokemon. Decided to continue pursuing science in earnest after wrapping up his journey circuit, but had developed a marked interest in Pokemon potential. Insert dubious Poke-world schooling here?? However that works??? Does he even have a degree of any kind, I'm going to say p...robably...at some Unovan Poke-college I guess....I bet he graduated ahead of schedule like the nerd he is too

Built a decent little rep for himself in science circles! Got a research job at some corp in another region? (A really indulgent part of me wants to say the Orre region bc Orre needs more love but also fuck he'd fit in perfectly with every other weird scientist over there--) Subsequently left Unova for a little while, to return during Team Plasma nonsense

STORY GAPS

So Ghetsis left Unova for awhile after he was busted out of jail in Black/White. Colress isn't seen anywhere at any point in Black/White, but crops up starting in B2/W2. Putting these together, I'm going to assume Ghetsis must have employed Colress somewhere in that foreign region he fucked off to, which was coincidentally where Colress was working at the time. Ghetsis somehow stumbles upon this Exceptionally Smart morally ambivalent not-yet-working-for-authorities guy. Offers him lots of resources, free reign to do whatever with said resources as long as it benefits Plasma at some point, also we're nabbing a Legendary if you wanna have a look at that? Colress, more invested in neat and new science prospects than he is in his current job (plus a potential close-up look at an Actual Legendary, who'd say no to that!!), shrugs and accepts. Ghetsis takes him along back to Unova when he's ready to start pulling Plasma bs again.

Results: Colress does not know about N, or who N is in general. (This is canon.) Colress also never met the previous Unovan Champion (aka the player from Black/White), though he's probably seen their name around a time or two. Honestly his general knowledge about the overall events of Black/White is probably almost entirely secondhand accounts from Ghetsis himself (which were clearly highly biased and taken by Colress with a polite smile and the biggest grain of salt) and media reports on the matter that he's probably only put a little time into actually browsing, being very busy with Other Shit. He's got a very vague gist, but that's about it.

Colress gets off scotch free post-game some...how?? Despite being a previous head of Team Plasma, as well as having an obviously large part in the temp freezing of Opelucid City? Also despite Interpol stepping in post-Black/White in the form of Looker + the player going out of their way to arrest the remaining sages of Team Plasma previously. WHAT PROBABLY HAPPEN: The player character of B2/W2 might have nipped this in the bud after becoming Champion and interacting with Interpol about this issue at some point, since Interpol would probably have sought out the Champion to help with arrests again. Using their clout as Champion and disbander of the new Team Plasma, player character might have vouched for Colress after his attempts at decency w/post-game interactions. Interpol then opts to let Colress off the hook, though they would continue to keep him in surveillance (stealthily or otherwise) for some time afterwards.

Colress flew the Frigate to the P2 Lab post-game (canon) and hangs out there for some while, probably about a month. Mulling over what to do with himself next whilst compiling his research and chilling with the other loner scientists hanging out there (including still-irate Scientist Dudley, the guy who revived Genesect). While working with Team Plasma was ultimately a long-term wash--which he'd kind of expected anyway--it'd still spoiled him in multiple ways; having a taste of such free reign in his research made the prospect of working for a civilized company again look stifling at best. In the end Colress decides he's going to forego working for anybody at all from now on, and do his own research on his own time on his own terms. He's not exactly broke or in dire need of a job at the moment anyway--the hearty resources Ghetsis threw at him during his Plasma days included a pretty large stipend of money, which he's somehow managed to hold onto post-game.

Leaves P2 Lab shortly after coming to this decision, and decides to travel to Kalos for awhile to gather further evidence/examples of the Bond obviously present between Trainers and Pokemon (canon). Proceeds to stay there for almost two years. If/when his Plasma savings run down over the course of this, he simply invents devices and sells the patent to whoever wants it at the time; conducts personal field work and research all over Kalos otherwise. Has been managing more than comfortably altogether. Keeps his nose out of Team Flare villain stuff partially because he's busy but mostly because, frankly, it's none of his business

Finally decides he's learned all he wants to learn from Kalos (mostly wrt Mega evolution). Sets his sights on Alola because there's this rumor about Z-Crystals and that sounds neat as shit and also why the fuck not. Has been in Alola for a couple of weeks by the time he runs into the player character there for the first time.

MISC STUFF

Alongside his native Unovan/English, is apparently fluent in Kalosian/French at least, as he visits there with no apparent language barrier problems. Maybe taught by his mystery Kalosian fashion parent??

Colress is pretty hype about Z-Moves as a concept, loves seeing them in action, thinks they're even more viable than Mega Evolution when it comes to unlocking a Pokemon's true potential! Colress is also terrible at actually harnessing most Z-Crystals himself, because he's just...garbage, absolute garbage at dancing. This is a source of great dismay to him tbh. Even still, it seems he's acquired both a Steelium-Z and a Normalium-Z by the time you can fight him in the Battle Tree, so it's safe to assume he still gives Z-Moves a good college try every now and then when he's feeling confident. He finds the Steel-type Z-dance one of the easiest to pull off, so there's that. Normal-type's still a work in progress.