#Ingo's letters are so haunted

[subwaytostardew]

I forgot whether or not Emmet gets a nine heart event, but if he does I think it would be super cute if the 9th heart event is the farmer and Joltik waiting for Emmet for a change, since any other events on the mountain pass will be after you marry him, and you know, he'd be living with you and the Joltik. It would be nice to show him that the farmer is taking excellent care of the Joltik entrusted to them!

AWWWW That would be cute!! I like that idea.

We originally didn't have any plans for 9-hearts since it's actually in the dating phase (no marriage until 10-hearts). It would still be nice to imply that submas still do their whole routine of tracking you down/dispatching letters even after 8 hearts.

That's a perfect set up for another mountain pass event without being married. Emmet would be happy to see the farmer taking care of their Joltik and following his routine.

As for Ingo (who I have still not gotten around to polishing the letters for ;;;>.>), I'd like for him to write a 9-heart letter to the farmer mainly because he doesn't want Emmet overhearing his words of affection.

They'll probably be short and sweet... Well, by Subway to Stardew standards... Vanilla events are usually about a minute long. Emmet's 9-heart event won't be another 30 minutes that's for sure. Ingo's letter would just be more lighthearted.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

[leggerefiore]

I really love the letters, they're so domestic and sweet. What about s/o leaving one for them and the twins' reaction to it? It'd just melt Ingo's heart, I'm sure of it.

▲Ingo▼

● The Subway Boss awoke to an empty bed on his day off. This was a truly horrifying sight to behold, as he expected his morning to be filled with cuddling and sweet conversations between you and him. Your absence was something that forced him from bed to search around your shared home. Maybe you had gone to the bathroom or headed into the kitchen for a variety of reasons. Each location was struck down. Where were you? Just as he went to make himself a cup of coffee to help wake him up, he spotted a letter. Picking it up, he read what the sheet held for him.

● “My sleepy husband, it has come to my attention that we're out of eggs and milk this morning as I tried to make you breakfast in bed. Alas, if you're reading this, it means my plans were ruined, and I have yet to return from my run down to the nearest convenience store. Please understand I tried my best :)

Either way, I love you and can't wait to see you again and return to our bed. The temperatures tell me it's not going to be a fun outing, so I'll be appreciating a nice warm hug from my sweet heater of a husband. Your sleeping face is always so sweet to see… You look so relaxed. I hope I make you feel like that, too.

Love, your tired spouse.”

● Ingo pressed the letter is his chest as he smiled to himself. Love… husband… warm. All the words swirled in his mind like wine on a taster's tongue. You were so sweet to him; Ingo simply felt unworthy to have married such a kind person. He fell into a slight daze of emotions, swirling with blissful feelings. Then he snapped of it. There was little he could make with eggs or milk to surprise you with, but when you returned he would be sure to help you cook.

▽Emmet△

○ Emmet opened his lunch box with an eager smile. He had won all of his battles today and has a few multi battles with his brother. No trains had been delayed and there were few commuter complaints. It was a good day, about to be made better by cooking from his spouse. He knew there had to be a sweet hidden away in it for him, which excited him endlessly. Reaching in, however, he felt a sheet of paper under his fingers. Pulling it out, he read it.

○ “My clingy Emmy, did you know that you cuddled me last night like you were trying to suffocate me? You were truly trying to end me. I think it's partly why I had some strange nightmare where you were an eldritch creature that was borrowing the form of Ingo for who knows what reason. The other half was that horror movie we watched before bed.

Needless to say, you do, in fact, not have eight eyes nor teeth that appear to be all canines. Which means in safe to say, I love you. Even if you were some monstrous being, I'm quite sure I still would. You're soooo cuddly and cute, while weirdly mature and confident. There's just so much to take in with you, and that's fun. I'm glad that we get to have so much happy time together…

Love, your haunted spouse.”

○ Emmet giggled at your letter as he ate the flan you packed in the lunch box. What a goofy letter. Him? A monster? Only certain times in bed. If you would let him. Everything else, however, made his chest warm. You thought he was cute and fun? That's literally all he could ask for (outside of one other verrry important thing)! The lovely dessert you made tasted much sweeter with sugar of your words. Emmet would have to repay with you with a happy time later.

[bellafragolina]

*tumbles in and runs straight at the wall* hey remember my other request with the twins with a soulmate they hate? WELL! I wanted to write it and I'm in a bind, so here I am with another related request!

Imagine being still ignored by the twins, you had received their letter -too polite, too formal- about the situation and you just felt even more depressed. At least they would give you a chance? But team plasma and the subsequent trials and jail time and even now being on probation, all of it had eroded your sense of self. You were finally getting back on your feet, found a normal job. Only now, you were forced to take the subway, and found yourself often seeing the twins. Your soulmates. Their rejection hurt but you understood.

It all came to an abrupt stop one late evening. You were taking the subway back home, and someone roughly grabbed you by the shoulder and whipped you around on the platform. They were screaming at you, about how you stole their pokemon. Oh, of course. This was a trainer you stole from years ago, when you were still in team plasma. You could only babble apologies through your tight chest, breath becoming heavier by the second.

You didn't know how much time passed as they threw profanities and even fists at you when two tall figure stood in front of the trainer. You looked through tears to see Ingo and Emmet, standing tall each with one arm outstretched in an X motion to stop the altercation. Only, they were looking right at you, both of their silver eyes full of anger at the sight of you.

"What is the meaning of this? Fighting is not allowed on the platforms." Ingo's voice dripping with disgust.

"Did you steal their pokemon? They say you did. Give it back." Emmet continued, clearly trying to hide his emotions.

You could only look at them in surprise. Did they think you stole a pokemon? That you would just stand there instead of running like any thief would?

"I didn't steal anything!" you pleaded as tears started to fall. "I... Maybe in the past... But not now! I haven't stolen pokemon in years! I left team plasma!"

"That's your excuse? Verrry bad. I am Emmet. I don't believe you."

Your fear and sadness quickly turned into seething rage. Yes you made bad decisions in the past, haunted by beliefs you no longer held, and yet actively chose to redeem yourself for you, not anyone else. Now you were being accused by your own soulmates in public.

"Then don't believe me, Emmet!" You yelled at the twins. "I haven't stolen anything! Yes I did steal from this person years ago, and wrote a formal apology during my trial! You don't trust me? Fine! But I'm not the one hitting someone else, yet you accuse me? Check my belongings, look through everything, I don't care! I did not steal anything.

"And while we're here, your stupid letter, let's talk about that! I've accepted that you don't want me. Hell, I get it! I wouldn't want myself either! But you don't get to tell me I stole your soulmate from you. I am here, and I am myself. I didn't spend [x number of] years of therapy to believe I stole myself from myself, my past is behind me and I never, EVER, want to go back. I was a CHILD! I was indoctrinated young by family members, children believe in their parents! I trusted them but now I know they were wrong!

"Also you know what I lost from this? I can't even own or even handle pokeballs anymore! I had partners I raised from eggs, my deino was so anxious she could never go anywhere, and my murkrow took pride in being by my side, and you know what the so called 'justice' did? They rehoused them. I'm not even allowed to ask how they're doing. I always released the pokemon in close-by areas in case they wanted to go back to their trainers, and many did! Bonds are a lifetime thing. I can't even know if they're okay! All I know is that supposedly they were placed in one of those low-care zoos they call sanctuaries, and I'll never see them anymore.

"So you know what? Fuck both of you. Fuck this whole thing! Keep ignoring me like you did, or even better, let other trainers just hit me as they please since you clearly hate me that much. I didn't steal myself from you, you just lost your Ideal of who I am. And when the Truth stares you in the face, you can't accept it. That's not a 'me' problem, that's a 'you' problem, and I can't fix it for you." You spat out as you turned on your heels and ran out of the station, tears prickling your eyes. Only this time out of anger and frustration.

----

That's where I am! NOW! Question is, how would the twins react to that, erm, outburst? I was thinking that they would kinda change their opinions on the reader? Like, now they at least have context to put their actions into perspective, and maybe at least consider what they said.

I had the angst muses tugging at me to make the reader's pokemon just being absolutely miserable, but with no way for them to help. And reader can't even visit them to see if they're okay, so if any of the twins go to see them (if they find them), they catch the smallest smell of reader and they're desperate to go back to them. After all, Deino is blind and trusted reader for anything movement related, and Murkrow is extremely loyal to its flock leader so now it feels super alone?

Also the whole Ideal vs Truth thing? Yiiiiis this thing is perfect for it

i agree, and i am in tears over this i hope you know. i've done my best to offer you a continuation from where you left off. i hope it's good!!

🍓🍓🍓

Both twins are left in shocked silence after your outburst. The air is heavy, quiet broken only by the person swearing at them and chasing after where you ran to "teach you a lesson." The twins stumble after him, not wanting there to be any more violence, but as the person discovers, you're gone. Disappeared into the crowd with no trace of you, besides the bag you left behind.

They carry the bag back to their shared office, minds still reeling with all the new information. There's no Pokémon in the bag, like you said, but there are some various items. Your subway card, a small calendar with various work schedules and small doodles inside. There are even old, faded photographs.

Ingo cradles one, the subject clearly you cradling eggs. You're so small, eyes bright and hopeful as you grin at the camera, two familiar Plasma Team leaders at your side. The back reads your name, and the date of your "entrance into the family, ready to help the world!"

"Do you think they had a family?" Ingo asks quietly.

"Team Plasma tended to take from fosters, children with no one else." Emmet says, reminding them both of the statistics everyone knows. Yet, he thinks, despite knowing these statistics, reforming former members of the team are never treated kindly. "So no. Probably not."

Another photo is found. This one has you, older, a teenager, in uniform. Your eyes are less bright, and your smile is smaller, tired. Your Pokémon, Deino and Murkrow, are hatched and older now. Yet, even with how faded the photograph is, Ingo can see the way both Pokémon lean into you, fondness evident in their body language.

"I don't think they're who we thought." Ingo says. Emmet doesn't look up from the small Murkrow feathers in a clear case. "I don't think we ever knew who they really were."

"Should we. . . find them?"

"This is their bag. We will give it back to them." Ingo carefully places the items back. "And. . . apologize."

Yet, as they decide to apologize to you, a rock sits in their stomachs. A feeling a dread hangs over them, telling them one apology isn't going to do much, not after everything that's already occurred.

When they go home for the evening, Ingo's mind wanders to you. Deino's are blind. He can picture you, present you, guiding one around, smiling and stroking it whenever it began to shake from nervousness. He can see Murkrow perched on your head, hanging into your view whenever it wants attention.

Emmet is similarly lost in the clouds, mind lingering on the old photos. Your smile grew smaller as the years passed, until it was gone completely. What did Team Plasma do to you? Did you even want to steal? You must've thought you were doing the right thing, but you also broke away. . . Did they hurt you? He feels sick thinking about it, and like he needs to protect you.

Protect you from people like himself.

The brothers buckle down on their intent to talk with you, apologize and just talk, but you've become like a ghost. You find a depot agent to get your bag back from, and then they stop seeing you on the trains. You've begun hiding, even from their cameras. Or did you just leave? They're scared they chased you off for good now.

When did things become so hopeless?

🍓🍓🍓

for some reason, i get the feel that this doesn't really have a happy ending, even if things get better for the twins and reader. especially since public figures would receive such backlash for being with their former-plasma soulmate

have a good day!

~Renee

[mass-piplup-outbreak]

Omg I need to know what happens next in the twin spirits au

Does Ingo follow Emmet all the way back to unova? Will Emmet ever realise ingos ghost is still around? How's Emmet holding up after this revelation?

i do have a few ideas for what happens next!

basically, yes, ingo does return to unova with emmet. it's a very strange experience for him, because everything's so different and yet so familiar at the same time. but seeing the sights does help with recovering his memory a bit!

when ingo finally returned to their apartment, he just kind of stood in their living room taking everything in. he knows this place. long after emmet goes to sleep, he’s just standing there, trying to make sense of it all.

ingo continues to follow emmet around, even after they’ve returned to nimbasa. it’s partially the fear of being alone again and partially the fact that emmet’s literally the key to his memories. this does make emmet the victim of a haunting, technically, but ingo isn’t malicious.

i should say, now that he’s no longer tied to his grave, ingo is in a very weak state. luckily, chandelure lets him leech some ghostly energy off of it (i imagine this is what adult chandelures do to take care of young litwicks), and that’s pretty much how he survives. he sort of hangs onto its arms like you would hold onto handles on a subway, ironically enough.

oh my gosh this got longer than i expected. more under the cut

as for emmet, he doesn’t realize that there’s a ghost following him for a very long time. ingo kind of purposefully keeps his presence on the down low, but also, he’s not able to interact with the world much anyway. emmet does notice that chandelure is acting strange, following him around a lot more. but he just assumes that it's grieving.

it isn't until he meets a very powerful ghost trainer (i don't have ideas for who this is, but ghost trainers are typically more spiritually in-tune than the average individual). and they make a remark, something along the lines of "oh, it looks like you have a shadow following you."

ingo’s like “oh shit my cover’s been blown”

and at first, emmet thinks they're talking about chandelure, but as they talk more, it becomes apparent to him that there's a literal ghost that's been following him around.

his mind obviously goes to ingo, but the other trainer really only sees the spirit as an abstract blur. they come up with some way to commune with him (i want to say a ouija board, but also that feels VERY LAME). ingo’s hesitant at first, but he ultimately decides to go along with it.

because ingo’s a weaker ghost, he’s gotta be careful to make his point as clearly as possible while exerting the least amount of energy, so his answers typically consist of a few words. he hates it so much, but he’s literally left shaking after he uses too much energy.

“How did you die?”

“Hurt, bleeding.”

“How long have you been dead.”

“Long time.”

“Why are you following Emmet?”

“Know.”

“How long have you been following Emmet?”

“Months.”

“Okay. What’s your name?”

“I-”

Ingo’s hands are shaking so much that he drops the pallet. He feels like he’s unraveling, like whatever’s left of him is about to fade into nothing. He leans back into Chandelure, and a ghostly chill spreads through his body. When he opens his eyes, Emmet is staring straight at the board, at the letter “I”.

“Ingo?” he says, hesitantly. “Is that you?”

[ghostypetrainer]

oh god it must be trippy as shit for kuroaku/ingo

cause hes both people, the implanted memories dont fade, the old ones just come back. he still responds to kuroaku. thats part of him. thats still him. and he still misses the leader, and all his friends there, and akari. he knows it was wrong, but sometimes he still wants to go back.

I do wonder about this!! There's a lot of different ideas rattling around my head as to what a post-team chaos Ingo could look like!!

The ideal reality is one where he slowly starts to recover his previous self- it's a long and drawn out process, one that they probably could make faster by use of a psychic Pokemon of their own, but at this point... that's risky. They don't want to chance damaging Ingo's psyche anymore, even if the slow drawn out process of him returning to himself is painful to watch. But eventually, he returns to a point where he's mostly his old self, even if there are new parts mixed in that didn't fade entirely. He's not cruel like Kuroaku was, but takes to expressing his negative thoughts more freely than before, though he generally tries to coach his words into something less biting. He recognizes his friends and family again, starts responding to his name again... but he and Dawn always still call each other Akari and Kuro.

He's also deeply haunted by guilt for the rest of his life, but his friends and family's forgiveness go a long way to helping him move on in spite of it. He can't really wear black anymore, so he switches to wearing a lot of purples instead. It takes him awhile to face the Pokemon he gained during his time as Kuroaku head on, but he can't abandon them, and they slowly get to know their trainer's true self even though he's aware they are probably some of the few who miss him as they once knew him.

There's probably also a reality where Kuroaku and Akari flee after Team Chaos is defeated. Their own plans to rewrite reality to make themselves real failed too, so they instead choose to disappear. They're afraid of disappearing into their old selves, and they know it will happen if they stay. So they hide, living as uncle and niece in a remote town somewhere (maybe the scarlet/violet region?).

They find their own version of recovery there. There memories are still a fragmented mess of truth and lies, but they find a balance between them. They have each other- a tiny little family where they both have the unique experience of being themselves, even though themselves did not previously exist. They feel guilt for leaving their old loved ones behind as their old memories slowly start to mix in with the fake, and sometimes they send letters- taking care that they're not traced back to them. They don't know if they ever read them or not. It doesn't really matter.

Their old personalities emerge more, but they're left with good chunks of their new ones too. Kuro is still a cold man on the surface with a sharp tongue, but his kindness shows through his actions. There's no Pokecenter in town, so the kids living there take their injured Pokemon to Kuro, who always knows how to treat them. His advice is biting, and sometimes phrased in mean ways- but he's right, and it's always helpful. His niece Akari is friendly enough compared to her uncle, but she's still merciless in battle, and still uses underhanded tactics and loves to trash talk. But she'll still heal up your Pokemon afterwards- and if you do manage to beat her, she just laughs it off. Damn. You got her good!

They gradually realize that their actions while in Team Chaos were wrong, and that maybe this reality is... okay, actually. As long as they have each other, and their Pokemon, that's all that matters.

[monoshii-wasu]

Into the Subway Train Pt 3

Yugen felt the wind pass by which in turn made them shiver. (Which was the result of Ingo’s loud booming noise) Their flashlight started flickering from the strange wind as they shook the item. 

They mused themselves, “Ominous wind? Sounds like a Pokémon move.” They chuckled to themselves as they continued walking. 

Yugen said outload to themselves to break the atmosphere, “You know… I heard that you shouldn’t say a person’s name in a forest because that will mean the name of that spirit will follow you. Confusing with them that you’re calling out to them… but I’m not in a forest so it’s free reign then! Haha just kidding."

Even though Yugen was laughing, it didn’t reach his eyes as he continued to talk. Despite Yugen not saying the older or the younger twins name, he still kept making conversation as if he was talking to them. Despite not really confirming who he was talking to. 

“Sooooooooo, how long have you been a train conductor?” 

Yugen was met with silence but he kept talking. “I see. Not talking. Silent treatment? Understandable… Since I was one bit of a troublemaker… uh I hope you’re not too mad about that one time!”

To which Ingo stopped his protest for the trouble seeking passenger for a bit and whipped his head to the turquoise haired trainer.

As he asked, “That one time?” As he tried to listen more of what they were going to say.

“I doubt you would remember me.”

“Have we met before?” he responded back to you. Despite knowing very well that you can’t hear him back.

“AAAnnnnyyways!!! Enough about me! I already wrote an apology note and everything!! I swear!”

“Did you write an apology letter? I… don’t recall reading any letter… Did Emmet read the letter before me-? Hold on just a moment! Don’t go changing the subject!”

“Soooooo got anyone you fancy~? A special romance in one’s life? Maybe even a le gasp a secret office romance~??” 

Ingo stifled a laugh at that statement since it reminded him of all the times Elesa would ask something similar as well all the time Emmet tried to get some gossip from him as well. To which Ingo stated, “Having an office romance would be unprofessional in this workforce.”

Ingo was a bit surprised when Yugen responded back, “Hmmm~? I see. Not a surprising response. Kinda expected it.” Ingo was a bit flustered when they laughed out loud, “After all you do have that stiff face. I heard from your employees and your brother that you were quote and quote verrrrryyyyyy stiff at facial expressions! Haha!”

Despite him being a ghost, he felt his face heat up at that statement. He placed his hands over his chest… and squeezed it. If he really did feel his heart, make a sound. He didn’t even expect them to be talking about him! Yugen didn’t even hint that they were talking to Ingo at all in the beginning. For all he knew, you could have been talking to his younger brother which would have been a bit awkward, but their last statement began to say otherwise! Ingo felt his face heat up even more at how from the very start of your conversation, you were talking to him. He was confused at how he could feel his own face heat up! How was this even possible!? But this made him even more desperate determined to get you away from that thing before it finds you.

[Inspired by @harveyb-wabbit92 's haunted rail au]