#also ingo has given himself SO many problems. dude.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Okay, so what if Ingo was taken first, disappeared alone like in canon, let's say from the subway tunnels. It's been a few years since then, but Emmet is adamant that he's still alive somewhere. Vivi and Lewis are depot agents themselves, but Vivi in particular is stricken by how her boss just vanished on her watch, and she loves figuring out mysteries, so periodically she, Lewis, and Arthur (+ Mystery, who is her ace pokemon) will go into the tunnels to look for clues that might have gone overlooked.

Then one time they're searching and a rift like the kind that took Ingo opens up near them, which allows Arthur to get possessed (love the idea that he's Volo's descendant, that honestly makes the most sense given the context), so when Vivi and Lewis go to get a closer look, possessed!Arthur pushes Lewis in, then goes to push Vivi in which is when Mystery bites his arm off, but he unbalances her enough that she falls in anyway and Mystery jumps after her. They end up in different places because they all entered at different times and Lewis gets a much harsher landing which ends up killing him. I wanna say they all lose the majority of their memories, but just like Ingo still remembers a few things, Lewis remembers the backstabbing wretch who killed him even though he loses a bit of the circumstances surrounding it, and he *hates* him. In order for Vivi to get the arc phone and quest line, maybe Arceus spotted her as she was falling because she's the descendant to the hero, and they gave her both the those and a soft landing near people who would take her in.

For Mystery, there are a few routes he could take, but there are some problems with each. First is that he could just be a ninetales who is constantly casting an illusion to make himself look like a vulpix... for some reason... or he could be some legendary we haven't seen yet or an ultra beast, which does have a small form that looks kind of like a weird vulpix so everyone just assumes he's a vulpix variant.

Does Lewis illusion himself to look like his human body most of the time? I don't see many people trusting him or what he says if he looks like Zoroark, but if he just goes around everywhere looking like he did when he was alive, then they'd be more likely to believe him that, whoever this Arthur dude is, he's bad news. It'd also mean they had no basis for a good Zoroark, so when they see Emmet, who is mistaken to be a Zoroark, it adds to this "Arthur is evil" narrative that Lewis has been feeding them. Which sucks for them!

The good news is that if they're taking the train, they're probably not going to be losing any of their pokemon, so Emmet gets to keep his massively overpowered team. I think it'd be funny if Arthur was a depot agent who didn't actually work on the battle trains, just the regular commuter ones, so he has like, the one joltik Galaham and that's it. It's not even high leveled, it's just his little pet. Let's hope they don't get separated or Arthur is gonna be really screwed, especially considering he's still recovering.

I was picturing Arthur driving as like, a worst case scenario where Emmet was either knocked out somehow or just what *Emmet* imagines will happen if for some reason he didn't go with him. It's part of why he goes with Arthur, because if he doesn't Arthur's probably gonna end up killing himself right out the gate via a literal train wreck. Emmet still goes careening down the mountain a bit, to the tune of Arthur screaming, but it's a much more controlled crash so neither of them actually end up hurt. Emmet is very much carrying this team, but in Arthur's defense he's incredibly sleep deprived, terrified, in pain, down an arm, and hopped up on pain killers that are only sort of working. Without Emmet he's an easy kill for pretty much anything in Hisui, since he wouldn't even be able to dodge right.

Oh, whoops, just saw that other ask on this! I like both the angst of Arthur being possessed and pushing them in, and the angst of Arthur trying to save Lewis (I assume Vivi and Mystery already fell through somehow, maybe they were directly above it when it opened and had no time to grab onto anything) and the rift literally severing his arm as it closed, which in turn dropped Lewis. The first would be a case of either he doesn't remember being possessed like in msa canon or he does sort of remember but is freaked out because what the hell happened and why did he do that and will it happen again. Plus, it opens up a potential storyline where Volo manages to get giratina to possess him again in Hisui and use him like a puppet. Dunno what he'd do that for, but it could be interesting. The second would be a case of some sweet, sweet survivor's guilt. Arthur's manic drive to get to Hisui would then be fueled solely by his desperation see if they're still alive and appease the guilt of "failing" them, whereas in the possessed version he has a little bit different motives. In the version where he doesn't remember what he did, he's driven mostly by his need to know what happened and to rescue them, kinda like how he's searching for any leads on what happened to Lewis and where he is in canon, and in the version where he does remember what he did he'd still want to go because he's terrified that he murdered them, but there's an underlying worry that he might not be safe around them anymore (which is also why he's relieved Emmet chose to go with them - if he becomes compromised then Emmet is more than capable of taking him down).

(Sorry for the length!)

vivi and lewis being depot agents is interesting... tbh i was just imagining them being locals who happen to frequent the subway (bc vivi has aspirations of being champion and so wants to hone her battling abilities). also i can't imagine lewis not working at his family's restaurant lmao. and mystery being her ace is interesting! i DEFINITELY think he should be some kind of legendary that takes the disguised form of a vulpix/ninetales (i think ive talked abt some hypothetical version of this before?) and i would also like to propose that he's ice/ghost type to match with vivi's two specialties—ice from family tradition, ghost bc Ghosts.

REGARDLESS the idea that ingo disappeared first and then the second rift happened while the ghost hunting squad was investigating his disapperance—that's very fun. i like that. you can also spin it like arthur is intermittently possessed and caused both of them, unbeknownst to everyone else (and himself)

lewis i think is maintaining a human illusion most of the time, but it's also not really a secret that he's a zoroark bc like. he Floats. it would be a pretty shitty secret. plus he's constantly talking about his murderer which does not help his case of being an alive human. probably his first human contact is ingo, who's much less instantly fearful of zoroark, and then ingo introduced other people to him and/or spread the word of warning around. actually re: emmet being mistaken for a zoroark, wouldn't be so fucked up if, if they "know" (believe) that arthur has killed and zorua-ified at least one person, they automatically assume that emmet's just another victim

see i WAS thinking that arthur isn't even like, a depot agent in the sense that he works the floor (? do you call it the floor in a train station? you know what i mean. the Public Facing part.) he's like, a maintenance worker. he DEFINITELY doesn't battle anyone bc he hates confrontation. galahad is level 4. so ghsksjshjh Yeah he is definitely hiding behind his boss if they need to battle

i mean. tbf arthur's probably not like, fresh out of the hospital, building the engine took a while and his leave was probably pretty extended on account of losing a whole arm/suddenly having a prosthetic (depending on whether he has that or not in this au) takes some getting used to and he probably wouldn't be able to do much at work in the interim anyway. but by the same token, recovery would have taken a While and he definitely wouldn't have waited until he was healed, are you crazy, that's wasted time, and also not ruling out being injured/generally fucked up by the post-rift-travel crash, so yeah kshkjshkjsh. look, he got them here, he's tapped out now. emmet take over.

YEAH... ooh him getting possessed in hisui is a very fun plotline. i wonder if it could be both somehow? like, i really like the idea of him being volo's descendant and giratina possessed, but i also really like the version of events where he tries and fails to catch them and that's what severs his arm. maybe bc he's so far away from hisui/sinnoh, the link connecting him to the distortion world is very faint, so the possession can only be very brief (but can still, obviously, be very destructive if timed right, and also probably leaves a big cloud of haziness/missing memories around it. though the memory loss could also easily be attributed to all the blood loss) so he WAS a conduit for the power being channeled, but then the link was broken and he rushed in to save them? or is that too convoluted, idk.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

…so in the Zoroark twins AU. What’s the reunion like?

...

He's warm, which isn't unusual in and of itself, but the kind of warm is so rare as to be almost unfamiliar. Another person pressed against his side, seemingly dozing, still smiling faintly even in his sleep. He isn't warm—he runs cold, even—but the act of contact, of familiarity, it's... good. Soft.

It's almost, but not quite, enough to counterbalance the thing that keeps him from fully relaxing. He wonders if anyone else would notice. The guilt, his constant companion in Hisui, now eating him alive from the inside out, almost physically painful in its intensity. He wants to run from it but he's trapped, cornered, he should have known, sooner or later his time would be up. There would be consequences for what he's persisted in doing.

This face is all he has, and that's what hurts the most. Without it he is adrift, alone—but he cannot keep it. It is not his, it cannot be his. He should have given it up a long time ago but instead he lied, he acted, in a stunning show of disrespect for the clans and the man whose face and name he'd stolen—even the name. Even the name is not his, it belongs to the person that this stranger leaning against his side believes him to be.

He knew, of course, that this stranger wasn't human, either. Had, in fact, reacted initially as though he were another Zoroark—bared suddenly-sharp teeth and warned him to discard that illusion, because the least he could do for the man whose life he stole was ensure nobody else made a mockery of it. But he had been returned a blank stare, a slight tilt of the head, and a question of why? I am Emmet. It is my face. And he remembered—Zoroark in Hisui were not mimics, they were ghosts.

And this Emmet recognized Ingo’s face not as his own, but as someone else's. They look the-same-but-different, different in ways so subtle as to be almost invisible. They must have been family. Twins. He feels sick with hate.

He doesn't know how he hasn't noticed that he's in disguise, but—no, that's impossible. He... he must think he's a ghost, too. And how relieved he must feel—that they'd both suffered but at least they were together—

It hurt, hurt like an open wound—what a monster—and he poorly stifles a sob. It gets the attention of the one dozing, who suddenly sits up. Yellow eyes stare back at him—for one blink, and then they're grey again. Is he slipping, too–?

That is irrelevant, he cuts back at that reactive instinct, there's no point in keeping up the charade. He has to be honest. For once, finally. This ghost—this man who should be grieving—deserves the truth.

“There is,” his voice feels rusted over, unsteady, difficult to get moving, “something... I should tell you.”

He leans back the slightest bit, and Emmet reacts in kind, shuffling away to give him space. The loss of pressure, the sudden distance—it catches him off-guard, the hurt of its absence. He sits cross-legged, leaning in just enough to be attentive without being intimidating, head tilted and eyes piercingly alert. Ingo shivers, fear and anxiety about being caught—trained into him by Hisui—soaking into him alongside the guilt. But he forces himself to power through it.

“I- am not who you think I am.” He tries to look him in the eye but he can’t, his face drops until it’s buried in his hands. He fights in shaky breaths to compose himself, he has no right to be so emotional, this is all his own fault—now he really is slipping, the nails on his face digging in like talons. “I am not... human. I...”

“You are the black Zoroark.”

It’s not- he wasn’t expecting him to guess so fast, and yet the voice isn’t an accusation, either. It’s even and measured, like he’s confirming a fact instead of a guess, as self-assured as I am Emmet. His hands shake when he lifts his head slightly. “...You knew?”

“Of course.” Over his own hands, he sees his head tilt slightly. “That is how I found you.”

“What-?” he can’t even form a proper question, his mind reeling from that statement. That doesn’t make sense. 

“The Zoroark here are all Ghost and Normal. So...” he trails off, and then asks instead, “...did you think I didn’t know?” Ingo finally—actually—looks at him again, to see the corners of his mouth turn down slightly. His eyes are searching now. “...Ingo. Do you... remember me?”

He’s so thoroughly lost, now, that the answer comes almost unbidden, in a rush of unplanned words. Honesty is so much easier, now that he’s started. “There is nothing to remember. I am only a mimic, I had his face when I woke and I could not bring myself to discard it, even though I knew—it was theft, but your- twin, or whoever, I- no! No, I do not remember, I do not,” he’s fully sobbing now, despite himself, “even the original, even him. I am so, so sorry-”

“-stop. Stop.” Hands are gently pried away from his face and clasped together, bleeding edges of his illusion hidden from view. There’s a moment of silence, where the only sound is his own hiccuping breaths.

Then, “You are right. We are twins. You and I.” A thumb gently traces his knuckles. The voice has no overt emotion, but he can hear the softness in it. “Nobody else. Only you, always.”

“...what?” His own voice is almost a whisper.

“I was human. You were Zorua. And we are brothers. Both things can be true.”

“There was never... it was your face.” The realization comes together slowly. “You... gave me your face?”

“No.” It’s unexpected, but firm. “Gave would mean I lost anything. We shared. That is what good siblings do.”

Their hands shift so Emmet is cupping his. The black claws have vanished, replaced with clean nails. Ingo, speechless for once, lifts one hand to wipe his eyes with his sleeve—then he breaks and scoops Emmet into a hug, burying his face in his shoulder, tears coming anew. He doesn’t remember, but he knows, somewhere. Why it felt so right, to simply lean against him, why this is a relief instead of terrifying—

Emmet returns the hug, solid like steel, and maintaining his human form stops feeling like a fight.