#its sneasler

[applesjuice]

How are the others taking Kieran's death ? Won't they think there's something fishy ? (Legends AU)

I'm SCREAMING this is the first ask I've gotten in ten whole years and it's about KIERAN 🤣

Putting beneath a read more because this got stupid long...

But real talk, Carmine would be taking it the hardest she'd be a mess for a while. In my mind the plot of LA takes places over about two years to complete the pokedex, so by then she'd have graduated school, and is trying to redefine who she is since so much of her identity was tied into being a big sister. She'd be antagonistic towards Briar for a while, blaming her for bringing them down there in the first place. But I like to think Carmine comes to understand that adults are not perfect after the fallout that comes to Briar and the Paladean Pokemon League as a result of a minor dying on a sponsored exception.

Briar I think would write her book but she'd have fallen out of favor in the academic world due to her irresponsibility. She'd face harsh criticism from the public and the guilt she'd feel would be tremendous because Kieran, despite being a little shit at the time, was a child. I like to believe two years later she's really struggling with her career, getting denied grants and project funding, having her papers get denied by academic journals. She's a mess.

Geeta and the Paladean Pokemon League would face harsh scrutiny over allowing this specific expedtion to occur. For years they refused to allow expeditions down in Area Zero due to a lack of strong enough, accredited (re: champion level) trainers who were not bogged down by workload. Its a media shitstorm. A research team with only three children as the safety trainers? Yes one of them is a certified Champion of their league but they are still a child with only a few months experience, and the other two were strong trainers in their own right but not accredited under Paladean standards. There wasnt enough prep or vetting. Geeta would as a result step down as chairwoman due to the backlash. Atm there is no top champion so if someone beats the elite 4 there's a hold on becoming a champion level trainer while Nemona is being trained for the position.

Now the BB Academy Elite 4, they're shook. Drayton takes it the hardest because he turned down going, so he's like "what if I was there what if there was one more trainer could I have prevented this". The other 3 did see Kieran as a friend, despite his recent behavior. Before that he was Carmine's little brother, and Crispin and him were pretty friendly too, what with being in the same grade. Yeah the kid was a bully but imagine coming to school one day and there's an announcement one of your clasmates died. Thats traumatic!

Now, the protagonist. Oh boy. Regardless of if they're Juliana or Florian, they'd be pretty traumatized. They considered Kieran a friend. At one point they loved his company, he was so kind and sweet and they already blamed themselves a bit for the whole Ogerpon situation. Yeah Kieran took it to the extreme with his reaction, but I find Kieran a really interesting character with how the game wrote him. He's a child, was lied to by the people closest with him, and he doesnt seem the type to easily connect with others. But the one time he finally finds someone he connects with, we continuously and unrelentlessly crush him at something he enjoys, join his family in treating him like he has no agency by hiding the truth of his special interest from him, and go out of our way to disinclude him with his sister.

And like of course Ogerpon got close to us we spent so much time with her, getting her to trust us and know us. I see this take a lot that Kieran just wants to enslave legendaries but thats definitely not it. He's trying to get back at us. We took something special from him, and he never really had the chance to put in his bid for Ogerpon's attention and he knew it was selfish, but he cared so much for her as someone that was always disincluded, bullied, looked down on by others, and he had to at least try because Ogerpon to him, is a projection of himself. He had to TRY even if as he stated, he knew it was wrong.

And then we take his spot as Champion from him that he like, harmed himself and those around him for so he could at least have *something* that put him on the same level as you. Like we as the protagonist are the villain of Kieran's story (sorry for the tangent I swear it's relevant), but he's 14 and had a mental breakdown. And he got killed before we could reconcile or get through to him.

I think the protagonist would do a lot of soul searching because their first thought is "i should have taken the blast." Or "i could have stopped it" and then they had the humbling realization of "what could i even have done? We're the same age. That could have been me, i could have died" because even if the protagonist would never like, try to catch Terapagos immediately with a Masterball, its still a wild and untrained monster with too much power. There's no telling what would have happened if Kieran wasn't there. It'd incredibly eye opening and humbling and I think they'd strive to be a better more understanding person from this. The whole game people are hyping them up, telling them theyre so strong, they're the best, etc. Thats gotta give you a bit of a big head. I think they'd look to the adults they can trust, their mom, their teachers who are genuinely amazing people, and lean on them for support.

And when Kieran gets back and kind of has no idea who they are, and here's that sweet kid they remember with all of his love for pokemon and battling, except he's so much healthier and confident about it (and traumatized in different ways thanks Kamado and Volo). They'd probably be so amazed by him and thankful for this second chance.

Tldr: i should probably just write a fic for this it got stupid long...

[skizwillsuffice]

Familiar.

[proxycrit]

Part 1 / Part 2

Emmet remembers when he and Ingo first brought Elesa to explore Celestial Tower, back when they were fourteen and thought they were immortal.

“Allegedly, the bell chime will bring ghosts home”, ingo had told emmet with the pompous knowing energy of a child who read way too much brochures. “It’s culturally significant! We must ring it.”

“Hmmm,” emmet had responded suspiciously. “Brother. The bell is at the top of the tower.” The implication stands: Ingo, there are thirty flights of stairs between here and the top, and no elevator to speak of.

Don’t be a coward, Litwick had told Emmet with the blaise tone of somebody who’s going to be piggy backing off of somebody else. Go ring the bell. Tynamo, sensing a litten fight, floated towards a loitering blitzle.

Ingo turns his lilipup eyes on Elesa, who’s squinting at the carved stone faces of the front door.

“Elesa? What do you think?”

Elesa thinks. She shrugs. “We already made our way here,” she said in accented galarian. “Might as well make it the rest of the way. Ganbatte!”

Emmet sighs. “This is a mistake,” he tells the two in exhaustive patience, but lets himself be dragged into the building.

Last time the twins were here, Ingo caught litwick— but not before she managed to nab a good chunk of Emmet’s soul. It’s not terrible; he felt fatigued for a week and bounced back pretty quickly, but it was the principle of the whole situation— celestial tower’s a pain in the ass and Emmet will stand by that until the day he dies.

Like right now.

The map isn’t working. Emmet checked it once. He’s checked it twice. He’s taken out his pen and written on it, which he would usually never do but desperate times call for desperate measures. The compass he brought spins useless circles. It’s like chargestone cave up here, but worse because instead if electric pokemon it’s all ghosts.

“We’re lost, yyup yup!” He announced to the crew. “I vote we eat Ingo first.”

“I love you too,” Ingo told Emmet placidly. “But we all know between the two of us, you’re the tastier one.” Litwick gives Emmet a thumbs up. Emmet gasps in mock affront.

“Elesa, help!”

Elesa gives the two of them a wary look. It took two floors for her to realize this is not just a weird temple with strange rocks, but a full out graveyard. She’s not very happy about that development.

“Don’t drag me into this,” she tells them. “Teme wa urusaii.”

“I will take that as a compliment,” Ingo reports back.

Emmet, who’s cheerfully struggles with Galarian on a good day, simply gives her a thumbs up.

The three painstakingly crawl their way up. And up. If all else fails, Emmet told himself, at least they can orient themselves towards high ground.

“We’re like pidoves,” Ingo gasps. He has fallen behind them on the stairs, with Emmet taking the lead through sheer spite despite his legs going numb on floor twenty two. “We, hah, we are attracted by the magnet of the bell, like, like probopass-“

“I am emmet! You are not making, sense!” Emmet called back. Elesa, who’s stuck between them and looking two steps from perpetual collapse, giggles.

“No, no hear me out, Ingo wheezes. “What if the bell’s a magnetic pole? And that’s why your compass doesn’t wo, woo, hahh, work.”

Emmet stops to rest, just because Ingo is using precious breathing air to infodump. Elesa gratefully slumps against the railing. Tynamo and litwick, lazy in their still small size, have settled on a weary blitzle and look very smug doing so. (Emmet is not jealous, he tells himself. Emmet is also lying.)

“The bell’s important,” Ingo had repeated.

“Okay,” Elesa responds. “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to us.”

And Emmet finds that he agrees with Elesa. Partially because they crawled up twenty fucking three flights of stairs, but also because Ingo thinks this is important, so it is.

And here’s the thing—

— emmet doesn’t remember much after that.

The rest of that trip was a blur of exhausted groaning and burning legs, and by the time the trio managed to breach floor thirty, people’s brains have all but dribbled out their ears. Emmet remembers being disgustingly sweaty. He remembers blitzle almost tripping to death and litwick’s swearing. He remembers tynamo sticking to his neck like a damp towel. He remembers Ingo’s excited sneasel smile, and the way the sunset bounced off of Elesa’s hair.

He remembers the brassy ring of the Celestial bell. It sounded like victory.

But it was Elesa’s cackle turned scream as Ingo swiped cold hands down her neck that sounded like home.

—-

So when the conductor at thirty one, lost and disoriented in the Impossible Place, heard the sound of a familiar bell, ringing over and over and over-

-the sound of laughter-

-EMMET! Elesa cried-

-like a homing pidove, the conductor, thinks nonsensically as something in him perks up.

(Emmet had always liked winning, more than anything else, and the sound of victory calls him home.)

—

Elesa catches lightning in a bottle. Elesa, arms outstretched, finds purchase in her brother, and does not let go.

Emmet is so, so cold, Elesa thinks as the wind steals air from her lungs. (That’s okay. She’s already breathless from a terrible business called hope.)

Emmet stares back. His hands flap against Elesa’s jacket. Elesa desperately drinks in his wan face and too wide eyes and his frost bitten lips. In a tiny, meek voice, almost lost to the wind, he asks:

“Are you real?”

Elesa lets out an ugly sob. Her tears whip away in the wind as they fall. Emmet’s frightened countenance turns immediately to alarm. His shaky grasp becomes a solid grip as they spin through the air, cushioned by chandelure’s psychic.

“I think so??” Elesa warbles. She sees Emmet’s eyes dart to her mouth. He’s reading mirroring her, she realizes with giddy delight— it’s such an Emmet thing to do, to read lips, and-

“I am Emmet,” Emmet breathes. His eyes have started to water. “Yyou are Elesa- Oh dragons, Elesa!?“

Elesa reaches. Hesitates.

Emmet grabs elesa by the lapels and crushes her tight against him. Elesa holds on, and the grief and relief in her accumulates into a wet sopping mess. She’s ruining his jacket, she mourns, but its okay because he’s dripping all over hers.

She can’t hear what he’s saying into her shoulder, can’t read what he says, but everything’s okay because every part of her is chiming

You came back

You’re here

I’m not alone anymore.

Around them, the air distorts as Chandelure’s psychic wavers, flutters, and solidifies. Gravity reverses its call as they settle gently on the ground, dust billowing in all directions.

The ghost pokemon drops next to them, shaking so hard the musical clang of glass makes Elesa flinch.

You fucks, Chandelure gasps. DON’T GO LEAPING OFF BUILDINGS, I AM NOT YOUR EMERGENCY PARACHUTE.

“I’m sorry,” Elesa gasps, still giddy from the adrenaline.

AND YOU! Chandelure howls, whirling on Emmet, who’s still staring at the ghost with huge eyes. He’s gripping on to solid ground with the energy of a man who realized he could have been a splat on the ground.

YOU LEFT!

Emmet winces.

You- You left us, you left me-

Ah, ah no, Elesa thinks as golden globules of light shed from Chandelure. This is what a ghost looks like crying.

Emmet holds out his arms. Chandelure drifts into his embrace, and shakes, and shakes, and shakes.

You left me, the ghost pokemon whispers. How dare you. How could you.

“I didn’t mean to,” Emmet whispers. “I’m sorry.”

Stop doing this to me, Chandelure demands. Golden brine joins human tears, like drops of sun trapped in wet glass. Stop going where I can not follow.

And Emmet holds his tongue, because he knows he can not promise staying. Not while Ingo and Eelektross are still in Hisui.

(In the back of Emmet’s hurt and shattered mind is a spark. Synapses connect. The cold breach of the Distortion does nothing to drown out the sudden flare of hope in Emmet’s chest, so great he can not breathe, so strong he can not feel, because there’s a path. A difficult, painful path through the Space that Can Not Be, but a path all the same.)

“Elesa, Chandelure-“ Emmet’s voice breaks. He wants to tell them about Eelektross. He wants to tell them about the terrible past that is Hisui. He wants to explain how the last five months were filled with horror and wonder and fear and hope.

Hope, he thinks. So he says this:

“I know how to get Ingo home.”

NOTES:

AAAAAND THAT’S ALL FOR THIS DRABBLE. ITS OUT NOW. I CAN FINALLY GO BACK TO POSTING HAPPY SHENANIGANS! (Now you know the shape of their story.)

Thanks for reading this monster of a post!

[raynavan]

something about being out in the open mountain air... wind blowing in your face... its not something you get in the city- not this kind of clean air anyway. (not that ingo remembers) (it still feels nice.) ((for day 7 of Sept-Ingo: Freedom))

[schlushiii]

Lady sneasler but she does the T-Rex arms like her warden :]

[opossumonashelf]

A veeerrrryyy old stress relief vent I made. sometimes i wish pokemon where real just so I cute pet them, but if i put this in with like my au lore. This could be like Ella coming back to Unova after studying in Paldea and as soon as she sets foot in the station she get swarmed by a bunch of happy pokemon.

[smashwolfen]

I need to get better at posting things even if its not quite finished per-se or in like a group of doots on a page, so have a lone Sneasler sketch Im very happy with XD

Why so sneerious?

[harmonia-university]

Pawsible fiona redesign?

[itspeanutlove]

Fabled heroes!

[peachy-doodles]

idc what the time is; i have been thinking about my old Sneasler Ingo nonstop for the past few weeks and HAD to revisit his design rn or id esplode 💥💥💥

the snilerrrrrs.....................

[hehe-hoho-ohno]

[acatpiestuff]

quaso

[zephyrrhiesfyrian]

okay for the Sneasler!Ingo AU, what if Arceus just pokefies Elesa too

Like, Akari gets to stay human because she's the ~Chosen One~ and shit and needs opposable thumbs to collect the plates and complete the Pokedex, but Elesa and the boys are just kind of in the way.

all that to say

winner becomes canon LOL

[rendoesthedoodle]

drawing one of my headmates as pokemon of his choosing 🧛‍♀️

[raynavan]

Tall Thing peeks out of the woods to stare at you. (a drawing for chapter 6 of Always by your Side by @ingo-ingoing-ingone)

[sneasedtomeetyou]

I meet someone

I am sneased to meet them

There is not enough evidence

The case goes cold

The cycle continues

Who wants to know