#more like rambles for several paragraphs but shh

[answrs]

post-hisui thoughts at 4am thinking about this some more

in all honesty i originally planned for the ending to be "ingo goes back to normal except his bi-monthly escapes to the wilderness cabin somewhere to run around with paws" but the more i think about how his actual experience in hisui would have been the less it feels like it fits the timeline? especially with the Protector™ role he's held for what's been a good.... 6? 8? 12??? years now. like normally (in 'canon' (fanon, lbr), other aus that aren't this one) his role might have shifted thirty feet to the left, but he was still basically an experienced, working trainer raising and battling with a team* and who likely occasionally ferried groups back and forth in the Highlands, so i can see him... not necessarily easily, but slotting back into his original post with less issue. meanwhile in this au he's had.... a much different experience and changes to how he works, thinks, exists, to say the least. you feel me?

*i just realized, but he absolutely needs to befriend Gliscor somewhere along the line here. i don't make the rules, lil bat baby needs to be allied, at very least. perhaps he could be the one pokemon ingo "trains", giving him directions to coach him like a human trainer would?

I'm also kinda waffling on what of his memories he retains. i was thinking most of them at first, honestly? but that panic gets kinda pushed to the back burner while he learns how to just. not die. also he's a carnivore so there's.... that hurdle to get over. and the human-panic-disgust-fear thought spirals would get pretty old after the first two or three.

on the other hand like. I've been thinking maybe his memories being suppressed more fits the vibe, especially on the Return To Future Present Arc, and it's kinda just like. most stuff about his memories don't really have much value for him as the Hisui Guardian pokemon? so I'm maybe leaning more towards a PMD style "wakes up knowing his name and he's theoretically supposed to be human but not much else" with the occasional "specific trivia/knowledge pops up as need-be, or there's a vague sense of recollection sometimes" for flavor.

that last one, especially in the Return, makes for a.... hmm. rather distressing reunion of the brothers/nimbasa trio/etc to say the least, if it happens at all? like he has a vague sense that these people are familiar, but he wouldn't necessarily seek them out on his own, just keep by the side of his Charge. which like. unless they get dropped in unova, or crash The Annual Great Gym Leader And Family Fun Getaway Trip To Sinnoh, that would be a kinda contrived way to mash them back together.

..........oh no now im thinking of akari stealing emmet's clothes off a line and someone mistaking him in the woods for his brother and calling out before he (literally) turns tail and runs, leaving torn fabric behind. that might be a fun trail to think about now, Whoops™.

now how would i convince arceus to give Rei over too when It tosses them back through the rift....

lots of disconnected ing(o)men thoughts tonight if anyone's up?

-

⚪ thinking about Akari’s return to the present, and the Protect Instinct of shielding her from (what was more human than not, at the end) threats still running high… a half-feral man jumping into the face of an opponent twice his size, too-pointed teeth bared in a fierce snarl as he crowds the encroaching pokemon, throwing his whole weight into the intimidation display. or a grunt, a pickpocket, a wrong-place-wrong-time hiker hearing seams rip as the “borrowed” clothing tears away and shreds hang off a massive, terrifying monster.

⚪ while the typical end goal is ingo adopts his Future-Present child, they move in with him and emmet, happy family days etc. but this akari is an adult (legally emancipated minor, but she's been caring for herself for years now) - and she's much more wary of strangers, even those that share her companion’s sometimes-face.

her bodyguard goes where she goes, she must travel to Unova eventually - to escape the echoes of the Present-Past? and her personal omen follows.

she'd have her own apartment at least, either through battling prowess - though I feel she's of a more research-over-battling leaning nature here - or inheritance, or generous gift from her guard’s friends or own estate to keep her - and thus Ingo too - in the region.

⚪ emmet not having the perfect reunion and back-to-normal-life he'd hoped for the first time he'd seen his brother returned. half the time their apartment stays as empty as the years before, Ingo pulled to the side of his charge in this city of noise and uncertainty more often than not. even if he... visits? - does ingo even live here with him anymore, emmet wonders - he ghosts around warily on silent feet, hunched shoulders making him look both larger and smaller than he truly is.

ingo himself being uncomfortable in a place and company of expectations counter to His Purpose, of fleeting memories and pitying looks. he is not That Man they remember anymore, his status of Being Human anymore not the most egregious change amongst the numerous others.

⚪ he's spent enough time in the wilds that besides dedicated sparring, fighting other pokemon is for all-out, life-or-death confrontations or sustenance hunting. his adherence to modern competitive battle standards is basically in the negatives, even if he would accept the direction of a trainer over his own Ideals to survive the tide of battle.

his drive and passion that made him such a passionate and formidable trainer have not been dispelled in the least - merely redirected in the years and distance since. towards protection, of a god’s Chosen, of warring clans and child leaders, and of unconnected travelers both through Hisui and now Unova. he'd return as a conductor, likely, but his restored position as facility head is not a Truth that is likely to occur soon.