#no I will not stop projecting onto emmet

[raisans-art]

You know that feel when?

Doesnt look good but it’s i do not care 👍

Enjoy

[xero013]

Sweetness

They can be apri-corny together (Nimbasa trio)

[subwaytostardew]

Subway to Stardew - Passenger Events - Saloon Part 2

This plays after you see the first saloon event (submas having lunch with Elliott!) and visit on a Friday after reaching 3 hearts with Elesa.

Commentary under the read-more!

Did you notice the sprites? No? Great! I finally stopped procrastinating and recolored their spritesheets so now they don't share the same brown outline and match vanilla style a bit more!

Sprite-wise... they're over 80. Emmet's in his 90's.

So many sprites.....

Also... Elesa's back! We have a basic outline for what would happen in Elesa's events, but we haven't written anything for her yet... She has plans though! She's rounding up all the artists for it. Meanwhile, submas are still struggling with passenger relations.

Elesa's storyline is going to be fun to plan out but one of her B plots is making sure Ingo and Emmet take their breaks!

Elesa's fun. She's a bit awkward herself (girl can NOT keep a secret for the life of her) but she's doing things. Nimbasa trio share a braincell and they pass it around throughout this event.

We wanted to show a little more insight into their life in the valley and how others feel about them. This time, you're catching them on a bad day. One of my favorite things about Stardew is how everyone is very much flawed in some way and everyone is an unreliable narrator. I love how it just presents life in a run-down town as is and it's up to you to interpret whatever glimpses you get.

Trying to merge the two different media's in terms of tone and seriousness is a bit complex. Pokémon - as a franchise - is at the end of a the day; kid friendly. Stardew Valley, while may look happy go lucky and cute touches upon some really heavy topics.

We are basically skirting the lines here and there with the themes and even trying to make it in character for the Pokémon characters as well.

Taking a kid friendly characters and just trying to touch upon tough subjects while also trying not to seem OOC or off - is tough. So creative liberties it is.

Not everyone gets along in Stardew. I tried to emphasize that in Sebastian's distaste for submas. He would hate being their neighbor. He's cranky because he can't sleep in until 10:00 AM anymore because they're already at work before it turns 6:00 in the morning. Extreme opposites with their problems.

Sebastian and Submas DO NOT get along... They may tolerate each other at the end of the story but they just do not mix well.

I also think that Sebastian would just project a lot of his personal problems onto them... He already does that with Maru. He's not the best taking out his frustrations in the right direction. Haven't finished Maru's passenger event yet (another battle event...) but submas would be decently close with her since she has an interest in Pokemon and Sebastian would take that as "siding" against him. They are also decently aquainted with Demetrius which isn't the best for Sebastian's dad issues. He's not fond of the invasive species they brought in but they do appreciate infodumping to each other about mechanics and such.

Oh, Demetrius... I'm going to have fun with world building info-dumps with him. Ya'll like world building? Well, talk to the villagers, they may have a glimpse into things.

I do headcanon Demetrius (pretty much painfully canon...), Maru, and Sebastian as autistic themselves just like the Nimbasa trio. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily mean that they'll always have solidarity. For one, Sebastian's sensitivity to loud noises puts him at odds with Ingo. Submas fare better with the more infodumpy types.

Sibling relations are a sore subject for all of them so submas are horrified at even the thought of splitting tracks and hating each other because they have codependency issues; Sebastian has an inferiority complex and hates how they make him feel like even more of a failure because he doesn't like Maru. Neither parties are exactly healthy, but you can pick between who you're going for! (I was curious as to what the deal was with Sebastian so he was the first bachelor I married... I think you can tell that I divorced him.)

Sebastian has his issues... He was also going to be my first bachelor but uhh, I went with Harvey. I still love Sebastian as a character tho, he is really complex especially family dynamic wise. I do feel bad for him....

He does. I do appreciate how messy his family dynamic is, but I'm a little biased against him since I appreciate Maru and Demetrius more (sorry). I really like how he doesn't handle his issues healthily (I mean... look at Emmet.) and it's interesting to compare him to the other characters.

Like Sam! Sam's a good kid (college age 20 something year old...) and actually really emotionally mature even if he's a bit childish at times. Abigail... isn't quite all there yet but she has a strong sense of what's right and wrong. She's less hesitant than Sam when it comes to things, but Sam serves a bit as damage control here. I headcanon Sam and Abigail to have ADHD so they kind of have an idea about submas being autistic and what that entails, but it's not at the forefront of their mind. It doesn't help that their autism manifests in verrrrry different ways and they don't really know them all that well in the first place. It's a bit awkward between them but they're okay with each other.

We had a bit of fun determining the heart point changes between each route. Personally, I think friendship decreases are hilarious. Also if you don't back up anyone in this situation then... 🤨

(1) Sebastian -

Ingo -100 | Emmet -250 | Sebastian +250 | Sam -5 | Abigail -15

(2) Ingo -

Ingo +40 | Emmet +5 | Sebastian -100 | Sam -20 | Abigail -25

(3) Emmet -

Ingo +25 | Emmet +30 | Sebastian -100 | Sam -5 | Abigail -5

(4) Sam and Abigail -

Ingo +20 | Emmet +5 | Sebastian -40 | Sam +50 | Abigail +50

(5) Nobody -

Ingo -50 | Emmet -200 | Sebastian -200 | Sam -50 | Abigail -50

I don't see friendship decreases as characters getting angry at you per se. It can always just be them feeling awkward and wanting to distance themselves from you for a bit. For example, if you reject Ingo in his 8 heart event, you get knocked down two hearts just so you can get more friendly-but-not-too-friendly dialogue before it stagnates again at 8 hearts.

The "true ending" is Sam and Abigail's route since they're fairly neutral picks. You should stand up for them! Sebastian would agree that him lashing out was wrong, but he just doesn't want to talk to you about it. Why would he? You would just lecture him or something.

Bad ending is not siding with anybody like a coward. Sebastian's being a bit of a bully here (mainly to a grown man a whole head taller than him, but still, his friends got caught in the crossfire) and if you're wishy-washy then that's just odd of you as the town's farmer and supposed protagonist that goes out of their way to befriend everyone. Not a good look.

Sebastian's route is a bit of a jab at how his romance plays out. A few people have mentioned Emmet and Sebastian being friends with each other under the reasoning that they're lonely autists (but mostly just being favorites, which I get) buuuut... Not sure why you would go for Sebastian when submas is right there. Pick one or the other. They're enemies here. I can't quite see them getting along past that surface-level analysis. Smoking alone is a hard No. from Emmet since birds are super sensitive to airborne toxins (so much so, you can't even have non-stick pans around them!) and he's protective over his defeatist of an Archeops.

Ingo's route is more for fun than anything. If you really want Ingo, you do get the most points with him for mentioning him, but he's confused as to why you're trying to win him over now of all times. He's concerned about Emmet first and foremost!

Emmet has trust issues so even the slightest red flag puts a quite a bit of distance between you. He has low point increases because it's hard to win his trust. In this situation, a point increase mostly just means you didn't do anything wrong. If you side with him, that's what you're supposed to do since he's the side against Sebastian. He may be getting picked on, but he's a bit of an instigator himself. His own route aside, Ingo would be most pleased to see you speak up for his brother. Ingo's route is only has the highest point increases for him because it's well, his.

As for the bar fight... It was a bit difficult to figure out how to make it play out believably and interestingly despite it being three New Yorkers against some grocery store owner. Ingo is more focused on defense, de-escalation, and protecting his passengers (in this case, the college kids). He can take a hit and doesn't want to resort to making any attacks unless absolutely necessary, so he was blocking for the most part. Had Ingo not been the designated grocery shopper, Pierre and Emmet probably would have already killed each other. Emmet doesn't have the patience to deal with Pierre. He thinks Reshiram will smite him for upcharging them and will take it upon himself to deliver the justice of truth. Emmet's swinging at Pierre. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the best defense nor balance when he's kicking and punching. Pierre's too drunk to talk about it, but even sober he suspects that submas are working with Joja because as far as he knows, he saw Morris walk away from the Railroad when they first arrived.

Ah yes. Joja stuff. *Realigns stacks of papers* Lets touch upon Joja here for a moment and Pierre's view of things. When Submas first came around. Pierre was already suspicious of them - more confused if anything - why are two major city boys who also- mind you- come from a foreign region and bring along Pokémon. Take interest in a small town? With an abandon railroad? Right off the bat he does not have a great view; he is worried about his store, his income, and family and this is stemmed all due to Joja Mart.

Now Pierre spots Morris heading towards the railroad - of course Pierre does not know what the interactions between Submas and Morris are. In his mind it's Submas making a deal to work with them or is already with them! Pierre already hates Morris as it is.

That is why he is so passive aggressive to Ingo and Emmet. Just this time around - Pierre is drunk... and Abigail's friend is being "annoyed" by them.

Well... outright agressive in this event haha. I don't quite remember how the idea was finalized, but we decided that they would get into a barfight when doing another "showing passenger relations at the Saloon" event.

As for Joja itself. I most definitely headcannon them in this whole crossover universe as the typical "bad guy" Pokémon team. However they have already won/succeeded (Pokémon are no longer in The Ferngill Republic....) However things are now being shaken up and changing.

I could go on and on about Joja and how I view them... but I think that will be a separate post (if people want to know)

The fight was a pain to debug. For one, Pierre kept running off into the void like a coward. Ingo's lines about staying behind the yellow line were made in the debugging phase because I got fed up with him for doing that.

Worse yet. 1.6 broke the Pokemon animations so now I have to go back into every event and redo everything (RIP green bean X-Scissor). The old method I was using no longer worked; before, I was using the addObject command. Now they show up as error signs because the sprites that were previously on the sheet called from were removed as they are not valid objects.

I ended up having to figure out the temporarySprites command to replace the "using a Pokeball" animation. There are no instances of it being used in vanilla. Nobody seemed to figure it out either, so I had to make a mini-event just to test its usage and figure it out.

I eventually did. Thanks to the help of my emotional support Emmet.

Ah yes... 1.6 has broken some events. Small things. (events are still playable) But we will definitely be revisiting some events to improve or make better. Or to just fix.

I have so much backtracking to do 😭😭😭😭😭 Oh well... I thought events were safe to work on since barely anything about them changed in 1.6... I was wrong.

The ending had quite a bit of revising for concision and tone. It was much more lighthearted in Kade's drafts, but I figured that Emmet is low on steam and probably would have gone nonverbal after everything. Too much passenger interaction for the day. He just wants to depart back to his home station.

Yeah there was a lot of dialog and exposition cut. (Hmm no wonder why it's only 13 minutes long. lol)

Only 13 minutes... Still a lot considering that most vanilla events are around the 1-3 minute mark...

Poor Emmet.. and Ingo. I won't lie, when first seeing the event I burst out laughing during the fistfight. Just somthing about Ingo suddenly collapsing due to Pierre. BUT THEY'RE OKAY - ISH.

It's a bit comical! I had fun ragdolling them. Emmet was going to be much more swingy in his attacks but I ended up not keeping it in since it just didn't look right when used as an animation frame.

We at least kept one of the rag-doll sprite as a "knock back" from Pierre. Which transitions well with his passed out sprite.

Until next time! Thank you for boarding!

[u-ntitled-s-eries]

A continuation of this scenario from @bellafragolina's Borrower/Tiny SubMas AU.

True to your word, you agreed to let Emmet tag along to work and topped off the day with a quick detour to browse the local hobby store.

-----

“Okay, I think it’s safe.”

Emmet pokes his head out from inside your jacket pocket, his eyes darting around to look at all the trains littered about the shop. He keeps one hand firmly gripped onto the fabric of your jacket, ready to duck and hide if another human so much as turns in your direction, but thankfully all he can see is one other customer at the other side of the store.

Models of all shapes and sizes are on display, tucked away in glass cases with bright lights shining down on them, and he can hear the whirring of a little motor running along a circle of tracks somewhere in the background. Maybe if he plays his cards right, you’ll agree to buy a new model. But which ones would pair best with the railway back home? Something that matches the landscape you designed. Or maybe it would be fun to try something entirely different.

You come to a stop, nearly sending poor Emmet tumbling out of your jacket with the unexpected jolt and making him look up in confusion. In front of him is a shelf lined end to end with boxes, each one depicting a picture of a plane.

“Have you ever heard of a fighter jet?” You ask, keeping your head low and voice soft. There’s a grin on your face, like your about to reveal a deep dark secret. He shakes his head, but he can guess what it is from just the name alone. When you laugh, he can feel you bump against him.

“My dad and I made one of these once, when I was a little kid.” You pluck the box from the shelf and bring it closer for Emmet to see. It’s hard to imagine you as a child; what you looked like, what you acted like, what you sounded like. Do you have any pictures he could see? “I remember it was massive, and we painted all the parts by hand. Just finishing the wings took forever.”

There’s a lot of words and terminology he doesn’t know the meaning of, but he listens to you mumbling the words like it’s a second language. You chuckle and mutter to yourself, “Wonder what he did with that thing... Probably collecting dust in a box somewhere, if he didn’t break it and throw it out.”

You reach to put the box back on the shelf, and Emmet tugs at your shirt.

“What is it?” You look around the store and pull your jacket, and Emmet, close to your chest.

“Can we get it?”

He doesn’t know how much the model you bought them cost - you joked that he and Ingo couldn’t pay you back even if you wanted them to - but he can hear you sigh at seeing the price tag. “Are you sure? Wanna make this our next project for the next… forever?”

He grins and nods his head. “Yep.”

“Alrighty then. Let’s get the paints while we’re here and then we’ll check out.” You shrug and tuck the box under your arm. “Never took you for a plane guy.”

The trains and cars stare back at Emmet mockingly as you continue through the store.

“I’m not.”

Next time, he thinks to himself, next time.

[lobsessed-fanl]

Emmet appreciation month!

Summary: Emmet loves bugs! Today he is looking for a Joltik!

Or read it below the cut!

Emmet and his starter,Tiny the Tynamo, were looking for more pokemon to add to his team! Emmet wanted to find some more electric or bug types because they are verrrry cute! And Emmet had recently learned about the perfect combination of the two! Joltik! Small, hopping little bug types. And they feed off of electricity! Tiny could feed them with his electric charges! It was perfect.

 So Emmet had snuck down to Chargestone cave while Ingo was out training Lavender, his Litwick. Emmet walked down there, avoiding the wild pokemon that weren’t Joltik. It was verrrry hard to find Joltik’s apparently, but Emmet was not going to let that deter him. He walked and walked, looking everywhere he could. But he couldn’t find one. Maybe they were all hiding, or maybe they were in the deeper part of the cave. 

So Emmet continued to look. Continuing and continuing until he got tired out from searching. As he stopped for a moment, and stood, listening to his surroundings. As he listened he heard some chirp-like sounds come from behind him. When he turned around, he saw them. At least 10 Joltik’s following him, playing with Tiny, and hopping around! They were right behind him the whole time! Emmet squeaked with joy as he shook his hands around with excitement, not being able to contain it all. As soon as he got all of the over-excitement out of his system, he sat down on the cave floor and held his hand out to the Joltiks.

“I am Emmet! I am going to try and become a trainer! I love bug and electric type pokemon! Would one of you like to join me and Tiny, and my twin brother Ingo on our journey?” Emmet asked, hopping one of the Joltiks would join Emmet. Soon, one of the Joltik’s hopped onto Emmet’s hand, and gave Emmet an excited look. Emmet had to stop himself from squealing with joy as he carefully stood up with the Joltik in his hand, and pulled out one of his empty pokeballs. He held the pokeball close to the Joltik, so the Joltik could enter it now if it wanted to. 

Soon enough, the Joltik pressed the button on the pokeball and entered it. A small green ring of light showed around the button of the pokeball with a ding sound, showing that the capture of the Joltik had been a success! Emmet hugged the pokeball close as he walked out of Chargestone cave. 

Emmet soon made it back to the campsite that Ingo and Emmet were at currently. Ingo was sitting outside, almost glaring at Emmet.

“Emmet, where were you?” Ingo asked.

“I am Emmet! I went to Chargestone cave!” Emmet said proudly.

“Alone?”

“… Tiny was with me. And I caught a Joltik!”

“You could have asked me to go with you. I was worried sick that something had happened to you! You didn’t even leave a note! What if you got kidnapped or something? Or if you got hurt out there alone and Tiny couldn’t protect you and I didn’t know where you were?” Ingo exclaimed as he rushed up to Emmet and gave him a hug. Ah, that was the problem. Ingo was worried. And they had made a deal to leave a note if the other was going out while one was gone. 

“I am verrrry sorry for forgetting to leave a note! I was extremely excited to try and find a Joltik! I didn’t think it would take that long, but at first I couldn’t find any, but then when I was exhausted and I turned around, there were ten behind me! TEN! I wish I could have brought all of them. But the little one that did come with me seems to be verrry excited to join me! And she is so small!” Emmet explained excitedly, bringing out the pokeball that held the Joltik, and tossed the pokeball so the Joltik would come out.

“Oh! You are right Emmet, she is small! Have you come up with a name for her yet?” Ingo said, his eyes widening in excitement as he studied the small pokemon. 

“Nope! As soon as I caught her I came here. But I have been thinking of some ideas!” Emmet said as he crouched down to get closer to the Joltik. “Hiii little Joltik! I am Emmet! We are trying to come up with a nickname you might like. Do you have any suggestions?” Emmet asked the Joltik. The Joltik seemed to ponder the question for a moment, but then went over to a flower and climbed into it.

“Oh! Maybe a flower name, Emmet! Hmm… Rosie? Maybe Sunflower? Ooh! Or Tulip!” Ingo said, listing off ideas, but the Joltik didn’t seem too inclined to any of them. 

“I am Emmet, what about Daffodil?” Emmet asked the Joltik, who looked at Emmet with glee in its eyes as it chirped happily and ran back over to Emmet, climbing up him to get to his hand. Emmet laughed a bit at this as his smile widened. “I am Emmet! I think she likes the name! Welcome, Daffodil, to the team!” Emmet said proudly as Ingo clapped. Daffodil made a happy Chirping sound. They then went to bed and prepared for their next step of their journey.

[twistedhypersonicnavigator]

Day 17: Crossover/AU

(I am no good at this kind of stuff so I guess I'll do a canon/one of my fics. 'Complete Mess' the only difference between one and the other is that Ingo and Emmet adopt a young girl who turns out to be an ancient pokemon thats almost extinct)

"Alright Lake...now remember you'll be getting off of the blue line today and not the red. You have a doctors appointment." Emmet told his younger adopted sister as she was going toward the exit for school. Emmet was fully planning on riding the train the rest of the way to the battle subway. He was scheduled today and Ingo was already there.

"You okay Emmet?" Emmet felt his younger sister put her hand in his and looked up at him. Those tender eyes watching his every move. Her face broke into a smile for him. The only person who has ever gotten Ingo to smile. Although she never saw it, and Ingo never knew Emmet had seen. Its why Emmet had begun to call it Ingo's secret smile.

"Coming upon Festival Avenue." One more stop and Lake would be at school. The lights overhead blinked and the train car slowly stopped.

"Whats going on?" "Why have we stopped?" "Was their an accident?" people around them in the full train car began to spout questions.

Emmet took his sisters hand once again and walked to the front of the car to look in at the controls. they were completely off. Normally the internal batteries would kick in and they'd at least keep going to the next stop.

Emmet opened the door using his boss key card and picked up the receiver.

"Mayday, Mayday. We are in the blue tram and we've stopped on the tracks. Power is out. Mayday Mayday..." He kept going, his other hand around his sisters shoulders as she leaned on him. She was afraid of the dark.

"Reading you loud and clear Emmet. We're sending someone to that location. Please insure everyone is seated and not panicking." Ingo was always afraid for the people.

"Don't worry Ingo everyone's calm, although asking a lot of questions. Even little Lake seems to be calm." Okay she wasn't calm in the least bit, she was shaking. But she wasn't crying.

"Who's Lake?" Ingo's inquiry shocked Emmet. He hoped that was a joke, It was Ingo who signed Lakes adoption papers. He was legally her father. He could see the troubled look on her face as the train car opened and Ingo stopped up onto the tram.

"Follow me." He turned to look at Emmet and he narrowed his eyes. He turned to look behind him. Emmet knew perfectly well this wasn't his brother, his brother had a receding hairline because of his time in Hisui. this one seemed brand new and no scars. this wasn't their Unova.

"We need to talk." Ingo's suave voice told him after the people left the car.

"Great..." Emmet mumbled holding Lake closer to his hip. her arms wrapped around his middle harder.

(Just in case anyone wants to read it.)

[princehoneytea]

i can finally tell the (almost) full team wish AU storyline since it was revealed in my campaign but i have no idea how to present all that info in a single post. im gonna have to make a sub-page on my website or something theres so much Lore and Other Peoples OCs i need a bit to get that somehow-presentable but heres a quick tldr

( cw: violence, death, toxic relationships )

btw i am cringe but i am free

tldr: emmet managed to capture jirachi for the purpose of wishing for ingo’s return, forcibly waking it from its slumber and pissing it off really bad. therefore it took an innocent comment of his while he was rambling to it and interpreted that as his wish, which locked himself and all of his depot agents in forced immortality for the past ~1000-ish years. oops

after this they all remain in their original timeline for approximately a century as they capture exceedingly rare/legendary pokemon (its not that hard when you have Forever and cant die, not to mention are an elite battle facility trainer) and team wish is conceived to fulfill the conditions of their “curse” and that’s when they take on their codenames, and emmet’s is COMET

comet carves Team Wish HQ into existence in a place between time and space using his pokemon. team wish hq is essentially a living organism that is identical to gear station, but it and everything within it is bleached white. from the platforms, the tunnels sprawl out forever and grow out like the roots of a tree - theyre fleshy (yes its gross!) and lead to different timelines they can venture to, which is how they get around

team wish is able to teleport individually (NOT between timelines) because comet caught the agent who is secretly a hoopa, hasan, in a pokeball and instructed him to capture his alternate selves and take their rings to provide to each agent - which he had no choice but to do

> ( art via ronny )

MAJOR EVENTS DURING THIS TIME (thus revealed): - the youngest agent, dit, and her caretaker scout - both ditto, of course - make a major mistake in which scout teaches them intangibility for protection. at the tail end of the century spent in their original timeline, dit loses control over this ability and ceases to exist. scout loses himself and has not been seen by other wish agents since then, presumably staying in hiding since his loss.

> ( art via thog )

- an incident incited by comet occurs in which agent lacerta is fused with her krookodile, creating the beast GEMINI whom is kept locked up in the catacombs - comet becomes close to administrator perihelion, whom is his best friend and only real confidant in the world due to his ability to see comet as a person - comet’s cousin, sagittarius, who had been in charge of keeping the agents in line, snaps around cycle 500 after the loss of his SO lacerta. he (temporarily) kills a large portion of agents and is consequently locked up in chains for a century before being let out and receiving technological implants both to empower him and keep him under administrator control

> ( art via delta )

- comet loses himself in despair around cycle 650, relentless optimism finally giving in, and becomes an uncontrollable force of nihilism and violence. he stops attempting to control his agents’ own violent tendencies and develops the Unfortunate Hobby of hunting cycle emmets for catharsis, projecting onto them A Bit Too Hard and believing them to be useless parasites clinging to ingo

> ( art via me lol )

- on one particular encounter, he was attacked from behind by ingo’s chandelure when he came to protect emmet, and comet was severely injured - enraged and hopelessly betrayed by ingo’s (rightful) behavior, comet ended up killing them both; an action which he still regrets. as he attempted to leave, he was killed by depot agent furze (shai), who witnessed the aftermath

> ( art via ena )

- after this event, horrified by his actions, comet has mellowed out considerably, sinking further into despair and edging away from the pointless violence. he, of course, cannot take back any of his cruel actions in past cycles, and now believes himself incapable of improvement (”i am bad, that is my nature, i cannot take anything back with just apologies” sort of thing) and thus does not truly attempt to improve (this is his major flaw tbqh) (he’s sort of like you know the ‘nothing in life matters’ pic with the sunglasses now? yeah thats about right) - throughout this entire time his relationship with his significant other pardalis (previously known as atticus, NOT the one from team star lol) gets increasingly worse on both of their behalves, with pardalis callously damaging him emotionally & comet refusing to accept pardalis as an individual; instead projecting this vision of “his atticus” onto a man who is no longer that person

> ( left to right: comet, sagittarius, pardalis; art via cloud )

------

to get into actual events of the rp. this cycle is number 1522. to keep it as brief as possible: it is significant because, firstly, they are interacting with this cycle’s depot agents (their other selves) much more often than usual. they keep being stuck together by unexpected events and many have developed emotional attachments. secondly, they have a lead on jirachi, not yet revealed. thirdly, comet is rather fond of them - especially shai - and has been shirking his responsibilities to “play house” with them.

in the most recent event, team wish’s secrets were revealed by dreams projected to both depot agents and team wish agents, caused by scout - the ditto who disappeared 900 years prior. comet is enraged like he hasn’t been in centuries and is terrifying team wish and depot agents alike with his wrath.

> ( my art lol )

pardalis, no longer willing to participate in the endless cycle of failure, defects from team wish - along with cetus and chamaeleon; as well as a few others who have yet to officially defect. the rest of team wish is operating on orders to locate and destroy scout while comet falls to pieces, no longer in control of his own actions, motivated solely by the fear of being left all alone and disregarding all consequences - he is a man who has nothing left to lose.

> ( art via delta )

..............anyway that’s the tldr. this is much longer than i meant it to be. haha team wish :) my rp is closed but im always completely ok with ppl making their own depot agents/wish agents for this au! anyway goodnight.

[a-land-lacking-sleep]

PLA/Submas Fic Electric Trains are the Future Chapter 17: A Two Car Train

Previous Chapter (16) - Current Chapter - Next Chapter I... Was going to have this out last week but didn't realize that my commissioned art was ready. But now we're here with the long awaited reunion! There is art in this chapter, drawn by the wonderful @alubearsworld! Currently working on Chapter 18 and a half dozen side projects, as well as possible stuff for Novembmas. For now, enjoy the chapter! Chapter Summary: Ingo wakes up and reconnects. Chapter Word Count: 4702 Chapter Note: There is a panic attack at the beginning, between two different dream sequences.

As always, read it below or over on AO3 with additional notes! Reblogs and comments are always enjoyed, but never feel pressured.

“Do you think that if I jump from here, I’ll clear the third rail?”

Ingo’s eyes refuse to open as Emmet asks his question, so he instead opts to give a verbal response. “We’re not like Uncle, Emmet, so I don’t think either of us could actually clear that leap.” He tries to lift his arm to gesture for emphasis, but his arm wouldn’t lift. Odd. “Even with rubber boots and a resistance built up by Fluffy and Tiny, you’d be fried.”

“Sigh. I am Emmet, and you are right. Let me go get a ramp.”

“Thank you for thinking of safety,” Ingo says, trying not to sound too smug as he hears Emmet walk away. “Oh, and can you grab food on the way back?

“Burger Kingler, got it. I’ll be back in a minute.”

…

It’s been nearly a day now, and Ingo has heard nothing from Emmet. He still cannot open his eyes, he still cannot move his arm. No matter what he does, he can’t get any movement, and he’s trapped here. Blind to it all.

He hears voices nearby. Elesa. Laventon? Maybe they know where Emmet has gone. If only he could get their attention, he needs to know what happened to his brother, and why he hasn’t returned yet. As Laventon’s voice gets further away, Elesa’s gets closer, and Ingo gathers together his strength to open his eyes and move.

“Emmet. Emmet, where is he?” He says, too fast and low to be properly heard as he latches onto Elesa’s hand, causing her to startle. “He said he was here, where is he?” He tugs her hand closer to his chest, squeezing it tight. “I heard him. Emmet’s here, where did he go?” His grip loosens and he starts looking around the room frantically. This isn’t the Subway. “He said he would be right back, and he hasn’t returned yet.”

This isn’t the Subway. Emmet is lost. I have to find him! Ingo lets go of Elesa’s hand and tries to move his legs off of the bed to stand, when Elesa grabs him by the waist and then pushes him down by the chest, avoiding the broken ribs. “No you don’t, you trainiac!” Heh. Trainiac. Good one.

“Emmet’s not here, Ingo.” No. No no no. Fear begins to take over Ingo’s mind as he tries to push against his girlfriend, to escape this bed, to escape the Medical Wing and find the Subway. And Elesa, to her credit, keeps him in place as she puts almost her entire weight on his chest. “Listen!” He can almost hear the worry in her voice. Why isn’t she worried about Emmet?! “Emmet’s not here, but it’s ok. You’re safe, we’re taking care of you.”

“Stop lying to me!” Ingo could feel the tears begin to form in his eyes, but with how Elesa was not caring about the situation, it was all that he could do to hold them back. “I know he’s here! He told me that he was going to grab a bite to eat and he would be right back.” Ingo’s breath catches as the tears begin falling down his cheeks. “Where is he, Elesa?”

As he begins to sob, Elesa pulls him into her for a hug, his head cradled against her neck. She was ice cold, like a ghost, pulling the heat from him like a ravenous fire-type. She holds him there for several moments, rubbing his back as he cries into her, his own arm wrapping around her the best it can. Finally, he pushes away from the hug, and looks at her with tear-filled eyes. “When will he be back?���

Elesa herself looks like she is about to break into tears, and gently places a hand on his cheek. “I don’t know, Ingy. But I’ll wake you up when I find out, ok?” It takes a moment for Ingo to process the words before he nods and leans back, wincing at the pain of his shoulder. Oh right, I broke that. “Get some rest. I’ll talk to Pesselle about getting you some medicine.”

Ingo simply nods again, his eyes already closing from the exhaustion of his outburst. As he drifts off, he tries to ignore the sound of Elesa quietly sobbing.

—

“Come on Ingo, it’s not that bad!” Emmet says as he slides down the slope of Twist Mountain. “Uncle Clay says they haven’t started mining!” Ingo hesitates as he watches his younger twin descend towards the center of the mountain’s pit, the dust and gravel being kicked up behind him and staining his white t-shirt and shorts. 

Since starting their Pokémon journey through the Gyms, the two had separated on their paths from Elesa, who went south as they went north. And as such, the person holding Emmet’s impulse control was currently in Nacrene, while Ingo was stuck wanting to join his brother… but terrified of the height. “Surely there is a simpler way, Emmet!” Ingo’s voice easily carries down the pit to his brother, who simply laughs as he makes it to the bottom and turns to wave at him. “That is quite the distance, I think I’ll find another way down!”

Down below, Emmet cups his hands to his mouth, managing to get just enough projection to be audible from Ingo’s position. “Scaredy Skit!” Though Ingo couldn’t see it, he was sure that Emmet was smiling like an Electrode. “There’s stairs across the pit! You might make it before I finish talking to Clay!”

Ingo squares his jaw and snorts, his frown deepening as he approaches the edge of the walkway. Looking down, the actual slope was clear, though it was a long 40 foot trip to take, with maybe a 75° angle? Not the smartest safety check from his brother, but he made the journey without derailing, so there is some merit to the tracks. 

He just has to avoid the hole behind Emmet, which should be easy, considering he stopped with almost 5 feet to spare.

With a deep breath, Ingo steps to the edge of the walkway and steps off, letting gravity take him down. He crouches low, holding an arm behind him as he leans back to help balance on the descent. While the pit walls are clear of major debris, that doesn’t mean that they are sheer or completely clean, as Ingo can feel small rocks or bumps under his feet threatening to throw him off the tracks. But he was rapidly approaching Emmet, who… Wasn’t moving from his cheering spot, directly in Ingo’s path. 

“MIND THE RAILS!” Ingo shouts, startling not only Emmet, but Clay as the latter leaves his office across the hole, who nearly leaps from his boots. But even with the warning, Emmet can only frantically look around for a place to move to before the inevitable high speed collision. 

“Danger!” Emmet shouts as Ingo barrels into his legs.

—

Ingo wakes up much softer than he had expected, softly coming to a stop in the station rather than the hard brake the last few times he had awoken. His eyes still closed, he gently reaches his right hand out and finds Elesa’s hand, squeezing it and sighing. He could also feel someone laid on his other side, an arm laying across his stomach – Likely Akari, though he’s never known the girl to wear a hat, especially while she was asleep.

It takes a few more minutes of relaxing there, idly running a thumb over the back of Elesa’s hand, for Ingo to turn his head and open his eyes. As expected, Elesa was leaning over to her left in her chair, her left hand having just been resting on his bed while she slept sitting up. Ingo squints his eyes and laughs as soft as he can, to both not wake her, but also not aggravate what he could feel was perhaps a floating rib from the fall. Looking past her, he notes that the sun has begun to rise. Early morning, then.

He starts to scan across the room, more on instinct from the last few years than anything, and stops when he sees a young Trainer that he has never seen before curled up in a chair in the corner of the room, a Decidueye, a proper Alolan Decidueye unlike Akari’s Lekki, perched up on top of the chair. At first Ingo thought the Decidueye was asleep like its Trainer, but after a moment, it raised its head and stared back at Ingo with yellow eyes. Ingo slowly raises his left hand and waves at it, and the Decidueye shakes itself, and begins to preen the feathers under its wings, apparently deeming him uninteresting. Ingo had to disagree, but unfortunately, his cab was in no condition to go inspect the Pokemon up close.

With a huff, Ingo shakes his head and looks over to Akari to ruffle her ha-

Emmet?

The hand that was going to gently ruffle hair instead shoves Emmet’s hat to the side and roughly pushes his twin’s head around. “Emmet!” Ingo hisses, keeping his voice low through his teeth. “Emmet, wake up!”

Emmet groans, the arm that was draped across Ingo raising and moving slightly, gently slapping against the blanket a few times before landing on Ingo’s and Elesa’s hands. “5 more minutes, brother. I am verrrry tired…” As Emmet buries his face deeper into Ingo’s side, Ingo does not take that for an answer and jostles his twin’s head even more.

“Wake up, Emmet,” Ingo says, his voice slow and deliberate. “Wake up, or I’m telling Mother you overfed Skrunchie the day we had to take her to the vet.”

The reaction was admittedly faster than Ingo had intended, with Emmet only lying there for a few seconds before shooting up straight in his seat and pointing at him with bleary eyes. “I didn’t overfeed her on purpose! You gave her too many treats and didn’t tell me!”

The silence hangs for a brief moment as Ingo frowns at Emmet like a Skitty trying to not show the feathers in its mouth and Emmet staring at him like a Hoothoot at the midday sun. After a moment, though, Emmet breaks into manic motion as he first points at Ingo with a wide open mouth, then flailing wildly before grabbing his hat and slapping it against the bed a few times,, then finally leaning against his brother and giving him a very gentle hug. “I am Emmet, and I forgive you for bringing up Skrunchie, because you are Ingo and you are here!”

Ingo laughs, and pulls his good arm out from under his brother to hug him back. “We, Ingo and Emmet, are a two-car train,” Ingo says softly into his brother’s hat, his own eyes screwed shut as he feels his brother begin to softly sob into his chest, tears beginning to form in his own eyes. “I did not mean to uncouple our cars, Emmet, and I am so glad you were able to find me. Are you ok? You sound ragged.”

“You won’t like the answer. Not at all,” Emmet says with a laugh, finally pulling away with misty eyes. “I am Emmet, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in 3 months!”

“No, I don’t like that answer at all!” Ingo shouts, causing the Decidueye in the corner to angrily flap its wings and Elesa to stir in her chair. “You should be in bed, asleep! Actually asleep, and not just passing out on me like in middle school!” Ingo gently pushes himself up, laughing under his breath as he nods over at the other bed. “It’s not too late in the morning, go lay down and sleep.”

“I am Emmet, and I am staying up now,” his brother says as he sits back up in his chair, raising his arms above his head and popping his back. “Besides, we got here around midnight, so I got some sleep, yup.” Despite that, Emmet yawns as he reaches down to pick up his hat, and tosses it over onto Elesa’s head, jolting her awake.

“Skitters, get out of the candy, it’s mine!” Elesa flails for a moment, causing the hat to fall down her face as the Decidueye glares at her, its trainer still sleeping (un)comfortably in their chair. After a moment, she is able to refocus, and sees Ingo looking at her with a barely contained frown, and leaps up from her chair. “You’re finally awake, Deerling!” She quickly and gently fills the void Emmet had just left on Ingo’s bed, wrapping her arms around him and putting her face against his chest.

“I am!” Ingo says, planting a kiss on the top of Elesa’s head. “And I woke up to quite a surprise.”

“I am Emmet,” Emmet says smugly, nodding as he instinctively reaches out for some non-existent coffee, sighing when he grabs the empty air. “I miss coffee, though. Even while traveling, I at least had that routine.”

“Well, the stuff Zisu has isn’t the best, but it’s coffee,” Ingo says, looking back to his brother as he begins stroking Elesa’s head as she begins to doze back off. “Though I could kill for some Third Rail Coffee, I’ve come to miss that since Elesa returned.”

“I am Emmet, and I have bad news, brother,” Emmet says, sighing heavily as he leans forward. “They closed the one on our route to the station. Now only the one in Blueberry Academy Nimbasa is open.” Ingo stops stroking Elesa’s hair and stares at Emmet with a wide mouth, causing Emmet to chuckle morosely. “Yup! It has ruined my commute and I cry daily.”

“Now he goes to Staryubucks, like a plebeian,” Elesa sleepily says, staying snuggled to Ingo’s chest. “And he complains about how sweet it is.”

“I am Emmet, and their coffee sucks!” Emmet cries out, throwing his hands into the air in unison with the main door of the building slamming shut. “They’re the only ones open at 5am on my early days, which is every day now! And they have bad bagels! Frozen, and then thrown in a microwave to pretend to be hot!”

The door to the medical bay opens as Akari backs into the room with several plates of potato mochi, picking up on the conversation. “Wait, are you all talking about St. Marc’s? Cause their ChocoCros kinda su-” She stops when she notices Ingo sitting up, politely waving at her, and her eyes immediately widen and fill with tears. “Uncle Ingo!!” 

The Decidueye trills loudly (How the young trainer hasn’t woken up, Ingo is unsure) as Akari drops the plates onto the table and rushes Ingo’s bed. Elesa, unfortunately, doesn’t move in time and is whacked by the teenager as she throws her arms around Ingo. “Foul!” Elesa whines, sitting up reluctantly. “10 yard penalty, Akari.”

“I brought you food, foul overturned,” Akari quickly says, holding onto Ingo tight, a few inches below the broken ribs thankfully. As Ingo begins to pat her on the back, he can feel her shaking slightly as she holds back tears. “I’m sorry, Uncle… It’s all my fault we went up there.”

“Not necessarily,” Ingo says quietly, his voice only filling their half of the room rather than the entirety. “I could’ve told you no, but I trusted you, because you’ve given me every reason to trust you.”

“But I knew where to go!” She counters into his stomach. “And I could’ve just gone to Arceus and He would’ve been able to get us home!”

“After you did a test, right?” Ingo says sternly. “And you might have been taken home right then. Would that have been the track you desired?” He feels her shake her head, and pats the back of her head. “I didn’t think so.”

The conversation halted, though, as Pesselle cleared her throat for the doorway of the Medical Hall. “I’m glad you’re awake, Ingo! Mayhaps we can work on redressing your wounds soon?”

Ingo clears his throat, and looks over at Elesa. “Perhaps you and Akari can go grab some coffee for yourselves and Emmet? I’m sure Zisu wouldn’t mind sharing?” To his credit, when both of them gave him glares, he didn’t flinch at all. “Emmet hasn’t seen me in years, he can stay.”

“Yes! I am Emmet, and I get to stay. And watch my brother’s bandages get chan-” Emmet’s smug smile falters for a second, quickly looking at the bit of dried blood on the bandages on Ingo’s head. “Bandages get changed. With wounds underneath. Elesa, can I come with?”

Elesa snickers as she rounds the bed, and kisses Emmet’s forehead. “No dice, Dar-klink. You make sure he’s good to Miss. Pesselle, and I’ll get Elio some coffee so they don’t complain. Deal?” Emmet sighs and nods, and Elesa lifts his chin up to give him a proper kiss. “I’ll bring you some honey as well. Love you.”

“Love you too, Ellie,” Emmet says with a soft smile as the two girls leave. With a sigh, he looks back at Ingo, noticeably looking at his nose as Pesselle begins unwrapping the bandages around Ingo’s forehead. “What did we ever do to deserve her?”

“Make her classrooms more interesting?” Ingo says with a quirk of his lips. “The both of us always goofing off or having seemingly inane conversations helped keep her awake for class.”  He winces slightly as Pesselle begins cleaning the wound on his forehead. 

Emmet chuckles softly, then picks Ingo’s hat up from the table behind him. “Here, let me introduce you to Elio.” He holds the hat by the brim, lines up the shot, and tosses it like a Frisbee at Elio’s head, like he had with Elesa a little bit before. And with an unerring aim, the hat lands directly on the young teen’s face, getting a delayed reaction from them as they shake their head and then jolt up, disturbing the Decidueye above them.

“Auē!” Ingo has to suppress a chuckle as Elio flails briefly in their chair while Pesselle reaches across him and swats at Emmet. “Uncle Emmet, what was that for?!” The Decidueye above them leaps from the top of their chair, flapping once to keep in the air before landing next to Emmet, giving him a dead, yet pointed, glare.

“I am Emmet. Ingo wanted to meet you,” Emmet says without a hint of remorse as he reaches over to gently stroke the Decidueye’s cowl. “Besides, Sorel was mother henning you. That perch wasn’t good for him.”

“You also have coffee coming your way,” Ingo says as he leans forward to let Pesselle undo the sling around his shoulder. His eyes crinkle slightly as sparks enter Elio’s eyes at the prospect of coffee. “But nice to meet you, young Elio.”

“Hold up, let me help you!” Elio says really quickly, leaping from their chair and dashing to Pesselle’s side. “If I’m gonna chat with Uncle’s brother, then I should probably help.”

As Elio reaches for Ingo’s arm, however, they are held back by Pesselle. “I can handle this, child. I think the best way for you to help would be to keep Ingo awake.”

Elio blinks for a moment, before a smile hits their face and they nod enthusiastically. “Of course!” 

As Elio resituates themself onto the foot of the bed, Ingo nods and gives them a point. “I am the Highlands Warden, Ingo. And who am I having the pleasure of speaking to?”

Elio’s smile widens, and they slap a hand against their chest. “I’m Elio Nozawa, the first Champion of the Alola League!” As they proclaim this, their Decidueye trots around the bed and gives a squawk as it leans past its trainer. “And this is my trusted partner, Sorel!”

“The first Champion, at such a young age?” Ingo says in shock as he looks over to Emmet, who’s nod is mirrored in the teen. “Bravo!” Ingo nearly shouts as he turns back towards the trainer, then winces a little at the pain from his ribs. “Yes, yes, I know I overdid it,” he says, raising his good hand to hold off the scolding from Pesselle.

Elio and Emmet share a laugh at Ingo’s expense before the teenager picks back up. “You have almost as much energy as Uncle Professor,” Elio wheezes out between their laughter. “He was so excited when I whooped him at Lanakila!” They throw their hands into the air and lean back before putting on an exaggerated tone. “‘Woooo! You did it kid! You’re the first Champion, woooo!’”

Now it was Ingo and Pesselle’s turn to laugh, both trying to hold it in as the doctor worked on cleaning the wounds on Ingo’s back. “Sounds like a shoe-in for the Security Corp, knowing Zisu,” Pesselle says, her smile widening.

“Assuredly,” Ingo responds, his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. As the four of them calm their laughter down, Ingo sighs and looks over at Emmet. “So, now that you’re here, what is the plan?”

Emmet hums slightly as he brings his hand up and taps his chin in thought. “Well, we don’t plan on staying. I am Emmet. I am a Subway Boss, and there are no trains here.” Both brothers chuckle in unison before Emmet shakes his head. “I came to get Elesa. Cynthia came for Hi- for Akari.”

“And me?” Ingo asks out of curiosity, quirking an eyebrow.

Emmet purses his lips for a moment and sighs. “It’s up to you. We… We had begun moving on.” He presses his hand up against his mouth  for a moment before continuing. “If you chose to stay behind, that’s fine. But… I am Emmet. I want you home. Mom wants you home.”

“And I want to go home, if I’m able,” Ingo says softly, looking away from Emmet out the window as Pesselle goes to throw away the only bandages. “I would desperately miss my life here, but…” He sighs heavily before leaning back against his pillow. “Ever since Elesa arrived, I’ve been wanting to return home more than ever. Before, it was a longing for an unknown, and now…”

“Now it’s staring you in the face?” Elio says as Ingo drops off, causing the older trainer to nod silently. “I guess I get that,” they continue as they reach over and stroke Sorel’s cowl as the Pokemon stands vigil at the end of Ingo’s bed. “When my friend Lillie left for Kanto after my League Championship, it was terrifying for my friend Hau. He was so sure that she would be in danger in a place so different from Alola.”

Elio coaxes their Decidueye to the side of the bed and begins pruning it as they continue to speak. “But then Lillie called us on our Rotom Phones, and we saw that she was perfectly fine.” They smile, and look up at Ingo. “When it’s all in your head, it feels fake and surreal. But when it’s in your face, you see it for what it is, and it changes what you feel.” Elio finishes up on Sorel’s hood before letting it wander back to its place. “Of course, Hau still went to Kanto on the next boat. He told me just before I left for Unova that they were camping out by Cerulean.”

Emmet was beaming at the young Trainer, and Ingo’s eyes were closed in contentment as Elio talks. After Elio becomes absorbed in their own story and Ingo finds the chance, he beckons his brother over to continue their conversation. “I want to go home, but I can’t just disappear without warning. I need to speak to Lady Irida.”

“The girl in pink?” Emmet asks, holding his hands above his head in an approximation of Irida’s head piece. Ingo nods, and Emmet nods in response. “Yup! I met her this morning. She had to go back to the Settlement. Starly came in with a message for her about a Sneasel.”

“Sneasel?” Ingo asks, his brows furrowing into a true frown for a moment. “I hope nothing is wrong with Sneasler. My Lady just had a litter several months ago, so I doubt she would be having another so soon.” Before he could continue the thought, Ingo has to pause and let out a loud and drawn out yawn.

“Looks like my big brother won’t be getting coffee,” Emmet snickers as he leans back into his chair. “Yup! He’ll have to miss out.”

“He wouldn't be able to have any stimulants anyway,” Pesselle says as she comes back into the room. “I have him on a few medications right now, and I don’t want them diluted by coffee.”

“The curse of injuries,” Emmet muses with a shrug and a shake of his head. “Guess I’ll just have to enjoy it for you, yup!”

“You don’t like Arabica,” Ingo shoots back with a glare. “You always want Robusta. So suffer, Emmet.” As Emmet’s face falls into a look of abject fear, Ingo’s own curls into a mischievous frown, his eyes crinkling almost shut.

“It’s still coffee,” Elio says innocently as they look between the twins before standing up from Ingo’s bed. As both twins turn to fix them with a glare, though, the Trainer quickly throws their hands up and backs away. “But I guess it matters! I guess it matters.”

“It does, yup!” Emmet says as he shakes his head and gets up to retrieve his hat that was still by Elio’s chair. “And I guess I’ll have to deal with it. Arabica was always Ingo and Volo’s deal.” As Emmet swats his hat to get the dirt from the floor off of there, he turns to face Ingo and pauses, seeing the glare that his twin had. “I am Emmet. Did I say something wrong?”

“I don’t remember a Volo in Nimbasa before I left,” Ingo says softly, a slow burning anger beginning to form behind his eyes. “And the only Volo I know attempted to kill our niece on top of a mountain.”

“The only one I know regrets that,” Emmet starts, putting his hat back on with a huff. “He made a promise.”

“I don’t care if he made a promise, Emmet,” Ingo says, his tone getting sharper. “That man tried to kill our niece. If you think I’m going to be ok with him being he-”

“Giratina threatened to eat him,” Emmet shoots back, his eyes briefly leaving Ingo’s to shoot a glare at Elio to stop them from correcting him, then back at Ingo. “I broke his nose. I think.” He swivels his head towards Elio in full, tilting slightly in confusion. “I am Emmet. Did I break Volo’s nose?”

Elio stands there for a second, their head swiveling between the two twins who both held very intense expressions respectively. After a moment, Elio swallows and speaks up, “If I say yes, will that calm you both, Uncle?”

“I am the Warden Boss Ingo,” Ingo interjects before Emmet can jump in, “and I say no. That man shouldn’t be here. In fact!” With a small grunt, Ingo moves to the side of the bed and tries to swing his legs off, only for Pesselle to grab his leg and push it back onto the bed, giving him a silent, threatening glare.

As Ingo crosses his arms and hmphs in annoyance, Emmet puts a hand over his mouth to hide his giggle before his brother could see it. “I think that may be a good place to end this. You are getting feisty, yup!”

Ingo whips his head back toward Emmet, about to shoot something back before being cut off by Rei entering from Cyllene’s room. “Hey, the Commander wants to talk to the travelers upstairs,” he says quickly, looking at Emmet and then Elio. “Elesa and Akari took the coffee upstairs already, and Cynthia and Volo are waiting there.”

It took all of Ingo’s willpower, bolstered by Pesselle’s fiery gaze, to stay in place. Coughing into his fist, he says “I believe I’m going to sleep.” He pauses for a moment, then looks up at Emmet with a crinkle at the corner of his eyes. “And I’ll see you later, little brother.”

[sunshine-vx]

Across Space, Time and Dreams (ASTaD) (Ch. 19- Part 1 of 2)

(Blankshippers DNI)

(Please refer to the beginning of chapter 1 post for complete list of CWs/TWs)

(I don't have an illustration for this chapter (reason why will be elaborated on in an extra notes section), but here's a link to some W.I.Ps for the animation that is going to be for ch. 19! (My apologies for the poor quality) (Reason why the animation isn't complete will also be elaborated on) Huge thank you to @moonlightalpha666 for helping me with this animation!)

(Reblogs are appreciated!)

(Extra notes (sorry this is so long): Hello everyone! This is Sunshine-VX!

So. The last chapter update was in May. And now it's November- half a year later.

First and foremost, I want to apologize- not for taking my time, but to anyone I've let down for taking so long. Last chapter update, I told you all I'd be making an animation for chapter 19, and that it would take a while. At the time, I had decided I wanted to post the complete animation alongside chapter 19, so I wouldn't post chapter 19 until the animation was complete. Unfortunately, I greatly overestimated myself in my ability to get what I wanted to done in a timeframe I saw as ideal. Low motivation, distractions, school, etc. have unfortunately caused the animation to take more time. And it will likely take another notable chunk of time.

That being said- The animation WILL be completed, in time. As I've promised many times, this fic, this project, will ultimately be completed- even if it takes literal years to do so.

I've ultimately decided, with the help of some of yall on a poll, that I'm going to try and continue to update my fic while working on the animation at the same time, instead of posting chapter 19 and continuing to update my fic only when the animation is complete. Obviously, with updating the fic being added to things to do, the animation will take longer to complete, and updates themselves will likely take a bit longer to complete. But again, as I keep saying, both the animation and this fic will be completed!

I also apologize for the fact that there's no illustration for this fic, I didn't have time, but I am again going to post some W.I.Ps of the animation for yall to see! Here's the link!

Lastly, I once again want to give @moonlightalpha666 a shoutout! She's been helping me immensely with the animation and a few other things with the chapter, and they've just been an amazing co-author in general!

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now- if anything else comes to mind, I will edit this. Thank you all so, SO much for being so patient and understanding- and of course, for reading! I'll see you all next time!

Now! Onto chapter 19!)

-

Ingo slowly opened his eyes. After a moment of feeling disoriented, he realized; he had jumped through the portal with Emmet! He was going to his origin world!

Was he there? Where was Emmet? Chandelure? The rest of their Pokémon?

Ingo quickly sat up and looked around, before all his excitement shattered in an instant, and the color drained from his face. 

No.

He had once again woken up within his dreams; he was standing in a void, completely dark and empty. There was a floor beneath him, although he could not see it.

He was in a place where he'd call out to see if anyone would respond. Nothing.

He was in a place where a moment later, he'd feel a presence. Such a familiar, important presence. 

He was in a place where he'd try to investigate it, and it would always escape him, even if he was on the verge of finding it.

A white blur, a smile…a purple blur, a Pokémon…

…Emmet..? .….Chandelure....? 

Ingo got onto his feet and turned to look at his side, then whirled around, looking at every angle possible in the endless nothingness that consumed his surroundings. Once he had turned every-which-way, Ingo stopped, and he felt his position droop as a horrible feeling grew in his stomach.

Where were they? 

No. 

Why was he here? 

He had met them. The presences in his dreams. His family, his best friends. Emmet. Chandelure. His whole first Pokémon team! The hours before now, they had been clearer to him than ever before.

So why was he still here? 

Why?

Ingo felt himself beginning to spiral. His breathing became unsteady. He began to raise his arms, hesitating for a moment, before they were up to his chest. He fidgeted as the pit in his stomach began to feel even worse.

Why was he still being tormented by the ghost of a loved one long forgotten? Why was he still being plagued by the burden of not knowing where to belong? 

Ingo's eyes welled with tears, balling his hands into fists. What if he woke up, and they weren't there? What if he woke up, and all those things had never happened? What if he woke up, and it had all turned out to be a lie?

So many questions, and no answers presented to him now.

And so Ingo cried. He curled his one arm around himself, lowering his head and using his other arm to pull his hat down, as he often did when he was upset. Ingo closed his eyes and wept, unknowing if anyone would ever hear him. 

Tears fell off his face, and into the black abyss at his feet. 

And although Ingo, with his eyes closed, was unable to observe this, his tears made impact with the floor as if it was water, making ripples in the ground like rain hitting the surface of a lake, the impact and the ripples that came with a golden cognition, transforming into bright, colorful waves, before vanishing. It made the most gentle sound, echoing.

Plk-king…

And then, after a few agonizing moments, Ingo felt warmth on his face, the darkness created by his closed eyes being threatened by…light?

Such a sparse glow.

But light nonetheless. Growing.

Ingo opened his eyes to look at the lower part of the void around him.

And there was…something else.

Something beautiful.

Thin light danced around Ingo's feet, and splashed around non-existent walls in the corners of his eyes, almost as if they were trying to create some sort of harmony, trying to show him something. Triangles, squares, forming. He moved, one step, then another, more golden, colorful ripples lighting up the floor from underneath his shoes, as if he was walking on water. 

Ingo stared in awe, blinking after a moment. He looked up, before being overwhelmed by the sight before him.

The dancing glows had become even brighter, and was painting something before Ingo that he could begin to understand.

A shaking triangle swayed its way into the shape of a tree. An unstable square whirled into becoming a building. There was a strange but comforting shape of a fantastic structure that spilled water endlessly. Ingo saw the shape of a path underneath him, with the texture of grass right to its side. He even began to, even if barely, see the shapes of what seemed to be people and Pokémon begin to form. 

This happened again and again. One building gave off a nostalgic vibe, as if he had visited it endless times; it was bright, in a way that was exciting. Another was a round dome, and if Ingo could hear anything other than wind and chimes, he was sure he would hear laughter and cheering.

He could even see a large, tall shape, a circle that carried smaller shapes in a moving fashion. 

Thin, shapeless waves of color capered around the terrain. Small, big, hyper, mellow. 

Ingo felt a wind on his back, and he blinked again, turning around. 

He heard a voice before his eyes could process anything, feeling a hand on his shoulder. Everything suddenly felt different.

"Ingo! I am Emmet, are you okay?"

"Lure, Chandelure, chan!"

Ingo gasped silently, and there they were. Emmet smiling brightly, Chandelure floating playfully beside him.

Ingo turned, once again inspecting the scene around him, and the dancing colors had finally painted their picture; a city. One Ingo felt he belonged in. 

Ingo stood on the pavement, grass surrounding it. There were a few water fountains beside the corners of the streets. He was standing beside a building that was colored corner to corner in bright light. Ingo for some reason knew this was a place where Pokémon battles took place along with fun activities. He often visited a loved one here. 

Then, the dome. It had many bright symbols on it, sounds like that of a party emitting from it. 

There were people and Pokémon walking down the streets, in and out the buildings. He felt he could almost recognize them, just almost, but not quite.

That was okay. He would soon.

He knew he would.

There was so much more, but Ingo had the urge to look down at his hands. He brought them up to the level of his chest, carefully, examining them.

Two, perfect, unripped white gloves, and two complete sleeves with large cuffs completely intact. His warden bracelet was no longer there, and he no longer felt the stress on his body from his time in Hisui.

Ingo flexed his hands, curling his fingers and then stretching them. 

Yes. They were his. Different, but they were his. 

Ingo faced Emmet, and spoke,

"Yes, I am okay, just got a bit lost in thought."

Emmet opened his mouth to respond, 

"You know what would take our minds off of things? The Ferris Wheel!"

Emmet pointed in an all-too familiar fashion towards that towering structure- a peculiar, spinning contraption that carried small, sightseeing cabins, decorated in multicolored lights; The Ferris Wheel, one of the city's most famous attractions.

And without knowing exactly why, Ingo vocalized,

"But Emmet, I thought you preferred the Pokémon Competitions."

Emmet laughed, 

"I do! But I want to try the Ferris Wheel this time? How about it?"

Ingo thought for a moment, not knowing what he was thinking, but whatever it was, he was content with it.

"I actually think that would be quite fun!"

Emmet nodded before grabbing Ingo's hand and dashing forward

"Woah!"

Then, something flashed before Ingo's vision. A quick recall of one of his newest memories; Ingo with Emmet at his side, his and Emmet's Pokémon herding around him. They all cried, but they all were filled with joy. 

It was from just the other day, when Ingo had reunited with Emmet and their Pokémon teams.

Then, Ingo woke up, his face wet with tears, more threatening to fall down his face.

He woke up.

He was inside a tunnel. Emmet and Chandelure were right at his sides, Emmet's hand grabbing Ingo's, leaning against his older brother and the tunnel wall at the same time, and one of Chandelure's appendages wrapped around Ingo's other arm, resting on the tunnel floor. Ingo couldn't quite tell if they were awake or asleep, but Emmet was smiling, Chandelure's flames crackling warmly and with peace. 

Ingo just stared for a moment, before he felt Emmet move at his side. Ingo snapped his attention to his brother, seeing that his younger brother was now awake. Tears rolled down Emmet's face, although he smiled.

"Emmet…?"

Emmet opened his eyes, smiling still. He wiped his tears away and chuckled. 

"Ingo."

Ingo then heard some wispy, clinking sounds from his other side. He turned to see that Chandelure had also woken up. 

Ingo thought for a moment, before he turned to Emmet again. 

"Emmet, did…did you have a strange dream…?"

Emmet's smile changed, although it did not falter.

"I did."

"Can you tell me what it was about?" Ingo asked.

Emmet thought for a moment, before beginning to explain.

"I was in..a void. I could not even see any walls or a floor. Although I could still stand."

Ingo nodded, "My dream was like that, too."

Emmet continued, "And I have had this dream ever since you disappeared. …Have your dreams been like that for a long time?"

Ingo once again replied in the affirmative, "Yes. Ever since I landed in Hisui."

Emmet hummed to himself, "When I was in that void…you would appear often. Except far away. Distorted. Out of reach. I would try to get your attention, to get to you..but you would always disappear. And even if I did get to you…I could not interact with you. You could not hear me, nor feel me. Nothing. Sometimes I swear you would notice me if not for just a second, but ultimately, you did not know I was there."

Ingo felt his shoulders sink.

"My dreams were like that…in a way. Except it was almost the opposite as well. I'd be in a void, too. I'd be alone. But I'd always begin to feel such a familiar presence..such important ones..but no matter how much I called out for someone, no matter how much I searched…I could never find it. At times, I swear I'd see or feel something. A white blur, a smile. A purple blur, a Pokémon…you and Chandelure…..but I'd never be able to get to you."

"Was this dream different? Before you woke up just now?" Ingo asked Emmet.

"It was."

"Can you tell me how?"

-

-

Chapter 18

Chapter 19 (part 2 of 2)

[prisonicmorality]

I don't care what you think.

Volo listened to every word though he didn't need to. Everything Emmet said was things he already knew and had long since come to terms with. He stared up at him, expression flat and seemingly unfazed as Emmet read him with the same words as everyone else ever had in his life.

I'm not blaming you, or trying to make myself feel better by hurting people. It doesn't make me feel better to do this. I just wanted--

What did he want?

What did he want out of giving Emmet that stupid fucking piece of cake? Nothing, really. He opened his mouth, but only a shallow, quiet breath came out.

--I just wanted to say thank you. Why can't I ever just say that? And why can't you, who claim to know me so well, see that's what I wanted to say? Why did you have to immediately call me stupid and look down on me again?

A laugh followed that breath, and a smile spread across his face. Innocent, calm. Even though his hands were shaking and he was so blindingly angry that he wanted to throw the stupid cup at his damned head, he pushed all of that down. Down, down, down. Enough that he could put a smile on his face.

That was always the problem, wasn't it?

"Ha-- you got me, Detective. How shallow of me to believe that I could pull the wool over your eyes and trick you into thinking I was capable of caring about someone else."

He wanted to say more than that, ask him if he had ever stopped to look in a mirror with those accusations or if he was tired of projecting. He wanted to say so much more. Ask so much more.

Does it make you feel whole to project onto me? Does it make you feel better about yourself if you have someone worse than you around? Do you get some kind of relief from yourself by putting yourself on some pillar of morality over me?

But what was the point in arguing? It didn't make him feel any better, despite what Emmet thought. He couldn't stand there anymore with Emmet so close and looking down on him as always had - as everyone always had. If he didn't leave and put distance and time between them, he'd never keep the venomous words from coming out again.

Volo didn't say anything further, just dropped the cup into the sink and pushed past Emmet to get to the front door. Ripping his coat and hat off the hanger, he pulled them on, followed quickly by his boots.

"Anyway. Dinner's in the fridge. Eat it or don't, I don't care." He said with forced calmness as he grabbed his ever-packed backpack away from the wall and slung it over a shoulder. He just wanted to get drunk and lose himself for a bit. Give both Emmet and himself a chance to calm down and then they'd go back to ignoring each other or irritating each other in less personal ways.

He glared back with half-lidded eyes as he allowed Volo a chance to start over, but he only narrowed his gaze further at the response he received, nose twitching in indignation. Emmet wasn't sure which narrative he hated more. Volo's initial declaration just felt so dismissive- inappropriately poking fun at a serious situation, like giving a roast to the deceased at their own funeral. It allowed himself to build himself up as this self important, virtuous, self-sacrificing figure while painting Emmet as if he was just a petulant child holding a grudge because things hadn't gone his way.

The revision wasn't any better. Volo was still acting like an overly righteous martyr- woe is him for trying so hard for someone who didn't even appreciate all of the effort he was putting in to be so kind to him. Poor Volo having to deal with miserable, pathetic little Emmet who just chose to remain unhappy for no reason. Volo wasn't taking anything seriously- not in the way he should have been. He was too focused on himself. What, did he expect Emmet to thank him? To praise him for being so saintly as to set aside his oh so important time for someone as insignificant as Emmet and his missing brother? It was as if he expected Emmet to just get over it- like it wasn't a big deal, and he was being the dramatic and unreasonable one.

He scoffed, glancing down towards the dessert and feeling nauseous as did his best to tune Volo out so he could rationally sort through his own thoughts and emotions. "No." He absently responded. "Obviously, I did not want you to say that. I did not want you to say anything. You didn't have to say anything. You are not being nice. You aren't funny. And you are not being honest. Stop lying. You don't care about sparing my feelings." He remained expressionless as he moved to discard the plate's contents into the trash, stepping closer to Volo and meeting his gaze once he'd done so.

"All you care about is yourself. You want to feel better about yourself, but you want someone else to put in the work for you. I don't know why. It does not matter, and I do not care. Allow me to explain something to you. Listen verrrry carefully so you remember. Your self-worth is not my responsibility. I am not your friend. Whatever validation you are looking for, I cannot and will not give you. Even if I did, you would still feel empty. I will not be enough to make you feel whole. Lashing out at me is a temporary fix. A detour. All detours come to an end. It is easy to blame someone else- it is so much easier than admitting that maybe what is actually wrong with you is just you." He released a deep, exasperated breath after he was finished with his impromptu speech. Emmet didn't feel much better than before. If anything, he felt even worse now.

[mepomepo]

Some prompts I was given on twitter eheh

I warmed up enough to those to actually want to put them here too

[men4ce-red]

projecting onto emmet how my own face works but also i think this would be funny from the angle of ‘he tries to smile to be approachable’ but he still scares tf out of kids and unnerves ppl bc he doesnt Stop

[marchy-emmet]

Autism-related Submas headcanons!

Heyo! I have compiled quite a few headcanons after overanalyzing these two and ideating (both the subject of Submas *and* autism), so here goes nothing. Thought rainbows at 5 in the morning, on zero sleep.

◇ This may go without saying, but Emmet is low empathy, and Ingo is high empathy.

Emmet will attempt to express empathy but will end up giving you "the facts" instead of typical sympathy. Ingo will console you and encourage you through your struggle, despite any slipups he may make.

◇ Emmet has a higher tolerance to sound and a lower tolerance to physical sensations. Ingo has a higher tolerance to physical sensations and a lower tolerance to sound (despite being loud himself).

◇ Ingo adores physical contact and will accept it without question, but Emmet may hesitate to engage in this. He needs to really trust you first and give you details on what he likes and dislikes.

◇ Emmet is very intelligent just like Ingo, but he has frequent nonverbal moments, which unfortunately leads to others believing there is a "smarter twin". Ingo is the one to speak first, and Emmet may or may not add onto it, depending on whether he can physically speak at the moment or not.

This can cause problems as well, such as during interviews or appointments where he needs to give vital information -- he finds himself being too vague after the fact. (This one is totally not self projection!)

He is aware of his choppy speech pattern as well, but it is difficult to stop.

◇ Unlike Ingo, Emmet has ADHD paired with his autism, which gives him conflicting symptoms. He may switch around his eating habits quicker, or he may erratically change something in his routine and quickly regret it afterwards.

◇ Ingo can hold eye contact for a *much* longer duration of time than Emmet. Emmet, on the other hand, seems to avoid it almost completely, unless it is with Ingo, Elesa, or another verrrry trusted person. (Even here, it is still uncomfortable if done too long.)

◇ Ingo stims like Emmet does, but not in public! He takes masking more seriously, but at home he finds himself rocking, talking to himself, making vocalizations with Emmet and fidgeting in place.

◇ Ingo likes wearing socks indoors, and Emmet prefers to go barefoot.

Now, my brain is fried, so I will leave it here... for now.....

[louff4tw]

My Arceus Pokémon headcannons. This turned out much longer then I thought.

What are y’all’s headcannons?

- Ingo has only been in Hisui a little over a year. The rift opened around that time and Jubilife has been there for 2 years

- Dawn/Akari doesn’t remember anything either. The reason they don’t is cause it can creat time paradox’s

- Meli and Ingo are BESTIES. Something about Meli reminds him of home (unknowingly the chaotic nature of Elesa and Emmet)

- Meli cares so much about Pokémon. I can see why he says that about the lights in the caves.

- He’s a lot more calmer when the situation isn’t stressed. He just acts like a jerk when worried to hide it

- He and Ingo didn’t get along at first but they do so much that even after Ingo is gone he keeps his promise to keep some lights up. Also named his first son after Ingo

- Meli is one of the best Wardens

- Wardens live near their nobles to be able to serve them better. So they really get along with their other clan counterpart

- The many times love became between two is so high. But rarely spoken about

- A  famine killed off most of the adults the year before Ingo came. Most likely why Ingo was allowed as Warden. And why a new leader and multiple wardens were needed suddenly. They are buried in the graveyard in the highlands

- Ingo is also Lian’s unofficial big brother. He is a big brother and unconsciously projected onto Lian

- Lian is like Meli. Putting up a front cause he’s scared. But also?! One of the most competent Wardens

- Lian and Meli bond after Ingo is gone cause they miss him

- Lady Sneasler has kits every few year, some were born when Akari fell

- Ingo has poison immunity cause danger babies

- After Akari caught Arceus their memories started returning and he said they had to go home

- Ingo just. Started sobbing cause “omfg I forgot the people most important to me. Emmet is my 1/2 I need him” he doesn’t want to leave but they do

- The Proffesor came up with a idea to make scrapbook type things for each of them. Filled with notes written by friends and and pictures

- Akaris is filled to the brim. Ingos more of Pear clan. Tho Meli wrote the most touching thing and demanded several pics for them to keep

- They wrote letters in return

- Ingo made sure to get a ink stamp of his Lady and some danger babies. Plus pics

- Jokes on him. When he told her he was leaving she immediately internally went “when WE leave”

- She showed up to the goodbye with a basket full of food. Babies and a claw. Followed by some of her older children. Everyone was confused. Then she handed a claw to one of her daughters. Pushed her to Irida and bowed. Showing she’s passing on the title to her daughter. She then stood by Ingo linked arms and basically her face said “I fucking dare you to challenge me. He is my scrungly baby man”

- She tries to groom him like one would a baby. Had done the cat Blep to the forehead meme we have all seen

- They took their Pokémon with them home

- Arceus sent them back. Same amount of time that passed in the past. Past in the present. They landed in Sinnoh

- Dawn cried in her mothers arms. Emmet was sobbing the whole plane ride over. Elesas hand in his the whole time ( twins are asexual. Their one and only love is trains and battles )

- Emmet was a wreck the whole time Ingo was gone. Elesa and the depot agents are what kept him sane

- Mustache man is Mustache Dad.

- Elesa and twins are childhood friends

- She had lesbian Moms and basically moved in with Emmet cause both didn’t want to be alone

- When the door opened and Emmet came into the room. Suddenly boom. Collision they ran to each other so fast they fell over

- Dawn going “WOW you really do look alike”

- “wait! Your only 29?!?!?! I thought you were 50” Ingo thought that to cause he didn’t know his age

- She calls them uncles

- Ingo and Emmet have NOT stopped holding hands and Elesa refuses to be away from her boys. Cue Cuddle pile at night

- Lady Sneasler was like that baby who was confused by her dad having a twin. She sniffed him and was like “aawwwww yeeeee second scrungly baby” and “aw sick! A shiny version!” She Blepped his face and he was horrified while Ingo laughed at him

- They have a house in Nimbasa. They are subway bosses. They make that dough. Ingo sleeps in Emmets room cause they miss each other and she took over his bedroom while they turned a storage room into hers cause she wants to raise her babies there. And refuses to be in a pokeball tho allowed it once to be registered

- babies grow up to be extremely popular and helps bring the species back cause some leave to go live in a facility in Sinnoh. Lady Sneasler does not leave him tho

- JOLTIKS EVERYWHERE EMMET STOP

- Emmet took away Earthquake while Ingo was gone. Ingo brought it back

- Ingo cried while on break his first day back at work cause he missed it

- The Twins and Elesa are world wide famous cause of her being a model and them being scary strong plus running the battle facility of l Unova

- Dawn suddenly remembering she idolizes them and goes OMFG

- They have YouTube.

- Emmet says Fuck. Ingo won’t. ( he has once and never lived it down

- Both do not give a fuck. Do not misbehave on the train.

- Dawn comes to do the Unova badge cricut. Will ride the trains for fun

- Emmet and Ingo. While in that cuddle pile slept well for the first time in a long time

SHIPPERS DNI I will take your left shoe and shit in it

[blueskyheadleft010]

Writing idea for the Submas fandom:

I like the idea that when Ingo gets yeeted into the past by Giratina, the spacial distortion/rend wasn’t an even split (due to the legendary being frenzied by Volo (aka the blondest YOLO boy in the game)) so when it takes Ingo, Giratina manages to grab ‘most’ of Ingo, but Emmet was holding onto Ingo when this occurred so it cleaved off Ingo’s memories and left them in the present while the rest of him went to the past.

So picture Emmet standing in horror at the sight of his brother being taken- but wait! He’s not fully gone tho!

His memories are frozen in time, just standing there in front of Emmett perfectly still. An apparition, a facsimile of his bother akin to a holographic projection. Unmoving, unblinking; just frozen in Ingo’s signature battle pose as he prepares to face the entity that has already taken his body.

The ghost haunts Emment on a daily basis, but at night he stops by while closing up the subway to have a chat with him. Swearing he will figure out where the rest of Ingo went.

[archersxartxblog]

the start Master post

See I told you I'd get it out on the weekend, Sunday is part of the weekend right? anyway please enjoy

Chapter 18

Ingo sat against the Pasture’s fence, one of Akari’s notebooks in hand with a piece of wrapped charcoal in the other, as he waited for his father and brother to return with the supplies they would need for their stay in the coastlands. 

In the meantime, he was trying to draw a clearer image of what had dragged his brother and him here, with the hope that maybe Akari had seen the creature or at least knew what it was and how to deal with it, or would at least be able to keep an eye out for it. She was after all completing the Pokedex. 

But drawing the creature was much harder than he thought it would be. It had been nearly two months since the Pokemon attacked them, causing the memory to become slightly faded, and even then he realized he hadn’t even gotten a good look at the thing.

Did it have wings or were those some kind of tentacles on its back?

Did it have spikes along its body? Or legs?

It had a large mouth, that he was sure of, but wasn’t there a big golden thing covering it? Was the mouth under that or below it?

Did it have a dragon-like body? Or was it more serpentine?

He wasn’t even sure it was a dragon type anymore.

It didn’t help he wasn’t exactly a good artist. His little scribbles in the dirt were good enough for him and Emmet to plan out moves and attacks, but he wanted Akari to try and identify this creature. So he needed at least a somewhat accurate depiction of the beast to work with.

And it turned out that drawing with Charcoal was much harder to do than with a pencil. 

There was no eraser, other than his out hand, which only helped to spread the charcoal dust further across the page. And since he didn’t want to use up all of the pages of Akari’s notebook, he tried to wipe away his mistakes as little as possible and use as little of the page as possible. But that still didn’t help as his hand would drag across the page, making a mess of his work anyway.

How did Akari do this all day?

Ingo sighed as set the notebook and charcoal down on the grass, the pokemon at his side mimicking him. “Why can’t I remember what that thing looked like, it was right in my face.” to this Lampent leaned a little more forward to look him in the eyes and let out her soft little chime. “Okay, I was in its mouth but that’s sort of in its face. I should at least be able to draw the thing that tried to eat me.” the boy conceded. “Maybe Emmet could draw it better, or at least got a better look at it,” he muttered, bringing his hands up to rub at his eyes but stopping short when he noticed his hands had been turned gray by the Charcol dust.

“Ew!” 

Ingo quickly pulled his hands further back away from his face, moving to wipe his hands off on his tunic only to pause once more. The light colour of his Tunic would get stained with the dust as well, barely leaving his hands clean. Besides, his dad would not be happy if he came back to find a large charcoal stain going across his chest. 

“Guess I should wash my hands before Dad and Emmet get back.” with a groan the boy pushed himself onto his feet, forgetting about the notebook and the picture for now.

He walked towards the bridge kneeling under a tree that was set by the river bank and reached down towards the river that ran below. He ran his hands under the water, rubbing them together to try and scrub away the dust, before bringing them back up to check to see if they were clean once more.

“Excuse me?”

“AH!” 

His hands flew to cover his mouth, his eyes darting around to see a few people had glanced over towards him, his scream had drawn their attention, but they just as quickly looked away. 

Slowly he lowered his hands, luckily clean from dust, and looked over his shoulder.

“Akari! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that?” he started to scold the teen as he turned around, expecting to see the teen standing behind him, her hands covering her ears with a big dumb grin on her face. At least his voice didn’t crack this time. “I hope this time I really did blow your eardrum…Oh.”

But it wasn’t Akari behind him. 

No, behind him was a young girl, much younger than him, dressed all in red cowering on the ground as Lampent lend down over her. 

That wasn’t good.

The people of Jublife village were already scared of Pokemon, and the last thing their family needed was more bad press because his Pokemon was scaring some kid. People in town already whispered behind his back.

Quickly Ingo pushed himself to his feet and grabbed Lampent pulling her back away from the little. “Lampent, don’t do that. It’s rude, What’s gotten into you?” but Lampent didn’t go quietly and pulled against him, trying once again to fly towards the little girl. “Lampent! No! Remember all that talk Warden Cabala did about respecting personal space? I don’t want to put you back in your Pokeball but I will if I have to.” finally he managed to pull his Pokemon back, pinning her to his chest as her fight slowly died down. “What was that about? You know better than to do that.”

Never once had Lampent gotten so close to another person before, at least not one outside of their family, not even as a Litwick. Honestly, she should know better than to do that as not everyone was fond of ghost pokemon. But sometimes Pokemon develop odd habits when they evolve, and Ingo hoped that that wasn’t the case here. 

“Sorry about that.” he apologized as he turned back towards the little girl. “Lampent doesn’t normally do that, so I’m sorry if she scared you but I promise that she won’t hurt you.” he tried to give her a little smile, as he watched her push herself up. normally he would offer a hand but he was worried that Lampent might try to act up again if he let go. “I’m Ingo, by the way. Like my dad.”

“I-it’s okay. M-My name is Vessa.” the replied as she got to her feet, and dusted herself off, giving Lampent a nervous look before she finally looked up at him. “You mentioned Akari? You know her?”

“Ah, yeah.” Ingo nodded. “She called my dad Uncle Ingo so I guess that makes her my cousin? I guess. She’s always trying to sneak up on me, 'cause she thinks it's funny when I yell, so that’s why I thought you were her. Sorry about that by the way.” sometimes she felt more like a sister rather than a cousin when she did that, making him think of Elesa but older, but there was no point in bringing that up. “Why do you ask?”

“Well I was going to ask her to do something for me, but she’s always so busy with other things I haven’t been able to get over to her,” Vessa muttered, her hands behind her back and all the fear in her voice seemed to have melted away. “But maybe you could help me instead?” her eyes darted down once more toward his partner with a mistrustful look. “After all you seem unafraid of Ghost Pokemon. Unlike many in this land.”

“Oh, most Ghost types are big sweeties once you get to know them, like most pokemon.” he hugged Lampent closer to him, his hold a little less restraining as he rested his head on her top. “Why, you have a problem with ghost pokemon? I can try and be of assistance, but I am waiting on my dad and brother, so I’ll have to be quick or could it wait until we got back? We’re heading to the coastlands to help one of the wardens there with a ghost problem too.”

“Well you see, it’s kind of a secret but It’s really important.” Vessa bit her lip, her eyes looking towards the ground worriedly. “You see… Something terrible has happened, and Hisui is in a whole lot of danger.”

“Danger…” Ingo repeated, his frown falling a bit more as the word rolled out of his mouth, a red flag going up in the back of his head. If all of Hisui was in danger why would she be talking to him or Akari? Shouldn’t she bring this up with the clan leaders or whoever ran team galaxy?

For a brief second his mind went back to the beast that dragged him and his brother here. 

Did it have something to do with that?

“Hundreds of years ago, a being that brought calamity to this region was sealed away by someone using the power of a strange magic.” she continued, her eyes locked on to the ground. “But now, for some unknown reason, the magic has come undone and the seal is broken.” her voice become more and more distressed as she closed her eyes tightly. “I hate to think what might happen at this rate.”

Suddenly she was a lot closer to him, her eyes locked on to his as she gripped one of his hands in her own, seemingly forgetting her fear of his Pokemon. 

Ingo almost fell over trying to take a step back in his shock, he almost didn’t notice how cold her hands were.

“So Please Ingo hear me out.” she plead, holding tightly onto his hand. “I need you to restore the broken seal…”

Ingo’s frown tugged downward, he felt like he was in a bit of a tight space here. This girl was spilling out her fears to him and pleading for him to help her but at the same time, it felt like she was asking a lot of him. 

Shouldn’t she be talking to an adult about this if this was such a bad thing? But then again the people of this village the leaders of the clans had Akari dealing with the frenzied Nobels. 

Who's to say they wouldn’t just pile this on top of everything else she had to deal with? And what if this had something to do with the Pokemon that dragged them here? Maybe he could fix the seal and all of them could go home and not have to worry about this happening again.

“Tell me what I need to do and I’ll try and do whatever I can to help you,” he answered, trying his best to give her a reassuring smile. 

It seemed to work as the grip on his hand loosened ever so slightly. “Thank you. I’m so happy you, believe me, I just knew you would be willing to help.” Vessa smiled at him as she released his hand and pulled something out of her pocket, placing it in his hand. “This Odd Keystone is for you, please keep it safe.”

Ingo looked down at what he had been given, struggling slightly to hold both it and his Pokemon. In his hand was a strange-looking stone, large enough and heavy enough that he almost needed two hands to hold it properly. There was a large crack going down the middle with two dots, one on either side of the crack.

“After the seal was Broken, a whoole of wisps scattered across Hisui.” the moment he had the Keystone in hand, Vessa’s sad and worried tone suddenly became a whole lot more casual as she started to explain to him what she was asking of him. “A hundred and seven of them in total, and with that Odd Keystone I gave you, you’ll be able to gather them all. See the wisps are normally invisible but not to the holder of the Odd Keystone.” 

Once more her eyes were locked with his, and her look became pleading. “Please I know it’s a big request but please…you just have to gather all the wisp for me. There’s some out in the Coastlands and the highlands, you can start gathering some there. They look like little purple flames, like the flame burning inside your friend. You just have to reach out and touch them.”

Ingo looked from Vessa back down to the Keystone, suddenly regretting his choice to help her as this seemed like it would be a lot. 

No, it was a lot. A hundred and seven was a lot for one person. And if he was the only one who could see these wisps then he couldn’t even ask Emmet for help.

“You wouldn’t happen to have another one of these, would you-” Ingo looked back up at Vessa, only to find himself alone once more with just Lampent in his arms. “Oh.”

He looked around quickly trying to see where Vessa had disappeared to but there weren’t even footprints in the dirt. 

“You didn’t happen to see where she was when did you Lampent?” he released his partner once more, letting her fly back into the air. But all he got for an answer was his partner crossing her arms and turning her head away from him. “Aw, common Lampent, you can’t be mad at me! You were the one acting all weird.”

“Lampent Lamp!” the ghost chimed back in a scolding tone, once more turning away from him. 

“Okay, yeah she was acting weird too and she is asking a lot, but you know you can’t just get up in someone's face like that. People are already scared of us here, especially now after what happened at the settlement.” Ingo sighed, rubbing his arm with his free hand. You’d think in a region with so few towns, word wouldn’t spread as fast, but as it turned out everyone in Hisui was a bloody gossip. 

Honestly, he hadn’t seen any form of newspaper anywhere in Hisui like there was back in Opelucid city. So how could a rumoured spread like a tabloid headline in Nimbasa city? It was baffling.

It was pretty embarrassing to have the whole region know he passed out during a fight and thinks he was cursed because of it. Even worse, some people wouldn’t even trade with his father if he was around.

Slowly Lampent turned towards him, anger seeming to fade as her arms dropped to her sides. “Pent Lamp.”

“Does that mean you're going to help me with finding those wisps?” Ingo asked hopefully, looking up at his Partner as he held up the Odd Keystone. “She said only the one who has this can see the wisp, so I don’t know if I can ask Emmet for help and I don’t know if I can find a hundred and seven wisps by myself. But if you don’t want to help I can probably do it by myself.” 

To this Lampent flew back over to him and wrapped her arms around his head “Lampent lamp pent.”

“So I’m guessing that’s a yes.”

“Lampent lamp pent pen.”

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t long after that that his father and brother crossed the bridge, travelling baskets full of supplies they would need for the trip, no doubt there was a little bit extra for them to take back to the highlands with them. Their dad liked to be overly prepared sometimes, and Ingo could respect that.

“Time to go?” he asked as he ran up to the two, Lampent trailing behind him.

“Yes, we will be departing shortly but first,” His dad answered, slowly pulling the extra basket he’d been carrying off of his back and handing it to him. “Let’s not forget your luggage.”

“Thanks, dad.” Ingo reached up and hooked his arms through the loops and eased the basket onto his back, it was no heavier than the backpack he had carried around back in Unova. stuffed full of berries, potions, blankets and the like, just like Emmets was.

It was just too bad that he hadn’t been able to go with his dad and Emmet to pick the stuff up. 

“What’s that?”

“Hm?” Ingo turned to look at his brother, only to see that Emmet was pointing at something in his hand, prompting him to look down at his hand.

Oh! The Keystone! Right. He forgot he was still holding it.

“That. what is it?” his twin repeated, once more pointing at Ingo’s hand, causing their dad to lean forward to see what they were talking about.

“Oh, this?” he held the Keystone out towards his brother, so Emmet could see it better. “Someone gave it to me. Her name was Vessa, I think she lives in the village. She asked me to hold on to this for her.” he explained, ignoring Lampent’s annoyed chiming.

It wasn’t quite a lie, but it wasn’t the total truth either. But it wasn’t like he could just tell them some random little girl ran up to him and asked him to fix an ancient seal by collecting 107 wisps. It honestly sounded a little ridiculous now that he thought about it, so he couldn’t help but wonder now if maybe Vessa was just pranking him.

“Oh, cool rock.” Emmet’s tone was even as always but the look he gave his brother told a different story. Emmet had seen through his words and was giving him a pass for now, but only if Ingo spilled the beans to him later.

There was no way he was getting away without telling his brother the truth, without his brother Patratting him out. And Lampent seemed to think that fact was rather funny. Traitor. 

“Hm.” their father hummed as he bent down and looked over the stone in his hand. “It looks to be an old Keystone of some kind, maybe it was discarded when they were building this village?” his hand went to his chin as he slowly stroked his beard in thought. “Though I think I have seen something like this before…in the Crimson Mirelands,” whatever thought was there, seemed to disappear as their dad shook his head and stood back up, readjusting the basket on his back. “But that’s a mystery for another time. We should depart before we fall even further behind schedule.” 

“Right!” both Ingo and Emmet said in unison. Ingo quickly added the Keystone to his basket before he and his brother ran up to join their father.

“Now then! ALL ABOARD!” 

—

The cold ocean waves felt good on his skin as the water lapped over his legs, reminding him of the many times their uncle would take him and his brother out to Undella town to explore the beach and the Ocean on the far side of Unova.

Unlike Undella town the beach was populated mostly by spheal and Skorupi. Former being nice enough, the Skorupi on the other hand, not so much, as they had chased Emmet until he was knee-deep in the ocean. So playing in the sand started to become nonoptional, not unless he wanted to battle a bunch of Skorupis for ownership of the beach.

He also couldn’t go much deeper into the ocean, as there was a sheer amount of Tentacool, Remoraid and some rather mean-looking Quilfish out there. The current was also too strong for him to push through on his own.

So, so much for swimming in the Ocean with his brother.

Maybe he should have caught a Wate type as well.

A Pokeball suddenly whizzed past his head with very little warning, bursting open into an array of Red and yellow as the hulking form of Ingo’s Gyarados formed in front of him, splashing him with water as her body hit the surface.

Emmet quickly turned and glared at his twin as Ingo walked up beside him, looking like he was trying hard not to laugh. “That could have hit me.” he huffed, crossing his arms and looking away.

“Yeah it could of, but it didn’t, did it?” Ingo laughed hugging his pokemon as she leaned down towards him. “Now do you want to ride with me on Gyarados’s back or not? Those Pokemon probably won’t bother us if we’re on Gyarados…Probably.”

Emmet looked over at his brother, back out at the ocean, he did want to go out onto the waves and riding on the back of a Gyarados did sound fun. And he wasn’t that mad at his brother for almost hitting him with a Pokeball, Ingo would never do that on purpose “Sure, but only if you tell the real story behind that stone. No lying.”

In truth, Emmet would go with his brother, whether Ingo agreed to tell him or not, he wanted to spend some time having fun with his twin during his trip without having to worry about bandits or curses trying to ruin it all. But at the same time if he would pull info from his brother while having fun then it would be all the better, and he wouldn’t have to worry about trying to do so later that evening.

Ingo’s frown pulled downward as he let out a hum, his eyes darting away from Emmet before coming back to stare at his twin. “Okay fine, but only once we’re further from shore, and you have to believe me.”

Emmet nods, his smile spread across his face. “Deal.”

—

“You know when you told me your eldest had a water pokemon he could swim with, assumed it was something more like a Mantine or a Basculin. Not a Red Gyarados.” Palina awkwardly laughed as she watched the pokemon lean down and the boys were able to get onto its back, sitting just behind its head.

Gyarados were feared for a reason, their rage was known to level anything in their path. None were more fearsome than the rare Red Gyarados. The stories she has heard about them ran shivers down her spine.

Her first instinct when she saw the large red pokemon appear was to quickly run down and pull the children away as quickly as she could before the pokemon could attack either of them. But her fellow Warden had stopped her in her tracks, allowing her to witness how gentle the normally feared Pokemon was with the two children.

It almost seemed impossible to believe if she had not just witnessed it.

"Don't let her scowl fool you, Gyarados is in fact very sweet." Ingo chuckled lightly from where he sat. "Not that she does not have a temper, but I don't believe she would ever turn it on either of my boys."

Palina smiled as she looked over at her fellow Warden, a brow raised at his choice of phrasing. Much of the same could be said about him, but she didn't dare say it out loud not wanting to offend the man. 

Once more an oppressive silence fell over the two Wardens, and Palina bit her lip as the conversation died down.

Normally, the Warden of the cliffs, while a strange man, could be a rather talkative person once you managed to get him going. He’d been even more so when he first came to their settlement all those years ago. But today he seemed to be slightly…off.

It wasn’t his usual glazed far off look that he often did when he was trying to remember something or when his mind just seemed to wander without warning. No, this was different.

She could see the tension in his shoulders and face as he sat on the fallen log, facing the ocean. His eyes focused on the two children riding on the back of the large Leviathan, yet at the same time seemed to be thinking hard about something.

“You’ve been quiet…”

“Hm?”

“Ever since you arrived earlier today, you’ve been quiet. Something on your mind Ingo?” Palina asked, hoping to get some insight into what was troubling her fellow Warden. 

"Oh, I've just been thinking that's all," Ingo answered simply, looking down at the large Alpha Gliscor that had its head resting in his lap.

"Well that much is obvious," Palina huffed, "I mean, what about? Maybe I can help." She pushed a bit harder, not willing to let him get away with a half-baked answer, but still giving him the chance to refuse. She couldn't force him to tell her anything. 

Sneasler’s Warden sighed and fell silent, the frown usually on the man’s face pulled a little further down, and for a moment Palina wondered if she had somehow offended him. But then he slowly started to speak once more.

“Just, something that happened that happened when we stopped at Jubilife Village on our way here.” Ingo finally answered, his words pausing for a slight moment before continuing. "I was refused trade on account that my eldest son was cursed."

Palina's mouth nearly hit the ground there.

Her mind went wild. There was no way this was the same 'curse' from the settlement.

There had been no one from the Galaxy team at the settlement during that time, aside from Akari.

And Palina doubted the girl would spread such falsehoods about her friends and family.

"The shopkeepers refused to help us so long as young Ingo was there. For fear that the 'curse' would spread." He continued, a bitter tone clung to his words as he spoke. Ingo shook his head, letting out a harsh defeated sigh. "I should have said something, but Ingo managed to excuse himself before I could. Said he 'needed to speak to Akari about something’ and that he'd 'wait for us by the pastures'. I think he was probably just embarrassed to hear this all being brought up again." 

Ingo closed his eyes, his head bowed in defeat causing Gliscor to look up worriedly at his Partner.

Meanwhile, Palina felt her own temper flare. 

Why would people not just let a child be?

For a moment she was angry with Ingo, for not standing up for his own son. But that flame quickly patterned out. 

The man hadn’t even known he was a father over a month ago, she couldn’t expect him to know how to handle everything on his own; if she was being honest he was doing a pretty good job. He had the boy’s feelings to consider and like he said, his son was already embarrassed, to make a scene might have made it worst, even if it would have been validating to do so. He was also one of the few members of the Pearl clan that was frequently at Jubilife Village, a Warden picking a fight with the villagers would only reflect poorly on the clan itself.

Ingo truly had been left in a tight spot. 

From there, her anger turned toward the Villagers of Jubilife. How could they so easily cast out a child over nothing more than just words? A curse that they barely understood, treating it like some kind of illness that could be passed on by being near the afflicted. Only the children of the Pearl clan had made that mistake, and yet it seemed the adults of Jubilife were no better.

Then again, look how they treated Akari. The girl was just barely sixteen and yet she was being sent out to deal with the frenzied Nobles of the clans. Enraged Pokemon that could very easily kill her, all because the frenzies started happening the same night she arrived. And yet even after she succeed she was still expected to work her keep.

How could Palina expect them to treat children that were taken in by the Pearl clan, who arrived similarly to Akari, any different?

Finally, she felt her anger turn toward her clan, the cause of all this, and more directly Irida. Perhaps, her view was tainted slightly by her falling out with her clan’s leader and Sure, her fellow clansmen had run away with the curse talk a little. but when their eldest Warden announces something like a curse, the rest of the clan was expected to believe them, even if they were proven to be in the wrong.

But Palina had been there when their clan leader had promised the Warden of the cliffs that this curse talk would be handled. Yet she was hearing that not only it had not been handled but it had somehow spread, like the plague it was being treated as.

“I reported the incident to Captain Zisu, and she said she and captain Cyllene would take of it.”

Her thoughts were interrupted as Ingo started to speak again, the sadness in his words dosing the fire of her anger.

“But I fear this is just one of a list of different things that have made me think that maybe they shouldn’t be here.” Ingo sighed, his eyes once more looking at the ocean in front of him. “That we shouldn’t be here.”

“Oh, Ingo.” 

“My Apologies, I didn’t mean to dump my grievances out on you.” Ingo shook his head finally turning to look at her. “I know I have my duties here, and I am forever grateful to the Pearl Clan for taking not just I but my sons' in-”

“But we would not ask you to put duty over family.” Palina cut him off there, clapping her hand down on his shoulder, perhaps a little harder than she meant to, as he seemed to flinch under her touch. “Your place as Warden is not meant as a chain to bind you here, Ingo. Until the time comes that Almighty Sinnoh returns you three back to your proper space, we are more than happy to share our space with you.”

Ingo held her gaze for several moments, allowing her words to slowly sink in before a rare smile crossed his features and a rough hand came to meet the hand she had settled on his shoulder. “Thank you, Palina.”

“Don’t mention it, my friend.” She smiled back, giving his shoulder a slight pat before retracting her hand. 

—

"So, Lampent was scaring some girl, then she just gives you that weird rock, and asks you to collect 107 wisps, that only you will be able to see?" Emmet called, trying to project his voice over the sound of the crashing waves, as he summed up the story his brother had just told him; nearly straining his voice in the process.

"Pretty much, yeah," Ingo answered, his voice cutting easily through the noise, holding tightly onto Gyarados's horn as she cut through another large wave.

"That is suspicious, Ingo! Verrrry suspicious!"

"You said you would believe me!"

It was almost a struggle for Emmet to keep from rolling his eyes at this. "I Am Emmet! And I believe my brother! But I do not believe this girl!” he corrected, tightening his hold on his brother as a wave came up and splashed him. Emmet loved his brother, he really did, and he would never call his twin naive, but Ingo could be a little too trusting at times. 

Within his retelling of what happened, Emmet had spotted several red flags. The way the girl approached his brother, how her attitude seemed to flip, and how Lampent had been acting. Especially how Lampent was acting, she was well trained, after all, Verrry well trained. So to hear that she had been acting strangely, even threateningly towards someone was enough to set the younger twin on edge. And he told Ingo as such. “What if she’s just pranking you?”

To this, his brother went quiet for a moment before replying to that. “Yeah, I kind of had that thought too, after she left.”

“And you still held on to the stone?”

“Cause what if she’s not pranking me? What if this is all real and my doing this really does seal away something horrible? What if this horrible thing is the pokemon that attacked us and we can go home with dad?”

“And what if she’s lying to you?” the younger twin countered, glaring up at the dad of his brother’s head. “What if you are not sealing something, but releasing something?”

This caused his brother to let out a low whine, that he could only hear because his ear was pressed to his brother’s back. Meaning this was also something his twin had considered but had chosen to ignore. 

But there was something else bothered Emmet about all this. It was the way Lampent had acted. 

Even if she had been protecting her trainer from a threat, Emmet doubted that she would just get in someone’s face like that, let alone fight her trainer when he tried to restrain her. The few times Emmet had ever seen her act like that was when someone had tried to physically hurt his brother or himself, and when his brother’s Ursaring had tried to steal a treat from her.

What if…

“What if that girl was a ghost?”

“What?” Ingo turned so quickly that Gyarados tried to turn with him, sending a wave barreling over some Tentacool before slowing to a stop.

“What if she was a ghost?” he repeated his question, looking up at his brother. “I mean think about it. Lampent was verrry interested in her, and Lampent are known for consuming the souls of the dead. What if Lampent thought a tasty treat was trying to trick her trainer?” even just saying it out loud, Emmet had to admit, it sounded a little insane. but it was no crazier than some random girl asking his brother to help seal away an ancient evil or whatever.

“Emmet…”

“I am Emmet, and I do not want my brother to be tricked into something.” Emmet sighed as he slowly pulled himself back, so he could look his brother in the eyes. “Just tell dad about this.” surely their dad would know what was up, he’d been here far longer than either of them, so it made no sense to Emmet why his brother was keeping this a secret.

“I don’t want to worry him more than he already is.” Ingo sighed, looking away and refusing to meet his brother’s eye and Emmet could hear Gyarados let out a high-pitched whining noise in response. “He’s been kind of on edge ever since the bandits last week, and I don’t think this curse stuff coming up again is helping. He doesn’t need to worry about this too.”

Emmet huffed at this and struggled once more not to roll his eyes. As if keeping this from their dad wouldn’t worry him more than he alright was should he find out later? Sure he could go inform their father himself, but the thought of betraying his brother turned his stomach. At the same time, he didn’t want his brother to get into trouble and not be able to get out. It left him in a tight spot. 

“Fine.” the younger twin gave in, not wanting to upset his brother, pulling his brother into a tight but slightly awkward hug. Dragons know Ingo was taking this curse stuff just as hard as their dad was, even if he was trying to hide it. “But, I have to go with you, just to make sure nothing bad happens,” he added quickly. “The moment things look bad, we tell dad.” it was his only two conditions. This way he’d be able to make sure his brother was safe, and that if things started to look like they were going to go sideways, their dad would know before it was too late. “Deal?”

There was a momentary pause before Ingo twisted himself slightly in his brother’s grasp and wrapped his arms awkwardly around his twin. “Deal.”

“Good. Now let's go back to shore, my butt hurts.”

—

The Commander slowly made his way toward Galaxy hall, his eyes trained not on the path ahead of him, but on the notebook, he had found in the grass by the pastures during his evening patrol.

The book clearly belonged to Akari, the girl’s name being written on the first page of the book in bold lettering, and Kamado recognized a few of the sketches and notes from the Pokedex that the professor had shown him. 

He had planned on returning the book to the girl but chose to flip through it as he walked to his office, looking for anything of note that might have come up, as there was still so much they didn’t know about Akari; and that lack of knowledge made the Commander antsy.

But there wasn’t much to see, as it turned out, most of the notes were about Pokemon, with various sketches of the creatures that roamed Hisui. 

There were a few places in the notes where she had written about someplace called Twinleaf town or some other town or city, which had gotten an eyebrow raised from the Commander, as Akari had told him she couldn’t remember anything about where she came from. 

So either she was lying to them or she was starting to remember her home, and there wasn’t enough proof to act on the former assumption. 

As he flipped through the pages, the drawing of Pokemon turned from the normal ones found in the fields to the Nobles the clans so revered, then to the Wardens that took care of those Nobles and even the clan leaders, with small notes she had taken about each person. 

Finally, the last few pictures that had been clear of Akari’s doing were drawings of Warden Ingo and what Kamado could only guess were his children.

Yes, 

The Mysterious Warden that had appeared in the Icelands one day who could barely remember his name, and his two equally Mysterious sons. 

Akari seemed to have a fascination with the three as of late, maybe because their situation was so similar to her own, though there was no proof that any of them aside from Akari had fallen from the sky. 

The Commander paid partially close attention to the notes left on those, though he found that they too were fairly sparse on details.

The only things of note were:

-That Warden Ingo (or Uncle Ingo as the Girl had called him, though Kamado doubted they were related) reminded Akari of some she had seen on TV (Whatever that was).

-That the frowning boy she had drawn hugging what looked to be an oil lamp like it was a stuffed toy, was also named Ingo (named after his father no doubt, nothing strange there, though Akari had called the boy ‘Lil Ingo’) and the Lamp the boy was draw holding was a Pokemon called Lampent and was a Fire/Ghost type. And the boy had once almost deafened her by screaming once (and that was apparently this had been funny).

-and Finally, the smiling boy who seemed to have been drawn with two Pokemon. (a floating eel-like pokemon that Akari named ‘Elektrik’ and what looked to be some kind of Spider holding onto this tunic called Joltik) This boy was Emmet, a largely competitive young man, who liked bug types, was known for starting sentences with the phrase ‘I am Emmet’ from time to time, and liked double battles, which were combinations of two pokemon. (which was very concerning.)

But aside from a few note-worthy things, nothing seemed too worrying. Though these notes were only through Akari’s point of view, he had heard different points of view on ‘the Warden’s twins’. All from people he felt he could trust in some way.

Akari who had fallen from the sky, yet had been working tirelessly for the expedition to earn her keep, seemed to love the boys like family.

Cyllene, his trusted captain and of the Survey Corp, believed that they were harmless and simply as lost as their father and Akari are. Displaced by something unknown. 

Professor Laventon claimed that they were a valuable resource in handling pokemon, being nearly as skilled with Pokemon as their own Akari.

And Zisu, his captain of the Security corps claimed that their skill in battle was nearly unmatched, being almost as good as their father. She said all this as if it was positive.

But then there were the rumours that had come down from the Icelands thanks to one of the members of the Ginko Guild.

Rumours of one of the twins being cursed.

That one of his Pokemon was feeding on his very soul.

That if he didn’t find someone else to feed too his Pokemon, he would be consumed himself.

That the boy’s soul had a hole in it and needed to steal part of someone else’s to try and fill it, only for his Pokemon to eat that too.

That the boy was nothing more than a hollow shell, his soul already gone, and the Pokemon that followed him was puppeteering the body to lure in more victims. That the boy’s brother was not in fact his twin but a Zorua in on the whole thing and had tricked the old man into caring for them. 

Or that the old man was actually a Zoroark who had simply fooled them all.

The stories seemed to change every time he heard them.

Normally, Kamado put little faith in rumours. Rumours were the weapons of cowards to destroy reputations and cause panic. 

But his second in command Beni had only backed up some of the claims with his own report. Having watched them from the training grounds from the Wallflower. 

Stating that the boys were in fact very good at battling with pokemon, as Zisu claimed, able to think on their feet and work together to devastating effect. That the boy with the Lamp-like Pokemon was always tired after a battle and would eat like he was trying to fill some unfillable hole. And that his brother had a Zoroark that wouldn’t listen to him and would often disguise itself as a smiling version of the old warden dressed all in white.

Beni had even gone so far as to say that the Zisu’s word was biased towards the boys, claiming that one of his own captains tended to act ‘motherly’ towards the two.

Kamado sighed as he reached the door of Galaxy hall, pushing it open with his shoulder as he entered.

There were too many conflicting reports on the two, that he figured it would probably be best if he met with them both and formed his own opinion. Something that was easier said than done, as their father was very against the idea. The Commander could respect the Warden for protecting his kids, but at the same time, it was oh-so irritating.

As he ascended the stairs, he could hear Akari and Rai talking about something or another, no doubt the girl was trying to rope the young man into battling her or helping her with one of her ‘Shiny’ hunts, whatever that was.

Seeing as there was only one page left in the notebook that seemed to have anything in it, Kamado figured he’d see what was on it before returning the book.

What was there was not Akari’s work, yet it made the Commander’s blood run cold all the same.

There on the smudged page, roughly drawn, was some kind of horrible monster with tendril-like winds, a head in the shape of a broken halo, and a large snake-like body.

For a brief moment, Kamado’s mind flashed to the enraged Gyarados that had destroyed his hometown in Johto. But the body didn’t quite match.

So what was that thing?

“Commander?”

Kamado quickly snapped the book shut, and turned towards the young woman who had addressed him. “Ah, Akari there you are, I didn’t see you there.” a white lie, he had heard her and knew she was there but he had not realized he had ascended the stairs so quickly. “I was just looking for you, so I could return this to you.”

“Oh! My notebook! Thank you, Commander.” Akari smiled and reached out to take it in hand, either she had not noticed he had been reading it or simply didn’t care. “I was worried Lil Ingo had taken it to the Coastlands with him when he didn’t return it before he left. Where did you find it?”

“It was by the pastures, lying on the ground,” he answered, looking down at the girl with his brow furled. So one of the Warden’s boys had it. “Do you make it a habit of lending out notebook?”

“Oh, no sir. Lil Ingo had a pokemon he wanted me to try to identify, but I was busy helping the Professor at the time, so I lent him my notebook and a piece of charcoal so he could draw what he had seen,” she explained with a slight laugh, tucking the book into her satchel. “I swear that kid can be as forgetful as his dad sometimes.”

“I see.” the commander nodded, humming slightly as he closed his eyes in thought. So the last page must have been the boy’s doing. 

This Lil Ingo, the boy with the Ghost-type Pokemon that looked like a Lamp, the one who everyone said was cursed. He, perhaps even his brother knew about some monster that was out there and was only sharing that information with Akari when it could have been a threat to all of Hisui. 

What else did they know and weren’t sharing? And what else was Akari hiding from them?

He opened his eyes, and looked down at the two members of the survey corps, making sure to keep his expression as calm as possible. “Well, you two should get something to eat and then turn in for the night. The Professor will have more work for you in the morning.”

“Yes Sir!”

“Dismissed.” 

He watched the two quickly scamper off through the doors, no doubt heading to the Wallflower for Beni’s potato mochi, before he turned towards the stairs heading to his office, stopping next to the guard that was posted there.

“Send word to close the gates leading out to the field lands, and to refuse entry to Warden Ingo and his sons. They are not to enter Jubilife Village until I say so. If Zisu asks why tell her it’s under my orders.” he commanded, his head slightly turned so he could look the guard in the eye. “And make sure word is sent out to Lady Irida, I’d like to hear about this curse from its source.”

“Yes sir!” the guard saluted, quickly moving to carry out his orders, another guard coming to take his place.

For now, Kamado was going to trust that Akari was on their side, but he was not about to say the same thing about the Warden and his twins unless they could prove their innocence.

Maybe now he would get some answers.