#pladoption au

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

The Temple of Sinnoh welcomes a new guest—but nobody's around to welcome her. The Warden of the Cliffs finds a lost traveler, and, as is his duty, vows to see her safely to her destination.

The only problem is, she's not actually sure what her destination is.

Looks like he's in for the long haul. That's fine. He certainly doesn't mind company.

---

(crawls out of the word doc covered in blood and scorch marks) ingo akari adoption fluff fic time

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

92. "Cutting their hair for them" with Ingo & Akari?

(101 ways to say i love you with actions) (still taking!)

(why have we talked so much about. these twos hair in particular. whats that about. i mean i guess it was only once or twice each but still weird that it happened once or twice)

Akari had stopped bothering with the hairclips she'd arrived with a while ago. And she'd certainly never given much thought to style or cutting. Which weren't things that anyone had paid much attention to originally, but watching her struggle with the comb for the third week in a row, it now seemed rather relevant.

Finally she gave up on a particularly difficult knot, and looked over to Ingo, holding the comb out. "Help?"

He moved over and took it from her, and started working on the detangling process. He hoped he wouldn't have to get the scissors out again.

"This would likely not be so difficult if you performed more regular maintenance," he pointed out. She rarely bothered attacking it more than once a week, if that.

"I know, but it—ow—it's such a pain," she groused.

"Yes, well, again. If you did it more regularly..."

She hissed and did her best to twist away when he yanked at the knot again, one or two of the comb's teeth now firmly stuck.

"If having long hair is truly so arduous," he suggested, not really seriously, "you could always have it cut short."

"Huh," Akari said, sounding genuinely thoughtful. "I guess I could."

After some more very careful plying, he managed to get the comb out and the knot mostly undone. She tilted her head back to stare up at him. "You could do that, right?"

Oh, no. He withdrew his hands and held them up, somewhat defensively. "I was thinking more along the lines of, on our next visit to Jubilife–"

"Yeah, they probably won't do it because I'm not a member," she dismissed. Which, that was fair, that was how things typically went with most of Jubilife. "And that'll be like weeks. I wanna do it now."

"This is a very sudden decision," he tried to reason. "I do not believe I am entirely qualified–"

"You cut your own hair! And shave! All the time!" she pointed out, indignant.

"That- that is vastly different," he argued back. For one thing, Akari's hair was much thicker, and probably wouldn't take nearly as kindly to just being lopped off in one big chunk. Especially considering she typically wore it down, rather than tucked underneath a hat like his was.

But then she leaned on his arm, and headbutted his shoulder, and stared up at him and said "Please?" and he realized that he was never going to win this argument.

"Warden Arezu is proficient at cutting hair, I believe," he proposed instead.

"Yeah, but I don't trust her."

"And you trust me?"

The response was immediate. "Yup."

He sighed. "That seems rather like a mistake."

---

They did it the next day, outside, behind the stand of trees that made for some shelter from the wind. Akari sat on the ground, legs folded and with an old blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and Ingo sat behind her, still feeling wholly uncertain about the whole thing.

He'd recovered the clips she'd abandoned. He wasn't yet entirely sure what his plan for them was, but they couldn't hurt to have on hand.

"If this turns out poorly," he said again.

"Who's gonna care? We're all the way out here, it's not like I see that many people," she pointed out.

"Warden Melli will be very upset with me, I imagine."

She stuck her tongue out. "Who cares. He's always mad about something."

So he started cutting.

At one point, several months ago, she'd had bangs, and now those had grown out into the uneven bits that were constantly falling in her face. For the sake of consistency, he chose to standardize closer to them, aiming for around chin length. The rest of her hair was, despite both of their best efforts, still a tangled mess, which tamped down most of the reservations he'd had about cutting it all off.

The first part was easy—just one or two big arcing cuts that took a good foot or two with them. Then it was a matter of cleaning that up, which was significantly harder, and cost several more inches in compromises. Akari was a very good model, at least—she leaned into his hands, but mostly sat still, just happy to have an excuse to hang out so close.

Once her hair looked somewhat passable, he set the scissors aside, and picked up the clips and comb instead. Any knots that had survived his aggressive cutting were now much easier to tease apart, and he actually got it all hanging mostly flat again. Then the formerly-bangs were picked up in even halves and pulled to the sides, pinned far back enough that her ears were uncovered and the hair tucked just behind them framed her face.

"There," he said, trying to sound decisive when he pulled away.

She squirmed and looked back. "Oh, you're done already?"

Well, head-on, it was inarguable that she did look significantly better than she had this morning. That was a low bar, but at least he'd managed to clear it. He nodded back. "Go see what you think."

They had one small mirror that he'd also taken outside for this task. She retrieved it, and then spent several seconds just... staring. Then she tilted her head, and he heard her make a small oh! sound, and watched her reach up to run her fingers through the framing part.

She set the mirror down, and when she looked back at him, she had tufts of black hair curling around her neck, and that grin on her face that could outshine the sun.

"I love it!" she declared.

He let out a breath of relief.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Can I just say that I really love your Akari as protag? She's just such an authentic-feeling teenager, albeit one in various states of traumatic situations. Rei as well, in OoP, feels very believably like a teenager. It makes the betrayal they go through all the more hurtful to me, and makes me feel protective. All your Akari's do, though; I just want to wrap her in warm blankets and feed her good food and protect her from harm. It feels so unjust that this kid, who you make so convincingly adolescent, be stuck in these situations. But that's also what makes to so great to read, since it brings out such strong emotions.

WAAAH YOU ALL ARE BEING SO NICE TO ME...

ahem. um. yeah!! thank you!! no no we are completely in agreement re: all feelings about akari and the teenz in general. get her OUT of situations she should be tucked in cozy in bed (<- continuing to put her in situations). i actually think a lot about rei and akari and their relative characterization—since like, they're sort of meant to be blank slates in canon, but they've both developed into such distinctive characters in my head. and some of that does come from the protag-counterpart's characterization, yeah, but like, i don't think canon counterpart!rei is quite as much of a scaredy-cat as my rei is. counterpart!akari speaks in a more formal register and is more levelheaded. you get what i mean. they're different!

...i could talk a lot abt their characters really but. on topic, wrt wanting to protect akari, i think akari also. wants to be protected sometimes. like there's definitely a thing of kids wanting to be treated as adults, but like, akari is treated like an adult. by a lot of people. jubilife sees her as old enough to work one of their more dangerous jobs, to live on her own and more or less fend for herself. she's thrust into this role and responsibility of Hero, and she likes the respect and trust that gives her, and she wants to be the one to help everyone, but also. that respect and responsibility comes with an equal lack of support. and that's scary! she has to do this all on her own, with very little to guide her, almost nothing to fall back on if she fails. like, the adults around her do Exist, but again, they mostly treat her as this responsible, brave hero. they don't necessarily see her as a kid, exactly.

which i think is part of why, especially in oop, she becomes such fast friends with ingo. because ingo doesn't necessarily devalue her very real skills (teenagers soloing apocalypse cults is like a regular tuesday in The Future. any teenager can be scary if they turn out to be besties with a demigod or something) but he does look at her and still see how young she is, you know? and sometimes it's nice to be allowed to be small. to have someone say no, this doesn't need to be your responsibility. come here, sit down, i'll take care of it. you're safe. you can stop.

idk this was a lot of rambling maybe. points at Sinnoh is Silent that's also relevant. it's this delicate tightrope walk between "want to be a person with agency" and "don't want to do everything all by myself." yknow, like a 15 year old would feel! yknow?

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

I have a prompt but it's also a song lyric, so I hope that's alright: And if you're lost out there in the night, wishing on stars, wondering who you are, just know that you're never alone and there's no place like home.

"And... that's Gyarados, right?"

Silently, Ingo takes Akari's hand and moves it over, so it's pointing towards the correct location. She makes a noise of recognition, and traces out the rest of the constellation with her finger.

Technically, it's past time for her to be in bed. Ingo, too—he's starting to get tired. But it's the kind of quiet night where none of them really feel like moving. And he can justify it by saying that he wanted one late night to show her the constellations, in case she ever got lost.

"I like that one," she says. "Perseverance."

"...Ordinarily," he says, remembering a fact he's never witnessed in real life, "the brightest star in the sky would be there, above Mount Coronet. At the moment, however..."

"Rift ate it," she finishes.

"Yes, it's temporarily obscured. But when the rift isn't there, it acts as a beacon, directing travelers towards the mountain. Celestic, it's called."

Akari, mid-yawn, tacks on, "...wayfarer's friend."

He huffs in amusement. "You're thinking of leeks."

She leans back against him, seeking warmth, and mumbles, "that one counts too. Shows... the way home."

He puts an arm around her, pulling her to his chest, but doesn't respond to that.

After a moment of silence, where he's wondering if maybe she drifted off—she says quietly, "...before, when... when I first arrived... you talked about figuring out where I came from. But even if we did, I don't... think I'd want to go back. This is home. I like it here."

And then, after another long silence, adds, "...you don't, though."

He inhales, not even sure what he's going to say, but she cuts him off—"It's fine, I mean. I know why. Your home's somewhere else, and you miss it."

"...yes," he says, a little embarrassed at being so easily read.

"I just, I wanted to ask..." she hugs his arm to her chest, looking meditatively at the dirt. "If you're gonna go home, maybe, someday... will I go with you?"

"Is that what you would want?" he asks, instead of immediately answering. "Departing Hisui for some unknown destination? Leaving this place behind–"

"Yeah." She tilts her head back to look up at him. "This is home because you're here. If you're going somewhere else... then I want to follow you."

"Oh." He stares back at her for a moment.

And then suddenly he hugs her tight, chin on her shoulder. "Then yes, Akari, of course. Wherever home is for me... I'm certain it has a place for you, as well."

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

💗 - Is there a scene you can’t wait to write for a WIP?

(wip ask game)

oh god so many. but hmm... ok i mentioned the other wip that i've talked about before? so that's the dad ingo one, and i don't remember if i've said the whole pitch yet but: the protagonist fails the entry trial, so jubilife refuses to take them, and after getting juggled like a hot potato for a minute they wind up staying with ingo. and there's like a LOT of scenes i want to do for this one, it's just 99% domestic fluff but domestic fluff is one of my fav things to write esp. in a universe where i really like the setting and want to explore it. the only problem is it's kind of slow to get started in the beginning and i'm having trouble finding a way to get through the setup that isn't a huge slog.

as for a specific single scene... hmm... oh! ingo wants protag to have a pokemon because [gestures at highlands], but also feels like someone's first (starter) pokemon should be special somehow. so after some deliberation, he ends up giving her one of lady sneasler's kits as her first pokemon. i just think this is a very cute idea

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

for something that was supposed to be a low stress no plot fic pladoption sure does want to make me fight tooth and nail for every chapter

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ok it sucks in some places but we DO have a complete draft for this thing. fucking finally. time to drop it and go play games instead

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ok i started over A Third Time and this version ditches the entire thing that was the original premise of the fic (protagonist flunking the entry trial) BUT i like this version better actually bc we get to the actual Point of the fic (ingo adoption) way quicker. and i don't have to spend a whole chapter dragging the pov around to all these different characters that don't ultimately matter that much

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

For the ask game: ♻️ What's a scrapped idea for one of your current WIPs?

ok i think i've said before that sinnoh was silent/pladoption went through a BUNCH of revisions before being posted, bc it was supposed to be a fun lil thing but it hates me personally for some reason. and where it landed is that akari just shows up in the temple of sinnoh and ingo is subsequently the first one to find her, but where it started was actually with the idea of the protag still showing up in jubilife but subsequetly failing the entry trial, and thus being refused a position with the survey corps and further the galaxy team as a whole. & then lav&co suggested they ask the clans for a place, and then they got bounced around some until ingo decided to let them stay with him bc he didn't like watching a bunch of adults play hot potato with a lost kid's life.

ultimately i still prefer the version i posted, bc i think it works better for that specific wip (one day i'll get back to it istg) but i also would still really like to do something with the original idea bc. i think it's such a fun segue into the protag winding up with a diff. group than the galaxy team which you can do so much with. like, another idea i had is that the thing you do with volo in the red sky just happens way earlier, and after getting rejected by the galaxy team he takes the protag to cogita who is now, per her assignment by arceus, responsible for caring for its champion throughout their stay in hisui. that's fun to me. this is getting to a different part of the ask game tho so i'm stopping

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Yeahhh it been a while.... mind telling me what have you been working on?

-Cam

uhhh well let's see. i can't remember when i started anything so i don't remember what you were here for but in like, some kinda order

the most recent thing i posted Content for is sinnoh is silent/pladoption au which is just a fun time with ingo adopting protag akari and zero actual plot

there's also now origin visions where as a side effect of the rift ingo has prophetic dreams now (kind of)

and then disk constructs which you may or may not have seen the start of i don't remember. anyway, this is a pla & scarvi au combining the "you have a time machine and you're using it to teleport dinosaurs??" meme with the theory that the crater entity is NOT actually doing time travel and is instead just creating new entities from whole cloth. sada/turo attempt to bring ingo and akari back to the present, and instead receive bad copies based on their extremely limited familiarity with them, and nobody's any the wiser. very black mirror as someone else called it

oh and there's also now more plot and a fic for the pla/msa crossover

and then someone threw a warriors au at me but i haven't made a tag for that one yet so it's just floating around in the pokefic pitch tag. and at this very moment we are discussing various methods of breaking ingo's legs. that's everything i can think of? the masterpost in my pinned is still basically up to date but that's also Very long ghskjshksjh

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

patch notes there is now a tag for the "ingo adopts the protagonist" fluff au (pladoption au. i ran out of ideas)

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

went “protagonist fails the entry trials and is rejected from the galaxy team and therefore jubilife; after visiting a few other people, winds up being taken in by ingo”

and then i thought about it a little bit more and went to “actually version where the events of the red sky banishing just happen early, and volo catches you on your way out and the protagonist actually winds up living with cogita for most of the game”

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Fandom-Specific Tag Directory

misc whatever that isn't expansive enough for its own section:

#fashion: ok i don't know if this belongs here but it feels weird to put it in the main directory. honestly just a "ooh pretty dress" tag

#swift plays (hollow knight / subnautica / flight rising / dragcave / deltarune / rune factory / half life / final fantasy 14): i sure do!

#dr analysis: deltarune bloggin. the narrative is ALIVE

#mv liveblog: malevolent podcast tag that WAS a liveblog and now is just a catchall

elden ring: i don't have an elden ring specific tag actually oops. it's been too long and now i don't feel like starting anything consistent. you get what you get.

this section is the fuckoff huge directory of pla-specific tags

#pla analysis: for meta, character Thoughts, whatever

#pokefic pitch: grab bag of au/fic concepts that were one-offs/i never did anything with. a lot of more involved aus also start here

#surveyfam: the survey corps is a family!!

#strong pokemon... weak pokemon... maybe the trainer should just git gud: making fun (affectionate) of ingo and emmet’s starters/teamcomp. i mean they have to be so good to make it work but also why the rock lee ankle weights my guys

#hisui timeline debate: it is NOT in the 1800s

#volo’s evil togekiss: my conspiracy theory that the reason that volo has a togepi he manages to evolve is bc it is also super on board with the “reach god through violence and rewrite the universe” idea

sneasel: the funny animal pokemon: drawings of quadrupedal sneasel line (mostly sneasler) bc i think they're fun

substantial aus/things with fics:

#jailbirds au: aka Ounce of Prevention, my currently longest-running fic. kamado puts the rift travelers in prison and also emmet finally arrives in hisui after an ATROCIOUSLY long delay. it got wildly away from me and now there’s politics and every single minor character is involved

#galactic commander emmet: aka Fate of a Lost Comet. an extremely tense alliance is developed between cyrus, who wants to imprison the gods to rewrite reality, and his new commander and right-hand man, who is openly planning to sabotage him as soon as he gets what he wants: dialga on a leash.

#gligar emmet: aka Copy Corruption/silent loyalty. ingo's partner gliscor is actually emmet, who got stuck in a pokemon body upon arriving at the same time he did. they can’t communicate, but he’s very worried about his brother and is determined to stick with him

#pladoption au: Sinnoh is Silent. an au where akari falls like, IN the temple of sinnoh, and then gets really lost and then ingo finds her and he just keeps her. very minimal plot. mostly just fluff.

#immortal volo: fic: Nobody Writes Them Like They Used To. volo's immortal, but it’s been a few thousand years since hisui and he’s matured. he’s normal now. ...then he finds a pre-hisui ingo in unova.

#warden fusion au: wardens can fuse with their nobles. yeah like in steven universe. this one has a fic too: Covalent Bonding

#warden emmet au: emmet falls in hisui alongside ingo but lands in the wrong spot and they get separated. whoops!

#lord zoroark: a subset of warden emmet- the forgotten lord of the mountain, zoroark, finds a dude in the snow and decides to keep him. emmet lives in a cave with his dogs now

#living history au: a bunch of major pla characters get yeeted into the future. ingo does not get to go with them.

the following are aus that were more just posting/throwing stuff around w/ no real fic or art or anything. in no particular order:

#leader swap: adaman's now the leader of the pearl clan, and irida's diamond. the wardens are still the same

#ley lines au: magic fantasy au with some real worldbuilding happening

#timeloop protag: a "pla protag loops time when they die" au, except ingo is also conscious of the loops happening and has no idea why they are

#surveyparents: the protagonist falls into hisui as a toddler. cyllene and laventon are parents now and also The Plot is their responsibility

#card fortune: did you know the miss fortunes used to be galaxy team? what if they took the protag (counterpart) with them when they left? ...akari, who’s akari, i only know the Bandit Card

#the magical misfortunes: spinoff of card fortune based on a couple random posts. they’re teen superheroes/magical girls in a modern setting

#origin visions au: due to consequences from falling through the spacetime rift unshielded, ingo now has prophetic dreams. sort of. it's complicated

#hisui n au: N takes the place of the pla protagonist and has a bad time in hisui

#hisui fallers au: ultra wormholes take mohn, anabel and looker to hisui along with ingo. also, there’s more wormholes and they’re extradimensional monster magnets

#frenzy swap: swapping which noble of a region is frenzied—wyrdeer, ursaluna, basculegion, sneasler, and braviary instead of the canon 5

#legends creation starters: instead of rowlet/cyndaquil/oshawott, when transporting the protagonist to hisui, arceus offers them a newly-created egg of one of the creation trio

#zoroark twins au: ingo is a unovan zoroark but still has amnesia, leading to some Complicated feelings about his human guise. meanwhile, emmet dies shortly after falling into hisui and comes back as a weird dog

#dragon champion ingo: ingo’s a chosen champion of the unova dragons but he forgot. one day he summons a deity by complete accident

#distortion subway au: gear station has always been a little Weird, actually

#rift ghost au: instead of falling through a rift into hisui, ingo gets trapped in the distortion world. wardens think the rifts are haunted. also, turns out staying in the distortion world long-term is not so good for human minds and souls

#twin dragon curse: ingo and emmet are descended from the original unovan heroes, and their bloodline is cursed

#guardian of ideals: arceus’ champion was sent to stop volo at any cost. ingo, zekrom’s champion and divinely-ordained guardian of ideals, was sent to save him.

#zero constructs: the area zero professor decides to use their time machine to recover Champion Dawn and Subway Boss Ingo from their place adrift in time. unbeknownst to them, and unfortunately for dawn and ingo’s loved ones, they do not have a time machine, they have a wish-granting machine, and it does NOT know how to put a dawn and ingo together

#magearna twins: “hey the shinies for regular/oc magearna look sort of familiar”

#platinum clan: spawned off of living history- the clan leaders and wardens never figure out how to get back to their original time and ingo becomes the de facto leader of both clans, eventually unifying them into one

#tringo: SUB-subclass of platinum clan. ingo goes to unova and gets turned into the three legendary dragons

#giratina champion ingo: much like the protagonist is arceus’s champion, ingo is giratina’s, unknowingly serving volo and giratina’s will

#emissary au: spawned off of giratina champion/living history—after the leaders vanish, ingo is approached by a shadowy entity that claims to be almighty sinnoh, and which makes it his priest. giratina Is Not Evil, and is in fact trying to protect reality from a greater threat... not that the rest of the world believes that

#anthro legends arceus: i’m doing a miserable job beating the furry allegations

#modern hisui: rei and akari, totally non-suspicious teen twins, wind up in a small town full of cryptid stories

#nobel lady sneasler: this one is fully a stupid joke that got out of hand. pseudo-1920s-au, pokemon all have recognized sapience, and the clans are two rival groups of scientists with their own pet theories, trying to prove themselves right in time for an upcoming award. get it. nobels

CROSSOVER STUFF:

#arc vessel: hollow knight au. ingo is the ghost and emmet is the hollow knight

#pokesouls: grab bag. some of it’s elden ring, some of it’s ds1, some of it’s ds2, some of it’s bloodborne. we are just vibing

#msaxpla: pla/mystery skulls animated crossover. unlike 99% of my crossovers this is a “the characters exist in the same universe” crossover bc we are hyperfixation multi track drifting. vivi is the protagonist, lewis died in hisui and became a zoroark, and arthur’s a depot agent doing really inadvisable things to one of the train engines (it’s fine emmet okayed it)

#subnautica au: ingo crashes on the degasi. several years later, emmet chases his voice recordings across the crater, hoping to catch up to him (and find him alive when he does) (they both end up fine dw)

#pla dhau: submas/pla dishonored au. no listen listen. ingo and emmet were twin princes, but one family assassination attempt and several years later, ingo’s an assassin-turned-vigilante with no memories and emmet’s smiling in the lord regent’s face while turning the palace against him behind his back.

#pla rf4: rune factory 4 au. the wardens etherlink with their nobles to sustain both adaman and irida. if you know what that means congrats and also come yell with me about it

#poke slayer: demon slayer au that is, i will be honest, mostly about torturing former darkness hashira ingo

#the legends zone: taz balance au. an ipre consisting of ingo, emmet, elesa, prof. rowan, laventon, cyllene and one stowaway. emmet and elesa are liches, emmet gets stuck in a whistle, rowan voidfishes everyone and becomes kamado and founds the galaxy team to fix their mistake with the light of creation (arceus) and the nobles.

i don’t post much msa anymore and most of this is not particularly Up To Standard but i GUESS i’ll compile those tags too

#msa analysis: for meta

#fic pitch: approximately 2 billion msa au concepts that never went anywhere bc my brain is a pinball machine

#msa mermay: i did two of these! it’s mermaids! more or less 100% art!

#mystery hate blog: aka kitsune (derogatory). i DON’T hate him as a character but i DO bitch a lot about how Everyone Except Me Is Wrong About HIm

#mori and arthur are friends: i think it would be funny if they bonded

(most of the following are also au concepts that span maybe one sketchsheet or a few posts, because again, brain. pinball machine.)

#precave lewvithur: you can't textually prove that they WEREN'T all already dating and lewis just forgot

#search death au: arthur dies while looking for lewis and comes back as a ghost whose death mission is to find him. this uh, raises some conflcits with lewis’ own existing death mission

#ot3 fake dating: no cave no mystery skulls au where, for Reasons, lewis has to pretend date both arthur and vivi at the same time. not as a throuple just. two legally distinct fake couples he's gotten accidentally involved in. at once.

#spooky kids with magic powers: au based on the idea that lewis was a station experiment where they (lewis, vivi, arthur, reverb's also there i guess) are All science experiments

#vampires au: everyone in the gang is a "vampire” but they’re all following different cherrypicked rules about it

#shards of winter: a sort of ambiguously period au? lewis is a... something, vivi and arthur are... something else. this one is a fic! it's more interesting and coherent than it sounds here

#noir au: fantasy noir, vivi’s a detective and arthur enlists her to find lewis

#western au: fantasy western, specifically. arthur made a deal with the devil. lewis is a ghost.

#little mysteries: little nightmares au

#msa celeste: lewis, vivi, and arthur are all mountain climbers with their own issues to work through

#msa hk: vivi is hornet but also the protagonist? arthur is the vessel. it’s convoluted

#dishonored au: you know the grimdark stealth action game series dishonored yeah i made a msa au about it that i have brainworms for and almost exclusively talk about in the tags

i think that’s all the major ones but i’m almost definitely forgetting something anyway. whatever. i’ll pin this post i guess