#so I'd MUCH RATHER no submas in this game

[ingo-ingoing-ingone]

Imagine if Ingo shows up again. He's the Looker of the Legends Game. In search of his origins.

Fandom has a habit of making Ingo extremely passive with being eternally bound and in debt to the kindness of the Pearl Clan for saving him and the Duties as Sneaslers Warden. And they have Emmet as the active role ready to do anything and challenge everything to get Ingo back.

But imagine this:

after meeting the Protag in Hisui and battling them a few times memories start showing up more. We've seen it firsthand of him remembering Emmet and Chandelure and in a way Gear Station. Eventually these memories and mysteries will cause restlessness in him. Restlessness and curiousity. And at some point he can't just sit by here in Hisui. There are clearly no ties to his mysterious past here. So he bids goodbye to the people who saved him, gives up his duties as a Warden and at he Battle Ground and sets out into the world; trying to find the answers to his past, to himself and his home. There are risks but they are worth taking, he knows that.

And a Train that sits motionless on tracks will get rusty. He needs to move forward on his tracks to find his home station. Or at least answers.

I know it basically goes against the whole narrative of passive Ingo but I quite like the idea of Ingo starting to travel. Looking for himself and his past. Becoming active. Wishing to find the home he can't remember. Because his heart knows there is someone waiting for him.

hope it's ok to share these thoughts. Especially since they are so controversial. But I'd love something like this.

I tend to like both takes of Ingo: both waiting for a change and also striking out to find his home

I wouldn't exactly call it being passive, per se. Depictions range from him being depressed (which really does sap your energy) to simply not knowing what to do. Some subconscious instinct could tell him to stay put.

Staying put, if you are lost, is safer and increases your chance of rescue after all.

(Don't discredit the works and opinions of other people, I know you probably didn't mean it but it feels a smidge rude here. I also could just be bad at reading the tone)

But I do like the idea of him getting home on his own too. I think it would be interesting, but I'd rather read it as a fic than have to wait for that many years for games to come out. I wouldn't want them to rush it bc that's inhumane to gamedevs and makes for shitty games, but respectfully lol I do not want to wait that long for a plot

Plus he'd have to figure out the whole time travel element to it, which would be fairly difficult plot-wise

So personally I'd just rather they reunite them already :,)

[1863-project]

For the anon Pokémon asks: which battle subway conductor is the cutest?

Okay, this may get long, so bear with me.

First, a little disclaimer: Ingo and Emmet both make me feel incredibly seen. I was born in 1989 and wasn't diagnosed with autism until 2009, and I never got to see characters like me. I'd see some who were similar to me, or some with things in common with me, but Ingo and Emmet feel like looking in a mirror to me, to the point that I don't go in the Submas tag because I've seen too many people perpetuating the ableism that got me bullied as an undiagnosed autistic kid. Every time an autistic or autistic-coded character is portrayed as "weird" or "off-putting" or "too intense" or "scary," it's repeating things that my bullies used to excuse their behavior towards me and essentially treat me and my autism as entertainment. Most people aren't doing this, of course, but since I'm in the process of working through a lot of that trauma, I choose not to take the chance of exposing myself to it because I'd rather heal instead of open old wounds again and again.

Anyway, with that said, I adore them both, but only one of them makes me act like a giddy teenager.

I have the most ridiculous fictional character crush on Emmet. It's unreal. Part of that is likely the fact that if he was real we'd actually be extremely compatible, but unfortunately for me, he is not, and so I can't take him on locomotive photo charter dates and kiss him on the City Hall looparound on the 6 Train. That aside, here's what I genuinely like about the goober.

He's deeply passionate about what he loves.

It's that passion that often gets people like him and me labeled as "too intense," but when he likes something, he really likes something. Battling is like air to him. When you befriend him in Masters EX, you find he'll actually talk your ear off about battling if you give him the opportunity. He vibrates with excitement when he sees strong trainers.

[Image description: Emmet and Ingo, two adult identical twin men with knife-shaped sideburns wearing exaggerated versions of railroad conductor uniforms, stare off to the left at people who are off-screen. Emmet, in a white uniform, is holding his hands at his sides but his hands are in an excited, almost 'grabby' position; Ingo, in a black uniform, also has his hands at his sides but his hands are balled into fists. Ingo's Excadrill, a Pokemon that looks like a mole combined with a tunneling machine, stands in front of him. End description.]

In this screenshot from Masters EX, Emmet and Ingo have just run into Steven Stone and Roark. Emmet is barely holding back, and you can tell by looking at his hands. He wants to battle now. It's delightful that he's in a franchise of video games where that passion is normalized and encouraged. (As long as he never visits Paldea, anyway. Nemona is proof of how well that would go.)

Battling makes Emmet genuinely so happy and excited and I love when people get that way about their hobbies. It's so nice to see passionate people. Emmet even says he's excited about it when you battle him in Black and White and beat him at the highest level possible:

"I am Emmet. I am a Subway Boss, but I lost against you again. But I feel good. Because it was very fun! You want to win, and I don't want to lose. That's real. When we clash in battles, I feel very excited!"

[Source]

He lives for this, so much that even losing a really intense, serious battle feels good. And it's a delight. But, of course...

[Image description: Emmet, described above, claps his hands together excitedly and says "Winning a serious, hard-fought battle is the best feeling in the world!" with a huge smile on his face. End description.]

...he, in his own words, likes winning "more than anything else."

He's verrrry direct in his communication...but also verrrry supportive.

Autistic folks are often told we're too blunt, and to neurotypicals, who are used to saying things more indirectly, we can come off as a bit...too direct to them, to say the least. Arguably the best example of Emmet doing this is in the PokeSpe manga, where he just says things without a filter.

[Image description: a manga panel in which Emmet bluntly tells trainer White, "Yes, we're studying you as an example of a trainer who gets overwhelmed and loses every single match." The next panel leads off with Ingo saying "That's not nice, Emmet..." End description.]

But that bluntness isn't intended maliciously, he just has no filter and says what's on his mind. In reality, he's delightfully supportive and friendly, and that honesty leads to the most wonderful exchanges with him:

[Image description: two screenshots of Emmet from Pokemon Masters EX, smiling softly. His dialogue reads, "Hi, Steph! Your smile is always the best. Perfect! Whenever I see you, I can't help but smile, too! I'll have to make sure my smile is just as good as yours!" End description.]

As a side note, this dialogue has been destroying me for over two years now, and every time I boot up the game and he says this I feel my face get warm. He's actually helped me stop being self-conscious about my smile.

He has a habit of listening in on things, even if he has no intention of gossiping or anything. He just likes knowing stuff.

It's a habit he seems to share with his brother, but Ingo is significantly less obvious and more apologetic about it. Emmet's just really funny about it.

[Image description: two manga panels and one screenshot from Masters EX. The first manga panel shows Emmet marching over to White and Bianca as they have a discussion, saying, "I'm overhearing an interesting discussion over here. It seems profound, so I'm going to stand nearby and listen in. Oh, don't let me distract you. Go on. Keep talking." The second panel shows Emmet cupping his ear with his hand and still attempting to listen in on the discussion from one subway car away, with Ingo standing behind him. The screenshot from Masters EX shows Ingo hiding his eyes with his hat and saying, "I apologize for eavesdropping, but we happened to overhear your conversation at the Pokemon Center" as Emmet stands beside him, hands on his hips and smiling with no shame. End description.]

He doesn't use the information maliciously, and a lot of the time he doesn't even use it at all. He just enjoys hearing these things and knowing all sorts of weird drama is going on elsewhere. It's like when you find out about drama in a fandom you're not in and you read the posts and eat popcorn. It's great.

He likes his work uniform because it helps his posture.

As a fellow "leans forward too much" autistic, this one really resonates with me and I love it.

[Image description: A screenshot of Emmet in Pokemon Masters EX. He's standing straight up and holding the brim of his hat with his hand. His dialogue reads, "Wearing it gets me motivated, of course! It also helps me stand up straight and tall!" End description.]

He stops scripting when he gets to know people better because he's able to trust them.

Notice how his dialogue in BW and BW2 is on the Battle Subway - "I'm Emmet. This is my job. I like doubles. This is why I like doubles. Here are the safety checks." He's scripting around people he's not familiar with, and it's the sort of thing that gets autistic people labeled as "robotic" by people who don't know it's a way to help us maintain some semblance of control over an unfamiliar situation. The preprepared dialogue is a coping method in an ableist world. But when you get to know him in Masters, the scripted dialogue shows up a lot less. He's able to talk genuinely and excitedly to you, because he knows you're safe to be around and you're not going to judge him for who he is. That hits me hard.

He has the most adorable goddamned laugh in the world and it kills me on the daily.

This is a lot more in line with my personal tastes, as everyone who knows me well knows, but that damn laugh makes me all fluttery inside and weak in the knees. And he does it a LOT.

This update to Masters EX, where the characters laugh if you tap on them on the upgrade screen, destroyed me, and multiple people were apparently waiting for me to find it and die because I'm really predictable. I may or may not regularly pull the screen up just to poke at him and hear this. It's...not fair.

This one is...also unfair. I won't elaborate in public on what I think when I hear it because it's embarrassing.

So, uh...yeah. I really, really like Emmet a lot. I'm really normal about Emmet. I promise.

[starakex]

Warden Ingo Cosplay Build Log

Hey Legends Arceus / Submas / Pokémon fans ! I spent two months last year making a Warden Ingo costume because the game made me fall in love with the franchise all over again (and because I love sad amnesia uncle, of course). I'm pretty proud of it, so I thought it'd be fun to share the process here in painstaking details. I've been cosplaying for over a decade now and I learned a bunch from so many defunct cosplay tutorials on this website, so I thought I'd give back. This isn't a guide, persay, but rather a dive into the methods and decisions I picked to complete this project. Any pre-made items or patterns that are available online will be linked! I'll be splitting down each piece of the costume into its own section for easier reading. This is gonna be a long one with a bunch of pictures, so I'd suggest viewing on the blog directly! Without further ado, all aboard!

Station 0: The Guidelines

Before getting into the build itself, I wanted to preface this wall of text with the guidelines I set myself for this project.These core pillars inform a lot of the decision-making, and some people might feel like using this log as reference for their own cosplays, so I thought it'd be good to put them here to explain why I did some stuff the way I did. Comfort first: I knew I was gonna wear it in the summer, and stand around all day at a convention, so it needed to be lightweight and comfortable. (well, as much as a cosplay can be, anyways.) Realism: Ok, that's kinda weird to associate "realism" to a Pokémon costume (unless you're Detective Pikachu I guess), but I wanted to look more natural instead of translating a shiny fancy 3D model straight to real life (nothing against that, it just wasn't my goal). This meant adapting certain elements that only really worked in stylized Pokémon graphics. Be a huge cheapskate: I didn't wanna break the bank with this one, so if I could save money thrifting or reusing stuff I had lying around, I was going to do it. Whenever you see me pull some material out of my ass that wasn't entirely fit for the job, that's why. After putting these down, jotted down a battle plan for the project (basically just a huge compartmentalized list of all the material I expected to need and the steps to complete the costume), and then it was time to get to work.

Station 1: Thrift Shop Pit Stop

I like starting every project with a quick trip to the local thrift stores to see what I can find. I hate sewing pants with a passion, so my priority was to grab some navy suit pants to match the coat's fabric to later. I also found a long sleeve black shirt for Ingo's undershirt, a belt I ended up not using, and lucked out with some excellent clown shoes with removeable insoles. After slapping in my own insoles, replacing the shoelaces and fixing up the pants' button, we were good to go on every element that could be done without any extra work on my end. Moving on.

Station 2: Three Refined Metals For A Hat

I'll be honest here: when I initially planned out the entire project in my notebook, the hat was scary as hell. I had no clear idea how I was going to do it; I didn't really want to buy a similar pre-made hat cause roughing it up would've been stupid hard to get to look right. I figured I could probably make it out of EVA Foam (a certified cosplay classic), but I've never patterned a shape this complex before. Turns out Kamui Cosplay made a foam pattern for the same kinda hat. Score! I purchased the pattern and assembled the hat using 6mm EVA Foam and Contact Cement according to the instructions. I then destroyed some poor polyester cord trim from the bottom of my scrap bin and glued it into the base for the... sticky-outies? The damaged bits. Y'know.

With the base finished, I drafted a pattern for the fabric covering, cut my pieces out of navy twill, sewed it up and slid it over the hat. I did the same for the inside with some cheap black muslin leftovers from another project, glued it all to the base in strategic spots, and then patterned, sewed and glued the band on. Finally, I took my seam ripper and scissors and opened up the seams where the little piles of sad polyester scraps were lining up to free them. With the main part of the hat complete, I cut up a disc of 10mm EVA foam for the insignia, scored the design on with a hobby knife and heated it up to form a bit of a curve. It was then sealed with flexbond, painted and sealed with a clear coat, and glued on! All that was left after this was weathering the hat. It's a little hard to photograph this piece properly, so I'll show the weathering process when we get to the coat.

I apologize for basically pulling a "rest of the fucking owl" here, but honestly a lot of the process was improvising and somehow not destroying the entirety of my progress, so I have no pictures of the hat building process beyond this.

Station 3: Sneasels Ripped My Coat

Ingo's coat started with a heavily modified version of a commercial pattern. Specifically, it's the D Coat from Simplicity's 4789. I could've probably found a pattern closer to the Subway Bosses' coat design, but this one had already been in my pile of "patterns I bought for an abandonned project and will totally use someday, I swear" and it was close enough, so I used it. Modifications included extending the collar, making the coat a little longer in proportion to my body, the sleeves wider at the ends, and adding inner pockets (a cosplayer's best friend). Oh, and the white bias tape on the edges and the orange stripes, of course. You may have noticed I'm not showing the pattern with all the modifications here. That's because as part of the Cheapskate Protocol, I really wanted to use this old Simplicity pattern to save money. A pattern I bought when I was a teen way back when. the misses sized pattern enveloppe. So I had to size up the entire damn thing. The biggest size on this pattern was like 7 inches off my measurements. It's a paper Frankenstein golem. It looks godawful. The actual adjustments to make the pattern Submas-ready are incomprehensible in there. But hey, I saved like 10 dollars! I started by assembling the base coat (undamaged) out of navy twill. I added heavy interfacing in the collar to help it stay up. I considered adding a lining to it to really sell the fact this used to be a modern machine-assembled piece of clothing, but it wouldn't have looked as good with the rips and tears later on. As a bonus, it's one layer less in the fight against heat exhaustion! However, if I were to make this coat for Pre-Eeby-Deebied Ingo, I'd definitively do a lining.

Next step was the stripes! I used some double fold white bias tape to finish the edges of the coat and topstitched the ones on the back of the coat on. I then used the same orange cotton as the hat band for the three orange stripes,which were topstitched on. Cheapskate Protocol made me buy barely enough orange cotton this time around because I was tired of building up the pile in the fabric scrap bin, so I had to improvise to make it work by snipping the bands in strategic spots in order to cover to whole coat properly. It's not like the parts that would be cut off later for the damage would need them, anyways. ✨Optimization✨

After rolling my rock up the hill of a Hell of my own creation, I booted up the game, dragged my avatar to the Ingo enclosure and marveled at the magnificent creature to see where the coat was ripped. I traced a loose guide of the tear designs with washable fabric chalk and crudely cut up the bottom edge, sleeves and collar to have the basic shape down.

All that was left was to add the armband and the buttons. Turns out the only metal buttonsI could find that were big enough were those buttons kits to cover with fabric. Since I wanted to go for realism here (and be able to throw the whole thing in the wash after sweating in it all day), I wanted to avoid crafting them myself. With the main construction done, it was time to do the weathering! ... ... ... OH GOD I FORGOT TO ADD POCKETS

Behold, the world's most awful pockets. Two stupid little bags sewn in such a way you hopefully can't tell from the outside that I completely forgot that I wanted these. They literally only exist so I can have my phone handy at a convention. There's a buttonhole to close it too, I guess. They're shamefully hidden with all my lining-less, raw seam sins. Ok now we can destroy the coat

Station 4: Stinky And Dirty

I mentionned earlier during the hat section that I was going to get back to the weathering process. This is happening now. For the sake of Realism™️, I wanted the damage to look natural in real life, so I had to make it look believable. Luckily this wasn't my first rodeo with the Dirt, so I had plenty of weathering experience under my belt. To break up the awkward scissor cuts from earlier on the edges and fray everything up, I pulled out the sandpaper and started... Sanding the fabric. Might sound weird to some, but a lot of costume makers swear by it. It's also great for ripped jeans (if those are still popular today) and general natural wear. I also refined the shape along the way with scissor to break up any long straight cuts before fraying the edges. I took care to reinforce any newly destroyed seams with a sneaky staystitch so it doesn't unravel in the future. I then mixed up a bunch of different shades of brownish grime with fabric paints (I had black, brown, yellow, orange and green on hand) to dirty the whole thing up. This doesn't look as realistic as some other methods like weathering powders and Just Using Real Dirt, but as mentionned earlier I wanted to be able to just throw it in the washing machine at the end of the day to sanitize it. (If you're interested in actually learning how to weather a costume, this guide is where I started my journey.) I prioritized the ripped edges and any spots where grime would realistically accumulate in over time, like under the edge of the hat band. Paint was dabbed, stippled and rubbed on with whatever garbage tools I could find, which in my case were some old crusty brushes, sponges and toothbrushes I could get really violent with. (brushes were harmed in the making of this costume, but not my good brushes.)

The whole thing was then sealed with heat using a flat iron as per the fabric paint instructions. With the coat done, all of Ingo's old Subway Boss uniform was complete!

Station 5: A Warden's Garb

Next step on the list was making the Pearl Clan uniform. Thankfully, there's a fun little piece of concept art that shows Ingo without his signature coat, so from it we can confirm that his clan outfit has short sleeves (good for the comfort goal) and consists of two pieces: a tunic and some kind of hip sash. I omitted the hood on the tunic because I was realistically never going to wear it up and it would have just bunched up under the coat anyways. Now you'll be painfully aware of that terrible corner cutting truth whenever you scroll down and see photos of the costume. Sorry. I drafted out a quick pattern for both pieces of the clan garb through the power of math for the sash (a couple half circles with another piece for the border) and tracing over a tunic in my wardrobe for the shirt. I assembled a test version out of scrap muslin to make sure it worked properly, then set the pattern aside so I could prepare the fabric. In order to have all of the tunic elements match together, I picked up a bunch of white stretch knit fabric and a bottle of purple synthetic dye so I could reach the shade of dusty lavender I wanted. I measured out two squares of fabric based on the pattern. One square was for the darker border on the waist sash, while the rest was the lighter color for the whole outfit. I boiled water according to the dye instruction and worked on my Fabric Soup.

With the fabric dyed and washed, I cut my pattern pieces out and assembled everything together. Nothing special happened there since the pattern had been tested and adjusted prior to sewing the real deal. Ok, one thing happened actually. My sewing machine absolutely hated how thin this fabric was and kept trying to eat my costume. By the end I was about ready to throw the machine out the window, but things worked out.

It's pretty sneaky and totally not visible on the outside, but the sash is held closed with two snap buttons on the front. It's easily the single jankiest piece of the costume due to the aforementioned attempt by my sewing machine to have fabric dinner. But hey, it works and the jank isn't visible so who caaaares (I care)

Final step for the Pearl Clan outfit was adding the logo on the front. I wasn't sure how I wanted to do this, at first, but to keep the fabric's stretch and keep with the idea that this is a hand-sewn garment from old Hisui, I decided to go with hand embroidery. I grabbed some scrap white cotton, dyed it purple, then cut it out in the shape of the logo. It was then painstakingly applique'd to the tunic by hand with embroidery floss.

With that done, the tunic was completed! It looks absolutely depressing on a coat hanger, but when worn with a belt it's all nice and cozy. As a bonus, it layers with the coat well enough that I don't have to wear a binder under everything to hide obvious boob shapes. Another win for the Comfort team! 👏 With all the sewing done, all that's left is the Warden bracelet and the hair.

Station 6: Noble Sneasler's Cool Bling

Ingo's got a bestie bracelet of his best pal Sneasler, so we gotta make that. The build should be pretty standard to anyone that's made anything out of EVA Foam for a cosplay. I drafted the pieces by referencing the in-game model, cut them out of different thicknesses of the material to create some depth, and glued everything together with contact cement and hot glue. (The main bracelet is 6mm foam, the details are 2mm foam and the black parts for the base of the head and the gem are 4mm foam.) I added an elastic on the wrist to keep the bangle secured to my arm while still being able to easily slip it on and off.

The whole thing was then sealed with flexbond, painted and then sealed with a spray clear coat. Honestly, it was the simplest part of the build and it actually went without a hitch this time around.

With the accessories done, it was now time to get to what I am convinced is every Submas cosplayer's worst nightmare: The Goddamn Hair.

Station 7: The Goddamn Hair

There's a lot of artists credited as character designers in the credits of Pokémon Black & White (2010). This means I can't figure out who to blame for Ingo and Emmet's stupid sideburns that make absolutely no sense in the real world. Instead we're just going to scream at the heavens and find a solution to the geometric flaps. Another fun fact: I'm awful at wigs. Like absolutely awful. I understand the methods involved, but I'm stupid bad at applying that knowledge on an expensive mop of plastic hair I don't want to ruin. So I did some research to figure out how people were making the twins' hair on their own cosplay. Everyone did a great job, but it wasn't really the effect I was looking for, so I decided to start from scratch. Because, you see, I was going to completely avoid styling a wig. I've always interpreted the art as them having some sick sideburns/muttonchops. (This art piece by waltias on twitter was posted like a week after I finished my cosplay and I felt so so validated in my interpretation) I also love Makeup FXs, so I thought "hey, I can look up beard makeup tutorials." I ended up with two ideas: either I could buy crepe wool hair in grey and glue the fibers to my face individually every time I put the costume on, or I could make a reuseable prosthetic. I'm a lazy piece of garbage that likes doing things once so prosthetic it was. I mean, I know how to ventilate wig lace. It'll be reusable and take 4 minutes to apply. Smart! I got the Jett in Light Grey from Arda Wigs, a ventilating hook, matching wefts and the lace. I had a plan, I was ready, it was going to look great. And then I spent 40 hours tying individual strands of plastic hair on a wig lace mesh. For a total surface area of maybe 3 square inch.

(Pictured above: A Fool.) It was hell. I might've incurred a stress injury from the process and then had to let it rest for a week because I did it all over a couple days. Would I recommend doing it? If you're patient, sure. I love the result. But this was, by far, the worst part of the entire project. 40 hours. The entire coat took me like 6 hours. 40 fucking hours.

After painstakingly tying individual hairs to a mesh and realizing I might've reached the Ninth Circle of Hell along the way, I took my couple squares of ventilated wefts and trimmed them to the proper length. The result was awesome, and I don't regret it at all. It looks exactly how I pictured the idea of sideburns would look like. But it also took 40 hours of me just tying some fucking hair to a mesh. Maybe there was a better solution, but there's so little ressources about the process online that I just went with the methods I could find, really. I pray someone starts offering squares of pre-ventilated wig lace someday so no one else has to suffer like I did. As a sidenote, I didn't even bother with the balding hair since I wasn't gonna go through all the effort of heavily modifying a wig and wearing a bald cap if I wasn't even gonna take the hat off.

40 hours.

Station 8: Bits And Bobs From Under the Subway Bench

Honestly, after the absolute nightmare I went through making the sideburns and goatee, The final touches were a cakewalk. After all, the costume is complete! What's next? Warden Ingo uses Pokéballs like a cool guy, so I wanted one. I usually make pretty much everything myself for costumes because it's fun, but after the ventilating adventure I just wanted to rest. I'd been following NisuzCraft's work for a while now, and I loved the wood grain effect on their Hisuian Pokéballs. I wholeheartedly recommend them, their work is awesome.

As a final touch, I grabbed some red cord I had lying around from a previous project to craft a little loop to hook my convention badge onto. I don't really like having the badge show up on photos, so it was a clean way to have it easily accessible while having it be easy to slide out of sight. I based the idea off of the knotted ropes the Galaxy Team member hang their Pokéballs from on their uniforms.

Lastly, though it's not necessarily part of the costume itself, I made an overly indulgent ita bag panel for the first con I took Warden Ingo out to. The collection's grown since then, but here it is:

Chandelure: JellyBearDesigns Ingo & Lady Sneasler: AstroTeenyArts Warden Ingo, Emmet&Ingo Duo: Cynniarts Ingo & Emmet with fingers crossed, Hanging Ingo, Emmet & Warden Ingo: Zhampip Rubber Straps: Official Pokémon Mate Merch Go show them some love!

Terminus: You Have Reached Hisui Station

So, first con wearing Warden Ingo came and went. What's the verdict? Pretty great experience, honestly. It was relatively comfortable to wear despite record heat in the middle of summer. The only real issue was that having a wig and a hat together trapped heat real bad, therefore some wig breaks were needed. I also initially used spirit gum to stick the facial hair on, and I struggled to remove the residue afterwards from the lace mesh, so now I just use body tape to keep it on. Nothing broke, nothing hurt, so I'd say it was a success! I haven't had to modify or repair anything for the future, so I'm very proud of the results. To anyone who read this Build Log to the very end, thank you so, so much for your interest. I hope this may have given you some insight into the process; especially if this helps your in future cosplay projects! If you don't cosplay, I hope it was still an entertaining read.

Hoping to see more wonderful Submas cosplays in the future!

[chipsncookies]

Group-that-has-Ingo-anon here, I'm back already! No update on the game, but I was wondering if you could tell me about Ingo and Emmet's personalities? I play TTRPGs and I'm thinking about making twin characters who have a similar dynamic!! I'd look this info up but I'd rather hear it from someone who loves them a lot because that's more fun. :)

Heya! Sorry for late reply this required a little bit of time since my memory is hazy and im mentally in 748 different places lately 😅 I explained all i remembered, they're kinda basic and anecdotal, but I hope it helps! (also if other sbms fans notice anything missing please add to this post)

Submas have very little screen time so most of their personalities are my (and fans') interpretation of their lines in game. There are more if you count pokemas interactions/lines as canon (which i do, considering how in-character they are)

First of all, their similarities are obviously they both love trains and battling so much. They take huge pride in their responsibility as train conductors and battle facility leaders. In pokemas, they also seem to take great interest in trains in other regions which use different energy(?) (i don't remember who said it but one of them talked about it). As twins they're always in sync, from their appearance to battles.

Although they're identical twins, they have different personalities, Ingo seems to be more formal, he speaks respectfully and behaves in a way that you'd see in an official setting. In contrast, Emmet is less so, his sentences are shorter and to the point, giving more 'chill' vibes imo. Because of this, ingo is regarded as the more public facing brother, while emmet is more 'personal' with you (i think this is fitting in-game bc you'll see ingo first due to their battle requirements)

Since I don't remember all the details, I also asked my followers on twitter to remind me and here are some of their responses:

Also some juicy pokemas interactions that i like: In the butler costume, Ingo asked you to help watch out Emmet since he's new to this butler gig 🥺 Ingo also has gap moe, he doesn't realise his face is not smiling, even though he's having fun battling. Meanwhile, Emmet has expressed that he really respects Ingo, and he believes they're the best combination when battling.

These are all i could write atm 😅 sorry if it's not in depth but i hope it gives you a picture of their personalities! I also really recommend you listen to their pokemas voicelines, the vas did a great job and you can really see their personalities shine!

I wish you the best of luck with your game and TTRPG! 💖

[stahl-tier]

Sorry ro hijack, but this is actually something I've been thinking about a lot too ever since getting back into the fandom.

Basically the question I had was.... What even IS their job??? They don't seem to be doing anything in particular that is related to the typical professions in public transport, and even less so in subways. Now I'm not super knowledgeable about the American subway system in general (which I believe was the inspiration), but I think it's safe to assume that a lot of things work the same as in other places.

I've basically come to the conclusion that if one was to try and assign them a profession that at least resembles a real-world job, the closest equivalent would be attendants. I'm going purely by the portrayal of the twins in the games and additional media here and trying to find a match.

Now typically subway trains don't have those I guess, but maybe they do in Japan, or the technicalities weren't all that important, and that may have influenced the portrayal of the Subway Bosses. After all, they have been very minor side characters for the most part (sorry, as much as I enjoy them, I think it's not controversial to say that they just don't get a lot of screentime).

Attendants are the ones you'll typically see wearing fancy uniforms and interacting directly with passengers. (I am convinced the "white/grey" stripes on the Subway Bosses' uniforms were meant to represent reflective strips as seen on typical railway worker clothes btw.) It doesn't seem like the twins are doing any driving of the trains, rather there's either additional staff and/or self-driving vehicles (which is not all that uncommon in subway systems nowadays).

Especially in PLA's portrayal of Ingo he talks about safety checks, which can be something attendants need to do. Announcing that a train is departing also is a typical attendant task. Generally, from my personal experience with attendants, they are often highly extroverted and have a trained "customer service voice", including a bunch of phrases that are memorized and standardized. They also tend to be a bit strange, have to be stoic and stern, and will act drastically different when they're not around passengers (less stiff, less smooth, less any act they put on for passengers basically).

Attendants also need to have a huge extent of knowledge about the typical schedules and destinations of their trains, and there is often paperwork to do (for example they might need to read/receive technical reports about their trains, write up such reports, or write up orders for the rest of the staff in the case of unusual operating conditions).

It wouldn't be unthinkable that these two are also in some sort of leadership position at "their" subway. It's very common, here at least, that supervisors and bosses are either still actively working their "normal" profession within the railways or at least used to before being the boss became their full-time job. With how the Subway Bosses are probably also synonymous for the entire subway due to their special battle train, I think it's likely that they would also be the "faces" of it - so basically some sort of mascots. That would also make them dress/act more extravagantly than the other staff. It might also allow them to more freely schedule their own working times as they see fit. Normally, attendants will have to work shifts (day, night, weekend, holiday, some lasting 12 hours and more, etc.) and cover multiple trains per shift, but since we only see the Submas twins coming out of the woodwork in their main games whenever someone beat all the battle subway trainers, I'd guess that they're not exactly drowning in work.

Lastly there's the scenes in the anime where they are in a control room as they try to locate the rogue train (which I've mentioned before, weirdly sports an insignia that looks exactly like my country's railway's???? What does this MEAN, I need answers). They seem perfectly familiar with the control schemes, but not actively concerned with operating it on a regular basis (there's other staff present during those scenes and taking care of it, iirc). Being an attendant means you do need to be at least superficially familiar with such systems, but it is definitely not your job to operate them.

So I guess, that's the conclusion I got for now. It's obviously all headcanons and assumptions and probably no one at Gamefreak spent even half as much time thinking about it as I did, but.... I like thinking about these funky train men, I just think they're neat

I feel so bad for the twins, because i feel like with subways in general have those really busy weeks, it also has me wondering how do they handle such work? Any thoughts; headcannons maybe?

I unfortunately have little experience of daily commute in the subways or knowledge of how a subway boss's day would be like in real life. But knowing how positively and caringly they speak about their passengers and them running an attraction in the liveliest city in all of Unova, I feel they thrive in busy environments and know how to handle all kinds of people! This is pretty much their jam! Also since there are two of them, they share the workload and responsibilities and always have someone to talk to if there are any issues. While they would be excited to tackle the busy weeks as a form of challenge, they are still human. Anyone would be exhausted from being in such a busy environment for prolonged times no matter how much you love it, the sensory load will get overwhelming eventually! However, as the Battle Trains only have one or two challengers per subway car, and the subway boss always waits in the last car, I'd think they'd use that time to have a moment of peace during the rush hours, listening to the train ambience.. while preparing for the incoming battle! Battles must help them to relieve stress & keep up a good spirit! Outside work, I'd see them relax the best by spending quality time with their pokémon, like going excercising or playing outdoor games together in one of the parks in Nimbasa City in the mornings (because I imagine it's calmer in the subway before noon) to maintain strong bonds and have a healthy change of view! Most if not all their pokémon are the sort that live underground so going outside is not really necessary for them, but the subway bosses surely would surely want to keep all their skills and abilities top notch by challenging them in new ways! Because they are such workaholics absorbed in their fine-tuned system and schedules, running them precisely like gears turning inside a clockwork, it would be up to their friends to make sure they take a day off every now and then!

[browniefox]

do you have any submas fic recs?

You know, you'd think I would, right? I just don't have a lot of time to read these days between work, school, and writing (and also playing white but shhh). But I do have some! Uh, I'm taking submas to mean 'any fic that has ingo and/or emmet', so some of these don't have emmet. I hope that's okay.

Also uh I'm going to be honest with my recs, so I might say a few things that might seem a little mean, but I swear they're good fics! I'm just picky!

Reverie by Firelight

On the night of the festival, Ingo takes his leave. Instead of the loud streets of Jubilife, he finds himself in the Coronet Highlands.

A really good oneshot! It's just sort of a moment out of Ingo's life, and also I think the first Ingo fic I read lol.

(grabs the funny subway man) YOURE GOING BACK HOME FUCKER

In which Nimbasa City's most prominent figures find themselves in grief, a man and a child emerge from the mountains, and Ingo grapples with a world he would swear he knows, but cannot recognize.

This fic was probably the first one I read about Ingo coming back! It does a lot of things I like, like showing how much Ingo's disappearance has affected people. It goes the 'emmet becoming a mess of a workaholic' route for Emmet, and this one actually does it pretty good because somebody notices and tries to help! Uh, I don't really like how (spoilers!!!) the reunion is put off so that the author can show us how Ingo got home, and I'd much rather have it left to the imagination.

Misery Loves Company

Dawn was convinced she was alone in Hisui, going under a false name and pretending to have lost her memories in order to squeak by and survive. But she's not alone in her misfortunes. And she's not going to leave him behind.

A pretty good one! Dawn and Ingo bonding, and we know I'm a fan of that! It's a little more 'episodic' that I'd like, but it's still really fun and some really nice chracterization and relationships :D

Not Meant For This World

They found him on a mountain.

Unconscious and tattered, lips blue from lying face down in powder snow, the man was delivered to the Pearl Clan in the arms of a beast with no warden.

- - -

Ingo adapts. He has no choice but to adapt to this life he's been handed, even if he knows there's a great deal missing from himself.

I really like this one. The ending especially is a gut punch, like oof yessss hell yessss. It's mostly just Ingo and his time in Hisui, learning how he fits into it all.

We Will Always Have Each Other

Subway Boss Ingo has been missing for over three years. Not that the local Gym Leader or the Pokemon Rangers accompanying her have any idea who that is. All they care about is whether anyone was hurt in the avalanche caused by that sudden, odd swirling storm, and why all the wild Sneasel are acting so strangely now.

The journey may be long, but Ingo and Emmet will be reunited at last.

I really really liked the beginning of this one! I thought it had a lot of fun things going on! I wasn't as happy with how the rest of it has been going with the characters it cuts between and some of what they had happen with Ingo. I'm also picky about how the reunion actually goes - I mean, I'm sure when I have it happen somebody will say of mine 'i dont' like that' so karma and stuff - so I have mixed feelings.

Lucifer, Your Horns Are Showing

Volo and Ingo exchange myths, and Ingo regains a memory.

A neato fic about Volo and Ingo, uh, 'bonding'? Volo's mostly a little shit, but what do you expect. I like the characterization of both of them, though, and it feels like something that could've happened in the game.

[manchasama]

They aren't quite old settlements, but I could 100% imagine there being some and I'd go with it.

there was some secrecy around them, that at least might be interesting. There was a town with a market who would only sell to members, and owning the Secret Power TM was proof of membership. (It was mainly secret base decorations and a few tms which included secret power, the move needed to create secret base. The adventurer fellow who teaches you about Secret bases goes on sells their own stuff in their shop built inside a tree in the Tree-walkway town. Skyla's gym town it was really a cool aesthetic/building place. )

Yeah pokemon was using portals/fallers for a bit. (If you hadn't played the games, there were basically a race of blue-skinned aliens, who could travel to other portals/worlds researching/studying them, while trying to seek out a way to help their deity, Necrozma, that their ancestors had harmed/injured. The aliens were wonderful, and traveled though these portals on the sun/moon legendaries back.

Ingo's the faller everyone clicked with, but there was canonically also a Looker/Anabelle, who people liked but lacked that certain angsty bite that the submas had. Though I'd argue theres a lot that could be done with Looker There was also a npc who vanished, but somehow was able to leave a message in a bottle saying they were fine/happy were they where, which brought comfort to the other npc. And there was that entire thing with Lusamine, who's actions were entirely based on the concept too. Her husband vanished though one of those portals, and she effectively mistreated herself, her children and others in her quest to try and find them again. In game they never reunite, pokemon anime had them reunite very recently. )

(Specifically for the first game, she's *badly* messed up by the alien pokemon and is sent to jhoto for experimental treatment. Theres no hint she even knows what happened to her husband, just that she likely had to give up for her own health/safety. In the Second game, she knows/is aware/even saw her husband, who is the Bean Guy in both games. But because he has no memories of his past life, she didn't want to disrupt his life, and just never tells him that she knows him. )

Been a bit but I wanted to answer anyway lol

This was in regards to those hidden bases if I'm remembering right, which again is a very cool concept. And a good base for interesting storyship, even if it doesn't completely follow canon. No lore? Just add writer! Or rather re-write lore lolol~ But this would be a fun opportunity to write about a secret community and how all that works.

I have seen stuff about the fallers here and there, but the concept is pretty depressing overall. The loss of memory and having no anchor to your past is a bit much for my interests. The reason Ingo resonates is that I do know his past and can reunite him with it! You can thank my cowriter of yore for corrupting my perception on personhood and memories.

Because we love timetravel fics, right? Where the MC goes back in time and gets a re-do button basically. But she pointed out long ago that the people the MC interacts with are not the people they left behind. That the people left behind are for all intents and purposes dead. Just because they have the same name and face, they are missing the key interactions and memories. It can never be the same. For some this is okay! For me? Idk, it's not a good headspace for me I suppose? Makes me uncomfy.

*side eyes some submas fics* Which is why I start out liking some fics a lot, but peeter off depending on how it goes after reunion. I can only take so much hurt without comfort. And to me the comfort is the return of memories and self.

Uh, yeah sorry tangent. I have seen Looker and Annabelle go by in some fics, but don't have too much of an opinion on them. I'd have to look into their stories, but really I'm happy in my little submas corner. Other characters would only be to support me writing stories about the bros.

[1863-project]

So, the other day I was playing through my Pokemon Black copy, and naturally I made my daily detour to Anville Town to see what train would pop up on the turntable that day (the type is determined by the day of the month, so it's always a surprise to see which one I'll find), and lo and behold they show me an old train! (iirc this one still runs in Pastoria City's Safari Zone)

Here is the entire description, plus a close up of the train (courtesy of our friends at Bulbapedia):

I don't have as much knowledge of trains as you do, but perhaps if you could tell us a bit about that train and/or it's real-life inspirations, then we might be able to date how long the Battle Subway's been around? I believe that this dialogue implies that the Battle Subway may be as old as this model. And, if it is old enough, then our beloved submas may not be the first ones to have run this very cool facility :0.

// The route gates in this game also give us interesting tidbits of information, and I happened to stumble upon an interesting detail- that being that the Battle Subway was established by a Rail Fanatic who also liked to battle (or something similar to that, I forget the exact wording and I cannot find any of the Route Gate text online :<).

The singular "Rail Fanatic" is a rather interesting choice of words considering twins currently run the Battle Subway, don't you think?

Anyway, thanks to all of this corkboard and yarn talk I just have a hunch that in game canon, the submas didn't actually start up the idea of the Battle Subway. I'd appreciate some of your insights on the matter if you're up to respond :>!.

Thanks! (and also, sorry for making another massive ask I guess I just can't help myself haha ;w;)

Aaah, yes, I will be DELIGHTED to take this on for you!

I'm pretty sure that's definitely supposed to be the old car they use in the Great Marsh, looking at it more closely! But it does resemble a lot of our older subway cars here, too, which delights me. In particular, in color, it looks like our Redbirds!

The Redbirds were built between 1959 and the early 1960s, but they were given their red paint scheme in the 1980s to combat graffiti. They were retired by 1993, but there are still a lot that serve as maintenance vehicles for the MTA, and quite a few still exist in preservation as well!

Or, if you want to go older...before things went underground, the elevated lines often had old wooden cars.

(link to read about these guys)

The three separate companies that make up today's MTA quickly figured out that steel cars worked better, and that was that, but the old wooden ones are awfully pretty. Here's an example of an early steel car:

(Some of these guys served for a long time - from 1915 until 1969!)

Now, for that other information...holy SHIT, am I interested in knowing who that Rail Fanatic was. And given that we have a lot of historical cars that could fit the description of the old one in Unova, that gives us a wide date range! It could have been there from the beginning - the early 1900s - or it could have come in later, but that text absolutely sounds like it's saying the Battle Subway predates Ingo and Emmet themselves. I now absolutely know what I want a Unovan Legends game to be about, oh my God. Will I get this game? Probably not. Will I fantasize about getting it anyway? Of course I will.

Seriously, though, thank you for that information. I absolutely have to know more now and I am...so curious about who this person was. An ancestor of theirs? A former boss they worked for who they took over for when that person retired? Someone entirely unrelated to them from one hundred years ago? The possibilities are endless.