#two. Ingo. Ingo is there. Ingo is in Unova.

[pinky-lemon]

more submas doodles

[ghostypetrainer]

Something that got talked about on the discord that I haven't brought up here is the summer camp AU. No time-travel, no amnesia. Just summer camp. Ingo and Emmet used to go to it every year, but Emmet was never as enthusiastic about it as Ingo was. He stopped going around middle school, but Ingo kept it up and eventually became a counselor when he was old enough.

So every summer, Ingo packs his bags and heads to Sinnoh to spend a month and a half working at the sleepaway summer camp there. Lian, Sabi, Akari and Rei are all campers, whereas most everyone else from Hisui is in some kind of position at the Camp, with Kamado running the show. Irida and Adaman are in charge of the two main cabins. Irida just barely is old enough to be a counselor herself after attending the camp for years.

(Lucas and Dawn also attend the camp. They are not related to Akari and Rei in any way. Yes, they're pretty sure.)

(Barry's there too.)

Nobody at the camp really associates counselor Ingo with Subway Boss Ingo, mostly because Ingo just likes to get in touch with his wild side so to speak while at camp. They have cabins for the counselors to sleep in? Oh, that's quite alright. He'll just pitch his tent.

(He's not alone though. Gaeric also does this.)

All of the Noble Pokemon hang around at the camp as well... they're rare variants that the camp takes care of, and they help out around the camp. Sneasler is very attached to Ingo, and sometimes likes to use him as a babysitter. Some things truly never change. Since Ingo leaves all of his Unovan Pokemon with Emmet to help at the Battle Subway, the first year he starts working at the camp afterwards he doesn't have any with him... until he finds an injured Gligar who he nurses back to health and oh. Well. He has another Pokemon now.

(He keeps doing this until he has another full team of six. Whoops.)

[nell0-0]

Emmet thinking: "Something is srsly wrong with Ingo. Do these peopel have something to do with it? Do they know whats wrong with him? Did they have something to do with it?"

Irida thinking: "God this guy is pushy. Is this what Ingo left behind? I'm not going to stop him from leaving obviously, but if THIS is how he can be expected to be addressed back home..."

Ingo thinking: "Man, I have so much shit to do. Maybe I could get Emmet and Irida's help doing it. They seem to get along."

What did the poor guy ever do to you

Ngl, this sounds like fanfic material. A one-shot at the very least. Too ansgty for me though, I prefer the funny and chaotic.

For context: 1 | 2

[parasolladyansy]

PKMN Black - Ansy

One more highlights post before going back to our regular schedule of Diamond x Pearl REWRITE (& please excuse the slight style changes through these lol, as I made some of these a year or two ago, while others I made leading up to posting DxP REWRITE on my Instagram parasol_lady_ansy).

As I said on Ansy’s timeline, BW was a very coming-of-age story for Ansy, maybe the most impactful for her character as a whole. It was her first official Pokémon journey, as her very first one through Kanto was cut short (see timeline), leaving her with PTSD. Enter Rain, her then-service Eevee (now Vaporeon!) - she was given to Ansy right before she moved to Unova to help adjust to life there.

She met all kinds of friends, enemies, rivals, & even a mysterious Champion from another region. This is when she first met Ingo & Emmet (they were about 19, brand new Subway Bosses, while she was 15). Skyla was about 16, & still working on her pilot license where she can fly industrial planes (like she does in BW2), but can fly small recreational aircraft like ultralights. Cynthia was also aged down to a teenager, though older than Ansy (looking forward to when she appears in DxP REWRITE 🖤)

The last fight against N, then Ghetsis, was a big turning point for her, as that was the first time since the incident in Kanto that she finally allowed herself to be angry, synching perfectly with the fiery white dragon Reshiram. She & they have a very deep bond, & while she didn’t catch them (Ansy befriends Legendaries instead of catching them), they would come when called wherever she was in Unova. 🪽

—

Other BW content - Unovan Halloween / Seasons (reblog) / Piper, Musical NPCs, & Anville Town / Sprite Sheet (BW Ansy & Rain) / when anger burns BLUE /

[critterbitter]

I have a question about the twins regarding starters. Yes, Chandelure and Eelektross are perfect for them, and I adore them. But if they were given a chance to choose one of the Unova starters, which ones would they pick? I think the Oshawott line fit Emmet, and the Snivy line gives me Ingo vibes. Tho, I'm not sure a Serperior would really get along with his Chandelure. And if they don't like the Unova starters and could choose from any starter of any other region, which one would be their choice? I'm asking this because I noticed they don't have any way to really hit ground types for super effective damage, so they might be interested in getting a water type and a grass type to cover that gap. 🤔

More under cut!

My favorite trope is when the obvious starter-trainer pair is, in fact, swapped six ways into sunday and comes out a jumbled wreck on the other end.

In a way weirder alternate universe, Ingo and Emmet would be given the two “trouble” starters from Professor Cedric’s batch much like how Pikachu is thrown at Ash in the pokemon anime— through a series of unfortunate accidents.

In this au, I would like to postulate they become the starter’s emotional support humans and end up running a battle gym, while Elesa (armed with a tepig) ends up head of a battle faculty.

Bonus AU elesa… she’s plotting ways to motivate her lazy tepig. She’s scheming. That’s a constant.

FEEL FREE TO ADD ON TO THIS AU! It’s free real estate.

((As for the rest of the ask: chandelure would absolutely throttle that samurott. Eelektross and servine (i cant imagine wanting to loose limbs as serperior) would be friends faster then a house on fire, and probably cause fires.

Also, the submas gang being utterly decimated by ground types makes me honk with laughter. Earthquake is a constant nightmare in this household.))

Link to submas masterpost!

[nartothelar]

I can’t stop thinking about Ingo and Emmet not being the same age anymore after the time travel. Ingo was in Hisui far longer than he was missing from Unova. Emmet having to look at his twin and know they aren’t twins anymore. Emmet losing his brother in more ways than one.

I love stories where theirs time difference between the two! For those in Unova, it’s only been a couple of years while Ingo has been in Hisui for 10 or more…

Ingo has yearned and grieved for so long, not even Emmet can truly understand the scope of how he feels. They aren’t a two car train anymore. Things have changed

[pillowbugs]

the days when we were young.

quick doodle of some silly teenagers (they will be the leaders of unova in 10 years)

(closeups + assorted ramblings under cut)

the time period i originally used as a reference point in terms of fashion styles was early 2000s, but after adjusting the designs repeatedly i'm not sure how obvious the influence is. all the kids have slightly different styles.

burgh's paint colours match the others in the picture, more prominently elesa, skyla, emmet and shauntal - maybe he was painting them each at some point?

burgh also has some stitches on his sleeve - his baby bugs ate his clothes, but his leavanny helped him patch up the holes :D

his shoes are also filled with doodles.

look closely at the colours of the scarf connecting burgh, elesa and emmet :)

the only two instances of skin-to-skin contact are emmet trying to shove his brother away (from dragging him by his hoodie)... and skyla and elesa holding hands. hmm. it's almost june.

emmet's trousers are painted (or at least there was an attempt) with train tracks and triangles.

the colour of ingo's trousers, as well as the metallic chains and splatter pattern on his shirt, allude to excadrill (no repeating references to the same ace pokémon).

shauntal's stockings have a blueish gradient towards the right as a nod to her chandelure's flames.

the ends of the drawstrings for marshal's hoodie reference conkeldurr's pillars, while his armband is the same colour as conk's... veins? the pink part.

marshal's undershirt is also orange-red to reference alder through volcarona.

[icys-junkyard]

Unova Battle Subway maps

My personal preferred map of the railways (one with blue markers, one with color coded markers)

An alternate map, taking the in-game subway map slightly more literally. (Bonus map with a few non-canon markers I added purely to help myself make sense of the seemingly pointless shapes of some of the routes)

Bonus extra map of the routes taken by Ingo, Emmet, or both of them, for those who want a more specific visual of those routes on their own. (Of course Emmet's line goes through the Pokémon World Tournament lmao)

Misc notes/thoughts under the cut

I'm not a train person, take all these musings with a grain of salt lol

Canon map note: I imagine this map only shows the large, intercity railways. Cities like Nimbasa, Castelia, etc likely have smaller, more complex subway lines all over the city like we tend to see IRL.

Canon map note 2: In an IRL setting, these rail lines are likely far less straight and angular than on these maps and could probably make a lot more sense if drawn with a freer hand and consideration for the landscape, but I tried sticking somewhat close to how it's presented in the game.

International (wi-fi) line: In the game it's the wi-fi line. In a non-game context I imagine this line is one that actually leaves Unova and goes to a neighboring region.

Subwayness: While not all of these lines are 100% underground like they might be in the cities, I like to think quite a few of them are partially or primarily in tunnels. Many lines go across water without a major bridge* on the map, or straight through harsh environments like mountains or deserts, some of which may be more convenient long term to go under rather than through. With the technology of the Pokémon universe, I imagine large stretches of underground train tunnels are entirely possible. (*Maybe there's smaller unshown bridges for the trains, but at least the line that goes right through Castelia's port to an island I'd like to believe could be underground under water)

Battle Subway: The Battle Subway itself likely only runs on these intercity lines.Assuming IRL distances rather than in game walking distances, depending on the length of the line, a lap or two could be a full days work for the bosses. Non-battle trains likely use these same tracks.

Anville Town: The branching path on the Anville line is strange, as it doesn't seem to point toward any known location. It could be pointing toward some unlabelled town or landmark, though I've seen some people posit that it stops at the Celestial or Dragonspiral towers (though they seem too far away for me to agree). My personal headcanon is that rather than the large branch shown on the original map, it's actually two branches going to Anville Town; a large alternate rail to help with rotating/moving trains going in and out of the rail yard there.

Pokémon World Tournament: Located in or very near Driftveil City, it was added in BW2 by Driftveil gym leader Clay. Considering Driftveil is a city, it could have multiple subway stations, one of which just happens to be close to the PWT. Alternatively, it could be a bit of a distance away and thus have it's own station.

PokéStar Studios: Located in or very near Virbank City. As the major intercity lines don't quite hit Virbank itself, I imagine Virbank only has one intercity station near the studio if it's within Virbank itself. That, or it has no intercity stations and one must travel the distance between Virbank and the studio to travel further.

Unity Tower: Literally this train goes through a port and right into the ocean to reach an island. This island is only accessible by boat. I'm convinced this train goes under the seafloor. That or it has a super cool Marine Tube situation where it's a subway tunnel, but the tunnel is transparent and the ocean and water pokémon can be seen out the train windows.

[madd-nix]

Au where Arceus tries to fix things by fucking things up more. It knows It has to send Ingo to Hisui for Its whole plan to work, but It doesn't want to separate Ingo from his home and family. So split him in two! That'll be fine!

So basically, Ingo in Hisui is as we know him in the game. Only knows his name and about pokemon and battling. But Ingo in Unova can't have the same knowledge, especially if Arceus plans to eventually fuse them back together. So he remembers basically everything other than his own name and stuff about pokemon and battling. Obviously, when Emmet realizes this, he gets his brother to a hospital for testing to see what's wrong, and a lot of their time is spent just trying to reteach Ingo about himself and pokemon. And lots of brain scans and medical staff psychic pokemon trying to figure out what's wrong.

[fraymotiif]

question suggested by @ingo-ingoing-ingone. i suppose it could apply to any battle facility head from the other regions too, but this is a submas blog hfkdhfj

[archersxartxblog]

While Ingo and Emmet are at work, Elesa offers to take the kids for a bit and decides to do a cute little fantasy inspired photo shoot with them.

[vero-valzer]

"I don't understand! I did exactly what Arceus asked! I caught and cataloged all Pokémon across the entire Hisui region. A-And I thought, once I did that, when I finally saw Arceus again... It would send us back to our time... Send us both back home..."

It's the Pokémon Legends: Arceus game's 3rd anniversary today! Have some angsty hurt-comfort sketches to celebrate! 😅

This absolutely not ship art! 🙅🏻🚫 That. is. his. (adopted) NIECE! I am a sucker for the fanon found-family bond between these two! 🥺

A few more rough sketches, snippets of abandoned comic ideas for PLA that I will never finish, and more thoughts below the cut!

All sketches are from 2022 but I tried to touch-up the topmost two a few nights ago and I'm still pretty proud of how the first two turned out (both drawn by closely referencing several sources.)

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that Akari is only around 15 years old. Shouldering a task like the one Arceus demands is A Lot, especially for a kid, and even more so in a world like the one Hisui pits against us.

I knew, going into the game, that even after logging all 242 Pokémon into the Pokédex, like Arceus bids us at the start of the game, that to continue feasibly playing the game, things were highly unlikely to actually change--our protagonist wouldn't be sent back to the present day and back home--and yet... I think some small part of me hoped. Hoped that maybe we'd get some sort of bonus cutscene of Arceus returning at least our protagonist or (ideally) both of our wayward spacetime travelers back home and to their present times.

I think that hope and how it was quickly dashed once I realized all we unlocked was the "privilege" of battling Arceus again in our dreams (no joke) made me wonder: How would young Akari feel about that outcome if she'd had the same hope that I did after weathering all the trials and tribulations to complete the entire region's Pokédex? And, of course, her amnesiatic-adoptive-uncle, Warden Ingo, isn't about to let her despair without at least trying to comfort her!

He doesn't completely remember what he's missing from the time he was ripped from, but I'd imagine he feels some sense of emptiness and strange longing for it... and I'd bet he might not realize Akari was putting that kind of pressure on herself for not just her own sake, but his, too. He likely wouldn't have wanted her to bear that burden, and at the very least, not alone.

I'm not holding my breath that Gamefreak will ever really give us a satisfactory or official resolution to Akari and/or Ingo of PLA getting back to their respective times and places in the Sinnoh and Unova regions... so maybe that's partly what this fanart is about, too, at a meta-level? But who knows! Maybe someday!

[gamerbeta]

Hey guys! I’m working on the next episode for Dimension Collision and while working on it, I wanted to look at the XY anime to see some more interpretations of Lumiose tower! HOWEVER- I did not expect to find this the first episode:

Serena happens to have a Joltik plush! And that was actually one of the only plushies visible in her room! After seeing that, I gotta wonder, ‘Did she ever go to the Subway station in Unova?’ ‘Does she know Ingo and Emmet?’ ‘If so, did those two ever consider Mega Evolution in the subway trains?’

Now that I know, guess that changes a bit of the course for my fan comic now lol XD

[a-land-lacking-sleep]

A brief thought on the parallels of the Subway Bosses, The Tao Trio, and Warden Ingo's place

@waywardstation just made an amazing post on her thoughts of Warden Ingo's parallels to Kyurem. Nothing in the game directly connects the two, just like nothing in the game connects the Subway Bosses to the Dragons in Generation V. But the connections are still there regardless, because Game Freak made sure to fill Unova with so much symbolism.

These are the basic thoughts that connect each Man to their Dragon.

Subway Boss Ingo - Ideals; Aspire to greatness, never give up in your journey

Subway Boss Emmet - Truth; You are who you are, there is no need for a mask

Warden Ingo - Void; What is there when you lose who you are? No drive for greatness, nothing to mask. Ideals, Truths, nothing matters except the ground beneath your feet.

In each game that they appear, Ingo and Emmet are relatively flat characters. In Gen 5, they have enough personality to stick in your mind, and nothing past. And in PLA, Ingo's whole personality is "I lost my memory and am depressed, but have hope". Instead, we end up looking at word choice, and in the Subway Bosses cases, other media.

Subway Boss Ingo, across most media, embodies Ideals. He has his eyes to the future, always pushing himself and others to continue onwards. He frames battling and training as a journey ("What can I see after winning, winning, and winning? Where is my destination?"; "Your talent has brought you to the destination called Victory!"; "There is no terminal called End in your life!"), most often when he is victorious. He seeks to create his Ideal self, and wants to push others to do the same.

This comes up in Pokemon Masters EX as well, where the "no terminal" line returns (in an appropriately spooky tone), he also spends time in the Day With Ingo story event talking about how he seeks to better himself and "break through the mold of [his] past self". This event is also the first time he mentions the phrase "greater heights", which appears another 6 times in various snippets in Masters. And finally, we have a triple whammy of travel metaphors for growth in his level up lines.

For Subway Boss Emmet, his connection to Truth is admittedly a bit more tenuous. He doesn't have any tendency for truth-seeking or investigations (outside of the famous behavior in the manga where he likes to eavesdrop on drama, which gossip isn't exactly truthful), but what he has is a strong showing of being truthful, even if he ends up being blunt or disrespectful.

As a consequence of his writing in Japanese giving him a very casual way of speaking, the English translation has him speak in shorter clips, just the bare essentials. The naked truths of his thoughts. He doesn't seek the Truth, or give a Universal Truth; Emmet is True to himself and to those around him. (As a side note, I love when people give power to other usages of the word True through Reshiram. I did it in my fic with a turn of phrase, but I've seen it done beautifully in other works too).

In Pokemon Special, Emmet doesn't hide the truth of why they asked White to train on the Battle Subway ("We're studying you as an example of a Trainer who gets overwhelmed and loses every battle!" "That's not nice, Emmet."), not because he is intending to be rude (Ok, a little bit), but because that *is* what they are using her for. In the games, he speaks of how Pokemon battles can be decided on luck ("I won against you. But I think I just got lucky."), because the Truth of the matter is, you can be highly trained and just have a bad day or get hit by a critical hit. But, most importantly, he believes that battles must be serious for them to be fun. Because what fun is there in putting up a fake fight, when you could just be True to yourself?

Now, to speak on the connection of Warden Ingo to Kyurem, we must first understand what Kyurem is to Zekrom and Reshiram. On a surface level, it is a Husk, a leftover revenant that can be reassembled into a simulacrum of the Original being. But looking into the actual symbolism of them all is where you find threads of connection to the Warden.

Reshiram, the Dragon of Yin, is representative of a more static element, receptive of change but passive in how it does so. It is a recursive existence that reaches out and pulls back towards itself - Everyone has an individual Truth, but that is still able to be changed by The Truth. However, one does not go out and change The Truth, only altering the perception of it while it passively exists. You cannot change what is already there, only create something new. In comparison, Emmet is never really shown to focus on the future, but rather on the present. He knows of the Truth in his life, and while it can be changed by present actions, he knows that he cannot go back to change it, so there is no need to try, or to hide it.

Zekrom, the Dragon of Yang, is active, ever expanding, and pushes up against those around it in it's search for Ideals. Ideals cause you to seek out a goal, to leave your home, your comfort zone, and push away from the past. To represent Ideals is to be in constant flux; Settling into a form makes you into a Truth, as an Ideal is a goal, something attainable, yet unreachable. We've gone over Ingo's future-forward gaze, constantly thinking about what is to come. Life is a journey, and every step you take in life is a step to self-improvement.

Kyurem is a Husk, a Shell. According to Bulbapedia, it is representative of Wuji ("Without a roof"), the absense of Yin and Yang, or "The Ultimate Nothingness". For this reason, I personally also attribute to it Mu, a concept of non-existence and negative space, specifically the lack of something normally there (modern Japanese actually uses "mu-" as a prefix the same way English has the suffix "-less"). Interestingly, the Japanese transliteration of Wuji is "Mukyoku" (lit. Non-polar, another translation of Wuji), connecting the two concepts neatly. In short, Kyurem represents Nothing and Everything.

Kyurem was supposedly the Original Dragon, the deity of Unova that represented Truths and Ideals in unison, a embodiment of Yin and Yang's harmony. In a sense, the Original Dragon was an embodiment of Everything, Unova's spirit of unity. Then, with the war between the Twin Princes (another pair also frequently compared to Ingo and Emmet, in case you think I forgot my boys), it was split into 2, but secretly 3, parts. This third secret part became Kyurem, a being lacking in its original qualities, leaving Nothing but the Husk.

Now, finally, we can get to everyone's favorite uncle, Warden Ingo. His connection to Kyurem is probably the least intentional of them all (which is saying something, because I'm honestly convinced that the Subway Bosses' own connections aren't intentional, but rather just a result of how Unova games were written with Truth vs. Ideal being ingrained heavily), but there still is one. As Wayward says in her fateful post, "Warden Ingo is an empty husk of who he once was ever since he was separated from his life, and from Emmet." Ingo as the Subway Boss may not have embodies the Everything that the Original Dragon has, but pairing with Emmet so closely still meant that Truth and Ideals mixed so cleanly that it might as well have been Everything.

However, the most important connection for Warden Ingo are the concepts of Wuji and Mu. To be "the Ultimate Nothingness" or "Non-Polar" means to be devoid of Everything, yet still have the capability to be far more than Nothing. The singular concept of Mu may mean that Warden Ingo is missing who he is and was, but that is not who we grow know in the game; We connect with a man who is slowly piecing together his sense of self, remembering facets of his past and growing happier with who he can be. Thus, the Mu transitions into Wuji, a void that isn't Empty so much as lacking.

The importance of distinction is that Mu is by nature Empty, while Wuji is Empty and Everything, limitless and confined. Similarly, Ingo is devoid of what made him him (His drive for self-improvement is impaired, even while he pushes the player to climb to greater heights), but becomes something new in the meta-narrative of the story. His actual, plot-related story ends when you quell Electrode and he becomes a challengeable NPC at the Training Grounds, but he becomes something of a kindred spirit in the greater plot of the game. He's like you, a Faller who has lost themselves, and also like you, an avid battler who pushes the system to it's limits (especially in the Path of Solitude).

In short, the connection between Kyurem and Warden Ingo isn't anything in the text, as Kyurem has no explicit in-game theming attached to it like Zekrom and Reshiram, and Warden Ingo doesn't have strong philosophical points that seeps out of the words he says to you. But when you look at the meta-theming for Kyurem, and subsequently Warden Ingo's meta-narrative, the connections become clearer.

Does some of this make no sense? Of course! A lot of this is extrapolating what was said in Wayward's post, and what came from my head as I thought of it. A lot of the connections of the twins to the Dragons has been discussed since 2010, but for all intents and purposes, Warden Ingo is a different character from Subway Boss Ingo. Narratively, he is the same person, hence why his appearance is a tragedy in Legends Arceus, one which we never get to solve. But on a meta level, he functions so differently, and lives so differently, that the themes he inhabits do not match up to the Subway Boss in any way. To end this on a sad note, Warden Ingo is exactly like Kyurem - Broken. He has lost what made him whole, and we've been shown that just reinserting Ideals isn't enough. Hopefully, if Game Freak decides to touch upon the Warden once more, we can find a way to reinsert his Truths as well.

[fallershipping]

Writing Emmet once has made me think that Emmet and Ingo should reunite when they're both the same age, so same time in Hisui spent is equal to Unova.

Not to keep them the same-- No, entirely the opposite.

I kinda dig the idea of Emmet's character arc of learning to fly solo.

Like really dig it. He takes up the mantle, doubles down on being a Subway Master and makes himself a man that both him and his brother would be proud of. He always seems very assure of who he is and what he likes. He is-- was part of a two-car train, but he has to commit to his duty and drive on.

Partially a reason why he took the plane ride to Interpol's headquarters (Kalos because the actual irl Interpol HQ is in SOUTHERN FRANCE KHKHKHKHKHKH)

This wasn't just an Emmet who was only seeking his brother back. This is a man who feels that something was wrong and took the initiative to confront some powerful people. This was not just for his brother but to get answers for the safety of his community and fellow workers/employees.

[nell0-0]

IRIDA IRIDA IRIDA 

SUBWAY BOSS IRIDA AU REAL

This is an AU where older Irida ends up in younger Ingo's time pfpfpf. As in, Irida would be 19 and Ingo would be still around 27-30 (undecided), but 8 years after she arrives to Unova he's yeeted to Hisui. And would go on to become warden Ingo, the one she knew from before she ended up in modern time Unova. irida tries to stick close to Ingo since he's the only familiar face around and that translates in her eventually becoming a depot agent.

Originally it was going to be accidentally hitching a ride, but the shenanigans from Team Galactic knocked her (and Adaman) off course and they ended up crash landing in the wrong years. Adaman landed some years later than Irida did pfpfpf. But he adapts faster and probably ends up working for minimum wage in a random food chain.

So now Irida is the older between the two. That incongruence means they don’t realize they’re exactly who they are, and just think it’s a weird coincidence. Strong genes and all with the pokemon descendants. That doesn’t meant they don’t antagonize each other, though. 

Irida is out there trying to teach Ingo all the skills he would need to survive in Hisui but the one that ends up picking them up instead is Emmet. F.