roses-in-the-shade

[roses-in-the-shade]

New Year’s resolution, uhhhhh-

Actually sit down and write.

This new hobby is supposed to be fun and help me overcome my fear of writing, tbh. So, I need to make good on my promises.

[roses-in-the-shade]

Okay, so finishing it quick is a tall order apparently, but I'm certainly making progress. Maybe if I just keep focusing... I'm hoping to get it done relatively soon, and after a short editing period, I'll get it posted ASAP.

My apologies in advance for the wait.

Y’all can feel free to badger me to finish my fic. :)

I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. When I get home from work, I’m gonna sit down and do it. I have so much of it written, I just need to finish it.

Oh, but please don’t worry that my work will stay a perpetual wip, my brain is just being stubborn. Every time I think about finishing Behind That Delicate Hand, my brain says, but what if we go do this instead?

[roses-in-the-shade]

Y’all can feel free to badger me to finish my fic. :)

I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. When I get home from work, I’m gonna sit down and do it. I have so much of it written, I just need to finish it.

Oh, but please don’t worry that my work will stay a perpetual wip, my brain is just being stubborn. Every time I think about finishing Behind That Delicate Hand, my brain says, but what if we go do this instead?

[roses-in-the-shade]

Oh, I love spam reblogging on the wrong blog.

Sorry, y'all. :')

[roses-in-the-shade]

Sidetracking; I just got struck by another idea, tragically.

I was playing a rhythm game, Cytus II, and my thoughts strayed to Deemo while I was playing songs originally from that game...

And then my brain sprouted the most brilliant, most terrible concept of a submas Deemo AU.

If anyone has played that game and know hows that story ends... well. You know. :')

[roses-in-the-shade]

It has come to my attention that I did, indeed, forget a comma. Smh, and I pride myself on my grammar too. It has been edited.

Excerpt: Behind That Delicate Hand

[A short sneak peak into my current work.]

After a pair of strong challengers give them the fight of their lives, Emmet twines his arm around Ingo's own and rests against his side, matching Ingo's movements as he rocks forward and back slightly in his excitement. Emmet listens, nods, and hums along affirmatives enthusiastically as Ingo sings the challengers' praises and invites them back to battle again and again. Yes, please be sure to ride with us again! The match was exhilarating, quite worth a repeat!

All the while, the younger also quietly wonders how anyone couldn't see the way sincerity flows off in waves from his older twin, always so kind and strong.

With the next pair of challengers entering their car, Ingo's demeanor changes in a snap.

As Ingo separates from him, exclaiming his welcomes with a small wave and a guarding hand, Emmet evaluates their new opponents sharply. He does, incidentally, recognize one of them as a regular on his Doubles line. A 3:5 win/loss ratio, Emmet remembers as he returns their chipper smile and wave. The other Emmet does not recall ever having the pleasure of meeting, but Ingo certainly seems to have, with how he's avoiding eye contact as the mysterious other passenger stares at Ingo, who is hunching into himself slightly, almost imperceptibly, with well veiled disdain.

But not well veiled enough. Not to Emmet.

[roses-in-the-shade]

Excerpt: Behind That Delicate Hand

[A short sneak peak into my current work.]

After a pair of strong challengers give them the fight of their lives, Emmet twines his arm around Ingo's own and rests against his side, matching Ingo's movements as he rocks forward and back slightly in his excitement. Emmet listens, nods, and hums along affirmatives enthusiastically as Ingo sings the challengers' praises and invites them back to battle again and again. Yes, please be sure to ride with us again! The match was exhilarating, quite worth a repeat!

All the while, the younger also quietly wonders how anyone couldn't see the way sincerity flows off in waves from his older twin, always so kind and strong.

With the next pair of challengers entering their car, Ingo's demeanor changes in a snap.

As Ingo separates from him, exclaiming his welcomes with a small wave and a guarding hand, Emmet evaluates their new opponents sharply. He does, incidentally, recognize one of them as a regular on his Doubles line. A 3:5 win/loss ratio, Emmet remembers as he returns their chipper smile and wave. The other, Emmet does not recall ever having the pleasure of meeting, but Ingo certainly seems to have, with how he's avoiding eye contact as the mysterious other passenger stares at Ingo, who is hunching into himself slightly, almost imperceptibly, with well veiled disdain.

But not well veiled enough. Not to Emmet.

[roses-in-the-shade]

Regarding this post here;

After giving it a little time, prompt #3, Behind That Delicate Hand, seems to have garnered the most attention out of the four, with prompt #2, The Heart Hears, being close behind.

I'm actually very glad for this outcome, so if I'm lucky, I can get these churned out sooner than later! I'll still likely take my time with it, because I don't want to give anyone a half written story.

I'll be starting with Behind That Delicate Hand. Once I've gotten a decent going on it, I might post a snippet later!

[roses-in-the-shade]

I mean, I think all of those sound interesting but 2 and 3 personally capture my attention most bc im a slut for childhood/growing up fics and then the other just makes me curious on what Ingo is hiding (tho I already have a bit of an idea lol)

Regardless, all of ur ideas are really good, so I will excitedly wait for all of them 🥰🥰

I appreciate the feedback!

Oho, we may see if your prediction comes true! It probably will, lol, I'm basic like that, but the idea gives me feelings, so I'm running with it. #3 is actually the one I'm most excited about, content about the brothers sticking up for each other hits me right in the heart. As for #2, it involves a lot of projecting on my part, because the idea is based quite a bit on my own childhood and stories about me as a kiddo that I heard from my family, so it'll be interesting to attempt!

Thank you for the compliment, I hope I can meet your expectations!

[roses-in-the-shade]

Face in hands, I’m so glad people like these ideas. They’ve been vaguely bouncing around in my head, but y’all are so encouraging, so I wanna work hard for once! TvT

Submas One Shot Ideas

Some little brain worms I've been wanting to get around to eventually. I'm a slow writer, but I've got these feelings bottled up that I really wanna get out there, y'know?

1. Holding On, Just A Moment Longer

Stalling, merely in jest, all but a moment of teasing and fun, they both know he'd never let them truly break from the schedule. Emmet, he realizes now, never should've let him go.

2. The Heart Hears

Not many understand Emmet the way Ingo understands Emmet. One could say literally to start. Growing up together as young children, experiencing the world anew with each milestone, Emmet had trouble learning speech since the beginning.

3. Behind That Delicate Hand

Ingo has picked up a peculiar habit, recently. No, peculiar is too kind, it is a bad habit. Because Ingo has chosen to hide. Emmet does not wish it so. His kind and strong twin should never need to hide, not from anyone, least of all from him. Emmet wants to see Ingo stay true to himself.

4. Pointing and Calling Out

Many will tell you this is a war Emmet started, but that is not the case! Ingo started it, and Emmet intends to end it. A petty little act of revenge quickly devolves into chaotic back and forths in the name of getting the last word in. Unfortunately, it only leaves both the brothers feeling embarrassed and exposed, although their fans certainly didn't mind the show. Someone should've brought popcorn.

Let me know which of these y'all think is the most interesting! On the off chance any of these capture more intrigue, I might focus on trying that one first!

[roses-in-the-shade]

Submas One Shot Ideas

Some little brain worms I've been wanting to get around to eventually. I'm a slow writer, but I've got these feelings bottled up that I really wanna get out there, y'know?

1. Holding On, Just A Moment Longer

Stalling, merely in jest, all but a moment of teasing and fun, they both know he'd never let them truly break from the schedule. Emmet, he realizes now, never should've let him go.

2. The Heart Hears

Not many understand Emmet the way Ingo understands Emmet. One could say literally to start. Growing up together as young children, experiencing the world anew with each milestone, Emmet had trouble learning speech since the beginning.

3. Behind That Delicate Hand

Ingo has picked up a peculiar habit, recently. No, peculiar is too kind, it is a bad habit. Because Ingo has chosen to hide. Emmet does not wish it so. His kind and strong twin should never need to hide, not from anyone, least of all from him. Emmet wants to see Ingo stay true to himself.

4. Pointing and Calling Out

Many will tell you this is a war Emmet started, but that is not the case! Ingo started it, and Emmet intends to end it. A petty little act of revenge quickly devolves into chaotic back and forths in the name of getting the last word in. Unfortunately, it only leaves both the brothers feeling embarrassed and exposed, although their fans certainly didn't mind the show. Someone should've brought popcorn.

Let me know which of these y'all think is the most interesting! On the off chance any of these capture more intrigue, I might focus on trying that one first!

[roses-in-the-shade]

What would the depot agents reaction once they finally meet Ingo in person be? Are they confused? Shocked?

Thank you for the ask, anon <3

I ended up answering this question just now in another ask, right here!

I hope it's satisfactory! Do let me know if there's anything else you'd like to hear about.

[roses-in-the-shade]

What DO the public masses and the government think and do about Ingo now? Please tell me they are told the truth the sheer hilarity would be incredible. Would Ingo be considered his brother's age or three years old.

...Would Ingo have any problems interacting with people, considering he never really interacted with anyone outside of Emmet in his formative years and he lived on a mountain for the first 3 years of his life? That can't have been good for his development. Even when he did talk to people he just needed to act like Emmet and now he needs to be his own person (yay! But that seems like it would seem terrifying at first.).

OOH how do the depot agents react? They already interacted with Ingo, though they had no idea.

This is probably one of my favorite asks so far, because it gave me so much to think about. Which is also why it's taken me a bit longer to answer. I am trying to answer asks on a first come, first serve basis. To the best of my ability! Thank you for the ask!

Anyway, this post is VERRRRRY long, absolutely monstrous by my criteria, so under the read more it goes. You have been warned. I apparently can not shut up, lol.

So, the government. It doesn't take long for everyone to realize that Ingo, legally, does not exist. Without any identifications, there's a lot that you can't do that is important for thriving in modern society. So, yeah, they need to tell Unova's governing body the whole truth so that they can get Ingo on the fast track to the living life.

And unfortunately, the first destination on that journey is the hospital. Because Ingo spent the first three years of his new life in Sinnoh, a few centuries in the past. Man's health is either Not Good, or it's about to be. Which creates a lot of confusion for the health department, because. Well. Because. The explanation that this random haggard man needs all of his vaccines because he lived in the past for three years and didn't even have a corporeal body before that is a lot to take in, you know? And then there's the fact that the only existing documentation for this Mr. Ingo is a death certificate dated back to 28 years ago(?!?!?!).

The first solution they come up with to solve this conundrum is to do a DNA test and compare to other living family for proof of relation, and to just. Make sure they're not being made a clown.

Fun fact. When Arceus created Ingo's new body, he basically copy pasted Emmet's DNA, attached it to Ingo's soul with cosmic super glue, and called it a day. They're already twins, it's fine. :)

Yeah, they weren't ready for it when the results for Ingo's and Emmet's DNA results came out as a definitively exact match. Actually, they don't know what they were expecting.

During the few weeks that Ingo spends hospitalized for both acclimating and quarantine purposes, the identifications services go into a flurry of action to create documents for this new human adult person that spawned into existence from Arceus knows where. (See what I did there.)

Fun times. The government workers will literally never forget this for their entire lives. They will remember it as the most bizarre event they've ever experienced, bar none.

As for his official age now, since Ingo's body is physically 28, same as his brother, and he is mentally the same age, they just kinda shrug and say, yeah, sure, he's 28 years old. Never mind the fact that he's only been alive for three. Actually, don't think too hard on it. Don't.

Now, the depot agents. lmao

The day Emmet brings in Ingo for retraining and to "reinstate" him is a day of absolute chaos.

Emmet's first instinct, when he's formally introducing his brother to their employees during a meeting, is to gaslight them all into thinking Ingo had been their other boss the entire time three years ago. (When going into technicalities, it's hard to say if that's true or not. Which is the best part.)

"I am Emmet. I am getting down to business. Today, we will welcoming back Ingo to our work force. He went missing three years ago. He is back now. We will be resuming standard operating procedures with Ingo as the Subway Boss on the singles line again. Any questions?"

(Ingo, not having been forewarned of Emmet's plans, blinks and stares at his brother for a few moments, before mentally sighing and face-palming. He quickly decides to let Emmet get away with this, however. He's not immune to following along Emmet's whims, and he's not disinterested to see how this falls out.)

...

...

"A NEW SUBWAY BOSS?!

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN AGAIN?!"

"HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE YOU, WHO IS HE?!"

"How rude! I am offended for Ingo. You forgot about him! Unforgivable. Yup! This is verrrry sad. Terrrrrible. Ingo is my twin brother. I was in grief over his absence for three years. I am disappointed you did not notice."

"I didn't forget, Boss Emmet! I've never set a foot out of Gear Station my entire life, so of course I remember Boss Ingo! We loved working with Boss Ingo, I don't know how anyone could forget a kind and jovial man like him!"

(Depot Agent Jackie is most definitely in on it.)

All of the depot agents are reeling at this new reality that they have to force their brains to get used to. Some would keep swearing up and down that there was never a Boss Ingo, but then Emmet would wave around the proof of employment (that he typed up literally an hour before the meeting) and they'd just be reduced to a state of mental sputtering and questioning reality. Many are a flustered mess whenever they end up interacting with Ingo himself.

Emmet and Ingo let the depot agents stew in this prank for just the one day, at least until Ingo finally convinces Emmet to hold another meeting the next day to tell the agents the full truth and allow the poor guys some peace of mind. (Ingo does scold Emmet a little for being so mean-spirited with this particular joke, though it doesn't last too long when Emmet points out that Ingo didn't stop him.)

Funny enough, the truth ended up being even more of a bombshell than the prank had been. Who woulda thought.

From then on, the twins and the depot agents do their best to stay professional and help ease Ingo back into the work routine as something like a Deputy Subway Boss, and they're pretty successful! It doesn't take too long to get Ingo fully instated as an official Subway Boss, Ingo being as enthusiastic and dedicated to the job as he is, and, over time, the agents slowly realize that they did miss him without ever knowing it. Three years ago, they really did notice his disappearance, ironically enough. Ingo's "personality" was suddenly gone, Emmet was never the same, and the work environment changed. It's weird, but in the end, they all end up thinking, "I'm glad he's back."

The day of Ingo's official promotion, the depot agents throw him a party and make sure to tell him this:

"Welcome back. We missed you."

The public's reaction to Ingo is a mixed bag, predictably.

The day of Ingo's reintroduction to Gear Station, the official Battle Subway PokeTwitter account announces: "Attention all passengers! Starting today, a new Deputy Subway Boss will be conducting us to our destination on the Singles Line! Deputy Boss Ingo looks forward to future travels with challengers. Will you go on to victory or defeat? All aboard!" (Attached is a picture of Ingo in the signature point and call pose, right hand pointing forward and left hand out to the side pointing down.)

Most responses to the announcement are basically either, "isn't that just Emmet?", or "I had no idea Emmet has a twin brother!". There's a lot of chipper "Welcome!" and "All aboard!" comments and some competitive "Can't wait to see what he's made of!" remarks, so the reception is generally a mix of confusion and enthusiasm.

And then it all came crashing down when one person says, "Isn't this the same guy who ran the singles line years ago, tho? Did he come back?"

One person unintentionally does what Emmet did to the depot agents to an entire social media community. Thus restarts the conspiracy theories again, much to Ingo's and Emmet's exasperation. If they weren't already practically celebrities by this point, then they definitely are now.

Emmet ends up using his personal account to address questions and clear it up as much as he can, while skirting around the full truth as much as possible, sometimes even outright dodging certain inquiries altogether. Ultimately, he and Ingo had decided it was best to keep it private knowledge that only certain people would know. Emmet's best efforts certainly couldn't stop rumors from sprouting all together, but it did help to placate the internet riots and calm them down. It only took about a week before the twins were no longer all PokeTwitter could talk about.

Now, interestingly enough, Ingo himself isn't doing too bad, socially. Sure, he did live on a mountain for a few years, but he also visited Jubilife Village often! He assisted at the training grounds, helped teach the villagers to befriend and battle with pokemon, often did any needed shopping there. He made sure to check in with the Pearl Clan regularly, it'd be rude to essentially go AWOL on them when they took him in and bestowed him a position as important as warden of their Lady Sneasler.

Point being, Ingo got past most of his social struggles during his displacement in Hisui. Learning how to human when in an entirely unfamiliar setting and without his memories was a huge challenge for Ingo, but he gradually settled into the new experience. Which is why going to modern day Nimbasa is such a huge culture shock. There's so many more people, ranging from incredibly kind to brutish in behavior, sometimes critical, sometimes indifferent. Despite this, Ingo has been able to be himself without question, without backlash, without fear, and it's a marvel.

The people that Emmet and Ingo had surrounded themselves with never failed to make Ingo feel encouraged and supported, including Emmet himself. Especially Emmet. Ingo has no idea what he would do without Emmet. He loves and appreciates his brother immensely. With all the assistance Ingo has, he may be nervous about meeting his new future, but he's determined to do it. Stubbornly optimistic, even. No matter what set backs or adversities Ingo may face, he has the greatest safety net holding him up.

(If Emmet ever finds anyone antagonizing Ingo, he will most definitely give them a traumatic beat down in a pokemon battle, and terrify the living daylight out of them by promising them eternal despair if he ever sees them near Ingo ever again.

Basically, Ingo: sunshine, Emmet: sunshine protector.

I am right, and I should say it. Luckily for everyone, it doesn't happen often. Nobody in their right mind would want to be mean to Ingo.)

[roses-in-the-shade]

At what point do the depot agents realize that there was two of them the whole time?

Thank you for the ask, anon! <3

It's definitely gradual, not so much a realization as a suspicion that grows as the evidence piles on, especially after Emmet's promotion to Subway Boss.

The obvious thing is that no human can possibly be in two places at a time, and Emmet, by all accounts, is definitely human. Eccentric, but that means little in the pokemon world, and lobbing a pokeball at people is just plain rude. Before the Battle Subway, the depot agents that had been his coworkers at a time only thought he had an eerie ability to make his way through the subway very quickly, with that limb swinging fast walk of his. He's pretty tall too, that helps. But talking to each makes it clear that occasionally the timing of Emmet sightings are way too close together and distance way too far apart.

And then Emmet becomes the Boss, and the discrepancies become too numerous. The Singles line and the Doubles line have overlapping schedules, Emmet's ability to run both seemingly by himself should be an impossibility. The white coat and the black coat. There's definitely no time to run to the changing rooms between challengers, and Emmet never seems to be carrying an extra coat around. He also apparently doesn't wear the black coat outside of the Singles line. And then the wildly different personalities and scripts. (Emmet and Ingo are making a point to not try hard to act like each other. They know their depot agents are trying to piece the puzzle together. It's verrry entertaining to watch them run their brains around in circles like a torchic with its head cut off.)

The idea that the person running the Singles line is someone else entirely does come up many times, but the depot agents just can not find the conclusive evidence no matter where they look, and the thought becomes odd when they really think about it. Because whoever it is, they look exactly like Emmet. 100%, no differences save for facial expressions. Even if Emmet somehow found a body double to work the other line for him, there's no way he'd be able to find someone who looks that similar to him. And whenever they go looking through the employee files, they can't find anyone in the files unaccounted for amongst them. The employment file for another Subway Boss doesn't seem to exist.

Unless it's stored inside Boss Emmet's office. And nobody is willing to risk their life invading Emmet's privacy. They can't stomach the idea of betraying Emmet and bearing his wrath. (Which is all fine anyway, because the file does not, in fact, exist at all. And at this point, the agents become convinced that Emmet really is fucking with them hard. Emmet's occasional sly smiles are not a coincidence, the smug bastard.)

And then, one day, a depot agent that works on the Singles line finally notices an interesting oddity when making an end of shift sweep through of the train at night. In the 21st car, there is a floor paneling that is just slightly out of place, located precisely where the Boss stands when facing challengers. When investigating, they find that it dislodges down and to the side, underneath another paneling, and what's underneath is inexplicable. A layering of highly conductive metal connected to a switch and a high voltage battery.

The agent reveals the find to the others and they cross reference together. The agents working the Doubles and Multi line confirm that no such hidden contraption exists on those lines, and likewise the 21st car of the Singles line is the only car to have it.

They have no idea what is means, but it's the only hint they've ever gotten that the person running the Singles line is not even run by a human at all.

(Chandelure, silly girl, didn't double check to make sure she hid it away completely.)

Oh, right, btw. Jackie knows. :)

[roses-in-the-shade]

How do all of Ingo and Emmet’s Pokémon react to Ingo suddenly physically exiting?

Thank you for the ask, anon! <3

It varies, but they're incredibly all ecstatic about it.

Some of their pokemon, Ingo's especially so, had a stronger connection to Ingo's soul than others. Ingo's team was strongly attuned to him, which is why he was able to form his team to begin with, so they were always able to see him pretty well. Emmet's Eelektross, being Emmet's earliest partner since childhood, also had a decently strong connection with Ingo, and both of their Klinklangs as well. Emmet's other pokemon were able to generally perceive Ingo's presence to varying degrees, and they were able to tell when he wasn't around, and when he was gone.

So, Ingo's team recognize him instantly, and they all dog pile Ingo the very first opportunity they get. (Poor Ingo is struggling so hard with the sheer amount of physical assault he's receiving upon his return, the poor dude. He still wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.) Eelektross and their Klinklangs join in quickly as well.

The rest of Emmet's pokemon are kinda confused at first and a little slow on the uptake, but when they're told who exactly it is that they're watching their friends nearly smother back to death, they're more than happy to join the party and help along the process.

Chandelure, Ingo's most endeared partner pokemon, the one who could see him crystal clear from the beginning and the only one who was able to interact with his metaphysical form, is not so much concerned with Ingo's new flesh vessel and instead entirely preoccupied with making sure they never lose Ingo again. Suffice to say, Chandelure ends up becoming a little overprotective.

From this point on, it's a common occurrence for their pokemon to snuggle up to Ingo at every chance. Not that Ingo minds too much, he's very happy to coddle them all, so he suffers their clinginess rather well. Emmet is low key only a teensy bit jealous every time. Where are his hugs and cuddles? He deserves them too, he's quite convinced! As for who he's jealous of, between Ingo and their pokemon, that's up in the air. The answer is both.

(Bonus: Eelektross, mischievous cretin, too much like Emmet for his own good, thinks it's hilarious to fulfill Emmet's longtime dream of shocking the hell out of his brother for funnsies. Ingo is less than amused. Emmet is nearly dropping dead from laughing too hard.)

[roses-in-the-shade]

How do Ingo and Emmet’s parents react to their son now being alive again?

Thank you so much for the ask! I really appreciate it! Another person asked the same exact question in compound with another, and I answered them just now here!

Do feel free to ask me more questions if you'd like me to go into more detail, or if there's anything else you're wondering about. I don't mind in the slightest!

[roses-in-the-shade]

For your born in death au, does anybody else know about Ingo? Like Elesa maybe? And if not, how do they react to Emmet gaining a brother over night?

In this case how do the parents react when they find out Ingo is alive now?

Also this au is very cute and cool I like it a lot!!!

Thank you for the ask! And I'm verrrry happy you enjoy my AU!

Ohhhhhhh, boy, oh, boy, the boys' parents are absolutely shocked! And also are now overcome with very, very many feelings! The first one after shock is relief, of course. They had, to begin with, convinced themselves that Ingo had passed on. It was the smallest comfort they could offer both themselves and to Emmet, but that's all it was. A comfort. They were distraught as well when Emmet told them that Ingo was gone without any explanation. It was difficult for them to lose their son all over again for a second time, and then to regain him a second time too lifted a burden off their hearts they had meant to bury away.

The second, well. In the end, it's difficult not to get past how unbelievable it is, to finally meet their formerly deceased son face to face, after years and years of never being able to see the physical evidence of his existence, so it's more disbelief, but they get over that quickly when the full family finally gets to have a group hug with Ingo included. It involves a lot of sobbing, a lot of holding, clutching, cradling, a lot of staring. In the end, everything settles down into simple love and happiness. Their parents are just glad to finally have their other son back, even if it was after a long continuous cycle of hurting and healing for them. They do everything they can to get Ingo settled into his new life in modern day Nimbasa, he has their full support.

On the topic of who knew about Ingo from the start, almost nobody! For the longest time, only Emmet and the boys' parents knew about Ingo. Emmet had a hard time making friends, both in adolescence and in adulthood, so there weren't many people Emmet would end up trusting enough to divulge that sort of secret to, when it finally settled in that he shouldn't go flapping his lips about being able to see his dead brother.

Although. When he was younger and getting help from a small number of special needs therapists, he may have quite possibly blabbed a bit before he started to keep his mouth shut about Ingo. Not that those therapists ever said or did anything about it. That was way above their pay grade. Definitely not their business.

For Elesa, this is something I was a little unclear on. I personally headcanon that the boys only met Elesa later on in life, after getting their careers started. They weren't childhood friends or rivals. What this means for my AU, I believe Elesa never knew about Ingo before his disappearance. Emmet and Elesa were only friendly acquaintances at first, despite Ingo's best efforts to persuade Emmet to interact with her more (Ingo wants Emmet to have more friends). Sometimes Elesa would challenge the Subway for a spot of fun, or sometimes Emmet and Elesa would reference each other on battle tactics, since they both have a fondness for electric types.

I think Elesa would notice how Emmet tended to space out, how he might stare at a specific area to his side, or how she would accidentally interrupt a conversation with nobody every so often. But Emmet would wave everything away as getting lost in his head or just talking to himself to work through things better. Elesa let Emmet brush off her curiosity. They didn't know each other incredibly well, but she let herself assume his eccentricities were just another of his charming points. (She knew better, but it wasn't her place to push.)

Then things went a little catastrophic. Emmet suddenly started a hiring process for a new face to manage the Singles line, and his public appearances outside of his duty to the Doubles line and Multi line began to decline. His cheery exterior seemed to become much less genuine and much more of a front. The media picked up the new gossip, and it didn't take long for Elesa to take notice that things were going downhill.

Elesa reached out to Emmet. Checked in, asked if everything was alright. (He wasn't alright, he would never say. She knew.) She started inviting him to hang out more often. ("It's been a while, Emmet! I want to catch up with you, why don't we grab some lunch together during our breaks in the next few days. Your Joltik project was electrifying to hear about last time, I'd love to learn more!")

Emmet does try to hold her at arms length. At first. But he knew it'd look too conspicuous to keep giving her weak excuses, so he would end up accepting her offers for company eventually. And then he would keep doing it. It's hard to say no after a certain point. With Ingo gone, with how he's isolated himself in his grief and obsession, he's just. So lonely now. So lonely, it's painful. Elesa eased the loneliness a little bit.

But the knife's edge that was Ingo's absence only slipped in further over time.

And one day, Emmet broke down.

When Elesa finds him in shambles in his apartment (after days of no word from him, days of waiting for him to respond to her texts, days of radio silence, why did she wait so long), that's when everything spilled. Emmet told her everything.

Emmet told Elesa about Ingo, and she believed him immediately.

Later, when Ingo comes back, she's stunned. And then his first impression of her upon meeting her again is her impulsive fist to his gut for unintentionally leaving Emmet on his own (and wow, she definitely felt that in her knuckles, he's actually real, she's not hallucinating), and then immediately attempting to aggressively befriend him in a similar fashion to how she aggressively befriended Emmet. Ingo lasts a grand total of five seconds before his kicked puppy demeanor transitions to utterly flustered.