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tunastime · 1 year ago

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Inbound, Outbound

The first submas fic I ever wrote! LOL I decided I needed one final thing for april fools so you get this fic from. about a month and a half ago! I think a lot has changed since I wrote this and I'd love to come back to the reuniting :3 maybe making it longer or what have you. but for now. here you go!

Sometimes when you wait for things, they come back to you. Sometimes they don't. Emmet continues life as normal as he can until the point in which the thing he's been waiting for the most finally does come back. Today just happens to be that day. (6745 words)

Ingo comes back on a winter day that Emmet would’ve otherwise forgotten.

It’s a pervasive winter in Nimbasa this year, the sky a white-blue, grey where it touches the edges of the buildings high above his morning train into the city center. Today is just as slow as usual, fifteen stretching into thirty, stretching in to forty-five minutes as people crush their way into the train car number eleven, Emmet’s favorite car on the six-in-the-morning inbound to Nimbasa commercial district. This train doesn’t go direct to Gear Station—it’s about four blocks from the city center. Which means that the train car is filled with grey and black suits, small children, and people in coats too thin or too bright for the weather. It’s his favorite car because if he looks over the few heads currently standing in front of him, he can see a poster with Elesa on it, advertising the Nimbasa Gym in bright, yellow and black letters. He doesn’t mind the length of the ride, really, even with the extra twenty minutes of walking. It gives him enough time to think, whether that be better or worse.

Emmet sniffles, pushing the scarf further up his nose, trying to keep in the heat. He can feel his face starting to red with the cold, and the subpar heat of the train car isn’t doing much help. He likes this car—he likes the whole system, because it runs so efficiently even with the stops, but he would like it a bit more if it were properly heated. He once bore Elesa to sleep talking about the rail system near their apartment complex in the city suburbs and art district, and after that he kind of kept it to himself and the engineers on shift.

The train car is still cold, and his scarf slips down his nose again as he adjusts his grip on the handle above him. Scrunching his face, he burrows into the collar of his coat and shrinks his shoulders to make space, shutting his eyes. He moves with the train car, as he does every morning, and sighs into the fabric of his coat. He files the cold away in the back of his mind. The train ride becomes routine, which means it fades into the background of his life, where everything rests mutely.

He might be somewhat of a celebrity, but the 6am is too crowded and too tired to notice him, or Ingo, or Elesa, for that matter. Elesa could live in the city center—running a gym is a lucrative business, and her clothing line, her brand deal, the posters with her face on them, even here in this train, raked in enough money to more than sustain on. Instead, Elesa lives two streets down from him (them) in a large apartment and she holds the crook of his arm on the train to keep steady. She didn’t this morning, though, which means Emmet has a little more stability where he stands, and a little less company. Not being recognized this morning means that he slips effortlessly from the train as the doors slide open, spilling out with other shoppers and business folk. He ducks through the exit as someone holds it open, and the smile on their face lingers a bit too long when they catch his eye. He thinks the words I’m sorry for your loss might come and hit him across the face, but they only nod. Emmet moves through the crowd alone again.

He makes his way carefully up the steps and onto the sidewalks of inner-Nimbasa, stepping with purpose as he stares down at his shoes. There’s a fine layer of ice and slush on the ground, but no snow. Anything that did fall just added to the grey slush on the side of the sidewalk, crunching under his boots as he walked. The cold still bites at his face as he makes his way down the block and across the street. He can still feel his fingers, though, which is a good sign. A few more streets of cold and slushy snow and trying to block the wind with his coat and he would be in the relative warmth of Gear Station, all tan marble and smooth floors.

Winter. Of course the winter lingered. It was still winter when Emmet got off the train alone and it was still winter and cold and breezy and dark, now, as Emmet stood in his (their) office, watching the clock.

5:45pm. He realizes he hasn’t eaten all day as a hard pang stabs through his stomach. Emmet takes a breath. It’s easy to fall into routine when nothing else seems to fit. It’s what he tells himself. He finds a way to make the day go faster, maybe looking for something at the end that wasn’t just the next day. He never had this issue before, waiting for the day to pass only for it to bleed into the next, and the next, and the next, and for the weekend to stutter and pause that blissful continuing trend. Work, go home, sleep, repeat. It gave no time to think about anything else—especially not Ingo.

It took longer the first year. Everything constantly pressed hard on the wound still open. He still remembers when everything shut down around him. It wasn’t winter then. It was spring, where the air still twinged cool, but he wasn’t kicking snow off his shoes before he entered the engineer’s office and ducked down the hall and to his and Ingo’s space. It was an almost instant halt, like throwing the emergency break. Emmet’s whole life screeched and threw up smoke.

He remembers the first time someone questioned him that wasn’t the city police, staring up at him, mouth moving with words he didn’t understand. He stuttered, unable to form an answer to what do you think happened? How was he supposed to know? How was he supposed to put pieces together when he felt like he had been smashed into star fragments?

The subway shut down for three months straight. He could barely pick himself out of bed, and when he did, he couldn’t make it out of the door. He remembers lying in the dark for far too long, turning off his phone so no calls came through. The day bled into night and into the next day, with no routine, no operating procedure. Everything in his life revolved around Ingo—and now there was a distinctly Ingo shaped hole in his chest that he couldn’t fill. He remembers crawling his way out of the comforters and making it to the threshold of his bedroom door, sinking to the ground and staying there. It was only when Elesa made her way in that he moved, coaxed onto the couch to drink a glass of water. There were days where neither of them spoke. Elesa would set a duffel in the corner of Emmet’s room and a toothbrush in his bathroom and wordlessly, the space became hers too. Half asleep one night, she mumbled, very quietly, that it had been days since she’d had the energy to battle. The Nimbasa gym waitlist had grown to fifteen people. He said he was sorry. She laughed like she meant it. Tired. They were tired. Life moved on without them for a while. He held Elesa’s hand.

Every dark coat had been him, every set of stripes, every loud and hearty laugh. The space in their fridge, in their bathroom, on their couch, the spaces Elesa subconsciously left when she visited, all stayed like he might appear and fill them. At some point the spaces became memories, and the memories became a dull ache. The dull ache let him work, and the work became an ache instead. And then he started looking for answers. When he found none, he just kept looking.

He hangs up his white coat, noise from Gear Station trickling into the background. He puts his hat on the hook next to it.

He is Emmet. He feels okay today.

He combs his hair back with his fingers, stepping back to navigate around to his desk, shutting off the computer screen and moving through the familiar motions of packing away his day. Eelektross snuffs, sleeping curled around his chair, still nursing a singe from their last battle. The rest of his team are tucked away in pokeballs, neatly set into the bag still resting on the desk. He runs a hand over the scales on Eelektross’ head, listening to the snort turn into a purr, long and rumbly. At least someone’s enjoying themselves. He leans against his desk.

“Excellent job today, Eelektross,” he says. “Too good.”

Eelektross rumbles out an affirmative sound Emmet’s learned to recognize over the years. Tired and comfortable and thoroughly pleased. He’ll be sleeping under a huge eel weight tonight, most likely, which would be good for them both.

From the corner, Chandelure chirps. He glances up, watching her tilt lazily back and forth, flame flickering under the office’s lamplight. He raises his eyebrows, tilting his head at her.

“Ah—” he says. “I forgot, Chandelure. Is it time for the rounds, then?”

She chirps again, twirling in place. She nearly bumps the wall, moving out of the way as she remembers how much space she actually takes up. Emmet snorts, shaking his head. He rises from his leaning on the desk, shaking the feeling back into his right leg.

Gathering his coat and hat again, he pulls it over his shoulders, and opens the office door for Chandelure.

The two wander out into the filling-full train station. It’s busy now that so many are leaving work, Gear Station echoing with his footsteps and the tired laughter and voices of patrons filing in and out of the turnstiles. As he steps out, the noise is almost instant. Ah—he caught departing crowds at the wrong time, as the battle subway came to a close at the days end and people were busy reassigning themselves and marking their places for tomorrow. The energy in the station is bright and cheery. He lifts his hat, waving one hand, smiling with just his mouth. Chandelure spins, singing to herself. He offers a little bow as he departs, listening to cheers of his name until he manages to slip into the service stairs and away from the light and the noise.

He follows the familiar service corridor where it diverges from the central station, staring up into the rafters and eyes tracking across the windows high above him. Night trickles in, noise obscured by layers of stone and brick and marble. The stretch of granite towers above him, echoing the flicker of pride he feels swirling in his chest. Chandelure twirls ahead of him, leading him down to the closed lines as his eyes drag away from pidove in the rafters, cooing to themselves.

It’s important to walk the lines at night—mostly for the host of patrat and joltik and the occasional drilbur that liked to make the tunnels their home, but also to check that each car remained stationary, that light still flooded the dim tunnels, that someone wasn’t trapped. It wasn’t always his job—not with so many that staffed Gear Station, both above and below him. Maintenance often fell to him when it was needed, where he lingered in the office long after his scheduled shift end, when the last outbound train returned.

The stairs down are quieter and darker than the rush of energy and light and cold air above him in Gear Station.

Emmet starts his way toward the platform. Whatever he couldn’t find in the tunnels today, Eelektross would find later tomorrow morning, well before the first battle train. It was good he didn’t have to worry about the main tracks as often—not for checks and not for maintenance. He would mourn his sleep schedule much more than he already did if that were the case. Walking those initial tunnels would take him hours, knowing how far the service platform stretched.

Emmet doesn’t like this part of his job. It was always Ingo’s job. Everything seemed like it was Ingo’s job, now that it rested on his shoulders. When they’d first pitched the idea of the subway to the head of Gear Station at the time, it had been a risk Ingo automatically assumed. When he ran the night shift, safety checks were his duty, as much as they were Emmet’s in the morning. They’d assist with repair and management of the rest of the station as needed, falling into step alongside fellow engineers. There’s a small group in this tunnel now—voices echoing down the small corridor as he travels its length, a drilbur perched on their feet, warily inspecting a section of track. He supposed he considered himself lucky—any scheduled repairs to the Battle Subway could be completed shortly after the subway retired for the day, meaning he could be present if anything went wrong. This bit of maintenance was purely preventative—making sure nothing would be jostled loose by a rogue Earthquake.

Emmet ducks passed the group, nodding along as they toss bits of information his way, wishing him a good night.

Fetching the flashlight from his pocket, Emmet smacks it against his hand. The beam flickers to life, illuminating the tunnel in front of him far more than the stretch of yellow floodlights above his head. He sweeps the beam around the tunnel, listening for anything or anyone.

Emmet makes his way off the main platform and into the tunnel proper, along the service grate, eyes following the tracks. He stands at the edge of the platform for a moment, gazing into an empty car, light shining through. It reflects off the posters and signage inside, dull yellow where the lights inside don’t shine. He shivers. The air feels cold and charged, like a stray joltik had crawled up his neck and now rested in the collar of his coat. He turns the collar out, sweeping with one hand. No joltik. Rolling his shoulders back, Emmet steps back from the car and continues onward. A few feet ahead of him, Chandelure twirls idly, like she’s waiting for him to catch up. He waves the beam of the flashlight at her and she startles, chirring out, annoyed.

“You can check on your own if you don’t want to wait,” he tells her.

She warbles, waving her arms back and forth. He makes an affirmative noise.

“That’s what I thought.”

The large loop stretches further on to his left, where he can’t see, blocked by the stretch of railcar. He follows Chandelure through the space between the cars, ducking his head as they step onto the opposing platform, and continue their way back up. He pauses for a moment as they do, feeling his body go light as his head spins. He reaches out to the side wall, hand against the cold stone as he takes a long breath. Emmet blinks back spots for a moment, shaking his head gently. His stomach feels like its in knots, rolling over itself as he seems to settle from his moment of vertigo. No lunch will do that to you, he supposes.

Chandelure flickers. They’re almost done, which is good. It means he’ll be able to sit down for a second before he has to run to the train. They won’t need to check the two-team tunnel tonight—not only has Emmet not been able to run it, he checked it two weeks ago. He lingered a very long time in there, didn’t he? It had put a terrible ache in his chest enough to call Elesa to walk him home. Emmet frowns—Chandelure flickers again, dimming, brightening, dimming, brightening again. There’s that rush of dizziness again. He breathes out. He’s too far in his head, today, isn't he?

“Chandelure,” he says, in a way that almost reminds him of Ingo—a little out of breath from walking, but mostly just curious. “Is something wrong?”

She chimes, wobbling in place, eyes narrowing. It feels hesitant. Emmet shudders. After a beat, he reaches up, placing a hand on the near-glass surface of Chandelure’s body. She moves back toward him, chiming again.

“Right,” he says. “It’s different, right? Something’s changed.”

Another chirp.

Something tugs at his mind. Wasn’t there something he read about clairvoyance in pokemon? Future-telling, future-seeing, or whatever. But Chandelure’s behavior isn’t indicative of anything. That would just be odd. He can feel for just a moment the way his heart thumps a little faster against the line of his jaw. It couldn’t be that. It’s just what Elesa always said—he was looking for something that wasn’t there.

“Yyyyep-yep,” he says, mostly under his breath, voice thick. “But it should be fine, Chandelure. Let’s keep going, our track moves forward.”

She tilts back and forth, like a wave of a hand. Emmet snorts as they start forward.

“You know I’m always one for a battle,” he says plainly. She chirrs, moving around to his right side, putting herself between the train car and Emmet. He follows her movement only for a second as they walk up the tracks, eyes still fixed on the steps up to the station.

The city subway still rumbles through the ground and the walls around him, the noise soft and consistent as train cars move past. He pauses, listening in, shutting his eyes for a moment. It was late, now. He could feel a tired ache seeping into the creases of his elbows and right under his knees from standing all day. His head was starting to hurt, spinning as he stood completely still. He sighs roughly, squeezing his eyes tightly for just a moment. He’s lucky the pain didn’t extend to his feet—he would have to do quite the jog to catch the outbound train toward home, unless Elesa happened to be staying late again and could walk him back.

They start together toward the entrance as Emmet does his final scan of the furthest-out platform, satisfied nothing is out of place. The same cold air of the train tunnels permeates even here, despite the warm wash of yellow light across the walls and marble pillars. Emmet breathes in, the weight of the day settling on his shoulders as he stretches over his head, screwing up his face as his back pulls. He nearly complains—he feels much too old for this—but he can feel the sharp poke of Ingo’s voice in his mind—well, I’m two minutes older, so you can imagine how I feel—and it stops him pretty quickly. He’s not even thirty-five. What can he do but complain, right? Emmet fishes his keys from his pocket prematurely, ducking between the cars as he steps onto the loading platform.

Chandelure stops ahead of him. Her trill is quiet as Emmet reaches her side.

There is a man standing on the platform.

Emmet is very good at telling cosplayers from the real thing. You would think that would be some sort of a joke, but they really like to be authentic. Ingo and him never sold any merchandise of their coats or hats for fear of, well, that. This. Whatever this person was doing, standing on the closed platform in a ruined coat that looked like Ingo’s.

Emmet swallows. Looks like and not is, right? Looks like and not. Not. Certainly not. Not when he turns and catches his eye. The breath lodges itself in Emmet’s throat, burning hot. Certainly not. Because he is very good at telling illusions from real life, and there are no dark types in the tunnels that can use copycat, and copycat can’t extend the likeness of himself onto another person who looks. Like. Who looks like his brother. And isn’t. Emmet tries to breathe. The breath is sharp on his teeth. His hands are shaking when his vision blurs, and he smears tears across his face.

Ingo looks frightened for a moment. When he looks into Emmet’s eyes, the grey looks washed out. Emmet breathes out, feeling it catch as he sighs, biting the inside of his cheek to keep grounded. There’s. It’s like nothing moves behind his eyes. Not a faint light of understanding. Not a spark of clarity. Ingo places a foot behind him. The line of Emmet’s spine goes cold all at once.

He stands still as he watches a slow realization pass over his brother’s face like a red flush, some flicker in his expression, before he sees his chest seize and breath stutter. Ingo blinks hard and fast, like it might be helping something, eyes flicking over Ingo’s face. He reaches forward, as if he’s expecting to push through Emmet and into air instead, and not the solid body he stands there with. It’s like his body moves before he realizes what’s actually happening. Emmet watches his movements, still calculated in the same way as they’ve always been. Emmet drags in a breath, sniffling hard.

The lines of Ingo’s face pull. Emmet reaches out to him, copying. It’s what he’s always done—what they’ve always done. He steps forward, lurching to meet him.

The mirror image of himself, his brother, his Ingo, collides with him hard. Emmet feels him crumple into his arms as he drags him forward, arms locking around his ribcage. He squeezes Ingo tight to him. They buckle, Ingo leaning into him for support as his body is wracked with sobs. Emmet struggles to breathe as he sinks to his knees, smearing dirt and dark grime over his white pant-knees and boots.

Ingo’s hands fist in his coat as they fall. He squeezes Emmet in his arms, fighting for breath as he presses his face into his shoulder. Emmet laughs and it morphs into sobs. He turns his face into the tattered collar of Ingo’s coat and squeezes his eyes shut. Ingo. Ingo. Always Ingo. The bony joints of his elbows digging into his ribs as a kid, crushing him with his weight when he lost a pokemon battle, standing in his bedroom door at night when he had a nightmare. Cooking beside him, picking up his coffee, watching him tie Emmet’s tie around his own neck before passing it back to him. His brother Ingo, breathing too shallowly under his hands as he holds him, shaking with the effort of holding himself upright. He can feel the bones of his spine and shoulderblades, sharp and protruding even through several layers of fabric. His face looked so pale and thin. But Ingo holds him tightly, much tighter than he ever remembers, and it’s not just fear or relief or grief holding him to that strength, either. Emmet wheezes out, word unforming in his throat.

It’s not a nightmare. It feels real and warm and solid, like Ingo, like the platform under his knees, like the cold breeze on the back of his neck. Ingo may look different, far too gaunt for Emmet’s liking (and he supposes, now, that it may be like looking in a mirror, and he wonders how many bones Ingo can feel under his coat) but it’s him. No illusion or actor would crumble like this. It couldn’t be some sick joke—right?

He manages out words, and the first thing he chokes out through tears, voice warbling hard, is:

“Ingo—”

“Emmet,” Ingo grits out.

“I am Emmet—” Emmet says weakly. “You are Ingo. You are real.”

“I—” Ingo chokes. “I am. I’m real.”

Ingo certainly feels that way. The breath echoes in his lungs, damp and wobbly. Emmet can feel his heart slam against his ribcage. He feels so small in his arms but he shakes with the effort of keeping himself stable and with the effort of holding on. He can feel his shoulders move and the way his tears have started to soak through Emmet’s coat and shirt. He’s real.

Emmet laughs weakly, equally as wet.

“You are very strong,” he says softly, sniffling in, almost amused. “What happened to my brother?”

Ingo laughs. Emmet feels a new wave of tears bubble up in his chest and in his eyes. He presses his face into his shoulder a little more, like it were possible.

“Too much,” Ingo says, voice pitching. “Much too much.”

Emmet sighs into his shoulder, a sound he doesn’t think Ingo’s ever heard before. Ingo’s seen him cry a few times, especially when they were kids, but Ingo was always the more emotional of the two. This sound is such an odd mix of relief and grief and exhaustion pulled from his chest, like all the energy had trickled out of him.

Emmet holds tight to his brother in front of him, words not surfacing like they should. He only manages the weak sobs pressed into the collar of his coat. He screws his eyes shut again, clinging onto Ingo’s coat. The tile is cold and unyielding under his knees. Burning starts to prickle through his shins. Real feelings. Real sensations. Something to tether himself to. Ingo sniffles, coughing damply. He lets his body deflate a touch. Emmet’s chest twists and squeezes tight enough around his heart he feels it shove its way into his voice-box and beat there, pattering away.

“It’s you,” Emmet finally shudders out, voice breaking, sounding much more fragile than he wants to allow. Ingo burrows closer like it may do something. Emmet squeezes him. “Go-Go, please tell me this is real.”

“I promise,” Ingo manages. “I swear it.”

“You do?”

“You are Emmet,” he says slowly, sniffling. “I am your brother. I am real.”

“Good—” Emmet shudders. “Good.”

Ingo makes a pained noise, sighing out to his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” he says. Emmet shakes his head, stilted from where he rests it.

“Don’t be sorry. Just—” he trails off. Just. Don’t leave again. Yeah.

Ingo nods slowly. After a moment he says:

“You are real,” in a half questioning tone. Emmet nods.

“I am. I am not a dream,” he says, huffing out a wet laugh. “You can pinch me.”

Ingo snorts.

“That’s not how that works,” He argues, own voice damp and amused. Emmet thumps his back between his shoulderblades.

“Go-Go,” he complains. Ingo wheezes. This feels so familiar it hurts.

“Sorry,” Ingo says, but the tone that leaks into his voice sounds like he’s very much not sorry. “I’m sorry.”

Emmet huffs again, soft and brittle.

“Ingo, I missed you,” he manages. “I missed you so much. So very much.”

“I know,” Ingo says softly, relaxing his hands, splaying them out over Emmet’s coat. “And yet you kept the subway running in my absence—” he huffs, amused. “Bravo.”

Emmet laughs once, just a small little sound, before it turns back into sobs, muffled against Ingo’s tattered coat. He leans his weight back as much as he can, trying to pull Ingo further into his arms, as if it were possible. Light cascades around them as Chandelure floats over, chiming softly to herself. Ingo pats Emmet’s back, running a little line over his shoulderblades as they sit together. He feels Ingo shift, as if he’s turned his head toward his Chandelure. Warmth blossoms in his chest.

Ingo mumbles out something Emmet almost hears.

“She took your absence very hard,” Emmet says, trying to add to a conversation he hadn’t heard.

Ingo sighs, short and soft. They’re less holding on and more leaning, now.

“Oh,” he says softly. It’s all he says before he turns his head back into his shoulder. Emmet pats his back. He feels like someone’s taken toothpicks to his nerves. Why does it hurt? Why does Ingo sound so lost?

He leans back from Ingo, but he doesn’t let go. His hands find his shoulders, pulling away enough to see him properly. Emmet’s eyes scan his face. They’re the same grey as he’s always known them, but so much more tired, now, deep lines and dark circles around the bottom. He’s frowning, just a little, eyes still red-rimmed from crying, tears still falling haphazardly. Ingo sniffles. His hair lies the same, despite being unkept, and he’s got a terrible facial hair situation going on, like he’d forgotten how to use a razor. When Emmet studies him, Ingo’s face goes soft. He opens his mouth like he wants to speak, but shuts it when Emmet frowns.

“Ingo,” Emmet says, frown deepening, eyebrows furrowing. He sniffles. He prods at the hollow of his cheek, looking perplexed. “You look horrible, like someone’s shaken twenty pounds off you.”

“Ah,” Ingo says, looking away.

“You may be much stronger than you were, but you look like you may fall over if I let you go.”

Ingo swallows. His expression morphs a few times, until he shuts his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows.

“I might.”

“Ah!” Emmet says, holding to his shoulders a bit tighter. Ingo smiles, just the sides of his mouth lifting. It feels right. “Don’t.”

Ingo snorts.

“I’ll try.”

Emmet nods, mouth a fine line. Ingo’s eyes flick over his face, this time. Emmet feels like pokemon under a magnifying glass being scrutinized. Ingo watches as Emmet blinks tears away, watches them track over his face, and watches as he reaches up to wipe them. Emmet shakes his head.

“I’m sorry,” he says, voice softening at the end unexpectedly. He swallows down a wave of cold guilt. Ingo’s hands clasp around his biceps.

“Emmet—” he starts.

“It’s okay,” Emmet manages out, expression cracking. He sniffles in, pulling in a fast breath as he does. He hears it catch, feels the shudder than comes with it. “You—it’s you.”

“That’s right,” Ingo says meekly, loosening his grip. Emmet’s wobbly smile falters, just for a moment.

“That’s good,” Emmet sighs. He blinks a few times, sniffs again, wipes at his face. Ingo’s hands fall away from his arms and into his own lap.

The frown lingers on Ingo’s face long after he’s dropped his hands. Emmet rises to a slow, shaky stand. Stuffing his gloves in his pocket, he wipes at his face with the back of his hand, giving Ingo a watery smile. When Ingo looks up at him, Emmet feels something click into his chest, warm, full, and settling. He smiles wider, enough to feel his eyes start to squint shut, enough to watch Ingo copy him, and the smile looks so natural on his face. It’s good. This is good. This. Feels. Good. It feels good.

“I don’t think you should sit on the floor anymore, Ingo,” Emmet says. He extends his hand.

“I think I’m a bit too old for it,” Ingo tells him. Ingo takes it. He holds his warm hand, half palm and half wrist. Emotion tumbles in his chest, painfully tight, as he leads Ingo toward the tunnel entrance.

There’s something Ingo isn’t saying. Emmet knows it’s important. It’s not important enough to say now, that is, but he can feel it in the air of Ingo next to him as they duck into the empty station, back to the office, away from eyes that might say something before Emmet is ready to let the world know who showed up at his doorstep. It’s fine if Ingo doesn’t remember his pokemon, or the layout of Gear Station, or how he should feel, or where he’s been. He can’t ask him to. Not when there was a moment where Ingo couldn’t remember him, no matter how brief. He pushes fear deep into his chest and refuses to let it rise up.

He won’t let them diverge. He won’t let Ingo derail.

Whatever happens next, he’s not letting go of him.

The night comes easier than most.

It starts with Emmet sending a text—it’s last minute, which he despises, but he informs the head of the station that he isn’t feeling well and won’t be in at work for the next few days. He receives a spaced, but enthusiastic reply, and a reminder to use his sick time before he loses it. Probably better that he’s taking more days rather than less. Emmet feeds their pokemon, moving around the kitchen as he hears the shower running in the room across from his own. Busying himself with routine means he worries a little less about the question tugging at his mind, or the rush of anxiety and energy as he remembers everything, replaying it over and over again in his head. What if it isn’t Ingo that steps from the room? What if he looks completely different? What if—

Galvantula bumps his hand, nibbling at his sleeve. He’s still holding the bowl of food. He sets it on the floor as instructed, briefly pulled away from his thought.

Now, situated in the living room, a takeout bag rests on the coffee table, where Emmet is sitting next to the table, pulling out foil wrapped sandwiches and bags of chips and a too-shaken can of soda. He’s been watching Ingo’s face for a good part of the evening, seeing as lines come and go, how the sharp shape worsens when he frowns. Now, in a thick, high collared sweater and pajamas, grime scrubbed away with a hot shower, Ingo looks very small, and very alive, and very cold. Emmet pokes him with a socked foot as Ingo takes another ravenous bite of his egg and cheese sandwich. He has egg yolk all over his hands and down his chin.

“I am Emmet,” he says, an awed smile lingering on his face. “And I am certain you are going to choke if you eat that fast.”

Ingo blinks, still chewing. Maybe two sandwiches was the right move after all. Emmet hasn’t touched the one he bought for himself yet. He’s been too busy making sure Ingo drinks a glass of water. Ingo flushes, though, as he realizes he’s made an runny-egg mess of the plate balanced on his knee. He looks sheepishly away, searching for something to wipe his hands with. When he can’t find anything, he sets the sandwich down, and wanders back to the kitchen.

“It’s like you haven’t eaten in weeks,” Emmet remarks. His stomach flips a bit at the implication, wondering when the last time Ingo actually had a warm meal in his body. He realizes he doesn’t even know where he’s been. What could be wrong with him. What he’d seen. He seems dazed, a bit lost, a bit spacey. It had taken him a good thirty seconds to recognize Emmet on that platform—though, if Emmet’s honest with himself, and he often tries to be, he isn’t much better. He’d swallowed down confusion just as fast as he could, and that was only a moment before he’d thrown himself at his brother. Ingo’s shoulders are a tense line.

“I’ve eaten,” Ingo says.

“Good.”

When Ingo wanders back over, sitting in his same spot, Emmet pushes the glass of water toward him. Ingo nods, smiling a little as he picks it up and takes a long drink. After he’s finished and set the glass down, Emmet starts on his sandwich. Between his first bite of hashbrown and egg and the next, he says:

“Ingo,” followed by. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

The two go quiet, even with the sound of foil and sandwiches. Ingo swallows, staring into his patterned plate. Emmet watches his face as much as he did prior. He can tell when a pause is calculated for drama, for intrigue, for embellishment, but this one is full of Ingo’s mind scrambling. Emmet can’t see it in action, but he can certainly imagine a million Ingo’s running around in his brain space, trying to compose an answer for Emmet that would satisfy him. Ingo takes another bite in the meantime.

Emmet stares into bits of potato in the foil on his lap. They’re not very interesting.

“What happened?” he asks softly, not looking up at him. He hears Ingo sigh, and sees him put the plate down in his peripheral.

“I—” Ingo starts, and the stutter of his voice is indicative of something very clear to Emmet.

“Ingo,” he says, looking up suddenly. “Don’t.”

Ingo swallows. His throat bobs. Emmet doesn’t even have to finish his sentence.

“I’ve forgotten everything,” Ingo says, in a way that is so un-Ingo-like. “Almost everything. It’s just—there. Right out of reach. Right out of my reach.”

The television casts color across Ingo’s face, obscuring his expression. Emmet fights to keep his expression cool and neutral, despite the way his heart begs to jump into his throat and throw a party. He has a sandwich to eat, not a heart. Silly heart. Silly Emmet. He supposes now that’s why Ingo’s reaction to Chandelure was so stunted. Or the way he skirted away from the station like it may reach out and pinch him like a dwebble. He takes a bite of his sandwich, chewing slowly.

“I don’t know why,” Ingo continues, picking at the seeds on top of his bagel. “I don’t know how, either. And I don’t think I can stomach the where and what, yet. I feel sick when I think too hard. Dizzy and sick.”

Emmet swallows roughly.

“It’s okay,” he says. Ingo shakes his head, shutting his eyes. Emmet watches his face warp, faltering as he holds back whatever emotion’s just bubbled up in his chest. He screws his eyes shut, new tears dripping down his cheeks and off his chin. “Go, listen—”

Emmet reaches. He brushes Ingo’s hand, and Ingo jerks back on instinct, recoiling. He looks at Emmet, expression blank, nervous, then cracking all at once. Emmet’s own face falters as they meet eyes. Emmet holds his hand over Ingo’s, waiting, still crouching in front of him. He tries for a smile, even as Ingo goes blurry.

“I’m glad you remembered me,” he warbles out. “We can keep going from there. Our tracks move forward.”

“I don’t believe my car in this two car train is very safe, Em,” Ingo sniffles. He takes Emmet’s hand, though, and Emmet curls his fingers over his, both hands around his one hand. He squeezes ever so.

“We’re known for our safety checks, brother,” Emmet says gently. “It’s just our standard operating procedure.”

Ingo laughs softly. The sound is damp, but real. Trying to be something positive. It’s all he can ask of him.

“Understood,” Ingo says. He nods, setting his face, despite the way tears still cloud his eyes, and his mouth still wobbles as he sniffles in. “We shall depart then.”

“We will!” Emmet says, squeezing his hands again. He drops them, then, patting Ingo’s knees like he were beating on the table. Ingo huffs out a laugh, shooing him away.

It doesn’t hurt any less, knowing how much might be absent. But it soothes it a bit to watch Ingo smile.

Later, sitting on the couch together, Ingo rests against Emmet, sandwiches eaten, chips picked through, water drank. His face has regained a touch of color, hands no longer shaking with exertion. He breathes slowly and softly as Emmet flips through television mindlessly, looking for anything. To his left, Eelektross snores, head resting on his knee. He runs a hand absently along the scales at the top of his head, listening to the drone of purr and the chatter of late night television.

“Brother,” Emmet says softly. “Ingo.”

Ingo makes no sound. His breath stays even and slow. Emmet snorts. Right. He supposes it’s payback—he can’t remember the amount of times he’d fallen asleep during movie night with Elesa.

Elesa.

Emmet startles.

Reaching for his phone, he hastily manages a message to Elesa. Something like: Come over ASAP. Good news. Very good. About Ingo.

But his message reads in all lowercase like a run-on sentence, so he hopes in the morning Elesa will decipher it.

Emmet leans back, Ingo’s sleeping weight falling to Emmet’s side as he lies down on the couch cushions. His brother only partially adjusts in his sleep, better tucking into one side, head on his shoulder. Warm with sleep and food, Emmet lets his eyes unfocus. There’s too much static resting right under his skin to let him sleep.

This is good, though. A moment of reprieve for him, and desperately needed for Ingo. Maybe in the morning they’ll talk about getting rid of that ridiculous beard of his.

Emmet hums softly to himself. He listens to the drone of the television for a moment, blissfully tired. There’s a moment of quiet just long enough to feel sleep tug at him.

Someone pounds on his door.

Ah. Well.

Miscalculation on his part, then.

#submas #subway master emmet #subway master ingo #pokemon black and white #pokemon fic #pokemon black and white fic #submas fic #it's very. this is very special to me #i think it could be longer! and a little more detailed! and i think i wanna come back to it at some point and post it on ao3 #it's kind of like this. oh well i've seen other executions i like just as much as what i decided #and it makes me wanna weave more in #i think i could eventually but not today LMAO #maybe once i post my other fic i'll rewrite this as the second chapter. big eyes.#yesyes.. that's what i'll do < shut up tuna

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1863-project · 2 years ago

Note

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.

youtube

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

#replies #Pokemon #Submas #this man literally makes me so giddy and ridiculous #it's so silly but I'm having a good time and he's helping me work through a lot of stuff on the side #I spent hours on this #I always spend hours on posts where I talk about Emmet

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allaboardsubmas · 7 months ago

Text

A Spark of Something New - Chapter 8 (Title Formerly: Bound by Choice)

A/N: Enjoy!

Fandom: Pokemon (Black & White, All Media Types, Legends: Arceus)

Characters: Original Character, Kudari | Emmet, Nobori | Ingo

Rating: Teen Audiences

Summary: Andy has always been afraid of pokemon and what it is that they’re able to do, which makes their life rather hard considering they’re twenty-two, live in Unova, and work in Nimbasa City; which is known as the battle capital of their region. Their closest friend and semi-adopted mother being a former gym battle leader also didn’t tend to help matters.

A panic attack on a subway car they thought was empty, however, leads to them meeting the infamous Subway Bosses and learning that pokemon, while terrifying, weren’t the monsters they had grown up believing them to be. Getting sucked up into the lives of the two Subway Bosses and their best friend Gym Leader Elesa might be even more terrifying than the pokemon, however.

AO3 Link: A Spark of Something New

Next Chapter Immediately Available on Patreon

—

If you enjoy this story then check out my Writing Commissions.

…or, if you prefer, you can just buy me a ko-fi! ☕ …or, if you have a nice allowance, support me on Patreon! 🪶

—

Chapter 8 - Emmet (Without Ingo) Makes A Friend

“I am Emmet. Today has been the worst.” Normally, that was the point Ingo would tell him he was being dramatic. Instead, over his xtrans, Emmet heard a little huff of agreement. It was definitely bad. “How are the Lines?”

“Once again up and running optimally,” Ingo replied swiftly, sounding as exhausted as Emmet felt. “The Drilbur infestation has been soundly and swiftly dealt with and all Drilbur have been caught and transferred to Professor Juniper’s lab for re-release! Time of arrival to the Pokecenter?”

“Almost there,” Emmet said instead of taking the time to calculate how long it would take him at his current walking pace. That involved math. He was too tired for math. He was pretty sure he heard Ingo make a noise that was either sympathetic or frustrated.

“You should have let me go since I’ll be the one using the team next.” Ah. An Ingo lecture. Emmet was good at tuning those out.

“No. My Doubles matches were this morning. It is my responsibility to see that they are healed before their Singles matches.” On a normal day Emmet would have let the healing staff at the station take care of their pokemon, but with the Drilbur infestation there had been a lot of injured pokemon to deal with. It was easier to use his limited time to visit the Pokecenter. “You also skipped breakfast to work early and assist with maintenance. Keep eating.”

Emmet brought up his wrist to glare at the screen, pleased to see that Ingo made a disgruntled scoff before munching bitterly on a forkful of salad. Emmet would have complained more, normally, but that could wait until he was sure Ingo was well-fed and not at risk of derailing himself. He was verrry bad at being selfish, after all.

“Ah. Entering the center now,” Emmet informed him, stepping into the Nimbasa Pokecenter and looking around to see it wasn’t too busy as he approached the front desk, only one other person there and waiting and the Nurse Joy most likely doing something in the back. It was the off-season for the Gym Challenge, he supposed. Winter would only be a few weeks away, perhaps a month at most. Most Challengers were back at home or had returned to school.

“Please be sure to eat yourself once you return to the station,” Ingo lectured, Emmet nodding along because Emmet, at least, was selfish enough to eat at least a few bites before rushing off to the next task. “A full meal, Emmet, not simply a granola bar!” Damn. His brother knew him too well.

“I will- Hm.” Emmet paused, staring down at the shiny Joltik that was staring back up at him from the counter. The Joltik gave a few taps to the counter with his claws before throwing off a few sparks, Emmet beaming. “I will call you back.” Hanging up on his brother and not listening to his response, Emmet reached out a finger to gently pet the Joltik’s back. “Hello, Spark.”

Looking back up at the other person on the counter, Emmet was highly amused to see that while it was Andy, they were wearing a lab coat and a tie. Verrry unlike their last few outfits Emmet had seen them in. Curiously, he watched Andy yawn, tilting their head towards their right shoulder before snapping up and looking around frantically. It was delightful to watch them look at Emmet before groaning loudly in what seemed to be disbelief. “Seriously, are you following me? This city is huge!”

“Mhm. Yup. It is verrry big. This is also the closest Pokecenter to Gear Station.” Emmet grinned as Andy scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I was not aware you worked in a lab.”

“A- Oh.” Andy looked down at their coat, shaking their head. “No. I don’t. They just make us wear these stupid- Hang on.” Nurse Joy had returned, carrying a small box that Andy sighed in relief at seeing. Interesting. “Thank you.”

“Of course! Thank you for bringing our own supplies back,” Nurse Joy laughed, patting at a box that rested on the desk behind the counter. “Was there anything else you needed?”

“No, thank you, that should be all.” Leaving Andy to check over whatever was in the package, which Emmet found himself curious about, he instead focused on Nurse Joy as she turned to him.

“Oh! Hello, Emmet. Healing the team here today?” Ah, the joys of having someone who knew their routines and was already preparing a tray for all the pokeballs.

“Yup!” Emmet set them all in carefully, delighted as always that Nurse Joy didn’t chain him down with small talk and instead went to work at once at healing the team. He did notice Andy’s curious look over to him. “Ingo and I will use the Pokecenter over the healing staff at Gear Station depending on supply level and time. Nurse Joy is verrry familiar with us here!”

“Guess you’re working yourself today seeing as you’re wearing your own white coat,” Andy said, tone making it seem like they were joking. They were very obviously not good at it. “The, uh, place I work for, they were expecting a delivery for some hard copy data, but it got switched with a supply of items for the Pokecenter, so someone needed to come collect it. I’m getting paid no matter what, so at least there’s that, and no one else wanted to go, since we were doing this group bonding morale hour thing after lunch.” Ah… Emmet was seeing the full picture.

Andy was still rambling, making no move to head for the door. They obviously were not fond of forced social obligations. Emmet could relate. It seemed they were looking for an excuse to not go back to work quite yet. Emmet could help with that. First things first, however. “Is it an Andrew or Andrea day?”

Andy, who had set the box back down and had been in the middle of talking, paused, stumbled, and blinked up at him. Emmet almost expected to get huffed at for interrupting, but instead they beamed, hands doing a few light flaps at their side that was wonderfully familiar. “Andrew. It’s an Andrew day.” Mm. They- He didn’t get asked that often, then.

“You were telling me why your work makes you wear lab coats.” Because Emmet was actually a little curious about that. It also seemed like something Andy was happy to rant about. He was very much like Ingo in that way. Once he found something to talk about, he was able to simply talk.

In the time it took Nurse Joy to return Emmet learned that Andy worked in data entry for the National Pokedex after Lenora recommended it, which made the surprise he felt less surprising, and the fact that Andy thought he would be working not in Nimbasa, which made much more sense for someone afraid of pokemon and battling.

“So,” Andy finished with a sigh, trailing after him with his box once the team had been returned fully healed. “I take it the Station is low on supplies if you’re here?”

“Ah. Drilbur infestation. Ingo needs the team fully healed for the Singles Line so I came here. He wanted to, but he needed to eat lunch.” Emmet paused at Andy’s laugh, bright and sudden. “Hm?”

“Sorry, just- Looks like we’re both using our lunch breaks to get some extra work in.” Lunch break? Hadn’t he said it was some morale hour thing he was avoiding? Andy must have been decent at reading facial expressions, because he gave a shrug. “Morale hour takes place after lunch, so I just got an early start on this and hoped it would take long enough I would miss most of it when I got back.”

Emmet nodded. “Which means you already ate lunch. Good.” Spark had jumped from Andy’s shoulder to the box, chirping in the tone Nugget always used on him when ratting him out to Ingo for not eating. “Ah. You did not eat.”

“I did,” Andy lied, Emmet staring him down. “This morning… Why do you know how to understand Joltiks so well, anyway! Can you just speak to pokemon?”

“No,” Emmet said, laughing in Andy’s face and delighting in the annoyed glare it earned him. So easy to tease. “And all safety checks must be performed!”

With that Emmet was easily swiping the box from Andy’s hands, turning and marching opposite the way towards Gear Station. Spark, delightfully, remained on the box. “Wha- Hey! Don’t just- Don’t just take my stuff and my pokemon and- Emmet!”

“There is a food stall this way that provides good, cheap food,” Emmet explained once Andy caught up, the other still grumbling and fussing as Emmet refused to return the box. It was likely Andy would just run in the opposite direction to escape. That’s what Emmet would do. Hm. Maybe he should distract the other with small talk? Ah, how did small talk work again…

Emmet managed to at least discuss the weather for a minute or two, and even comment on something he had heard Elesa complaining about the previous week. That was enough conversation to get to the stall, and then they were able to talk about what to order. Emmet got his food in a bag to eat once he returned to the station, waiting for Andy to catch up to him as he checked his xtrans.

“So. You don’t really do small talk, huh?” Ah. So it was noticeable. Emmet made sure to not look away from his xtrans as he answered. Less embarrassing that way.

“There is not much I find interesting. What I am interested in tends to be what others aren’t interested in.” Pokemon battling was one thing, but in-depth discussions on IV and moveset breeding was another.

The two of them were quiet as Emmet skimmed through his messages. Ingo was asking where he was and why he had hung up. He couldn’t exactly text back while holding the box and Spark with one hand, but Andy was finally eating, even if it was a food stall pastry. Emmet had a feeling Andy did not eat while working very often. Maybe-

“You could talk about trains.” Snapped out of his thoughts, Emmet shot his gaze to Andy, who was watching him quietly. “You and your brother like trains, right? I, um, I’d be interested in learning about that a little. I mean, I don’t know much, but, uh, that- That first night? The one we met? You and Ingo were talking about- About bullet trains, right? How they were more popular in Kanto than in Johto?”

Oh. Someone had listened to them. Andy had been coming out of a panic attack. He had been overwhelmed. Scared. Surrounded by two strange men and a pokemon he feared. He had still listened to them. He had even remembered. Emmet wasn’t sure what his expression was, but Andy smiled. “My office building is a couple blocks north of Gear Station, so, uh… I’ll be walking with you a bit, if you don’t mind.”

That was all Emmet needed before he started talking. It wasn’t as good as it was with Ingo, who could keep up with him and happily engage in the technical details, but Andy was actively listening. He even asked a few questions that let him go more in-depth. He had an opinion on the bullet train versus magnet train debate! It was nice!

Before he knew it they were at Gear Station, Emmet finally handing the box, and Spark, back over to Andy, who had finished eating. “Thanks,” Andy said, snorting when Spark hopped up to sit back on his shoulder. “Alright, you little traitor.”

“Please remember your safety checks in the future!” Emmet decided to settle on saying, grinning as Andy rolled their eyes. With the coat that looked a size too big and the fact Andy only came up to his shoulder he looked so small. Like a stray pokemon, truly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Andy fell silent, staying in place before looking at him properly. “You know, I don’t have anything that I’m really interested in, not like you and Ingo are with your trains and with battling. So, you know, it’s- It’s nice. I liked hearing about how excited you were about what you love.” Andy lingered a second more before turning to leave, shuffling the box around before giving a little wave. “See you later!”

Emmet waved back, quiet as he followed the familiar path to the Singles Line, boarding about to begin in two minutes and twenty-seven seconds and Ingo waiting near his battling car and scanning the crowd for him. When he made it to his side, Ingo was fussing at once. “There you are. You could have at least answered one of my texts- Ah, you have food!” Ingo paused, staring at him. “You bought actual food?”

“Yup!” Emmet shuffled the bag to his other wrist, handing Ingo the team members he would need for his battles. “Sorry for the delay, I was…” Emmet paused, feeling Ingo’s gaze on him as he stared down at his bag of food before smiling at his brother. “I was speaking with a friend.”

#Pokemon #submas #my writing #original #bound by choice #a spark of something new

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katebluebird · 1 year ago

Text

i thought about writing a bunch of one-shots about kate, to get a better feel of her characters, since i do that better in practice. most of them will be angst in some shape or form, but the first one is an exception - kate's and ingo's first meeting, based on the roleplay with wardenswateringhole

1. What is he, a saint?!

wordcount: 4053

When Kate came to Nimbasa City, she found herself drawn to the Battle Subway.

She was never that interested in battle facilities, despite being to three different regions before, two of which have world famous facilities. But there is simply one fundamental problem with the concept that prevents Kate from being interested in them – it’s battles for the sake of battles. Sure, by winning one does earn battle points they can later exchange for cool, or even helpful things. But Kate was never interested in any of the items those exchange shops hold. And the battles at the facilities do not give the winning party any cash, so Kate never had anything to gain from them. It’s just the she acquired growing up with Pokémon battles being a mean of surviving.

But this place is different. It isn’t some remote location that can’t be accessed by people who haven’t beaten the Unova league. And it isn’t just a battle facility either. It doubles as a public transport – a whole subway system that spreads under the whole region, like an Ariados web. It in itself is already a wonder that Kate has never seen before, having lived without ever really seeing a real train before. A wonder of technology that can take you almost anywhere in Unova, a complicated network that manages to run like the clock, precise and efficient. Just relax, while the huge metal pipe follows its set tracks, with no mistakes, its wheels producing a rhythmic sound that is almost soothing. There is something fascinating and satisfying Kate finds about it all, that she doesn’t about any other mean of transportation. Fascinating enough to take up the habit of coming down here whenever she has some time to kill, even when she doesn’t actually has to go anywhere, and just ride the trains, or sit at a station and just watch the trains instead.

Although this is already enough of a reason for Kate to come here so often, she eventually end up finding another reason.

Kate sighs as she leans on the back of one of the seats at the station she’s at. Her gaze is locked on a man in a long white coat and a matching conductor’s hat. He is in the other side of the station, busy with something, a tablet in hand and talking with someone in a green uniform.

This isn’t the first time Kate sees the man in the subway. Emmet is his name, if she remembers correctly. She had no idea who he is initially. Only after living in Nimbasa for a few months did she learn of its celebrities – the twins who run the Battle Subway together. The Subway Bosses. And Emmet is one of them, apparently.

Kate was never the person to care much about celebrities. They just exist somewhere, in a world that’s parallel to hers, and everyone is minding their own business. But it wasn’t Emmet’s celebrity status that made Kate curious about him. There is just something… fascinating about this man. Whenever she sees him, she notices how he has a peculiar body language that’s simply fun to watch. It resonates with her somehow. Whenever he interacts with other people and Kate happens to witness it, it is always bound to turn into something entertaining, with how straight to the point and honest he is, while somehow also being playful. When she looked through his social media, she found a treasure trove of hilarious antics that she found funnier than any stand up performance she’s ever seen before. And it is not fake, like social media accounts of companies that try to humanize their brand. All of it is genuine, as far as she can tell. And it is very stimulating to watch. It’s been a long while since she found herself so interested in another human being.

So, Kate found herself interested and fascinated enough to watch him in his natural habitat from time to time. It helped her build a more complete picture of that man. She isn’t sure if this is what people feel when they like a celebrity, but she prefers to think she is simply admiring a person she finds entertaining from afar. Like how she would with any other person she would interested in. With the exception that Kate would not approach said person. Because he’s actually famous, and the idea of sticking up a conversation with him is even more terrifying because of that.

And that was how it was for a few months, with no changes to the routine. Kate was pretty alright with just watching the funny man from afar, until she saw another one, in a similar coat and hat, but black instead of white.

That is the other twin – Ingo. It took Kate an embarrassing amount of time to remember his name. He isn’t as entertaining from afar as his brother. His body language is stiff, his interactions with people much more professional. Even his social media is barely active, and whenever it was, he actually sounded much more like a regular corporate account manager than anything.

And yet… he also has something about him. It’s something different from Emmet, but that something still made Kate start watching him occasionally as well. She only noticed it after a while, and she couldn’t quite put a finger on what I was exactly.

He is polite. Incredibly polite. Sometimes overly polite, it’s almost like he always keeps professional, no matter the situation. She has also seen him excited about things a few times, and that politeness remains every time. It’s almost like that’s somehow his default – simply how he talks. He also seems very kind and patient whenever he talks with anyone – his brother (despite their very funny antics), other passengers, his employees, lost kids and Pokémon. His voice can be very loud, and his facial expressions and movements intimidating, and yet he has this absolute underlying softness and gentleness to him, that once Kate started to notice, could no longer get it out of her head. It was drawing her in, slowly but surely.

Suddenly, just watching from the sidelines is not enough anymore. And that is a problem, because the idea of approaching him is still terrifying.

It’s gonna pass eventually, she thinks. It’s just passing curiosity, and there’s no reason to act on it. And yet, in a regular schedule, like it’s a routine at this point, Kate keeps returning to the Subway every day, just to get a glimpse of the man she became so unusually curious about. After two weeks of just observing, Kate realized that she either needs to move on or do something about this. Ideally both, since she knew she wouldn’t be able to move on without actually approaching first, even just for a short chat.

But how? She can maybe actually try going on a Single Train and getting to him, but Kate isn’t sure it’s a good idea. There probably wouldn’t be enough time to chat before or after the battle, so there wasn’t much point. The only other option she can think of is to just approach him while he’s at the station nearby, but Kate also isn’t sure she is brave enough to do that. She would have been scared to do that with anyone else, and Ingo would be in the middle of work when she approaches. Distracting the man from his work would just make Kate even more embarrassed and more awkward in the interaction…

But after a few days of arguing with herself, Kate decides that she’d rater just butcher their interaction, so she can finally move on, rather than get stuck on this forever. So, one day, she goes down the subway with a specific purpose in mind.

It’s a middle of pretty busy day. While the station isn’t the most crowded Kate has ever seen it, there are still plenty of people walking around. Kate has been standing near a wall for a while now, watching people rush by and waiting for Ingo to hopefully eventually show up. For now, only Emmet is there, talking with someone Kate assumes to be a fan. She isn’t too focused on them though, as she doesn’t want to get distracted and accidentally miss someone she is waiting for.

Finally, her eyes focus on the man she has been waiting for – the big black coat is very hard not to notice, even in a crowd. He is walking along the platform, and oh so conveniently, his route seems to be going right past her. As if the circumstances could have been anymore perfect. She just has to take a step, both literal and metaphorical, and actually speak up. For just a few seconds, Kate feels her whole body freeze, and her feet and fingers grow cold, despite the station being actually pretty stuffy. But when Ingo stops in his tracks not too far from her, checking something on the tablet in his hand, something in Kate’s brain clicks, and a mask is on without her even realizing it at first. With confidence she doesn’t actually have, she takes a step forward, walking up to the conductor from behind.

“We had one face that’s sweet as candy and very kissable around here already, but now we have two! Christmas came early this year”.

Kate smiles, as if what she said was completely planned and not at all just something she would have never said if she gave it just a moment of thought. The moment the last sentence leaves her mouth, she feels herself die a little on the inside. But there is no way back, so Kate keeps smiling and looking at the man, waiting for him to react to her shameless flirting.

While all this is rushing through Kate’s mind, Ingo turns around to face her, his usually somewhat grumpy looking face red, and eyes somewhat widened. It takes him two more seconds to find what to say, and even then he stutters.

“OH! O-oh! Uh! You’re too kind, passenger! I- I would not call myself k-kissable. Eh- Emmet is the sw-sweet one. Perhaps you are looking for him?”

The man stutters with almost every word he says, his voice only evening out when he wonders if Kate mistook him for his twin. This… is not the reaction Kate expected. What she said actually flustered him? She wouldn’t have been surprised if she scared him and made him just leave this random girl who threw a cringe-worthy pick-up line at him, or told her this was inappropriate. Yet he didn’t. This is weird.

Kate suddenly wants to push further, to see how the man would react if she were to continue down this path. How far could she take this until he ran out of patience? She’s seen many of his emotions before while watching him, but never him losing his temper.

So, Kate smiles slyly, squinting her eyes at the tall man. “I’d say you both have very sweet and kissable faces. Especially now that you’re blushing, remind me of strawberry ice cream. Mind if I try and see if you’re as sweet as you look?”

With the tip of her tongue stuck out from between her lips, and a wink, Kate says out loud another sentence that would have made her burn alive from embarrassment if she gave it any further thought. Quite the ask – for a kiss, after barely exchanging a few words. Now he is sure to get angry or annoyed, Kate thinks. But to her shock, Ingo’s face becomes redder and his body language, which is usually already pretty stiff, loses its professional edge and becomes something shy and flustered.

“I- I- I-“, he stutters, completely caught off guard. Yet he is still not annoyed in the slightest. “I assure you! I do not taste like ice cream!” His eyes dart in different directions, “I’m not sure what I taste like, I have never bothered to investigate such a proposition, I would think I would taste like black coffee since it’s what I consume a majority of the time, which is admittedly not healthy, but I cannot resist it, as I work on late night paperwork, forgive me passenger but I do not taste as good as you probably expect – “

Ingo’s rant lasts for a while, and he never once takes a breath, until the very end, which leaves Kate both shocked and impressed. When he notices that he isn’t really going anywhere good with this, he looks at Kate, and stutters once again.

“I- “, he turns around to look where his brother is standing in the distance. “EMMET HELP!”

Kate leans to the side, to look at Emmet without Ingo obstructing the view, to see how he would react. She expects him to maybe come over to see what the commotion is, or maybe be the one to tell the girl harassing his twin off. But all he does is smile in their direction and give Ingo a thumbs up.

“You got this, brother!... Full steam ahead! Aim for the tracks that run through the heart!”

Kate genuinely laughs, covering her mouth with a hand, and she can hear Ingo groan as he turns back to her. This is pretty fun. She would remember this for the rest of her life, once all of this is over and they never see eachother again. Before her consciousness kicks in though and she feels mortified at what she’s done, she wants to go as far as she can, push as hard as she can. She doesn’t actually think she will get that kiss, but she’s already here, so might as well go all out before it’s all over.

“Black coffee, huh? That’s an acquired taste for me. I guess I’ll need to get exposed to the taste a few times, to get addicted”, she winks again, her hips swinging left and right ever so slightly. She is expecting Ingo to either get flustered again, or finally get annoyed and tell her to leave. While he does seem to calm down a little, he still doesn’t seem angry. Despite his somewhat intense facial expression, Kate has a feeling that’s just how his face usually is.

“In that case, I would highly recommend the café just down the street from the Gear Station. They have very good dark roasts, a personal favorite of mine”. His face became somewhat thoughtful for a moment. “We frequently send a depot agent to get our orders for us. Emmet’s order usually consists of half a dozen confectionaries as well…”

It takes Kate a moment to realize what Ingo is proposing. Is he… asking her out to a café? …Why? That is the opposite of what she expected to happen when she started this whole thing. She locks hands behind her back and winks again.

“Hm, a café sounds nice, yes… Though since you said you probably taste like black coffee, I think I’d like a taste from a more appealing place”.

Another absolutely embarrassing line, but Kate is determined to push and finish this. She either somehow gets that kiss as a payment for leaving the man alone already, or, which is more likely, she finally gets told to leave, and they can end this charade here. And once again, despite all of Kate’s expectations, Ingo isn’t annoyed and laughs loudly, before looking down at her again with.

“I would like to remind to passengers that tasting the Subway Bosses is ill advised, due to possibly communicable diseases and general hygiene observances, in which saliva is spread out one or both parties, possibly leading to a health hazard – “, he pauses for a moment, his voice suddenly quieter, and he looks away a little embarrassed. “…Why do I feel like I should not have mentioned that?”

Kate laughs again. The whole exchange has been entertaining so far, even more than Kate would have imagined it would have been from just watching from afar, or looking through the twins’ social media. She supposes it’s no use asking for a kiss again, so she might as well swing in the direction Ingo himself is leaning… for whatever reason.

“Hmm, well, since you’re not down to getting dirty with saliva exchange, how about I ask you out to that café you mentioned instead, and we get to bacteria exchange later, once you do actually taste like coffee?”

Another flirtatious wink, and Kate is expecting Ingo to finally let her down gently, so this exchange can be over and they can go their separate ways. But instead, he blushes again and looks away, stuttering for a moment.

“U-um… I suppose that would be more appropriate…”

As soon as his mind can focus on something else though, his voice and face become a little excited, rather than bashful. “I would enjoy showing you the various flavors and blends they have. They don’t just have coffee! They have tea and juices as well. Perhaps you will find something new you will like!”

Kate rolls her eyes a little, but she was still smiling.

“I think I already did, since I’m going to be with you”, she winks again. It probably looks like a tick at that point. “So what time do you get off work?”

Ingo looked thoughtful, and it seemed like he was genuinely thinking about this. “Unfortunately, our roles as Subway Bosses do not award us the luxury of ever truly having time off. However, spending my break in pleasant company would be favorable to spending it locked in my office”.

Kate doesn’t show it, but her heart skips a beat at the sudden compliment, and she feels her cheeks grow warmer. Ingo doesn’t notice he caught her off guard though, as he is busy giving her the time when they would meet. It’s a good thing, because Kate is sure she wouldn’t be able to come up with anything to say in that moment.

“Our time will be a bit short, but hopefully enjoyable. I can ask Emmet to do some of the paperwork for once. Of course, I will most likely have to go back and redo it because of his atrocious handwriting”. He sighs and shook his head, before looking at Kate again. “Nevermind, I can pull a late shift. I look forward to our meeting”.

Kate is smiling and nodding, before she even fully realizes what exactly she is agreeing to. She isn’t quite there fully, as otherwise the conversation wouldn’t flow as well as it does now, and she would stumble over her own words. “Got it. A short meeting is fine with me”. She smiles slyly again. “I’ll just have to be super efficient and try to make you blush as many times as I can in the short amount of time we’ll have! Where should we meet?”

“We could meet at the Gear Station. I can guide you to the café in question. And there is no need to make me blush, dear passenger!” He perks up suddenly. “Ah! It would not be appropriate for me to continue calling you passenger. Is there something else you would like to go by?”

Kate pauses for a moment. She wasn’t initially planning on sharing her name, since she was also not planning on taking this anywhere far. Her plan was to just have a short conversation, see the reaction, be sure that her curiosity is satisfied and make sure she doesn’t feel like she is missing a chance at anything, because she knows she freaked him out. If she gave it a few more seconds of serious thought, she would have completely lost her composure, panicked, and flee the scene, never to be seen again. But she isn’t thinking about all that anymore at the moment, instead relying only on the front she adapted, and smiles again.

“Of course there is a need! A need for me to see you blush! It’s so cute!” She locks her hands behind her back again and sways her hips left and right idly, moving her weight from one leg to another, making her dress and sash ribbon on the back sway along with her. “Yeah, that works for me. And I guess I should share my name, since I keep saying I want to taste you. My name is Kate. Nice to meet you”.

Ingo raises his arm and holds the rim of his hat. Kate has a feeling he is also smiling, though it’s pretty hard for her to tell by his face yet. “The pleasure is all mine, Kate. Please remember, the Subway Bosses are friends, not food”.

Kate giggles again and puts a finger on her cheek. “That will be hard to remember. You look so sweet, I can’t help but want to give you a peck on your cheek! But I’ll try to hold off until we get to that café at least”.

She winks for what feels like a tenth time, and Kate feels that she really needs to wrap this up, as she isn’t sure for how long she can keep this going. She smiles again, this time more mischievously, as she waved at Ingo and begins to leave.

“See you again soon!”

She catches only a glimpse of Ingo waving back at her and mirroring her goodbye with another blush. Kate doesn’t actually need to go anywhere, and is simply walking in a random direction, before changing tracks and going towards the station exit once she was out of Ingo’s line of sight. Only when she is outside the station, in the sunlight and fresh air, does everything suddenly dawns on her.

“What. The fuck”.

She stops in her tracks and stares into the distance, her expression shell-shocked. What in the actual fuck just happened? She just scored a date with that man, didn’t she? What did she… How did she even manage that? She was being absolutely obnoxious, she was sure he’d tell her to fuck off. There’s no way he’s that patient. What is he, a saint? Unless he’s into terrible pick up lines or obnoxious behavior… Oh Arceus, what about all the things she said?! She said all of them without even thinking, because she was sure that would be the only time they speak or see eachother, but now she has to face the consequences of her actions, because she will see him soon enough. On a date.

Maybe she should just… not go? It’s not like they exchanged numbers or anything, neither did he know where she lives. They could both just… forget this ever happened, like a bad dream. Sure, this will haunt her whenever she tries to sleep at night, but… Well, ghosting him like that wouldn’t exactly be great either. But maybe it would be better this way? There’s no way he actually wants to go to a café with her, right?

Despite thinking all that though, Kate searches for her phone in her bag, to write down the time Ingo gave her, before she has the chance to forget it. Once she sets up a reminder, she stares at the clock on her phone screen intensely, as if trying to burn a hole in the poor device. Her heart is racing, her breathing was fast, as if she ran from the subway instead of just walking, and she feels like she’s shaking. The hand she is holding her in phone feels cold, despite the air around her being warm from the sun.

…Maybe she should actually go. If she just runs away now, then all of this cringe would be for nothing – she wouldn’t be able to let go of this, ever. And she does need to interact with more people than just her Pokémon and the cashiers at the grocery store… And it’s not like this would go anywhere too far, right? He’d see he doesn’t actually enjoy being around her that much, they go their separate ways, Kate stops thinking about him every single day, and all of this becomes a slightly less cringy memory for her.

She puts the phone away and walks home, to calm down, think less and maybe eat something. If she thinks about this too much, she might panic and move to a different region altogether again.

#oc kate #personal #cathy talks fics #each moment in a picture frame

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galacta-phantasma · 2 months ago

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WE'RE FALLING DOWN SLOWLY

Welcome to my blog, where I've got everything but a functioning sink!

Warframe IGN: cherry3punch, feel free to say hi! Clan: Somewhat Guilty Gears, population: me. All labs are built and a dry dock is on the to do list, research still very much in progress

Below the cut is a collection of all my AO3 fics. Fics in a series will be listed under the series they're in.

RAVEN/SOL JUMPSCARE

Pokemon:

what's one more time loop? : 2 part seties. The original and rewritten versions of "once more, a bit to the left". Featuring: Dawn running out of fucks to give and integrating the Final Pam perhaps a little too firmly into her belief system, Ingo stumbling his way into being a good uncle, a region woefully unprepared for the force of nature falling onto their doorstep, and antagonists who should've left while they had a chance.

ingo & dawn arrive 15 minutes late with potato mochi : 3 part series. The return of Dawn and Ingo to the present, as planned by the young Champion. Any explosions caused by the plan cannot be legally tied to either of them.

undead tracks : 2 part series. an incredibly short ghost!Akari and vampire!twins au

the only sign : oneshot. The only sign anything had happened was the clatter of a chair hitting the floor

PLA but dawn has a litwick : oneshot. au where everything is the same, but Dawn gets sent back with a Litwick as well, and causes some heart attacks along the way

blessed champion : oneshot. Yes, Dawn was strange. But she was their Champion and savior, and Sinnoh protects its own with a fierce love rivaling that of a mother Bewear. It only makes sense for those oddities to follow her into the past, where they were arguably needed most.

earth-shaking menace : oneshot. Akari recreates (discovers?) Earthquake. Rei wonders if its too late to change his name and flee the region.

space's burden : oneshot. Arceus and Giratina have plans. Dialga is acting strange. Palkia’s stuck in the middle, trying to keep everything from falling apart.

hilda gets trolled : oneshot. Hilda keeps running into this girl, and every time she forgets to ask her name. Yet she can't shake the feeling that she's seen her before... Meanwhile, Dawn is on vacation and traveling to Nimbasa City

Kirby:

sparkling stars : oneshot. On a day like any other in Dreamland, Kirby looked up. This wasn’t really remarkable. What was unusual was the lack of anything to look at. The sky was a clear blue with not a cloud in sight. No leaves or petals or butterflies flew about with the wind. The sun shined as it always did - just in the opposite direction of where he was looking. He took a few steps back, blinking like he was making sure something was there. Then he smiled, and turned to run back to his home.

funhouse mirror : oneshot. Kirby stared into the eyes of a distorted reflection of himself. Void stared back.

counting tiles until sunrise : oneshot. Both he and Shadow were heavy sleepers, so this wasn’t a problem for them. It was a problem for Daroach, who had sensitive hearing and was a light sleeper.

like falling in slow motion : oneshot. Marx's sleeping schedule seems to change with the phases of the moon, and then hits him when he least expects it with a steel chair

The Ultimate Quest to the Grocery Store : oneshot. It's up to Dark Meta Knight to save the day... by going to the store. Unfortunately, life seems to have it out for him today.

wrath of the galaxy : oneshot. Galacta finds out Meta's been captured by Haltmann Works. Safe to say, they're not pleased about it.

How to Win a Date in Less Than 10 Minutes, a Short Guide by Dark Meta : Dameta wants to ask a certain leader of the Squeak Squad out, but isn't sure how. So he does what he does best: apply force and hope for the best.

in what regard does the butterfly hold the bird? : oneshot. Galacta Knight and Morpho Knight were not always the feared knights they are today. A very long time ago, their names were Kirby and Meta Knight. Or: an au in which, due to space-time shenanigans, Kirby and Meta end up in the past and become Galacta and Morpho.

can't help falling (apart/in love) : oneshot. Gaining powers granted by Galactic NOVA, dying, bringing yourself back to life with the clockwork star's broken pieces out of sheer force of will, dying again, and being resurrected again has… interesting effects on Marx's body's sense of time. But even though it hurts, it's somewhat alright. Because Magolor will always be there to guide him back to the present.

DMC:

brought together by needle and thread : oneshot. It would make Dante happy if he agreed, and he could keep the props afterwards as a memento. The only problem is that he would be seen wearing the outfit in public. The logical thing to do, Vergil decides, is to draw Yamato and stab himself.

for my brother wears a stranger's face : oneshot. In a last minute decision, Dante summons his Doppelganger to bring Lady and Trish to Nero and V so that all four of them can escape, leaving him to become Cavaliere Angelo in Trish’s place. A month later, Nero helps V take down the Elder Geryon Knight while Trish searches for the Sparda. This is the aftermath.

Assassin's Creed:

these hands were made for... : oneshot. Ezio is a man drowning in blood. But a certain artist shows him that his hands can create more than just corpses.

they can fly, but they can't drive : oneshot. The most important thing for survival in the Rooks had nothing to do with how well you fought. It’s learning to avoid any road or sidewalk whenever either of the Fryes took control of a carriage. Or: How the Rooks collectively developed a 6th sense to avoid being run over by their bosses.

Resident Evil:

passing storms in your area : oneshot. Piers, a quiet day at home, and the start of it getting better

RGG:

love, twisting into infinity : oneshot. It's a devotion that goes both ways. For children of the night, nothing could be sweeter.

FFXV:

soul of eos : 3 part series. A fem!Noct AU where the Kings of Lucis have Aspects of magic they excel in over all others, and Noct's Aspect is that of the soul

a fin-tastic morning : oneshot. When he was younger, Noctis once fantasized about carrying all of his lover's clutches at once, a fantasy he's glad died as soon as it was born. Now, a few years after taking Prompto's and Gladio's eggs, it's finally Ignis's turn.

in the salt and swell of the ocean : oneshot. Noctis receives a vision of his future self.

LOZ:

wretched and divine : oneshot. It was never a question of if he would falter in battle, but rather when. It was as inevitable as the cycle of day and night, as the cycle of the moon and her faces, and yet still he hoped, he prayed, that it would be delayed. To a lesser battle, a kinder battle, where his pack was fit to burst and an inn to rest was only a few moments away, and his son would laugh the blunder off and return to the world with his next misstep far, far away. The truth, as always, burned.

FFVII:

The Circle : oneshot. Weiss survives. Nero does too. …From a certain point of view.

RDR:

Exit, Carried By A Bear : oneshot. John rests splayed across his back like a starfish, hands weakly gripping Arthur’s fur. If they had to run, he’s not so sure John wouldn’t fall off. He can feel the burns marring John’s wrists and ankles even through his thick fur, the skin fever-hot and blistered.

steady beat : oneshot. Looking to get away from the gang for a bit, Javier and Kieran spend the night in Valentine, but what begins as a desperate stumble for the bed before someone trips and breaks their elbow becomes something much more tender.

a daring escape from a fluffy prison : oneshot. An average morning in the Duffy-Escuella household.

faith, loyalty, and other chains : oneshot. Javier stands at a crossroads.

a pair of quirky notes in the symphony : oneshot.

Javier’s eyes close, and two raindrops fall to the earth, cascading down the arid land. Kieran gathers them on his lips, presses them to Javier’s, saltwater pooling between them. “Let me prove it to you, then, sweetheart. That you saved me.” “...Alright.”

Guilty Gear:

load-bearing coconut : oneshot. Humans tended to hold onto things that brought them comfort; toys, blankets, weapons and shields, or any part of someone they were familiar with that was close enough to grab. Perhaps, that contact would somehow translate into the dream, manifest itself as a means of defense or a guide out of the darkness. It’s ridiculous enough it just might work.

carried by waves : oneshot. The idea of a savior meanders about an empty plane of infinite possibilities, until he hears breathing that isn't his own.

gonna light a match and burn the church down with you : oneshot. that fucking bird that I... love?

rubber duck : oneshot. There’s too much information packed into his brain; it wasn’t built to contain it all, and the updates it installed to withstand the load are haphazard at best. Most days it runs just fine, but sometimes the junk builds up and he has to manually declutter. If Chaos were to imagine his mind as a desk, it’d be piled so high with garbage the desktop wouldn’t be visible. So here he is, at 2:27 in the morning, reading each crumpled piece of paper and trying to decide where to put it. Daryl remains steadfast at his side through it all.

Dynamene Underwater Research Facility : 2 part series.

skin on skin : oneshot. Trust, or something like that.

#jet mumbles

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creatingnonsense · 3 months ago

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Finally made a post for Sylas (or atleast just combined everything I’d already posted about him)

This is for you @mysticasrandomhorde

-Dark type specialist:

Scrafty (Male) / Axis [Similar to Axel, a punkish name, named because of his balance in being both cowardly but defensive of Sylas]

Weavile (Female) / Vexata [From vexatious due to her demeanor when Sylas first met her.]

Druddigon (Male) / Corro [From corrode due to Druddigon’s color scheme.]

-Spent most of his time as a kid and teen running away from home to explore the city and look at the graffiti scattered about. As he got older, most of his escapes were to go spray paint the city walls himself.

-Got his Druddigon from his grandfather (Drayden) to keep him safe when he runs off.

-Very quiet and introverted, a major contrast to his lively cousin Iris and battle focused father Emmet. However, he entirely inherited his dad’s patience and eerie calmness when he’s pissed.

-Knows a lot about trains, as he didn’t join in much while his cousins (Iris and Drayton) were busy training their pokémon and instead watched Emmet and Ingo work the subway. As he gets older, he entirely knows how to work and kickstart a train and it leads to him taking over the battle subway.

-Pangender (goes through an identity crisis to discover it) and uses he/him or mirror pronouns. He is aroace much like his uncle, Ingo, is. The two spend a lot of time bonding over it.

-Has draconic features like fangs, ability to growl, and hoarding habits. He personally collects art like posters, figurines, and so on; pretty much everything he buys as a collectible comes from craft/art fairs. (This is a headcanon developed from mysticarandomhorde.)

-He looks a lot like his mom according to people outside of the family (both his mom and Drayton’s mom were surrogates) and it leads to a decent amount of confusion with the public. Quite a few times as a kid, he would ask a pokémon center employee to call the Opelucid gym so he could get picked up and they’d refuse thinking he was a random kid looking to prank call the gym on their behalf.

-This idiot loves 'cringey' songs. Guys Don't Like Me by It Boys!, Just My Type by The Vamps, if you had a gacha phase, think those kinda songs. He also listens to Piers’ music and really hopes to visit Galar to meet him someday.

-He totally got the Crayola Air Marker Sprayer as a kid and did a ton of fake tattoos on himself, Drayton, Iris, and the rest of his cousins (the striation trio).

-He has major texture issues and will make it known if he doesn't like something. Hates pure cotton texture with a passion.

-He loves the idea of trying new things but is too anxious to try them. Typically this is food based and he's scared of ordering something that isn't 'safe' and wasting food + a meal he could've had.

-This idiot is allergic to fruit, specifically raw berries. The others are unable to stop him from destroying a fruit platter with some pinap berries, it’s his favorite.

-Has maladaptive daydreams pretty often. He has maladaptive daydreaming and innatentive audhd (autism + adhd).

-Gets a lot of good sleep but he’s a night owl, meaning he often stays up late and does not enjoy waking up early. He often looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks. Surprisingly even as a night owl, he doesn’t like caffeine much.

-Can not walk in a straight line unless he is focused on it or has something (like a line or one of those ledges around the parking lot trees) to keep him straight. Otherwise he's walking off to the side and bumping into someone or hitting the wall/stepping off the path.

-Has vocal dysphoria and loves to sing. This leads to a rule that if he starts singing, don’t mention it, or else he won’t sing for months out of embarrassment even if he enjoys singing.

-Wears more warm colors than his family often does. His favorite color is orange.

-His starter was his Scrafty. At the time he met it, it was a Scraggy, but it was prone to running off. One time he was wandering the city (no one noticed he ran off until Drayton called out the fact that he wasn’t back for dinner) and a Purrloin went to attack him. However, Scraggy jumped in and knocked it out. Sylas was found at a Pokémon center, crying and latched onto this very tame but anxious Scraggy who wouldn't leave Sylas' arms to get patched up from the fight. Since Emmet was busy at the subway, Drayden had to pick Sylas up and said no to keeping the Scraggy. However.. the thing was persistent and somehow found its way back to Sylas multiple times. For a while it was just a 'while I'm out of the house I can hang out with you' thing but after enough times with Sylas bringing it home and being extremely stubborn about keeping it: Drayden caved and let him. They are inseparable.

His family connections:

Drayden (Bio Grandfather), Emmet (Bio Father), Ingo (Bio Uncle), Drayton (Bio Cousin), Iris (Cousin), Elesa (Aunt), Cilan (Cousin), Cress (Cousin), and Chili (Cousin)

No mother’s side of the family, never met her or even seen what she looks like.

Iris and the Striation trio were adopted into the family when they were teenagers. Ingo adopted the trio after their bio dad died and their bio mom (who they weren’t close with) practically abandoned them with no preparations for a home or the gym/restaurant.

Iris was adopted by Drayden as his own kid on paper, but because her age was so close to Drayton and Sylas’ and she grew close to them, she considers herself their cousins and Drayden’s granddaughter.

Elesa was just brought in as an aunt with her being Ingo and Emmet’s bff and it’s essentially just the ‘my best friends had kids and they consider me an aunt’ kinda thing mixed with the ‘my best friend comes over so often she’s practically a part of the family’.

Sylas is a decent outlier in the family, not willingly having any dragon types (as Drayden gave him his only dragon type) and not caring at all for battling even in a family of gym leaders and major trainers. He’d rather pursue art than become a trainer and battle at the subway, even if he eventually caves when he’s older and takes over. [In my head, Drayton takes over the Opelucid gym and Iris remains champion.]

There was often a lot of stubbornness and expectations upon Sylas that he should atleast become a trainer of some sorts. This combined with his running away often lead to some fights between the adults; such as Emmet and Drayden arguing about his future. A core memory Sylas has from his childhood is sitting at the top of the stairs holding Scraggy and just listening to Drayden trying to convince Emmet to put Sylas into a training school and Emmet attempting to make Drayden see that Sylas doesn’t want that and if he wants to be a trainer he will be.

He goes through a lot of ‘I don’t fit in’ guilt with his family especially as a kid, seeing himself as the outlier of an artist in a house of trainers, but soon comes to realize that they never had any ill intent towards him and comes to enjoy battling to some degree after he takes over the subway. He keeps making graffiti however, making the subway into an artistic canvas.

#created nonsense #nonsense ocs #pokémon nonsense #special reblog

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sunshine-vx · 10 months ago

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Across Space, Time and Dreams (ASTaD) (Ch. 26- Part 3 of 3)

(Blankshippers DNI)

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

(Extra notes:)

(This chapter's illustration done by @moonlightalpha666 !)

(Reblogs are appreciated!)

"Precisely!" Mrs. Hagen stated.

"Well, while it would be a lie to say I'm not happy about this...what about you? And Alvis? What about any possible Pokémon family or friends?" As thrilled as Ingo was that Dyrsma wanted to be with him, he didn't just want to go down this track recklessly.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Dyrsma doesn't have any family, he was a stray egg given to us, and while he does have a couple of buddies, he hasn't had much of a chance to make any real good pals. He's only a few weeks old, after all!" Mrs. Hagen explained. "Dyrsma also mentioned a Litwick and Klink he began making friends with! I presume those are yours?"

Ingo nodded, smiling at the news that Dyrsma considered Litwick and Klink its friends.

Soon, Alvis returned with a Pokéball and some papers, and Mrs. Hagen continued.

"You all showed Dyrsma kindness and friendship, and that you're willing to take care of him, just like us here at the Daycare. Dyrsma has only developed a few attachments, and it seems his attachments to you and your Pokémon is the strongest among them!"

Ingo was taken aback, but in a good way. He smiled, laughing.

"Well, all I can say is I'm honored! I have indeed grown quite attached to Dyrsma, so I'm thrilled he feels the same way!"

Alvis handed the Pokéball to Ingo, placing some paperwork in front of him on the desk.

"This is Dyrsma's Pokéball! All you need to do is fill out this paperwork and you two will be good to go!"

Ingo took the Pokéball and held it, his eyes sparkling. He looked up at Dyrsma, who's eyes shined back.

"Well, Dyrsma, you're in for some interesting rides! Are you ready to go down these tracks with us?" Ingo voiced.

Dyrsma squealed and hopped off the desk, Ingo laughing and catching Dyrsma, moving him to one arm.

After making itself comfortable, Dyrsma yawned, reaching towards the Pokéball.

"Of course you can rest for now. And Dyrsma? Thank you for choosing this track. I couldn't be happier!" Ingo vocalized.

Dyrsma chirped happily, before Ingo gently tapped the Pokéball on Dyrsma's head. It didn't hesitate to go inside.

Ingo held the Pokéball with two hands and looked at it for a moment, before nodding and putting it in on his Pokébelt with his other two, who he could feel an excited aura from. They were certainly happy about their new friend!

A third partner Pokémon...bravo!

Ingo took a pencil from a cup on the desk and was more than happy to fill in the necessary paperwork.

When Ingo was done, Alvis took the papers, ready to take them to the back.

"Alvis, Mrs. Hagen?" Ingo spoke as he prepared to leave, "Thank you so, so much!"

Alvis and Mrs. Hagen smiled.

"Of course!"

After having left the Daycare, Ingo was easily able to catch the night train from Driftviel to Nimbasa City. Good, his last trip for today- his engines were running a bit low on fuel.

Ingo sat down among the many empty seats, before taking Dyrsma's Pokéball off from his Pokébelt and holding it in front of him.

"Dyrsma, you've got more new family and friends to meet soon! Is that okay? Are you excited?"

Dyrsma's Pokéball shook up and down in a fast motion. The answer was clear; 'Yes!'

"Excellent!" Ingo exclaimed "For now, you can keep taking your nap. You'll get to see your new home in just a little while!"

Dyrsma's Pokéball shook again in excitement and content. Ingo chuckled, reattaching Dyrsma's Pokéball to his Pokébelt.

Then, Ingo reached into his pocket and took out his phone. He eagerly dialed Emmet's number, putting the phone to his ear as he awaited an answer.

Emmet picked up rather quickly. "I am Emmet." He answered.

"Emmet! I'm on my way home, and guess what?" Ingo responded.

"Hi, Ingo! Good to know you will be home soon. You sound excited. Did something happen?" Emmet asked.

"Yes! Something happened, and I called you to tell you all about it!" Ingo replied, "Listen well, because-- well, most of it, anyways-- will make you say, 'bravo!'!"

Ingo blinked, tears rolling down his face as the rush of thoughts and emotions began to calm. He, as he always did, found himself returning to reality as his mind's showcase of the memory faded away and secured itself in its rightful place. Ingo wiped away his tears, although more- although smaller and less quick to appear- came after.

Haxorus was the first to take a step forward, its gaze gentle and caring. It, with caution, carefully nudged Ingo with its head, rumbling softly, as if to ask, “Are you okay? Did you remember?”

Chandelure floated just a bit closer, emitting a soft chiming noise, the warmth of her flames providing comfort.

After taking a moment or two to process everything, and to find his words, Ingo smiled up at Haxorus, offering the half of the Oran Berry it had given him.

“Here. Take this. You trust me, don't you? We're family.”

At that, Haxorus almost seemed as if it may cry itself, snuffling softly. The Axe Jaw Pokémon gently and gratefully took the Oran Berry from Ingo's palm with its mouth, savoring its taste. Ingo approached Haxorus further, Haxorus thinking the same thing Ingo was- the dragon reached out its tail and wrapped it around its trainer's back, pulling him in for an embrace. Ingo chuckled heartily and reached out his arms, giving Haxorus a big hug.

After some beats passed, Haxorus chirped quietly, the tip of its tail waving towards Chandelure, who let off a soft, happy aura, having remained quiet.

Ingo used his head to turn towards Chandelure and gesture to her in an invitation towards her to join them along with Haxorus.

Chandelure's flames crackled softly, and she gratefully approached, wrapping both the gentle dragon and her beloved trainer in a group embrace with her appendages.

After about a minute or so, the two Pokémon and their trainer slowly stepped back from the affectionate gesture. Ingo could feel the grateful, happy auras coming from the two Pokémon, Haxorus’ the strongest. Ingo felt an intense happiness and relief in his own heart, along with his mind.

“Thank you. Haxorus. For leading me here, for helping me- for believing in me. Everything I did was worth meeting you and more- I'm so grateful you decided to stick by my side. Bravo, Haxorus!”

Ingo turned to Chandelure,

“And Chandelure? Thank you for always being such a good help. You've led us down our tracks from the very beginning. You are an excellent partner.”

Ingo felt himself tearing up again, wiping away the tears.

“I love you guys.”

Haxorus chirped and rumbled happily, nuzzling its head against Ingo's shoulder. Ingo returned the favor by reaching out and gently scratching Haxorus’ belly.

Chandelure flames brightened, providing its warmth and familiar light.

A beat later, Haxorus took a step back, Ingo taking a deep breath. Then, he spoke,

“I suppose it's about time we return back to the others, no?”

Haxorus snuffled, Chandelure whistling, their sounds soft and content. Ingo nodded, glad that his beloved partner Pokémon agreed. He took in another breath, lifting his shoulders and eyeing the path back outside.

“Alright, then! All aboard! Back down these tracks we go!”

Ingo, Haxorus and Chandelure steadily made their way back out of Mistralton Cave, walking a few more yards until the clearing they had set up camp in came into sight. Alvis was sitting down on the soft grass next to the sleeping bag, doing some paperwork, presumably for the Daycare. Meanwhile, the Pokémon that hadn't entered Mistralton cave were either resting, playing, taking a small look around, or something of the like.

Ingo waved his arm in the air, shouting out towards the others, Haxorus chirping and Chandelure chiming.

“Hello, everyone! We're back!” Ingo announced.

The attention of Alvis and the Pokémon immediately snapped towards Ingo, Haxorus and Chandelure. They all seemed glad and excited that they had returned.

“How was it? Did you succeed in what you wanted?” Alvis inquired. The other Pokémon seemed curious about this too, chattering amongst themselves and occasionally towards Ingo, Haxorus, and Chandelure. Klinklang was the most forward in its curiosity, levatitating towards Ingo and making a series of clunking noises. It seemed hopeful, as did the rest.

Ingo nodded, chuckling happily, “Indeed, we did! It was quite the revelation. If I'm being honest, I'm still processing it a bit, but….I know that memory is back where it belongs.”

Ingo glanced at Klinklang, reaching out to pat it gently.

“And Klinklang? Bravo, excellent! Thank you for your help back then when we first found Haxorus, in that battle….we couldn't have done it without you.”

Klinklang's lower gear began to spin even faster in a sign of joy, the Pokémon emitting a pleased buzzing noise.

The other Pokémon celebrated as well, Alvis nodding gladly and smiling.

“That's great, Ingo!”

Ingo stepped towards Alvis and met the other man's gaze.

“Alvis- I want to thank you. You've helped me so much today, and in the past- multiple times, too. Thank you for everything you've done. I, and Haxorus, wouldn't be where we are today without you.”

Alvis’ gentle grin widened, and he felt a twinge of gratitude and warmth in his chest. He was thankful he could help Ingo.

“Of course! I'm a family friend, after all.”

Haxorus shared Ingo's sentiment, slowly and carefully approaching the man. Its eyes shined gratefully, and it used its tail to pat Alvis on the head.

Alvis’ eyes widened, but he laughed brightly.

“You're welcome, too, Haxorus- it's my pleasure.”

Ingo smiled, his eyes glimmering, acknowledging Alvis’ words, happy to hear them, and happy to see the short but sweet interaction between Haxorus and Alvis.

Haxorus drew back its tail, and after some more words and gestures were exchanged, it was clear this mission was coming to a close. Still, the group had quite a bit they could do with the time they had left.

As they all settled back down, Alvis continued his paperwork and the Pokémon chattered amongst themselves. Then, Ingo clasped his hands together and announced, his voice loud and clear,

“Okay, everyone! We're going to stay here for a few more hours! So let's have some fun!”

Alvis laughed softly to himself, the Pokémon letting out noises of agreement and eagerness.

“Bravo, excellent!” Ingo exclaimed, feeling gleeful and fulfilled.

One of the activities Ingo decided to do was go over some of the details he had remembered in his memory, and see if it held up today.

Ingo, with Haxorus at his side, explored the area- taking a look at trees, seeing how the other Axew, Fraxure and Haxorus living in and around the cave would mark their territory by carving marks on the trees with their tusks. The newest carvings appeared to be from this morning.

Ingo smiled as he recalled that Haxorus would often carve similar marks in the few trees that grew in their home's front yard- he had spotted such marks when he had initially returned to the house in Unova.

“I'm glad you feel at home at our house, Haxorus! That is excellent to know!” Ingo voiced.

Haxorus rumbled happily, making a deep sound that almost seemed akin to a laugh. Perhaps as if to say- “Well of course I feel at home, silly.”

Ingo laughed gleefully and nodded in acknowledgment, before thinking of what they should do next.

As the hours passed, one by one, the Pokémon had tuckered themselves out, being returned to their Pokéballs for proper rest. Thankfully, they seemed content and fulfilled, the day out having been fun for them- and it was fun for Ingo- as well as Alvis, even if he mostly just did paperwork- too.

By then, the sun was lowering on the west side of the sky. It wasn't a sunset quite yet, but Ingo and Alvis agreed that getting a head start on their way back would be a good idea. At this point, the only Pokémon that remained out of its Pokéball was Haxorus.

Ingo rolled the sleeping bag back up, carefully stuffing it in the camping backpack and zipping it closed. After the trainer tossed the backpack over his shoulders, he turned to Haxorus- who was standing contentedly right to his side- and gave it some good belly scratches.

“Haxorus, would you like to return to your Pokéball to rest?”

Despite definitely feeling a bit tired, Haxorus shook its head, chirping softly. It wanted to take the route home with Ingo- it felt right to do so.

Ingo nodded, happy to let Haxorus continue to stay out of its Pokéball if it so wished, “Alright, then! Just let me know if you want to go inside your Pokéball, alright?”

Ingo gave Haxorus one last belly rub, the Axe Jaw Pokémon snuffling gently, before turning to Alvis and exchanging a knowing nod.

Ingo readjusted his hat, before taking that same stance as he always did, pointing down the dirt path they had come from.

“All aboard to our tracks back home!”

Soon, Ingo, Alvis and Haxorus entered Driftviel city, making their way towards the Daycare. It didn't take long to arrive there, and Mrs. Hagen was waiting outside.

Mrs. Hagen spotted the group approaching her, and her face lit up, lifting her hand in a gentle wave.

“Welcome back, Alvis! Ingo, Dyrsma! Did you all have a good day? Did Ingo here get his memory back?” Mrs. Hagen questioned eagerly.

Alvis smiled, glad to know his mother was so happy to see them return.

“Yes, we did have fun!” He spoke.

“I did retrieve my memory! Alvis was a big help!” Ingo added.

Haxorus chirped, sharing Alvis and Ingo's sentiments.

Alvis turned and gave Ingo and Haxorus a wide smile, before stepping towards Mrs. Hagen's side.

Ingo still had a bit to say though. He took a step towards Mrs. Hagen.

“And Mrs. Hagen? Thank you. You've helped myself and Haxorus multiple times throughout the years- even today. Because of that, we've found an excellent track, and I regained my memory as we hoped I would. I couldn't be more grateful.”

Ingo dipped his head in a gesture showing his gratitude.

Haxorus rumbled softly, its tail swishing back and forth, its eyes big and bright, as it showed its own thankfulness.

“Oh, it's never been a problem, my dear!” Mrs. Hagen replied, her grin still wide, “We're always happy to help!”

Mrs. Hagen put on a bit of a baby-voice as she met Haxorus’ gaze,

“And that includes you, of course, dear Dyrsma.”

Alvis smiled as he watched the scene, and Ingo did, too. It filled their hearts with joy.

After a few more words were exchanged, it was decided that it was time to go. Ingo dipped his hat once more, Haxorus chirping brightly.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Hagen, Alvis! Remember your safety checks, and have a wonderful evening!” Ingo said as he and Haxorus walked down the concrete path, waving, Haxorus using its tail to do a similar motion, Alvis and Mrs. Hagen waving in return.

Soon, the Daycare disappeared from sight, and after a little while longer, a train station appeared over the horizon, Ingo feeling a warmth in his heart. He'd be returning home, and would be able to tell the others all about the day's events.

Once they neared the station, Ingo stopped in his tracks, Haxorus doing the same as it noticed its trainer having done so.

“Haxorus, you'll have to get into your Pokéball for the train ride, I'm afraid. Besides, I'm sure you're quite in need of a nap by now, yes?” Ingo spoke.

Haxorus paused for a moment, before its tail wagged slowly, and it moved its head in what seemed to be a slow nodding motion. Indeed, it was due for a nap.

“Don't worry, you'll be more than free to come back out when we get home, of course!” Ingo added, and Haxorus rumbled contentedly.

With that, Ingo took the Axe Jaw Pokémon's Pokéball off of his belt, taking it and gently tapping Haxorus’ head with the device. Haxorus formed into a red light as it returned to its Pokéball, ready to rest for a while.

Ingo hummed to himself as he reattached the Pokéball back to his belt, readjusting the straps of the backpack he was still carrying.

Ingo made his way into the station, entering the train that would take him to Nimbasa city. The train was quite empty tonight, and Ingo sat amongst the rows of available seats, setting the backpack down on the seat beside him.

Ingo inhaled slowly, before letting out that same breath. He also felt a bit worn, but he knew today wasn't quite over, and he was more than okay with that. He'd be able to recover some of his energy on the train, he was sure.

After a moment of quiet, Ingo's phone began to ring. It buzzed loudly in his coat pocket.

The trainer reached into his coat and took out his phone, seeing that it was Emmet that was calling him. Smiling softly, he answered the call and put the device to his ear.

“Hello, Emmet!” Ingo began.

“I am Emmet! Hi, Ingo! Are you on your way home yet?” Emmet inquired.

“Yes, I am! I just got onto the train, in fact!”

“How was it? You regained the memory, correct?”

“I did! It was excellent! Bravo, indeed, brother!”

The twins continued to converse, and Ingo felt Haxorus’ ball shake slightly, a happy aura radiating from it. Ingo smiled.

“Hey, Emmet? Can you take out that picture album? I'd like to take a look at it once I get home!”

“Yup! Sure thing!”

The train rumbled to life, and with that, the ride to Nimbasa City began.

Chapter 26 (Part 2 of 3)

Chapter 27 (Work In Progress!)

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daylight-404 · 1 year ago

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☀️list of all of my blogs because I decided cress was my main one for some strange reason—

1. this one, of course! usual cress shenanigans.

2. @badlydrawnweedshipping — a blog of bad drawings by black and blue Cheren with frequent references to weedshipping (blk&blu cher/cilan). warnings for alc*hol, dr*gs, addiction.

3. @icebound-cheren — blog for an au version of Cheren where he was semi-possessed by Kyurem and became a kind of ‘vessel’ for the ice dragon.

4. @rival-cheren — blog for cheren mid-black and white story, based on a mix between his in game self and the adventures version of himself.

5. @lumios-bolts — CLEMONT. no further explanation required.

6. @tyria-bvg — bug-type trainer oc named Tyria, who’s planned to take Burgh’s place as the Castelia gym leader once he steps down.

7. @amnesiac-warden — PLA Ingo but sent back to present day. (ft. Bugtrainshipping)

8. @viridians-yellow — the healerrrrrrrr.

9. @mariella-rockets — Team GO Rocket oc named Mariella (design based off of Mary - Alex G)

10. @human-plasma — nameless team plasma oc that was essentially given the middle finger by the lake trio and then given over to Ghetsis.

11. @sacrimora-champ — blog for the champion of my fakemon region that I made up in my mind.

12. @mischeif-in-nimbasa — blog for a weird looking snivy causing mischief and mayhem in nimbasa city

13. @hizuuumi-imuuuzih — blog based on my current PLA playthrough but instead of the regular player it’s a baby giratina pretending to be human (possibly to mess with volo)

14. @opalescentpurple — Opal.

15. @palossand-archival — blog for a pokemon natural history archival, mainly featuring xyla but may occasionally include mentions of her faller son that has no clue what’s going on

16. (placeholder placement for Cinnamon and Ambrose)

17. @bldorng-vriesea — blog for a Giacomo sibling oc! Smug bastard (affectionate)

18. @fiery-star-defense — blog for Mela!!

19. @sky-prof-v — blog for my team sky oc.

20. @rotten-applin-core — self oc blog where a plot is semi-present but not the main focus of the blog. (plot has not been initiated yet!)

21. @chili-striaton — SOMEONE had to do it okay chat.

22. @hoenn-league-directs — Hoenn league inquiry blog run by league Director oc, Octantis

23. @no-1-cacturne-stan — Harley. I hate him.

24. @trubbish-devotion — Post-SWSH Oleana, following primarily her canon personality but placing in some headcanon to fill in gaps.

25. @unovas-living-history — group of ancestors blog, likely to get immediately flipped but. yea!!

YES, about half of these don’t have a first post yet but that is because I’m not sure what to post there or keep forgetting it’ll happen eventually I swear

#ooc #ooc post

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kharmii · 6 months ago

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Caption: 01 Appearances in Nimbasa.

Emmet: I am one of the....the only Boss of the Nimbasa City Metro Battle.

Two years has passed since my brother disappeared in that strange glow. During this time I have tried to keep going and keep the Battle Metro going as he would have wished.

(Two solosis trilling)

Emmet: But that is not enough. No matter what route you decide to take, I cannot move forward, not until I know what happened.

In my search, I found all sorts of mysteries, legends and incidents, but only one similar case, in the Sinnoh Region.

That time he took a girl whose family, like me, is still looking for answers.

Both cases start from a strange glow that simply fades away.

But every light produces shadows, and those shadows have been plastered in the Metro Station.

Distorted silhouettes that were there the day Ingo disappeared.

And today they reappear to make fun of those of us who were left behind.

I believe those shadows are the route to follow to reach my destination.

*gasp*Ingo, no matter how much it costs me, I will find you and I will bring you HOME!

Emmet: *crashes into mysterious stranger* What the- ouch...

I am Emmet the Subway Boss. I apologize. Running inside the station is prohibited. My mistake. The security protocol is strict for a reason.

Parte 1

#subway bosses #submas #ingo #emmet #volo #akari #solosis #celebi #nihilego #eternus #submas angst #black and white #i am emmet #trainwreckshipping

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jumpingjoltiks · 11 months ago

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I just got a new cat! Could you please write something about the submas twins partner getting new pokemon & how theyd react? (and maybe something with sugar daddy submas too if thats okay?)

Oh wow that’s so exciting! Congrats on your new kitty friend!! ≽^•⩊•^≼

Warnings: None. Just fluff :)

▲ Ingo ▲

Absolutely thrilled for you! Bravo!

Have you caught them already? He would like to meet them sometime (Or see pictures. Or battle. Please battle with him!)

You haven’t caught them yet… Would you like some help going to catch them? He’d be happy to brave the tall grass and go along with you!

Ingo packs up plenty of supplies & a picnic lunch and makes it a fun date with you.

You go out in the morning, searching high and low for the perfect partner. For a city guy, he knows the wilds really well. By noon, you’ve found them, and you and Ingo both spend lunch getting to know your new friend.

By the time you three head back in the evening, you’re all worn out, and collapse into a cuddly nap pile.

▽ Emmet ▽

Verrry excited to hear you’re expanding your team! This means new double battle pairings in the future.

Immediately starts considering how to best incorporate them into your living situation.

How big are they and do they evolve? How much space will they need, both for living and enrichment?

Don’t let the sunny smile fool you. Emmet is very much the practical twin.

Once your new teammate has been caught, he sets up a day for his team to meet with yours for introductions.

He can’t help but be a little nervous. When he and his brother were young, it took joltik nearly two months to stop being terrified of lampent. Ever since then, he’s been very mindful about how best to introduce new members to old ones.

When everything goes even better than expected, he breathes a sigh of relief… Welcome to the team!

▲ Both ▽

Scheming

Did you forget they were battle facility heads? They are running the numbers almost immediately.

Stats. Ideal EVs / IVs. Movesets and eggmoves. Abilities. Natures. Strategies. Held items. Team composition. How to counter you in battle. How to incorporate and work as a team with you.

Have you already considered all of this? By all means, lay out your plans and they will happily make suggestions and comments on everything. And I mean everything! Prepare yourself for at least an hour of going over every detail.

Some considerations are naturally moot if you’ve already caught them yourself (and they’d still happily welcome your new friend into the throng, no doubt!), but if you’re looking for a teammate that’s also been bred to be better for battle… they both have connections and can help you out.

Their own pokemon are also very excited to meet their new friend, but they’ll have to wait and do it properly. They both have fully stacked teams – it might be a little overwhelming if everyone goes at once!

Heaven help you if you get a team member that’s already on one of their teams. They’re practically scrambling over themselves to help in all the ways they know how.

▲ Sugar Daddy!Submas ▽

In addition to all of the above, they are putting together a welcome package for your new team member!

Fun toys, specially made treats, accessories and special items that are made for them, and so on

They present a handful of options for apartment additions or renovations – for a cat pokémon, cat trees or climbing shelves and perches – and let you choose your preference. It will be delivered and installed within the week, preferably while you’re out of the apartment and on a date with them.

They take very good care of their own teams, so they have a lot of experience with choosing special toys and items for ‘mon enrichment!

Send them pictures with your new friend! Whether it’s them snuggled up under some super soft blankets, playing with a new toy, or even wrestling or napping with one of your original teammates, they always want to hear from you.

#ingo #ingo x reader #submas ingo x reader #emmet #emmet x reader #submas emmet x reader #submas x reader #x reader #sugar daddy submas #my writing

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ultimate-submas-tournament · 2 years ago

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AUs in the running!

(Not in bracket order) (Going to be slowly updated over time as I send out more messages and get more responses)

But first! The tagging system!

🐶 Ingo or Emmet are something non human (like a cretur, ghost, pokemon or some other non human thing)

🔥 This AU features intense emotions that may not be suitable for people who are looking for a more easy going experience (sometimes people can’t handle strong angst or horror- and that’s totally okay! This tag is to show that this AU may not be for them)

📚 This AU has a comic or fic you can read! (Purely organizational tag)

Every AU is tagged by the author according to what they think is best. Use these tags as guidelines when looking for new AUs and not as hard and fast rules.

And now… The AUs!

1) 🐶🔥📚Submas FaeU (Faerie AU) by @blueisquitetired

2) 🔥📚 Submas Conjoined AU by @ingo-ingoing-ingone

3) TRAIN OF THOUGHT AU by @waywardstation

4) 🐶 Ghost Worm Au by @blaiddraws

5) 🐶🔥📚Placeholder AU by @blaiddraws

6)🔥📚Heroes and Villains AU by @the-digital-pen and @ace-trainguys

7) 🔥 📚DAD INGO au by @a-stone-slab

8) 📚The Human Illusion AU by @raisans-art

9) 🔥📚Foxfall AU by @aenor-llelo

10) 🐶🔥📚Zoroark possession AU by @ghostypetrainer

11) 🔥📚 Reincarnation AU by @ghostypetrainer

12) 🐶🔥Magnus archives au by @jester-writing

13) 🐶📚Legendary Hosts AU by @toriistorii

14) 📚Typed Humans AU by @toriistorii

15) 🔥 Clean Slate AU by @kurixta

16) 🔥📚 Ticket for Four AU by @ticket-for-four

17) 🐶🔥📚Misfits AU by @hehe-hoho-ohno

18) 🐶🔥📚Steven Universe Submas au by @squidthesquidd

19) 🐶Liminal Station AU (aka ENA AU) by @liminal-station

20) System!Emmet AU by @fighter-spirits

21) 🐶🔥📚Team Conductors: PMD AU by @teamconductors

22) 📚Fractured Memories in the Wild AU (Breath of the Wild AU) by @krakengoggles

23) 🔥📚Under the City Streets AU (Over the Garden Wall AU) by @coramatus

24) 🔥📚The Issue With Stealing? You could lose your arm AU by @spacenewzwastaken

25) 🐶🔥Gargoyles crossover au by @regular-samdragon

26) Legends: Kyurem AU by @pixelga1axy

27) 🐶📚TMI AU by @drag0n0fbutt3r

28) 🐶🔥📚Risk of Rain 2 crossover AU by @fourphoenixfeathers

29) 🔥📚Ei AU by @fourphoenixfeathers

30) 🐶🔥📚Pokemon Aspects Au by @patriamrealm

31) 🐶🔥📚Emmet's PMD Adventure AU by @fandom-soda-writings

32) 📚Cowboy Submas AU by @caramel-caracal

33) 🔥WELCOME HOME SUBMAS AU by @crowfonder

34) 🐶Mechanical Errors AU by @marchy-emmet

35) 🐶🔥📚Fractured Sky AU by @inkinary

36) 🔥MC Ingo AU by @peacheenie

37) 🐶🔥📚Ultrabeast!Emmet AU by @papier-ciseaux

38) 🐶🔥📚Masking AU by @entity9silvergen

39) 🐶🔥Submas Animated for Terror AU by @shadowfear-art

40) 📚Twin Princes AU by @aur0raaura

41) 🐶📚Transfer Error AU by @rosebloodcat

42) 📚Breakmas Au (Aka Team Break Submas AU) by @choochooboss

43) 🐶Submas plushies AU by @choochooboss

44) 🔥📚BotW: Trainmen Edition au by @thesilentgothitelle

45) 🐶🔥📚Veritas Detective AU by @wormhole2anywhere

46) Lost in distortion AU by @celebeatz

47) 🔥📚Injury Share AU by @waters-turn

48) 🔥📚The Black Coat AU by RyleeSheep

49) 🐶📚TW: Table by @raynavan

#submas #subway master ingo #subway master emmet #subway bosses #submas au

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1863-project · 2 years ago

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sorry if youve answered this before, i searched but didnt find anything. but i see a lot of submas stuff with the bosses having offices and doing desk work, meetings, even needing suitcases! how much of that do you think a subway boss would have, and what sort of office work? or would that go to other employees?

asking you both as someone who works/ed with trains and as a pokemon fan with ideas on how post-league battle facilities (and the battle subway in particular) are run?

Hi, anon, I'll do the best I can!

A preface: I'm actually an archivist who works in a public library. Train stuff is a hobby of mine that I'm looking to really do more of because it's been a lifelong thing for me and we now know I'm capable of operating a steam locomotive decently well so I should be allowed to do it.

In terms of paperwork, there's likely stuff you'd have to do for a battle facility - things like setting it up as either a business or a non-profit, covering your legal bases and liability things, defining rules, etc. Once that's all done and you've got your battle facility up and running, though, day to day paperwork probably wouldn't be too bad unless you had to sign off on things.

The paperwork, I suspect, has a lot more to do with their other job, which is essentially running the Pokemon equivalent of the New York City MTA. In that situation, they'd likely be working more like stationmasters.

(Pictured here is the entrance to the Grand Central Terminal stationmaster's office. It's close to the track the 20th Century Limited used to leave from.)

Generally, a stationmaster at a large station or in charge of a lot of employees would be doing the following:

Managing the employees, their salaries, their schedules, etc.

Managing public relations, including social media in the modern day unless a staff member was assigned to that (please let it be Furze, railfans love Furze)

Keeping logs - day to day schedules, any incidents that arise, etc.

In their case, since they're in charge overall, Ingo and Emmet are likely the go-tos for emergencies, like bad weather causing issues for above-ground lines, flooding from rain, etc. If you want a good example of this, look up what Hurricane Sandy did to our subway system. It...it wasn't good. Since they're also more or less in charge of the entire subway arm of the Unovan MTA, they'd likely have to go to meetings with board members, and they would probably also be the ones running the employee union since they're working on the trains like everyone else.

Presumably, they'd likely both be FRA certified to drive the trains, because we've seen them talking about driving (and actually driving in the anime), so they're qualified both as conductors and motormen (engineers). Usually we see them working either in the stationmaster's office or as conductors, but we know they can drive, too.

So...let's just hope they have vacation days. Because they'll need 'em.

#replies #Pokemon #Submas

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allaboardsubmas · 8 months ago

Text

A Spark of Something New - Chapter 7 (Title Formerly: Bound by Choice)

A/N: So to those curious "Bound by Choice" was a title I came up with at 3am just to name the Google Document. I decided to put in a little more effort! (Also, the chapters now have titles of their own!)

Fandom: Pokemon (Black & White, All Media Types, Legends: Arceus)

Characters: Original Character, Kudari | Emmet, Nobori | Ingo

Rating: Teen Audiences

AO3 Link: Bound by Choice

Chapters 8 Immediately Available on Patreon

—

If you enjoy this story then check out my Writing Commissions.

…or, if you prefer, you can just buy me a ko-fi! ☕ …or, if you have a nice allowance, support me on Patreon! 🪶

—

Chapter 7 - Andy Runs Into The Brothers (Again)

Letting out a massive breath as she slumped back into her chair, Andy looked away from her work computer and instead to where her not quite so new friend was charging her xtrans for her. “Well, little buddy, we did it. We survived the work week.” Andy reached down to give Joltik a few pets, laughing at how he arched into them. “Maybe I should just call you my little outlet at this point.”

Already within the week Andy had found her life changing drastically since accepting the Joltik as her own. First, her xtrans had yet to die, not with her new ‘outlet’ always keeping it fully charged with the stores of electricity he siphoned from batteries and the outlets at work when Andy ‘wasn’t looking.’ Second, she was certainly never lonely.

The little guy refused to go into his pokeball, to the point the last time Andy had tried to put him in there he had broken out to the amusement of everyone on the train. She had given up after that. It ended up being helpful since her Joltik knew like clockwork when it was time for her to stand up, take a break, or even eat. He was probably the only reason she had eaten today, nipping and playing with her fingers when she tried to ignore her alarms and sparking up a storm until she agreed to eat something for herself rather than just feeding him to distract him. It was… Well. It was the opposite of everything her mother had ever told her when it came to pokemon and what it was they could do.

“Andy! It seems every Friday I find you here late enough to be part of the night shift!” Ah. Anthony. Her own eternal torment in human form. And here she thought she would need to fear pokemon as her final end. “That energy you have is just something else. Wish I had it!” Oh, here they went again.

Andy nodded along and feigned interest as Anthony kept talking, not seeming to notice Andy shutting down her computer, gathering up all her cords and USBs, and nudging Joltik onto her shoulders- Actually, that one he noticed. “-pokemon of all things! We didn’t think you’d ever get one.”

“Ah. Yeah. He was a little bit of a surprise.” That was another thing that had changed with the addition of her Joltik. It seemed everyone was curious about him, especially since Andy had always been the only one in the office to not have a pokemon. The cons of working at a place that dealt with nonstop information about pokemon. “Well, Anthony, I should probably-”

“Oh, that reminds me!” Damn. She had been so close. “A few of us are making plans to get together over the weekend and visit a couple bars around Nimbasa. Now, I know you’re pretty young and all, but we wanted to extend the invitation…” Oh. Oh, no. Social obligations.

“Oh- Oh! That’s, uh, that’s really sweet, Anthony, but…” Excuse. She needed an excuse. She needed to find an excuse right that second- Her Joltik whined loudly, shivering sharply on her shoulders and making a weak wheezing noise. “Joltik is sick! He’s been feeling under the weather all day and I really need to take him to the Pokecenter and if it’s something too bad I don’t want to leave him on his own all weekend, you know?”

“Of course! Pokemon health comes first,” Anthony nodded seriously, Joltik wheezing again and Andy gathering up the rest of her things. “Maybe another time?”

“Definitely, but for now I should get this little guy seen. Bye, Anthony!” Quickly rushing to the locker rooms, and feeling a spark of fear, Andy looked over to see that her Joltik was bouncing and chirping and no longer shivering and oh- Oh! “Did you just feign being sick so I could escape?”

Andy dropped her cords onto a bench, scooped up Joltik into her hands, and placed a loud kiss on top of his head. “I love you. You are the best pokemon to ever exist in this world.” The squeaking reached levels loud enough to echo off the walls, Andy not even caring and giving him another kiss to the top of his head because he had even reigned in his sparks to make sure not to hurt her and he was so delightfully soft and fuzzy. “You are getting so many batteries when we get home little buddy.”

Slinging off her lab coat and clip-on tie into her locker, Andy grabbed her fluffy yellow shawl and wiggled it on, snorting when Joltik jumped up to latch onto it. “At least I have the colors needed to go for an electric theme on my fem days, huh?” Joltik gave a little spark of agreement, Andy thanking her sister once again for sending her a shawl made of treated Wooloo wool that didn’t collect static electricity. It was the only thing saving her at that moment.

“Alright, little buddy, let’s get out of here.” Slinging her bag around her shoulders, Andy made for the gauntlet of elevators once again, feeling much less dizzy and exhausted than she had last time she had stayed hours late to get a batch of work done. Who knew that eating throughout the day really helped? Now if only she could learn to say no when her co-workers asked her to finish up their portion of work… Maybe-

Houndoom. Barking. Andy sucked in a breath and then watched as Joltik jumped off of her and onto the floor, chittering loudly and giving off an array of sparks that had the Houndoom slinking away, a few grumbling noises leaving as he laid down and tucked his head across his paws. The guard — and Andy was right, his name was Rupert — laughed.

“Wow. That’s the quickest I’ve ever seen him settle! You know, if you ever want a battle…” Ah. Shit. That was another thing that had changed. Everyone wanted to battle now.

“Maybe not this late at night,” Andy joked, making sure Joltik had scuttled back up onto her shawl — she really was getting way too used to him climbing her — before heading for the door. “Good night!”

Getting out into the street, Andy immediately bathed Joltik in scritches and scratches, cooing at him, “Good job, buddy, you terrified that big mean Houndoom in there.” And had made Andy feel foolishly better at seeing such a little bug stand up to the giant thing. “Ahh… maybe I should register you as an emotional support pokemon. Make everyone stop asking for battles in the battle capital of the region!”

Clamping her mouth shut at realizing she was yelling randomly in public, Andy looked around quickly, pleased that no one was staring at her for her outburst, but, well. It was Nimbasa. They had seen weirder. Putting Joltik back onto her shoulder, Andy sighed and started walking the familiar path towards Gear Station.

“Tell you what, buddy, I wish I had gone to Castelia City like I thought this job was based in. But no. That’s where headquarters is. Instead we’re here in Nimbasa because it allows for quicker data dump transfers between regions with the way the network is set up!” Andy was pretty certain her Joltik understood nothing of what she was saying, but he was a good listener and engaging with his little chirps and squeaks so it didn’t feel like she was alone in a huge city at night. She really needed to start saying no to her co-workers on Fridays.

“Next time we say no,” Andy said firmly, breathing in time with the way her Joltik moved from shoulder to shoulder methodically, scuttling around like a metronome that was keeping her sane and distracted from everything else rushing by around her. “Especially with it starting to get so close to winter and it getting dark so late.” Andy was terrified of pokemon, but she was scared of a lot of other things in general. Walking alone in a huge city at night when she grew up in a small little town was one of them.

At least she had company, now. It made it easier to focus on her breathing to try and keep it even as she rushed down the stairs into Gear Station, eyes trained for the signs and departing times because she was not boarding the wrong train this time. If she did then she had a feeling those twins would find her again and that white one, Emmet, would be a bastard about it.

Unfortunately, focusing all of her attention on the signs meant she didn’t focus on what, or who, was in front of her. It was definitely her fault when she ran into someone hard enough to almost send them both to the ground, the two scrambling to catch themselves and Andy already spitting out apologies before she felt a hand fist around her shawl and jerk her forward hard enough for her to lose her breath, “Hey! What’s the big fucking idea!” Oh. Oh no. “The fuck I do to you, huh?!”

“N- No-” Andy tried to explain, because she definitely hadn’t meant to start anything, and now someone was holding her in place by her shawl, which was really more of a cardigan type of jacket thing that wasn’t really easy to slip out of since it went over her head instead of buttoning up, and that was definitely the wrong thing to be focusing on when she still hadn’t said anything, and she heard the guy still yelling as she was pushed backwards and her back hit a wall.

“Nothing, right! So you’re just going to be like everyone fucking else and start some shit just because you can, huh?!” The man was yelling loud enough for her ears to ring, but no one else seemed to hear. It was just them. It was just her crouched up against a wall with her mother’s voice ringing out I told you so as she tried to explain and couldn’t even form a single word-

Sparking.

Eyes snapping to the side to see her shoulder, she saw her Joltik was starting to spark and Andy felt her heart plummet down to her stomach fast enough to make her sick as she hissed out a frantic, “No-!” The man didn’t seem to hear her, still yelling in her face, but Andy could only focus on one thing at a time, and pokemon weren’t allowed to attack humans. If her Joltik attacked him then he could be taken from her, and she couldn’t- Enough people had already left her.

Andy grunted in surprise as she felt the fist holding her shawl give a rough shake, her attention snapping back to the man. “What? You too good to talk to someone like me? That’s it, huh? Just because I look a certain way it’s okay to just push me around, huh?!” The man, who looked like an absolute wreck and was wearing a very cliche leather jacket, sounded like he was as close to crying as Andy felt. He also didn’t notice Andy’s Joltik jumping to the floor and running off and okay- Okay. That was good. Maybe he would find Emmet and at least be taken care of. That was something. “Just like everyone else!”

Oh. Oh, for- Andy was being accosted by someone with self-worth issues because she bumped into him too hard? Opening her mouth to try and at least explain, and maybe not throw up from stress because she wasn’t all that tall and this guy was and she was having a heart attack- “Well, if it’s a battle you want, I’ll be happy to give you one!”

Whatever amusement or sympathy Andy had fled. Instead she froze, head swimming and feeling disconnected from her body as she watched the man grab a pokeball from his belt, raising his hand into the air. His other hand still had her pinned. She could barely even think, let alone try to break his grip, and if a pokemon was released right here in front of her she couldn’t do anything not even run and-

She froze.

So did the man.

They both froze because directly above them was the sound of a large creature screeching. Andy barely even realized she was let go, the man stumbling away from her and allowing her to look up even as she tried to stop herself.

Above her head was a large, angry Galvantula, clinging to the wall and not even a foot away from touching the top of her head. Andy was almost certain she would be screaming if she had the breath for it, listening to it hiss and spit as hairs rose along it’s body, sparks arcing across it and poison seeming to coat it’s pedipalps. A wild thought flew through her head that she at least knew the anatomy of what was about to kill her.

Before she could even collapse or scream or whatever else her fear response told her to do, she looked at the Galvantula’s head. There, nestled in the fur, was an angrily sparking Joltik. A shiny Joltik- Her shiny Joltik. Apparently he hadn’t been leaving her. He had been getting reinforcements.

Andy couldn’t stop her weak, choked wheeze of a laugh, whispering a soft, “Good job, buddy.” up towards the little guy. Her amusement quickly fled when her attention snapped to movement in front of her, the guy now looking even angrier as he raised his pokeball.

“Fucking bugs. I’ll squash all of ya-!” Slamming her eyes shut, Andy hunched over and hugged herself tightly, mentally apologizing to Lenora for no doubt being put in charge of her funeral.

Before she could get too far in planning on her ghostly hijinks, however, she heard a much louder, angrier voicer. “That is quite enough.”

Her eyes snapping open, Andy saw an enraged frown and a hand gripping the man’s wrist tightly to prevent him from throwing his pokeball. Her vision was then blocked by a white coat, Andy slumping against the wall and closing her eyes again and okay. Okay. No ghostly hijinks yet, then. It didn’t seem likely she’d die when the Subway Bosses were between her and any and all possible danger.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t just… mentally shut down for a few moments. Maybe minutes. She just needed a little bit of time to remember how to breathe- Someone was gently nudging her back. Light enough to barely feel it, but enough to get her to take a step forward. The sensation repeated and walking. The sensation wanted her to walk. She could do that. Walking was something she had experience in.

She really must have had a full mental shutdown because the next thing she was really aware of she was sitting on a train, Ingo and Emmet on either side of her, and her Joltik in her hands and looking up at her while squeaking before giving one of those loud chirps that definitely should not come from a body that small.

Unable to help herself, Andy echoed it back quietly, smiling a little at the answering chirp before jumping at the quiet laugh from one of the boys.

Before she could say anything, it was Emmet to speak, stating a blunt, “You are causing a lot of trouble.” Andy saw Ingo frown directly at Emmet, but all she could do was stare at Emmet for a long moment before giving a weak, startled laugh.

“I’m not sure if you’d believe me that I usually try to stay out of trouble,” Andy managed to reply, feeling her heart finally start to resume a normal rhythm now that she was safe on a train between two of some of the most powerful pokemon trainers in the whole region. It was hard to be afraid after seeing what it was they could do and then watching them make dumb jokes. “Are we…?”

“We are on our way to Nacrene City,” Ingo answered promptly, voice as loud and enthusiastic as always. It was starting to be comforting, oddly enough. “Forgive us for our assumptions, but we presumed you were on your way home?”

“You presumed correctly,” Andy smiled, blowing out a shaking breath. “Thank you- Thank you both, for- For that. You’re really good at the whole saving me in the nick of time thing, you know. Ever consider-”

“Why did you not have your Joltik use an attack to buy you time to escape?” Ah. A man with self-worth issues would not be her downfall. Instead it would be the Subway Boss that had no concept of letting a matter drop and instead rubbing her mistakes into her face. “You are no longer scared of him.”

“It wasn’t- I wasn’t going to- I mean-” Andy stumbled over her words, trying to find the right ones and failing. Ingo, blessed wonderful person he was, tried to direct his bastard brother’s attention elsewhere.

“Emmet, I’m not certain now is the time to inquire about this.” The tone was the warning one all older siblings used when their little siblings were pushing their luck. Andy was very familiar with hearing it.

Emmet, however, did not seem to have the same sense of fear that Andy did, instead just tilting his head. “You are not dumb.” Ah. A compliment. How flattering. “Surely you are aware of what moves that Joltik knows. Even a simple String Shot-”

“Pokemon who attack humans get taken away,” Andy blurted, almost as loud as Ingo as she brought her hands — brought her Joltik — closer to her chest. “If they attack humans then they’re- They’re dangerous. It proves they can’t be trusted and they get taken and- I only just got him and I don’t-” Some sparks against her fingers, gentle and more like the surprise of static shock, had her looking down to where her Joltik was looking up at her. Once he was sure she was looking, he moved to gently nuzzle against her palm.

The train car was silent, Andy using the gracious seconds to get her breath back and screw her head on straight before looking up at the two. Ingo was frowning, but seemed worried more than anything. Emmet was smiling, but the smile was tense at the corners, like he wanted to say something and was only just holding himself back. Andy appreciated it.

“Thank you, both of you, for helping. And… sorry. I keep causing you two a lot of trouble, I feel like.” First with having a panic attack on one of their trains and making them accompany her all the way to Nacrene, and now with all this.

Emmet was the one to respond first, unsurprisingly, sighing loudly and dramatically. “You are a lot of trouble-”

“Emmet!”

“-but luckily for you we are verrry good at dealing with troublesome situations!” Emmet beamed even as Ingo scoffed and Andy tried to fight back a laugh. The two were so… well. Andy wasn’t sure she had the right words, but they were very hard to feel uneasy or afraid around.

“It is our job to see all passengers safely to their destinations,” Ingo added on, sounding firm and wonderfully reliable. Definitely Andy’s favorite. “Whether that’s giving them directions or dealing with more… unsavory situations, we would never let a lost passenger stay lost.” Ingo’s lips twitched, a little lopsided sort of smile that was still somehow a frown. “Besides, our friend Elesa has been in much more troublesome situations that we’ve had to deal with.”

“Her trouble is the worrrst,” Emmet groaned, rolling and dragging out the ‘r’ in the word in a way that was vaguely familiar in the way he did it so often. Vocal stim? Hm. Not her business. But interesting- Hang on, Elesa? Why did that name sound familiar- “More importantly. What is your Joltik’s name?” Shit.

Andy hesitantly looked at Ingo. Frown was there, but something about him seemed amused. No help was coming from there. “Right. Name. Because I’ve had him for a week and I’ve definitely given him a name by this point.”

“Exactly!” Emmet chirped, sounding scarily like a Joltik himself even as his grin looked like something from a horror movie. “So what is it?”

“It’s, uh, it’s…” Andy looked around the train car, down at the floor, and then to her Joltik. She might have been projecting, but it also seemed like he was saying I’ll be alright with whatever you give me. It was devastatingly effective. She just- She hadn’t meant to put off naming him! She had just been waiting for the right moment! For some kind of- Some kind of… “Spark.”

The train car was silent again, Andy somehow feeling that Ingo and Emmet both were giving her a chance to change it, because alright, yes, it sounded very childish and like a child’s first pokemon but- But it was. It was her first pokemon and he had brought her life just the spark she had needed, so- Yeah. Yes.

“His name is Spark,” Andy said firmly, looking up to see Emmet beaming and Ingo lightly clapping.

“Bravo! An excellent name for such a stalwart companion!” Ingo sounded so excited and Emmet gave a delighted laugh and for a few moments Andy felt like everything was so good. Emmet, as usual, had to go and ruin it.

“Does this mean you are going to be looking into battling, then?” Forget Anthony being her eternal torment in human form. That honor belonged to Emmet. “It would help you bond to Spark more, and give you more confidence should you ever derail like you did tonight or find yourself in a difficult situation. I would also love to battle you on the Doubles Line one day-!”

It was the most Emmet had ever spoken to her at once and Andy only felt mildly bad about interrupting him. “Absolutely not.” The pout made her feel less bad. “I am not a battler, not in any way, shape, form, or anything.”

“While normally I encourage passengers to try new things in their life, I find I must agree with Miss Andrea,” Ingo offered, Andy taken aback for a moment because- Hold on. ‘Miss Andrea.’ That was cute. “While as unbelievable to some as it may be, battling is not for everyone, Emmet.”

“Boo,” Emmet pouted, Andy wondering how such a respected and feared trainer could act so… normal. “Brother you are so good with people and yet so bad.” The offended scoff Ingo gave had Andy fighting to turn her snort into a cough. Before she could try to offer any help, Emmet was leaning in, smile sly and eyes gleaming. “Here’s a secret for you, Andy.

“I can always tell when someone will make a good, strong trainer or when they would give the best battles.” Battle obsessed as everyone else in the world, honestly. Andy was ready to say as much, pausing when a finger tapped her nose, Emmet continuing, “You have that same look in your eye. That look that would make you a great trainer. That look of wanting to see just how far you can go. Just how far you can push yourself to go. Don’t you want to see?”

Something about the way he asked, about the way he grinned, had Andy feeling a rush of- Of something. Something that was telling her — screaming at her — that she should just let loose, to go wild and fight and scream and yell back at the world that had yelled at her. To take Spark and train them to be stronger than anything that could come their way and fight-

Thankfully, her recent panic attack had made her tired enough that she was able to push it back, instead scoffing, “Ingo is the only reason you haven’t been punched yet, isn’t he?”

On her other side, Ingo snorted, voice still loud even as he ‘muttered,’ “That hasn’t stopped some people before.” It was the dry tone that had Andy laughing, Emmet loudly whining and pouting and trying to defend himself.

Luckily, before he could, the train was pulling to a stop, Andy looking up to see Nacrene station and a familiar Herdier and Watchog waiting at the station for her. Andy laughed again, setting Spark on her shoulder and getting to her feet to rush for the door, stopping just in the doorway.

With Ingo at her back and Emmet grinning at her like that, telling her that she would make a great trainer, for a moment she had felt… confident. She had felt like someone had believed in her and it had been- It had been like lightning.

Turning on her heel, Andy looked back to the two boys, who were watching her curiously. Andy took a breath and put on her best smile, “Thank you. For both times now and for Spark, here. I’m not exactly a trainer or battler or anything, but-” She heard the announcements to mind the gap. She heard Watchog’s loud call of her ‘name.’ She saw Ingo’s shoulders relax like a worry had been erased. She saw Emmet beam, excitement swirling around him.

“But maybe I’ll see you two on the Battle Subway one day.” After all, the kid terrified of pokemon having her own that she loved?

Anything was possible after that.

#Pokemon #submas #my writing #original #bound by choice #a Spark of something new

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