#nimbasa trio fanfic

[lordtraco-fanfics]

Nimbasa Resonance AU: Nightmares

(heavy angst and bloodless major injury warning, but it all ends ok.)

(huge thanks to @fluffy-rulos for the idea and everyone who reminded me of it!! This vacation leaves little time to write, but I hope this is still angsty enough! :3 )

"Keep going!" Ingo heard his brother through a fog. Their resonance was thin, hampered by an exhaustion beyond the simple effects of Sleep Powder.

A flickering spark jolted through them both, a lancing pain that kept them awake but hurt their ability to connect. It was hard to want to resonate with someone causing you pain.

Ingo tried to cover up the guilt he felt rumble around in his mind like the thunder after a lightning strike. Guilt at having left and hurt his family, his teammates, the only ones that could link souls with him. It was too strong to stop. Too deep to hold back.

All at once a deeper rumble built upon his own, crashing through their quiet soul-song with discordant bass. Emmet had nothing to be guilty of in Ingo's mind, but that didn't stop the onslaught of emotions from whirling up a storm.

.

Elesa kept moving, even as the guilt eroded their connection. She felt Ingo try desperately to reassure his twin through their link, but all their stamina was dwindling. Too much movement in far too long a fight had taken its toll on them all.

The frenzied roserade let out another spew of sleep powder and Elesa was yet again thankful it wasn't poison. She recalled how many of their pokemon fell to that status effect just to ensure that the trainers could survive this fight now. If they could just power through the last dredges of the pokemon's moves, it could calm down.

Another self inflicted zap to the three of them kept her awake. It hurt. Her legs felt sluggish and her lungs were burning and the resonance with Ingo and Emmet was faint as a train horn from miles away. Still, she pushed on, not to win, just to stall for time. It was the best they could do.

"This isn't fun." Emmet said, causing Elesa to pull attention away from the battle to look at the knife in her right hand. The small damaged part of the blade drew her eye. Had it gotten bigger?

The meister saw the chip first a while ago. It hadn't been that concerning. It was just a notch in the blade close to the handle. Nothing to worry about in a blade as durable as Emmet. His resolve was strong enough to strengthen his steel through willpower alone.

Could the same be true in reverse? Elesa never considered it.

She should have.

Reaching the frenzied grass type, Elesa felt the crackling of her electric soul build up charge. Her weapons fueled and channeled it downward into a Thunder Wave attack as she stabbed the ground. They succeeded at paralyzing the pokemon and stopping the assault of pollen.

She felt a bit of relief outside her own as Ingo loudly celebrated. She heard Emmet's soft voice as well but couldn't make out the words.

She should have.

As she pulled the blades out of the packed dirt, a distressing snap left her in sheer horror.

Elesa looked at the black handle, now with barely half an inch of blade past the bolster. The quiet chilled her to the core and she nearly retched upon seeing the rest of the brittle blade wedged in the ground.

The feeling of Emmet's soul was gone. There was no backlash of him no longer resonating. His piece in the equation was just non-existent, like an instrument finishing its part in a song.

"Emmet!" The white handle in her other hand burned hot as Ingo lost control.

Elesa barely flinched, just staring in a blank sea of agony and dissociation at the broken knife in her hand. For a moment she tried to pretend this was a prop. A fake kitchen knife. A prank the twins were playing. She couldn't have done that.

As if to punish her for such hopes, Emmet shifted back, his dominant left arm gouged out along with part of his side. There was no blood, no screams, just a man missing an entire arm and shoulder staring blankly ahead. His smile was gone. The light in his eyes was gone.

His soul was-

It would have been more merciful for his soul to be gone as well. This was worse. Emmet's soul was simply a dull gray orb that looked cracked with a large piece missing.

Elesa felt her ears fill with painful buzzing as Ingo screamed right beside her, shifting to reach his brother. Yet as much as he held Emmet, called his name, pressed his forehead to his, and hugged him close, Emmet might as well have been a doll.

The black of his coat filled her vision. Black, the color that fit with the color of Emmet's handle. Just as Ingo's white form complimented the jacket now held on only by a single arm. She'd never thought to ask if their choice of dress came from their weapon form or vice versa.

She should have.

The handle represented a connection to others. A knife needs a hand to be held by, to link it, guide it, help it reach a goal. The blade, in contrast, represented the purpose, the willpower, the strength to reach said goal.

Emmet now had none of that.

Elesa screamed, but she could not hear it through the ringing in her ears. Everything spiraled as fears piled on top of one another. Digging her nails into the ground and sobbing, she could only plead for it to be a lie.

"-lesa"

This couldn't be happening! She was so careful! What had she missed? How had she let him get so brittle? Why hadn't she noticed? Why-

"Elise!"

\\//

Elesa awoke to the smell of blood and was immediately terrified. She felt her hands, which she'd been so sure were digging into rocky dirt, were actually digging into the flesh of Emmet's arm. His left arm!

Still shaken from the dream, Elesa looked past the little trickles of blood her nails had caused from gouging into his arm, past the pained smile, straight to his eyes. His eyes, so full of life.

"Elise, I am Emmet. I am here." His right hand found her cheek, holding her gently as a pokeball upon handing it over at a pokemon center. His use of that nickname, the one he saved for when she was incognito with a "boyfriend", it felt so tender. It was a name only Emmet called her, as Ingo claimed Elle long ago. Separate nicknames to help her tell them apart back when she'd mix up their voices.

"Shift. Please, I-" Elesa grabbed his wrist tightly with her bloodied hand, a chill piercing through her center. Getting the air to form a full sentence felt near impossible. "-I have to. I have to see."

Emmet looked ready to say something, but folded at her pleading gaze. He shifted into a knife, pristine save for that small notch by the base. Fear enveloped her so bad that her trembling hand dropped him. Flashes of the dream plagued her mind again as the terrible snap played in her ear. But it wasn't real.

"You drop Emmet? You drop Emmet like trash?" Emmet said, the reflection of the blade showing a teasing grin as he quoted one of her favorite memes. "Jail, jail for Elesa for a thousand years!"

Elesa let out a loud laugh despite the trembling hand that came up to hide her following giggles. It was all too much. Relief and laughter only added to the pile of panic her terrors had left her buried in. Even as she laughed, edging on hysteria, nothing was ok.

A hug enveloped her, soul pressing to hers, one not cracked, one still whole, one she hadn't ruined (yet), Emmet, he was still Emmet-

A small zap came through the resonance, bringing her thoughts back around. She felt the panic halve as Emmet helped bear the weight of the emotions. She saw the strain on his smile, a testament to how bad it was. "Stop. Follow safety protocol."

They just took deep breaths together for a while until the dream faded a bit from memory.

"Are you ok?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Good. Help me wake up Ingo."

\\//

Ingo clung to his brother. Emmet felt lifeless despite the beating heart Ingo could feel plainly through the hug. Despite being pressed close, he'd never felt further away from his twin as he did now.

There was no movement, no sound save for even breaths that belied no emotion. Emmet felt empty. Empty and missing an arm. As happy as he was to see that shifting meant that his wound was fully healed, that hurt too.

Emmet's dominant arm was gone. His left arm, the one that Ingo's handle was molded around. He couldn't shift and have Emmet hold him in the futile hope of igniting some spark of personality back inside him. Surely, Ingo knew it wouldn't help if the empty husk wouldn't even return his hugs. But now he couldn't be certain.

Time passed in a blur. Elesa was gone, not even trying to console him after what she'd- what they both allowed to happen. Ingo tried not to blame her. But some level of spite remained, allowing him to not go looking for her.

If Elesa wanted space, she could have Almighty Sinnoh's entire domain. Ingo was staying by Emmet. They would not be uncoupled, even if his twin's train was impossibly derailed. He'd keep hope. He had to.

Every day was a routine of dressing and feeding Emmet. Sometimes he could act as if on autopilot, cleaning up as part of their routine. Each time he did, Ingo had such hope that something would come back. His own memories had recovered in time, why couldn't his brother…

It wasn't the same. His soul was damaged.

"Do you understand?"

"What!?" Ingo turned, no longer seeing the walls of his home, but instead a white expanse filled with black, billowing smoke.

"Heed this warning." The voice spoke somewhere else, but the black obscured everything. "Thou art not invincible. Push not past your 'safety protocols'."

"Who are you!?" Ingo yelled, looking everywhere he could. "Where is Emmet!?!"

"Seek balance. Hear his truth and share thy ideals. A trio is the best combination if run properly." The voice came from everywhere at once. "Be well, Ingo."

Before he could respond, Ingo felt a pull on his very essence. Ah, so it was all a-

\\//

Ingo awoke with a start. He felt a familiar knife in his hand and a warmth in his other. Emmet was in one piece and Elesa was there. He just breathed deep, taking in the truth he could feel.

Joining their worried resonance was second nature. He was sure the emotions would come back to haunt him the moment he was alone to overthink it all. But for the moment, he just let himself be pulled into a hug as tears threatened to fall from his eyes in a mix of grief and gratitude.

.

A little ways away, a retreating dark type glanced back and caught the gaze of the younger twin. The unbridled hatred in his stare sent a shiver through the pokemon's smokey form.

Darkrai still hoped their team would heed its warning. It sure wouldn't be trying that again anywhere near the terrifyingly protective human. There was no hope of him understanding that Darkrai was acting to protect them all. And that's ok.

[mysticmayhemwrites]

Girls Day pt2

Girls Day pt1

Live train man reactions!

(Also Dawn has a scar due to events that happened in Hisui. This was decided after I drew the first comic so… pretend it’s there but just not visible at that angle. 😅)

[mynamesaplant]

Just a Dragon in its Den

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Just a little short story about @critterbitter's submas hc. Please go take a look at Critter's work, it is beautiful in every sense of the word. This particular story looks more into Drayden, the twins, and the tension that has built between them. This takes place right before they make it to Opelucid. Enjoy another bad phonetically written accent! One other thing to note: Kaita is called "mother" by her sons and Lucielle is "mom".

Little piece of my own hc: The particular Haxorus that helped raise Emmet and Ingo is informally known as Darling by everyone bc they heard Drayden referring to 'darling' after battles and thought it was her name.

Thank you to @ingo-ingoing-ingone for being my beta reader. I appreciate you immensely, my friend.

You can find my series of Critter inspired works on AO3.

Don't like to read on Tumblr? Find the stand alone piece here on AO3.

Enjoy!~

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 Sunlight still managed to get into his eyes even with the canvas canopy over their heads…

Ingo pried open a bleary eye, scanning from his left to his right. A moment ticked by before he flopped his head back down.

It was just him, and his waxy partner half-way fused to his sleep shirt.

He could hear his best friends talking just outside the tent flaps, the sizzling of oil in a pan which made him jerk upright. Litwick was launched as he was quick to change and get outside before they burned a hole in the tent… again.

Ingo loved Emmet and Elesa, but they couldn’t cook without supervision. They could barely cook with supervision.

“Make way!”

Emmet and Elesa jumped out of the way as Ingo barreled out from the dark interior of the tent. Quick to relinquish stove duty to his twin, Emmet shot Elesa a smug grin that she merely harrumphed at.

“Told you that would get him up.”

“You two are cruel,”  Ingo tried to say through a yawn, but it only came out as a garbled noise. However, the intention seemed to come across just fine.

“We’re not cruel! You sleep like a log!”

He ignored Elesa, groggily shifting the bacon that was just starting to spatter and hiss in distress.

You jerk! I was sleeping!

A displeased crackle and spark came from the tent flap, Litwick's wax running with the intensity of her lavender inferno.

“Apologies, Litwick. I was terrified our tent would turn to cinders if these two were manning the camp stove any longer.”

The flame atop Litwick’s head, at the moment burning high and hot, slowly began to whittle down into a manageable flicker. Ingo stooped, scooping his Pokémon up carefully, and setting her near the small propane tank that fueled the stove, the Ghost Pokémon grumbling the whole time as her eyes fluttered shut. This was a new gift. Their mother heard from Uncle Drayden that they were on their journey through Unova and she had purchased this from a camp store in Galar; in her letter she suggested that it might be useful. Camping was very big there apparently; she had seen many people using this model of stove, and she saw no issues with twelve-year-olds using flammable materials like propane.

Their mother, Kaita, rarely sent them anything and, when she did, it was usually impractical or downright dangerous. The boys had stared at the box waiting for them at the Poké Mart in Lacunosa Town, perplexed when they saw their mother’s name with the return address for a hostel in Galar. How she had even known that they were going to be in Lacunosa before heading to Opelucid was anyone’s guess, but they took the package and attempted to call the number on the postcard, stuffed in hastily judging by the torn edges and messy scrawl, but the man with a thick Galarian accent told them she had left just the other day.

Somehow that was unsurprising to Emmet and Ingo.

“So, what’s on tap for today?”

“We should reach Opelucid by noon,” Emmet said, pulling his knees to his chest as he watched Tynamo flitter around the Dwebble that had been following them since they had departed from Route 18.

The little crustacean had been tottering after them at a distance, disappearing into its shell when anyone was close, but joined in on the fun with the other Pokémon on occasion.

“That’s where Drayden works, right?”

“Correct, we will be visiting him.”

That seemed to give Elesa pause, looking from one twin to the other.

“Are you sure?” Emmet shifted, throwing a glance toward Ingo who minutely shook his head. Though the motion was subtle, Elesa didn’t fail to catch it – she was used to their rhythms and motions. For whatever reason, they were uncomfortable. “We don’t have to stop by the gym if-”

“That is very much appreciated, Elesa.”

“Yup, verrrry nice of you.”

“But everyone knows us in Opelucid. Even if we don’t go to the gym, he’ll know we’re there.”

Against her side, Elesa felt Emmet shudder and mutter something about old ladies. She wasn’t sure what that meant either, but she assumed it wasn’t good.

“What about old ladies?”

“All of the octogenarians like to sit in the plaza by the gym to read their papers, feed the Pidoves, gossip, and play chess. You must pass by them if you want to get to the Pokémon Center. They like to joke that they are Opelucid’s stalwart sentinels and they… tattle on us to uncle when we got into mischief. It is why we asked to stay in Anville Town most days.”

Ingo did not add that by that point, Drayden had stopped asking and would be gone for most of the day. It had only been when they were very young, usually following hand-in-hand in their uncle’s wake and scurrying behind his Haxorus when strangers got too close to them.

“They pinched our cheeks… Fingers like Kingler claws.”

Emmet was the one to actually answer their friend’s question, subconsciously rubbing his cheek as if it had just been pinched. After the first few times that had happened, Darling realized that the twins did not like being touched without permission, and the Dragon Pokémon would insert herself between Emmet and Ingo and the elder men and women. She would rumble out a warning when people got too close, flashing her glinting tusks despite the fact that they were covered with thick Bouffalant leather to prevent any accidents.

Only until Drayden commanded her to stop, she was aggressive with any strangers or anyone that the twins seemed uncomfortable with. At the very least, Emmet and Ingo were convinced that Darling would be happy to see them.

Breakfast was a drawn-out affair. Each bite seemed to be smaller and smaller as if to prolong the inevitable meetup. Packing up and hiking to the city was also glacially slow, Emmet and Ingo dragging their feet as they neared the dragon’s den. Elesa stopped them just as they passed the first few residences, looking them over with steely eyes that the twins shrank away from.

“We can turn back now.”

“No… We mustn’t delay any further.”

Ingo insisted, forging ahead, and chewing his bottom lip to shreds with the all-consuming anxiety that he and Emmet collectively felt.

Opelucid was an overwhelming place. It radiated an unexplainable energy that seemed to loom over all those who entered her walls. They remembered the streets well. Ingo’s eyes fixed on the place where Emmet had tripped and scraped his knee, crying and oozing blood on the whole walk back to the gym. Emmet nervously flicked his eyes to the place where a mother yelled at him and Ingo when her teenage son had been bullying them – he’d called them oblivious, creepy, unsettling… Emmet swallowed hard, reaching for Ingo’s shirt tail, and gripping it tight, rubbing his thumb over the fabric methodically.

 Ingo’s hand reached back and offered his brother’s wrist a light squeeze, trying to reassure him even if he didn’t feel so sure himself. 

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Despite doing everything in their power, the trio could not avoid the parties of the elderly that seemed to stalk the streets of the city. There was no escape from the simpering words and the ruddy cheeks from pinching fingers, the kids barely escaped with their cheeks and dignity intact.

The doors to the gym hissed open, sounding more like an angry Zweilous bickering over a meal than the squeak from the friction of the moving belt. They moved into the atrium tentatively, the twins bunched together while Elesa stood off to one side, eyeing them worriedly as a young woman leaned over the counter. Thankfully, Emmet and Ingo didn’t recognize her, which must have meant she was new. Her accent confirmed it.

“Welcome ta the Opelucid Gym, are ya here ta challenge the gym leadah?”

“Ah, no. We, uh, we are here to see him.”

Ingo tried hard not to stammer and failed miserably, somewhat baffled by the heaviness of the Castelian accent rolling off her tongue. The young woman pursed her maroon-stained lips before turning her gaze to the computer before her. There was some clicking, some squinting between the monitor and the two boys, and she finally picked up a walkie-talkie that Emmet and Ingo knew was there.

“Mista Drayden, there are some… youts here ta see ya.”

There was a pause.

“Send them in, Audrey.”

They tried not to think about how irritated their uncle already sounded, instead choosing to focus on the awe on Elesa’s face as she looked around the gym. Her blue eyes quite nearly bulged out of her skull when they walked under winding bridges, gasped at the beautiful carvings of dragons that adorned the whole facility, and she oohed and aahed at the way the placed made the perfect mechanical maze to make every challenger prove their mettle before squaring up to the dragon master himself.

They traveled up the ramps without hesitation, Emmet and Ingo giving appropriate responses to the gym trainers who recognized them. A few of the older trainers stopped the trio, cooing over the twins who tried not to cringe at the unwanted touches and comments that only served to make them more anxious about their inevitable encounter.

The last ramp up to the arena was just ahead and Ingo took a deep breath, Emmet being the one to release – a frankly inadequate coping mechanism when faced with something like this. Before either could begin the ascent, Elesa leapt before them, and gave them an appraising look, the fierce blue tinged with a soft concern.

Her best friends did not act this way.

“Spill. What’s the matter?”

She didn’t give them a chance to look at each other as she inserted herself between them, there would be no silent agreement on how they would deflect her questions. Emmet flinched back, finding the seam of his bandana, and running over it with the flat of his thumb; Tynamo buzzed softly below his chin which was just as comforting for the young man. Ingo, the one directly under Elesa’s scrutiny, was standing firm – although, if one looked closely, they could see his knees shaking beneath the cuff of his shorts. He could feel it in his back and shoulders, so heavy from the anxiety that it was dragging him face first towards the ground like it was the planet’s gravitational pull.

There was no lying to her. She would wheedle it out of them before they took another step.

“The situation is… precarious. It has been more than a fortnight since we have spoken to Uncle.”

Elesa, nose scrunched in confusion, looked to Emmet for a translation.

“More than a month.”

Now he was fiddling with his hair, tugging and twisting his gray locks that framed his face rapidly between his spindly fingers. Tynamo offered another buzz, the tingle felt familiar and comforting.

“So? I haven’t spoken to my father in even longer.”

Behind her, Ingo pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled slowly. The situation is not the same. Elesa wanted nothing more than to go on her journey to be away from her father. Emmet and Ingo…

“Lesa…” There was more to their story in the city of Opelucid, but neither twin had the heart to delve into it. “We should not dillydally, uncle is waiting.”

Without another word, Ingo brushed past her, and Emmet was on his heels, both practically running up the ramp, which just felt like such an odd juxtaposition to earlier this morning where they seemed intent on moving slower than Slugmas.

Elesa tried to keep a close eye on her friends as they greeted their uncle, the three of them shifting uncomfortably like the idea of a hug seemed impossible. Drayden’s face was usually hard to read thanks to the copious amount of facial hair, but there was a pinched quality to his expression.

That detail was quickly replaced with exasperation as a large, leathery Pokémon tore across the arena at a breakneck pace. Skidding to a stop just before them, the beast lunged forward and -

“Haxorus!”

Ingo spluttered, his front coated head to toe in slobber that he was wiping from his eyes. The other two kids weren’t spared from the assault, not even Blitzle, who shook out his striped coat of the sticky saliva with an indignant snort. The bubble of tension seemed to ease a little with this interruption, but it was still palpable.

Tynamo remained close to Emmet, nestled in his bandana, and offering soft nips to his jaw and chin. Litwick was doing the same, unable to conjure up witty dialogue when Ingo’s soul looked so withered and violently flickering with each interaction with his uncle. Even Blitzle, who was first and foremost Elesa’s Pokémon, was sticking close to the twins. His training as an aid Pokémon was kicking in to shove his snout into the boys’ floundering hands so they could have an outlet for their pent-up anxiety.

Elesa attempted to catalog each word, each expression, each vocal fluctuation – but they seemed so… normal? What were her friends so worried about?

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Drayden was across the arena with Elesa and Blitzle, introducing her to his large, and very fluffy, Altaria. Emmet watched over the top of his magazine; this issue was dedicated to Dragon Pokémon found in the Alola region, and he elbowed his twin when he saw Drayden cast his gaze in their direction. Although Darling was curled around them, her tusks bound to prevent injury, Emmet and a groggy Ingo sank into her flank to make themselves as small as possible.

Darling woke up with a rumble, nudging her snout against them before lightly nibbling on their hair to put them at ease. Drayden seemed to take a deep breath as he approached, taking a seat on the bench beside them, and looking at his nephews out of the corner of his eye.

“Your friend likes Altaria.”

“Altaria is nice.”

Emmet’s reply was more like a squeak than anything. Ingo had taken interest in the skin on Darling’s neck. There it was again, the pressure on that bubble of tension becoming unbearable once again. Without Elesa there to deflect, it was like back all those years before.

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All of them were thinking the same thing: Kaita not so quietly arguing with Drayden, the twins covering their ears because they didn’t like the shrill tone their mother’s voice had taken. The four-year-olds didn’t really understand what was happening, but they were used to the yelling.

Mom and mother had been doing it for weeks.

“I can’t handle them on my own!”

Kaita had snapped, her eyes bright and her mouth curled into an awful snarl. Drayden offered her an equally ferocious growl, too much like their draconic partners than either of them cared to admit. He and his fraternal twin never saw eye to eye, but this?

He wanted to tell Kaita that that was too fucking bad. She and Lucielle should have thought this through a little longer. Kids were not marriage savers. Now she was trying to dump them on him? No fucking way.

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Drayden blinked hard, allowing the blessed dark to cool the bubbling anger he felt toward his sister. This was not Emmet and Ingo’s fault… He had never addressed this incident with them before, had he? Of course, they had been old enough to remember. The Dragon Master picked on their discomfort quickly and he was just as happy to leave them home than he was to take them on his hour-long commute to Opelucid.

In that moment, it occurred to Drayden just how awful that sounded. He had never really thought of his nephews as being lonely, not when they had each other. He left them at home with Darling when they were still young, but that had only been a few years. They had been abandoned by their mothers and then again by him.

This knowledge felt like bile stinging the back of his throat.

“I love you boys.”

Whatever his nephews had expected him to say, it hadn’t been that. Drayden propped his elbows on his knees, not unlike Emmet did when he was chatting with his brother and looked at them with something akin to a pleading look.

“We love you too.”

Ingo’s response was so… Mechanical. A reflex. Drayden seemed pained and they both cringed, waiting for their uncle to adopt that tone of voice they were so well acquainted with by this point – that horrible concoction of disappointment and frustration that was all too familiar to their ears.

“No, Emmet… Ingo…” He got up, stepping toward them and crouching down, Darling temporarily swinging her head around to butt her snout under his chin affectionately before resuming her doting on the twins. He hated how they shrank away, cowering like they expected him to yell – had he ever yelled at them? No, not as far as he could remember, but perhaps his silence spoke volumes about his bitterness. “Boys,” he croaked, schooling his expression into something softer (which he only just realized was something he and Ingo had in common), “I am very proud of you. I’m proud of all you’ve accomplished.

Two sets of gray eyes blinked, a staccato of confusion at this admission, as if unsure how to process that compliment.

“… Thank you.”

Ingo said, a gravelly quality to his voice that made it quieter than its typical boom. Emmet’s hand was shaking, but Drayden recognized that a precursor to a form of stimming. It was something that evolved from learning sign for Elesa for both twins; Emmet used to snap his fingers and his brother hummed (usually quite out-of-tune and loudly).

“May I join you? You look quite cozy there.”

Emmet and Ingo scooted over, leaving room between them so their uncle could sit. They were still a little confused by the unexpected behavior from him, but Drayden asked for permission to put his arms around them, and they didn’t reject him. The aversion to touch made unprompted touch nearly unbearable for all except themselves and more recently Elesa, but Drayden seeking their acceptance felt… different – it felt nice.

“Your Pokémon’ve gotten a lot stronger. I can tell these things, you know.”

Gradually, Drayden felt Emmet and Ingo relaxing into him while they told him all about their adventures. They showed off Tynamo and Litwick, the latter looking a tad smug when Drayden said she had a menacing aura.

“We also have this Dwebble… Well, perhaps that is not quite accurate. He shares the same carriage as us and travels the same tracks, however, he insists on remaining unaccompanied.”

The Pokémon in question was observing from under the bench Drayden had vacated – oh my, nearly an hour ago, those boys really knew how to fill in the time. Dwebble’s eyestalks twitched, its body cautiously retracting into its shell now that it was the center of attention.

“He is shy, yup!”

Drayden offered a nod, crooking his finger at the small, shelled Pokémon. Dwebble, body still half hidden, obeyed the unspoken command and skittered forward.

“See, he has a magnificent specimen on his back. I have not looked into the logistics of whether sediments found in or on Crustle and Dwebble affect their battling, but he has a King’s rock. It is spectacular!”

Their uncle nodded with agreement, Darling grumbling encouragingly at the smaller Pokémon with his approach.

“I must agree. He’s spectacular… Have you asked him if he’d like to join you?”

Drayden listened carefully as Ingo explained the fiasco that was Route 18 – Frillish and all - and, although he was tempted into chastising Ingo, he held his tongue about his nephew’s so-called inside voice. In fact, Ingo parroted some of the lessons that Drayden had attempted to instill in him. He was trying to work on his “volume output”. The Dwebble seemed to be quite used to them now, scraping a claw against the sole of the Gym Leader’s shoes, which inexplicably reminded him of his nephews yet again.

“Such a shame. Ingo really likes rocks, too,” Emmet said with a sympathetic shake of his head when his brother sighed much too heavily for someone of his age. Drayden’s brow was furrowed, watching as the Bug Pokémon’s eyes darted to Ingo, and he said,

“Ask him again.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Ask Dwebble to join your team. Pokémon, just like humans, can have a hard time saying what they mean. Sometimes they need help or a little nudge. He’s come this far with you, hasn’t he?”

Ingo seemed to contemplate this for a moment, they certainly had gone the distance with Dwebble at their side…

Ingo leaned forward, trying to tamp down his excitement – just in case his uncle’s instincts were off.

“Dwebble… Are you interested in... Would you join me on this journey?”

 The Pokémon blinked up at the boy, eyestalks tilting to one side and then the other. In that moment, it felt as though all the air was sucked out of the room, the anxiety unwittingly rocketing up with each second that ticked by where the Pokémon before them didn’t answer.

Dwebble raised his pincers tacked against the ground, his eyestalks swaying to a music that only he seemed to hear, only for the Pokémon to instantly shoot back into his shell when a sonic boom shattered the silence.

You better get used to the human Exploud if you wanna be a part of this team.

Litwick groused, her annoyance was mostly for show at the pure joy in her trainer’s eyes when he picked up Dwebble. Spinning around in tight circles, Ingo wasn’t even able to say anything, only a mix of laughter that verged on happy sobs, as he held his new Pokémon close to his chest.

Emmet watched on with a bright smile, happy for his brother’s first genuine catch, allowing the bright glow of the moment to not be stymied by the fact that they had no money for Pokéballs and were fresh out because they lent all theirs to Elesa to catch some Plusle and Minun on Route 6 (with no resulting captures).

“King! You shall be called King.”

How does this walking pile of rocks have a name before me!?

Litwick shrieked, batting at Ingo’s ear in aggravation to no avail. Drayden watched on, beard obscuring the placid smile on his face.

Good. It was time to make better memories here in Opelucid.

[waywardstation]

Turned Upside Down

Ghetsis Wins AU

Ingo and Emmet were simply waiting in the subway for Elesa to arrive, so they could enjoy a Friday night out together. They didn’t expect the incoming Team Plasma attack.

I’ve wanted to write something like this for months!! Ever since we’ve developed the Ghetsis Wins AU (Ghetsis recombines Kyurem, Reshiram, and Zekrom into the original dragon and freezes over Unova), I’ve thought about the beginning, and how things might go down. Ghetsis has just reconstructed the original dragon, and is most likely creating a new ice age as he makes his way across the region, while Plasma grunts are creating chaos in places he hasn’t yet reached, trying to get as many Pokémon from people as possible.

OR read here on AO3!

Enjoy!

————

“I think we should go see Red Stride instead.”

“But we already decided with Elesa that we’d see Under the Rain.”

“I looked it up, and it’s a romance. The trailers lied. And it has bad reviews that say there is a verrry awkward bedroom scene. Terrible. Red Stride is a thriller! That sounds more fun, and it’s playing at around the same time.”

“I suppose we could discuss the track change with Elesa when she arrives. You know she likes romance movies.”

“Not as much as thrillers, though.”

People shuffled through the underground station in cluttered droves as Ingo and Emmet discussed their evening plans near the subway platform, waiting for Elesa to arrive. Dinner and a movie - their simple after-work Friday night tradition had long since become a staple activity in their weekends that they all looked forward to.

Somewhere in the station, a system dinged and an announcement went off, but it was difficult to hear over the droning 9-5 crowd that filled the subway, slipping past each other in a lethargic yet focused hurry to reach certain platforms. Eager to arrive home and relax, or get out and enjoy their evening in Nimbasa.

The after-work crowding was mildly unpleasant, persuading Ingo and Emmet against a set of pillars in an attempt to ease the unintended but incessant bumping of shoulders. But Elesa was due on the next incoming metro - soon they would be back above ground, no longer breathing in everyone else’s air.

Speaking of…

“The metro is running behind schedule.” Emmet pointed out as he peeked above the sea of heads crowding the platform, onto the empty tracks disappearing into the dark tunnel. There was no train in sight - no tell-tale headlights in the black, and no precursory rumbling of the rails. He glanced down at his Xtranceiver - It should have arrived eight minutes ago. “We might have to change dinner plans as well to stay on schedule for the movie.”

“Food trucks are a faster alternative, if we should need to make an adjustment.” Ingo reflexively peeked into the tunnel himself, copying his brother. Nothing was coming.

“Anything is fine, as long as we don’t get garbador plates again.”

“What’s wrong with garbador plates?” Ingo crossed his arms, trying to keep eye contact with Emmet as a group of people passed between them.

“They’re verrry messy.” Emmet argued. “And I am wearing a lot of light clothes.”

He gestured to himself, his subway uniform having been replaced with his usual off-hours white cap and grey hoodie that had been pulled over his button-down. He was very bright, compared to Ingo’s darker cap and two-tone jacket.

“You just want to go to that hot dog stand instead.” The older twin accused.

“That too.” Emmet didn’t deny it. “But I will throw up if we have to watch Under the Rain and see that awful bedroom scene. Garbador plates are not a safe choice, Ingo. And hot dogs are better anyways. And when Elesa gets here, she’s going to side with m- hey!”

Emmet was interrupted as a short string of people holding hands to stay together pushed past him, brushing roughly against his side in their apparent hurry to cram themselves onto the already-full platform.

“Careful!” Emmet called after them, but they were already gone amongst the sea of people, perhaps even unaware of what they had done.

“It appears the other metros are late as well,” Ingo commented, glancing at the empty tracks framing either side of the subway. “There are more passengers waiting to board than normal, and it appears some are quite eager to depart.”

A quick but observant glance around, and the general state of the subway did seem to be… durantsy. It certainly felt more crowded than it was ten minutes ago, and looking down the length of the station, Ingo could see more people trickling in than out, shuffling into the station through entryways that turned around corners. And it was loud as ever, voices mixing with the mechanical sounds of the subway to create a steady unintelligible buzz.

“There may be a holdup,” Ingo attempted to explain. “Too many people trying to board can cram the doors and slow the schedule.”

“I can’t wait to couple with Elesa and get back above ground.” Emmet’s smile took on a sort of strained quality as he readjusted his cap. It took a considerable amount of crowding for him to want to get out of a place like a subway. “People seem to be forgetting to follow the rules of safety.”

Another glance down at his xtransceiver. Ten minutes now. Emmet almost frowned.

“Perhaps we should call her-”

Amongst the activity, a long-awaited sound finally filled the subway, interrupting Emmet - the rumbling of tracks announced the inbound arrival of a metro to the left.

The twins both perked up - this was supposed to be Elesa’s metro. Unfortunately, everyone else in the station heard it as well, and a general shift was seen as a considerable amount of the crowd shuffled to all the left platforms.

Finally - the metro pulled itself from the darkness, headlights bright and horn blaring to announce its arrival. It drifted into the station, and slowed to a clunky stop at the platform with a mechanical hiss. A quick look through the car’s windows, and the subway bosses immediately spotted Elesa near the doors - she waved enthusiastically to them both, and they each returned the sentiment with a wave of their own.

Thankfully, everything was fine, just a little behind schedule. At last, they could get out of this packed underground station, and move on to enjoying the rest of their night together-

With a puffing sound, the doors opened. And to Ingo and Emmet’s absolute surprise, a drove of impatient people waiting on the platform shoved inside before anyone could exit. Elesa, who was right in front of the doors and should have otherwise been able to make a quick exit, was instead pushed back further into the car, along with the other passengers who were barred from exiting. And it kept going - instead of an organized period of emptying before people boarded, people were squeezing past each other both to get on and off the car.

“Hey now!” Ingo called out, instinctively moving forward to try and help Elesa out. Emmet was right beside him, already reaching out for her and voicing similar sounds of surprise.

The twins cooperatively helped Elesa out of the metro car as they used their bodies to create a small exitway for her, Elesa hand in Ingo’s, and Ingo’s jacket in Emmet’s grip. Once onto the platform, they both pulled Elesa with them back to the pillar they had been waiting against, away from the wall of people still trying to filter between the doors.

“Thanks, you two,” Elesa heaved a sigh of relief, collapsing against the pillar between the two of them - she might have been taller, but they provided a good barrier from her, safe from the human current. “People sure are in a hurry to get places, tonight!”

“That was just rude. And dangerous. They can get to their places without inconveniencing others.” Emmet commented. It was common courtesy, but moreso expected, to let people exit anything before others entered. “Outgoing passengers have the right of way, always!”

“If this is how boarding passengers are behaving, I can now see why your metro was delayed,” Ingo added, watching people continue to cram for the open doors - it was becoming more incensed. “Did something happen? People seem unusually impatient to board. There is no need-“

A shout from down at the end of the subway rose above the buzzing of the crowd. Then three shouts, then ten. Heads turned at the sudden attention, to see a fresh wave of people burst from the entryway.

This was more than just a few small groups of inconsiderate people pushing onto a metro car. They weren’t just trying to move through the crowd, attempting to keep a tight schedule.

They were pushing and shoving. Hurrying the best they could through the confined space. The wave split, some making a sharp turn to rush up the steps leading to the exit, while others headed straight for the open doors of the already-crowded metro cars. And it was only stressing out the rest of the crowd, some of who were blindly beginning to join in.

Ingo, Emmet, and Elesa watched as they rushed past them, squeezing past the metro car’s doors.

“Something is wrong, Ingo.” The new strain in Emmet’s voice was noticable.

Something was wrong.

They would not be making that dinner and movie tonight, would they?

“Elesa, we should go-“ Ingo began to move away from the pillar, towards the subway steps at the end of the stretch of platforms. They had to get out of here-

The shouts collectively raised as something bright burst from the distant entryway, thick clouds of particles spraying over the heads of panicked people and dispersing into the air. A sharp crackle, a flicker of the Subway’s overhead lights, and the particles exploded.

The station erupted into chaos, quickly becoming an ocean in a storm as people bolted for any exit they could find - terror overriding any confusion or curiosity. And with the waves, the beasts responsible surfaced.

Three krookodile reared their large heads above the crowd, spilling in from the entryway. And behind them, three people clothed in black, Plasma emblems on their vests.

In an unsynchronized fashion, sand burst from the Pokémon’s mouths - sand attack - followed by electrified maws snapping down quick - thunder fang. The air crackled with static. Sand burst, crystallized shards of hot glass spraying out. The crowd of people cover their heads.

The edges of the hot burst showered over Emmet, Ingo, and Elesa. The three turned away at the bright sparking, only to see more Plasma members making their way down the subway stairs behind them.

A Team Plasma attack? Right in the subway?

Deep rumbling filled the station, thunderous, and more felt than heard amongst the deafening panic.

The second metro on the right side of the platforms was arriving, and it was coming way too fast for it to be making a stop.

The hulking chain of cars sped right through the station, piercing through the darkness at one end of the subway just to charge right back into it at the other end. The blaring of its horn warped as it faded into the distant darkness, and the tail end of the train left nothing but a trailing surge of wind chasing after it, people stumbling in its wake.

It was ultimately a good thing. Why would it stop here, if only to bring more people into the disaster, and add to the chaos? The metro was saving every passenger onboard by getting out of there.

And they had to too.

People still rushed for any escape they could find, bodies pushing against bodies in attempts to further themselves from the sand-spitting, dark-eyed beasts that pressed forward, electricity cracking from their fangs. Pushing past Ingo, Emmet, and Elesa with shoulders braced, and arms pressed tight against their sides.

No room. There was no room to call out their Pokémon. No room to battle. No room to defend and protect. It was impossible to safely do anything of the sort when they could barely get a foot of space between themselves.

This was almost the worst place to be during a Plasma attack. The second worst place had to have been inside those metro cars, packed impossibly tighter with pressurized doors ensuring everyone was stuck inside, almost trapped-

Ingo and Emmet only had to look at each other to realize they both knew what was going on.

Elesa turned back to the metro she had just exited, the doors still forcibly open with people trying to push inside. Shouldn’t they get back on, like everyone else? Within seconds, it could close its doors and whisk them all away to safety. A set of hands against her back pulled her away from the enticing doors before she could even voice her idea.

“Do not board!” Emmet redirected her, moving her down the platforms to follow Ingo and keep close to him - he was already searching for another exit for them, and warning anyone who would listen to find an alternative exit. “They’re trying to trap people in the cars.”

[blueisquitetired]

Behold! A fanfiction!

A small Twin Dragons AU oneshot starring the Nimbasa Trio :))

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41323785

Summary: Elesa’s best friends are dragons. This leads to some... interesting discussions.

[ingo-ingoing-ingone]

The two Subway Master twins get into a meme battle, as judged by Elesa. As they try to one-up each other, things get more and more ridiculous until the day comes for their memes to be judged. Dragons help everyone.

It’s finally here! MemeFic is done! This one was a doozy to write and features illustrations by me and a commission by @/nartothelar as well!

Also using it for Emmetober Day 2: Clown, because they’re clowning on each other lmao

[sunstone-smiles]

Love your stories. Prompt idea: Ingo buried in the sand with just his tummy and feet sticking out. Someone found him and accidentally discover he's ticklish when trying to help him out.

Hello Anon! I immediately thought of a beach day when I first saw this prompt, so I hope you like it!

Beach Day Predicament

Series: Pokemon

Characters: Ingo, Emmet, Elesa

Words: 1,100

Summary: When Ingo gets trapped in sand, Elesa accidentally comes across a playful way to have some fun with her friend. Enjoy!

—

The summer sun shines bright above the beaches of Undella town; the rays of light make the surface of the ocean water glisten. The cool arches of liquid rise and fall, pushing the breeze of salted air towards land. 

Near the edges of the moistened shore, Emmet and Elesa play with their pokemon in the water, while Ingo’s pokemon bury him in dry sand untouched by the ocean's waves. With Excadrill being a ground type, it’s in the pokemon’s nature to burrow things in the dirt. Chandelure also helps out by piling sand on top of Ingo’s chest and legs using Psychic to lift up small piles into the air, leaving only the subway boss’s feet, belly, and head sticking out of the warm, grainy material.

Elesa emerges from the water and makes her way over to Ingo. She grabs her towel nearby to dry herself off and observes the way the subway boss is being playfully packed into the sand by his pokemon.

“Having fun there Ingo?” Elesa giggles as she pats her wet hair with her towel.

Ingo tilts his head up from his heated cushioning to look at her. “As long as Excadrill and Chandelure are enjoying it, then I don’t mind.” The creatures beside the subway boss give him an affectionate smile, happy that their trainer is allowing them to play like this; however, a sudden call from their pokemon pals asking them to come in the water diverts their attention. Excadrill and Chandelure stare at Ingo with puppy dog-like eyes if they can go over to play with them, to which Ingo nods and says that of course they can. The two pokemon flash their trainer another grin to thank him, then head off to the water to join their other friends.

Elesa watches with amusement as the two dash off with enthusiasm. Afterwards, she looks back at Ingo, noticing his little predicament. “So, would you like some help getting out of that?”

“Yes please. That would be greatly appreciated,” Ingo replies as he tries to shift himself out of the packed material around him.

The electric gym leader leans down near his middle and starts dragging some of the sand away from his sides to try and find an opening to pull him out. “They really packed you in here, huh?” Elesa says when she’s only able to grab small handfuls of sand at a time due to how tightly it’s crammed together. “Hold on—” She moves her hands to his stomach to brush away the sand, but Ingo suddenly lets out a short gasp and a noticeable flinch from her touch.

“E-Elesa!” Ingo stutters, “Careful, that tickled.”

Elesa perks her ears up when she hears this. It wasn’t her intention to tickle him in the first place, but if she’s here, she might as well use this situation to get the usual stoic faced subway boss smiling.

A mischievous grin appears on her face and she slowly moves her fingers purposely closer to his middle. “Oh really? You mean…like this?” Elesa finishes her sentence by skittering the digits of her hand into his bare tummy. Ingo lets out another choked out gasp and giggles immediately start pouring out of him. He tries to wriggles around and shift in his spot, but the packed sand around him leaves him completely vulnerable to his friend’s playful attack.

“Ehehelesahaha! Dohohon’t!”

“Don’t what Ingo? I’m just trying to help you out of the sand like you asked,” the gym leader feigns innocence as she continues scribbling into his belly.

“Youhohou are clehehearly tickling mehehe!”

“Oh, I guess I am. Well, at least it's one way to get you out,” Elesa smiles and changes tactics to claw into his stomach with both of her hands. Ingo’s laughter increases in volume and he leans his head back, trying to shake and squirm away as much as the encased sand will allow him.

Hearing the giggly commotion, Emmet walks over to the silly scene and grabs his towel to dry himself off as well. “Hehe, having fun there Ingo?” Emmet chuckles to himself while he watches his brother’s predicament.

“Hey, I asked the same thing earlier!” Elesa mentions, “But I guess the situation has changed slightly.”

“Ehehehemet! Hehehelp mehehe!” Ingo leans his head forward as far as he can to call his brother. Emmet chuckles again, then notices Ingo’s wiggling feet poking out of the sand.

“Suuure, I’ll help,” Emmet replies with a mischievous inflection. He slowly steps back and kneels down to position himself in front of Ingo’s feet, then curls his fingers into wiggling claws to tickle his exposed soles.

Ingo lets out another yelp and tries to pull his feet back, but the sand still has his ankles trapped, allowing Emmet free range to attack.

“Ehehemehet! Thahahat’s nohohot hehehelping!” Ingo scolds his twin through his laughter. He reflexively curls his toes and wriggles his feet left and right to try and nullify Emmet’s wiggling fingers, but the younger subway twin follows his every move, not allowing his brother a single moment to escape.

“It’s not? I thought I was being helpful, don’t you Elesa?” Emmet turns to his friend with a grin.

“Yes, very helpful! To me, anyway,” Elesa teases.

“Okahahay! Ohokay! Mehehercy!” Ingo throws his head back and shouts through his laughter, knowing that he won't be escaping his confined state anytime soon. After a few more moments, Emmet and Elesa cease their attack to allow Ingo to rest. They then both start to carefully move the sand away from his body, making sure not to accidentally graze any ticklish spots in the process. Eventually, Elesa finds his once buried hand and pulls him up out of the sand, the small grains falling off of his body as he shifts upwards. 

“Thank you,” Ingo responds a bit winded as he frees his legs and dusts his chest and arms off for any leftover particles of sand still stuck to his skin.

“Hehe, sorry about that Ingo,” Elesa gives an embarrassed chuckle, “It was way too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

“I understand. You two were just having fun, that’s all.”

“Yes, it was verrry fun while it lasted,” Emmet smiles. 

Suddenly, Ingo gives an uncharacteristic smirk at the two. “Who said that it was over?” 

Emmet and Elesa’s eyes go wide and they immediately take off running through the sand with Ingo quickly chasing after them. The older subway boss isn’t usually the one to initiate revenge, but he’ll make an exception in this case to add on to their already eventful beach day.

[skyedancer2006]

We are being sucked into the Submas rabbit hole bc our Pokémon hyperfix came back in full swing for the first time in many years, and in the form of playing Legends Arceus.

Help us. /nsrs

-Omori

[kittyburger]

Chapter Two of my Dreamshare AU fic

I meant to wait a day and not, like, two weeks to share this on tumblr but here's the next chapter!

PLUS bonus excerpt from chapter three because I've kept y'all waiting long enough. CW: overstimulation/panic attack Link to chapter one [X]

╭╭<^◕°ω°◕^>╮╮

Emmet whistles happily as he exits the busy downtown station nearest the café. Today has been a verrrrry good day. More battlers than usual made it all the way to his train, and he and his pokemon teams threw themselves into their work with newfound gusto. 

Not even the verrrry annoying hag that arrived just before his lunch break could dampen his mood. 

When the pedestrian light ahead of him signals for him to stop, he takes the opportunity to check the map on his Xtransceiver to confirm which road he should turn on, noting the street’s name in his head. He looks up to verify his route but–

Oh no. 

Nope nope nope nope noooope!

A duo of news reporters are across the street he needs to cross, buzzing with excitement over their fortune in snaring the local Subway Master outside of work. One is frantically pulling out her notebook from her side purse, a Plusle cheering her on from her shoulder. The other has a camera mounted on his shoulder, and Emmet watches as his hand lowers away from a switch.

The too-familiar red light is blinking. 

Oh no.

He will not deal with this today.

They didn’t even ask before turning the camera on!

All the adrenaline of a pokemon battle kicks in and Emmet needs only half a moment to decide on his strategy. Aim for victory. All aboard!

He sends the reporters his best fight-me-if-you-dare smile, knowing they’ll recognize the challenge.

Then he runs. 

Just as he sticks his heel out to pivot to the right, the pedestrian light switches to WALK and the race is on. He expertly weaves through the crowds of people, many giving way when they notice the tall man with a manic smile dashing down the walkway. A "Watch it!” and a "‘Scuse you!” are shouted over the crowd, but he’s gone before the words have even fully registered. 

He takes a glance at his wrist. Left, left, then straight for three blocks. Got it. 

The light ahead of him turns red just in time, causing the pedestrian light on the left to turn to WALK. Before pivoting to cross the road, he hastily looks around, checking for pokemon and vehicles alike.

Safety checks are still essential, after all, nasty reporters or not. 

Another left and a few painful blocks more, he spots Elesa sitting in a quiet corner of the café’s outdoor pavilion. “ELESAAAAAA!” he calls, trying to both warn her and ask for help.

Her head snaps up from her phone. Their eyes meet as he arrives at the first table, heaving for breath. 

“Reporters. Here. Followed me. Yup!”

She’s up in an instant, hand on a pokeball and working her way through the tables and chairs. He can tell the moment she spots the reporters because her expression goes from worried to recognition and then to furious in the blink of an eye. 

She mutters something under her breath that he doesn’t quite catch every word of, but he gets the sense that she’s met these reporters already. 

As they get closer, she takes an extra step to stand subtly between him and the reporters. It’s not unwarranted, but he feels slightly miffed that she wants to take them on alone.

“Sorry, we’re not taking any interviews today!”

Ha. As if that’s going to stop them when these people just chased him for seven blocks. 

Almost as if to prove him right, the reporter only grins wider and rushes closer in response, barely even winded. Her cameraman is not far behind, except Emmet can hear him huffing for breath behind the camera. Serves him right. 

“Ah,” she says with a disarming smile, “but doesn’t your friend Emmet here always say he never backs down from a challenge?”

He takes a step forward, his shoulder to Elesa’s. 

“I am Emmet. I do not run from a challenge! But you are not a challenge. You are a nuisance. A headache. A pain in the–”

"Emmet!" Elesa sharply intervenes, then gives a pointed glance at the camera. Right. That red light is still blinking. He snaps his mouth shut but replaces it with his best stink eye. 

Elesa swoops back in with practiced ease. “We’re not taking any interviews today. Isn’t there a tree you need to go apologize to?” 

“For using the oxygen it’s made? I’ve heard you use that one before. It’s a good thing we’re not here for you!” Her plastic smile is temporarily marred with a wrinkled nose and a haughty glance at Elesa while conveniently turning her face away from the camera. 

It’s gone again in a blink. 

Elesa takes it in stride, replying, “The correct word is ‘wasting the oxygen,’ and it’s your cue to leave us alone. Can’t you people see that our situation isn’t entertaining?”

The woman’s smile turns predatory as she counters, “Don’t you know anything? It doesn’t have to be ‘entertaining,’ dear. It just needs to be eye-catching . When we’re the ones to catch Emmet admitting his responsibility towards his brother’s death, it’ll be our claim to fame.”

His-

My what?!

“How DARE you–”

He barely registers Elesa’s outrage and the reporter’s words.

The world around him fades to the sound of his ears ringing. 

His head reels.

His blood rushes to his feet. 

His heart pounds in his ears. 

“Isn’t it obvious?! Your friend here has been leaving the clues we need all along. You should have seen how happy he looked earlier today. We got pictures! But why? Why was he so happy?”

His legs are jelly beneath him. 

He-

Bolstered by their shocked silence, she continues, “Well, the results are in! Nimbasa’s number one popularity poll marked him as number one this year. The last time the results were this clear was when dear brother Ingo scored first place the day before his disappearance!” 

She turns and points her mic into Emmet’s face in a mock conductor’s signal.

Bile rises in his throat. 

“What do you say to that, mister ‘I love winning more than anything else?!’  Was it worth the price of taking Ingo’s–” 

Hearing Ingo’s name flicks a switch within him. He closes the distance between them with a step, roaring, “DON’T YOU DARE SAY HIS NAME EVER AGAIN!!”

Elesa’s hand grabs his arm. No. No. Too much.

Too much.

He’s suddenly aware of everything around him again.

Too much! 

All at once the sounds of the city storms his ears and the sun is to bright and the city is too shiny and his chest is too tight and his feet are too heavy and people are looking right at him and his ears are ringing and–

And he runs. 

His heart pounds as loud as his feet as he runs, barely registering Elesa’s “Hey!” and the reporter’s “Looks like someone’s feeling guilty~!”

No. No. No no no no no. He needs to get away. Verrry loud. Too Loud. Too much. He needs to get somewhere safe. Where is quiet?  

He sees a familiar sign right up ahead. A subway station entrance. 

Huh, when did he run that far?

Doesn’t matter. He knows the station means he can find a safe place. Somewhere quiet. 

Down the stairs, left, left again. Staff utility room. Fumble with his keys, which one, which one, this one! Open the door. Close the door behind him. 

The machines are loud, loud, too loud. But at least they’re not people. They’re not nasty nasty reporters with brand-new terrible, terrible assumptions. 

He sits on the floor. He covers his ears. He squeezes his eyes shut. 

Breathe, he tells himself through the haze of too many emotions. You know what to do.

And he does. He works himself through a breathing exercise before switching tracks to an anchoring one. 

He doesn’t know how long he was in there, counting breaths and listing his surroundings, but eventually the buzzing of the machines go from grinding to grounding and his heart settles to feeling a little more normal.

He very belatedly registers the feeling of something moving in his pocket. He sticks his hand in and gently fishes out a fuzzy little Joltik. 

“Cheese! How long have you been in there?” He waggles his finger at him in mock anger. “What did I say about sneaking into my pockets? You could have gotten hurt!”

At that, the little bug lets out a series of disgruntled 'Tiiiiks and squeaks. It would feel more like he was reprimanding the trainer if he wasn’t also looking at him with those too-cute eyes. 

“I know, I know. That wasn’t fun for me either, you know!” He brings a finger up to pet the bug pokemon gently despite the slight tremor in his hands. “Next time, follow the rules and remember your safety checks!”

A soft knock interrupts them from the door. 

“Emmet? You in there?”

Ah. Elesa. 

…

…oh no. Elesa. He left her with the reporters. 

Even after quickly stashing Cheese back into his coat and trying to clear the tightness from his throat, it still takes him a few tries to voice his answer, "Present! I am Emmet." 

"Oh, thank goodness! Can I come in?" 

Well, she doesn't seem too mad, but she's fooled him before. He weighs his options before deciding that the safest route would be to let her in now instead of making her wait again. 

"Yep, yep! Come in!" 

The handle jangles, but the door doesn't move. 

"Uh… it's locked." 

Right. He had only used the keys to open the door, not fully unlock it. Oops. 

"Coming! Coming. Yep." 

He slowly stretches his legs out from where they were curled up to his chest, gritting his teeth at the soreness from holding them tight for so long. And probably the running. 

…definitely the running, he decides as he gets to his feet, his body protesting as his knee pops sharply. 

He cautiously opens the door, always unlocked from the inside because safety first!! He's not sure what he was expecting, but for some reason the distressed look on her face and the concerned way she babbles in the doorway as she scans him up and down was not it. 

"Are you okay? Actually, no. Dumb question. Are you feeling any better? Than earlier. With the, uh, out by the- out there?" 

He blinks. She's not mad? He had left her alone with those verrrry nasty reporters. She should be mad. Is she just hiding it really well? Oh, she's talking again.   

"...and I tried to get my pokemon to zap the camera to destroy the footage, but that devil of a Plusle has lightning rod! That's just so rude! I am so sorry, Emmet. There was nothing else I could do." 

That reporter’s Plusle has lightning rod? Clever. Verrrrry clever.

Squaring his shoulders, he ignores how it makes the door bounce against his shoulder and challenges, "Then let's prepare a new strategy! The reporters are getting stronger! So must we." He shoots her his best post-battle smile. "I don't like to lose. Keeping a Plusle with lightning rod is an interesting tactic, yup. But we're both stronger trainers. If we put our heads together, next time we will win!" 

Instead of matching his excitement over the challenge, she takes a deep breath and then asks, almost pleadingly, "You're not mad? They got away with the footage; they're gonna have an absolute field day Weedle -ing every last bit of scandal they can get from it!”

His mouth opens and closes a few times as he tries to find the right words to answer her. He doesn’t want to think about what made the footage so incriminating; that would mean talking about the accusation. Is he mad? Yes, but at the reporters. Not her. 

If only this could all be solved with just a pokemon battle.

She must take his silence as his usual difficulty with words, because she starts the guessing game instead.

“Are you mad at the reporters?”

A wave of relief goes over him. They’re good at this game, even if it’s through sheer amount of practice. 

He gives a vigorous nod. The nasty, nasty reporters had preyed on him like a Mothim to a flame the minute he had left the Gear Station and its regulations against unscheduled interviews.

“Because of what they said or because they practically jumped you after you left the station?”

He makes a face at that. 

“Both?”

A nod yes.

“Understandable…” She trails off, and he can almost see the gears turning in her head as she thinks of her next question. “Did I do anything to upset you? Is that why you wanted to talk this morning?” 

A vehement shake of his head. No, no, no. He tries to word again, this time successfully. “No! You saved me.” He gives himself another moment to gather his words. What would Ingo say? 

The thought doesn’t hurt as much as it would have yesterday. 

Instead, he can almost picture his brother beside him, and the words come easier. “Thank you, Elesa. Thank you for rescuing me and for answering my call this morning!”

His grin turns a little sheepish as he continues, “I will try to check the schedule first next time.”

When her shoulders relax a little and a relieved smile replaces her worried frown, Emmet resists the urge to pump his fist in success. Yes! Mission make-Elesa-less-worried successful. 

The elation doesn’t last long, though, because the next question she asks is, “Speaking of…, do you still want to talk about the call this morning? Or, if nothing else, can you promise to try to get a better rest tonight?”

Emmet’s face pulls into a knowing, much more genuine smile. He’s going to see Ingo again tonight! 

“That won’t be a problem.”

Elesa gives him a wan smile. “Tired?”

“No. Well, yes, I’m verrrrrry tired, but that’s not it.” 

He takes a look around outside the doorway, suddenly feeling more exposed than before despite being back in the station. What if the reporters try to take more pictures? Or record his words and manipulate them into sounding like something else entirely?

A quick solution comes to mind. He steps back and opens the door farther, gesturing into the room with a slight bow. “This is no fancy café, but it will do. All aboard?”

She takes his invitation in stride and walks in. This time, he takes more time to observe his surroundings. The room is nice and clean aside from a bit of dust, so he mentally files a reminder to praise the maintenance and cleaning crews before he considers Elesa. He knows she’d gladly jump in the mud and get her hands dirty if the need arose, but there are no chairs in here and she does try verrrrry hard to keep her outfits pristine. 

So instead, he shrugs his overcoat off and spreads it on the floor like a picnic blanket with a dramatic flair, ignoring his body’s complaints at the movement. Elesa obviously approves because she doesn’t hesitate to plop down and shrug off her purse. 

Once he’s joined her on the coat, she asks, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

He’s had all day to figure out what he’s going to say, but he fixes his gaze on the wall to her left to try and focus. It still comes out all wrong, gibberish. 

“I am Emmet. There was a change in schedule. I had a dream! What I do. What I dream. It’s always the same! It has been since Ingo disappeared. I mean, before he did, too. I liked our old dreams. But then it changed! And last night was not the same. It switched tracks! The track is open again. Just a little. But it was there, yup! The schedule changed! It was verrrrrry exciting. The wall is not the last stop! Things are getting better!”

At that, he looks back at Elesa, but she just looks lost. Oops. You goofed it, Emmet. Good job.

"Emmet, can you try that again? I didn't understand that. You… want to tell me about your dream?" 

He fiddles with his hands, trying to find the right words. With a sigh, he admits, "I miss Ingo. He knows how to say what I mean.”

Elesa slumps a little at that. “I know. I miss him too. I think we’re doing pretty okay, though, right? Your Exeggcute-tion may be off at times, but I’ve gotten better at understanding!” 

He sends her a playful glare at the pun, but she only continues with an encouraging smile. “Why don’t you try again? Maybe start with the point this time, and then you can explain after.”

He takes a breath, then another. Start with the point. The point… the point is that they share their dreams. He almost locks up at the thought of saying that again, remembering the harsh treatment they got for it years ago. But no. He trusts Elesa. She needs to know. Besides, she took it well a few moments ago despite not really understanding him. What was the most exciting part that he wanted to share with her this morning? Right! Ingo’s alive! 

The happy reminder gives him the courage to try again.

“I am Emmet. Ingo is still alive. Yep! I am verrrrry tired of people telling me he's dead. My brother is alive.”

Now to explain how he knows. Elesa is giving him an encouraging smile, but it’s bordering on pitying. She’s heard him say this part before. Gotta tell her the rest. I need to tell her how I know.

Clenching his fists, he continues. “What I do. What I say. What I dream . What we dream. Always the same! Ingo as well.” He looks her in the eyes, hoping the gesture will communicate his sincerity. “Our dreams are shared, Elesa. Our whole lives, we dream the same, yup. Even now! That is how I know he is still alive. He’s still out there. Yup. I know it!”

Elesa looks… surprised? Confused? He’s not sure. He belatedly registers his heartbeat pounding in his ears at the confession, but he’s not sure where to go from here. What to say. 

Thankfully, Elesa picks up on this. Her words are hesitant yet sincere as she replies, “That’s more than a little Farfetch’d, but-” she rests her hand on top of his, maintaining eye contact. “I believe you. You wouldn’t lie about something like this, Emmet. I trust you.”

I trust you. Relief floods through him. He flaps his spare hand, needing to express the excess energy. She believes him! He said the right thing! Yep!

“Besides,” she continues, “you two have done strange twin-connection things before. Remember when Ingo got lost in the woods? You made a beeline to him as soon as you convinced the search team you knew where he was.”

Emboldened by her response, he eagerly picks up the story. “Yep! It has helped us out of some verrrrrry sticky situations. That was one of them! The officer lady was confused why I wanted to sleep while they assembled their team. But it worked!”

Elesa’s eyes widen at the realization. “That’s how you knew where he was?!” 

“Yup! Ingo was verrrry smart, even as a kid. Yup. I looked up to him. I still do! He found a strange tree. It was easy to recognize and stood out from above the rest. He climbed it and fell asleep in its branches. Then he showed me the tree in our dream. When I woke up, all I had to do was find that tree! It was verrrrrry easy to see from the officer’s Staraptor.”

“Oooooh.” 

“Yep!”

“Oh! That time the power went out and you were stranded in the middle of a subway line. Ingo took a power nap! I thought he was just overwhelmed with the Torkoal chaos and went to find somewhere quiet after the crowds were settled, but I found him asleep at his desk. Was that why?”

Emmet winces. “Yep. I was too busy leading my passengers to safety to join him that day, but he told me he wanted to be there in case I needed to contact him. It’s our super-secret safety protocol!”

He looks up again. “Remember when Team Plasma raided the battle subway and took over Ingo’s train?”

“Yeah!” she replies. “They knocked him out cold. He had a headache for days! ” She freezes for a moment as the realization hits her. “Wait. They knocked him out! The depot agents said you went into your office and locked the door to make a plan after they hijacked that train. Ramses was so mad you didn’t include him in the planning. Were you-”

“Yup!” He interrupts. “I talked to Ingo. Team Plasma boasted about their plans before knocking him out. So we made a plan together! The inside knowledge was verrrrrry helpful.” 

“That makes so much sense! What about that time Ingo got sick, and I invited you over to get out of the house? You passed out on the couch after dinner.”

His grin turns sheepish once again. “Ah. I- um… Nope. Not that time. I was tired. It had been a verrrry long day. We both got the same flu just a few days after! I was probably just sick already.” He scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment. “...Sorry.”

Elesa lets out a laugh and elbows him teasingly. “I’ve known you for years and you two are still full of surprises!”

Emmet looks down at that. Right, the Donphan in the room. 

“Sorry for never telling you, Elesa. Ingo and I swore to each other that we would never tell anyone about it years before we met you. Then there was never a good time. We were scared. We didn’t want to mess this–” he gestures between them– “up.”

“Oh.” She shifts a little at that. “What made you change your mind?”

“I… I am Emmet. I needed you to understand. I don’t have a better way of telling you what I know. Ingo might have, but he’s not here. You’re taking this sudden detour verrrrrry well. Yup! He’ll probably forgive me. I hope. But. But. I don’t know how else to help. I am lost. Ingo isn’t here. But you are a great friend! You deserve to know. And I don’t know what else to do besides continuing on as normal. But that’s not working.”

He turns to rest his back against the wall and finds a spot on the ceiling to stare at. “What I say. What I do. Always the same. But then verrrrrry nasty, nasty people come and say mean things, and do things that hurt anyways.” 

He grabs his forearm with one hand in an attempt to ground himself but uses the other to gesture to the empty space at his side where Ingo should be. “I just wish Ingo was here. I know he’s alive. But he’s not here. Ingo would know what to say to those nasty people. They try to make everything worse but he knows how to improve any situation. He would know what to do.” 

The confession hurts a little, but it feels good to let it out. 

“You've been doing great so far! But now I know you can talk to him whenever! What advice has he given you already? I assume there’s a reason your dreams haven’t been able to bring him back, but what has he said to help you? How is he? Is he okay?”

“I-.”

“Does he know where he is? Is he lost? Is that why you keep searching? Does he have any messages for me?

“Elesa.”

“How has he survived the past few years? What’s keeping him from getting home? Is he hurt?”

“Elesa!”

She jumps a little at that.

“Too much?” 

He nods. 

“Sorry. I just- I’m so happy to hear that you’ve been able to talk to him this whole time! I wanted to believe you before, but now… Emmet? What’s wrong?” 

Right. The wall. He didn’t tell her about the wall. He needs to tell her about the wall.

He pulls his knees up to his chest and takes a deep breath. “The day Ingo went missing, a wall appeared. I couldn’t see him. I could barely hear him. Our dreams were divided in two. We were separated there nearly as much as we are separated here.” 

He continues to explain the past few years to her in a voice he knows is too stilted, too tight. He tells her about how impenetrable the wall was. Everything he’s tried. He recalls the too-distant SOS whistles and the ways he saw the world change that told him Ingo was still there. 

He tells her why he dreads sleeping, night after night. How there is no escape from the reminders that Ingo is not here.

Elesa listens in silence, evidently struggling to take in all the information. 

“But! Last night was different.” He feels his face soften as his smile changes to something happier. “The wall changed. It was like those frosted windows people use between offices, but verrrrrry thick. And he was there! I saw him.” 

He lifts his arm up in memory of where it was the night before, Ingo’s hand rising up to match his own. “Last night, he was there. I haven’t seen him in years, but he was right there!”

“Oh, Ingo.” Elesa voicing his brother’s name startles him out of his memory, and he looks over to see her hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes. *** it all, he made Elesa cry again. 

“He saw you too, didn’t he? Please tell me he did.” 

He nods. 

“He must miss you so much! You’ve been struggling with that all alone, haven’t you?”

Another nod. 

Before he can even hope to think of a way to comfort her or fix the situation, she throws her face into his chest and her arms wrap around him. He tenses for a moment, then forces himself to relax into the hug as he brings his hand up to rub her back.  

They stay like that for a few moments before her head shoots up. "OH! Is that why you called me this morning? Because you saw him?” 

His smile grows. “Yup!”

She narrows her eyes and pokes right below his collar bone, hard. Ouch. “You jerk! I thought something terrible had happened! You had me worried about you all day!” 

This morning’s phone call must have been more of a disaster than he thought. Why must communication tactics be so much harder than battle tactics?

“I am sorry. I wanted you to be the first to hear the happy news. But I went full speed ahead and forgot my safety checks! It was verrrrrry irresponsible. I am verrrrry sorry.”

She holds her narrow, red-brimmed gaze at him for a few more moments before burying her face into his chest again. He can almost swear he hears a muffled “I can’t stay mad at you” from her, but he has the wisdom to not ask for confirmation. 

Instead, there’s one last Donphan in the room that he needs to address. 

“Elesa,” she tenses a little and lifts her head to look at him. “I need you to promise not to tell anyone about this. This secret is not only mine to tell. I cannot– it will–” he lets out a huff as he gives himself another moment to finish the thought, “If other people know, it will only hurt us.” 

She sits back with an accepting smile. “I understand, and I promise.” 

With that, she gives his arms a quick squeeze before wiping her eyes one last time. She stands up, brushing off imaginary dust from her skirt, then plants her feet and offers him a hand. As he takes it, she continues. “Thank you for trusting me, Emmet. Despite everything, I’m sure Ingo would be proud to know that you talked all this through with someone.”

Even after the incredibly draining the events of the past few hours, he can’t deny how relieved he feels. He’s sure he’ll be busy guilt-tripping himself later over breaking his promise, but maybe she’s right. A huge weight is off of his shoulders. Maybe he made the right choice. Maybe. Hopefully.

Elesa pauses as she puts her hand on the doorknob. “...and hey,” she’s speaking in a softer tone, now. “If you figure out a way to talk to him, tell him I say ‘hi,’ alright?”

This time, he very gladly agrees.

~~~~~

BONUS EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 3:

~~~~~

Can’t you sign back?

DON’T KNOW. MEMORY GONE. 

What do you mean "gone?!"

WHEN I WOKE UP 3 YEARS AGO, I ONLY KNEW MY NAME 

Ingo's heart sinks as he sees the man's eyes go wide with despair, his whole body tense up as if he had to carry Lord Electrode on his shoulders.

The person stiffly signs back, Do you remember anything more now? 

He's torn for a moment over what he should say. Not much would be the simplest and most honest answer, but he knows deep down that such an answer would leave his doppelganger in shambles. 

He recalls a precise phrase that came to him before. One that will hopefully show that there is hope, that he does remember this man at least a little. 

I KNOW YOU LIKE WINNING MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE. 

He watches the man's jaw clench into a pained grimace as he finishes spelling out the second half of the phrase. Ingo puts his hand down, a signal that he's done writing, causing the man to shift his gaze back at him with a heartbroken expression, the first tear of undoubtedly many running down his cheek.

I am down-train. E-M-M-E-T. The hands pause for a moment, enough for Ingo to notice the slight tremble in them before they swing back into motion. I've changed my mind. I took you for granted. I want my brother back more than anything else. Remove the wall.

Emmet. His brother, Emmet. The name feels right in his mouth as he mouths it, just as natural as his otherwise out-of-place phrases about tracks and engines.

He was right. The man that shares his face is his brother.

The realization hits him like an avalanche. Almighty Sinnoh, I have a brother. I have a family.

[xero013]

Teen Nimbasa Trio shenanigans in Chargestone Cave

Also based off Ch.4 of my fanfic (might make more doodles)

[lordtraco-fanfics]

I have completely fallen in love with your Nimbasa Resonance AU ❤️

Aww thank you!! Here, have some miscellaneous trio silliness!

...

"I think I need a knife for this."

"That is a salad."

"Woe is me, I have no cutting cutlery with which to eat this food." Elesa's dramatic pose and over the top tone failed to affect Emmet. Drat, normal against ghost type.

"Then perish." Emmet couldn't hide the tiny glint in his eye, nor the way his soul instinctively reached out to hers. It was addicting sometimes, resonating during a bland joke and building up preposterous amounts of joy simply from the back and forth.

Her grin nearly matched his own, devious as she reached for his arm across the table. It was almost enough to break his will until-

"Pwease, mistew Emmet?"

"I hate you. That's it." He shifted into a blade in her hands, continuing, "Here! Now I'm sparing my ears. I can't hear you. I'm a knife. Your stupid salad knife!"

Instead of continuing the bit, Elesa ran a gentle finger along the long sides of the blade. She inspected for nicks, then held him up to the light at different angles to check straightness.

"Little curve there." She mumbled.

"I'm not straight?"

"I'd call you a fruit knife if that was a thing." She held the knife so that his face shone like a reflection in the mirror. "And I thought you couldn't hear me."

"It is. Probably." He didn't grace the rest with a response. "I do go into fruit quite-"

Elesa choked out a laugh. "You wanna rephrase-"

"AS A KNIFE"

"Kin-"

"I HAVE BEEN USED TO PEEL APPLES!" Emmet's voice almost rivalled Ingo, and the blush she could see on his cheeks sure did remind her of apples.

"DO I WANT TO KNOW?" came a booming voice from downstairs. Ok, yeah, Emmet's yelling voice still paled in comparison.

Elesa smiled wickedly as Emmet shifted back. In retaliation, he tipped her salad over onto the table and trudged away.

Her smile gentled as she noted how he made sure to tip it away from the edge. He and Ingo both knew how tough it could be to get stains out. Some part of her wondered if this urge to rile him up was a test or just her usual antics.

There was a baseless fear somewhere deep inside that said the twins would leave her behind someday. She was afraid of losing them both, whether to more time travel or simple wanderlust. It was scary enough losing one of them, and she'd spent so, so very long trying not to lose Emmet as well in any capacity.

And now, well, she liked to test the boundaries. Not the rigid ones of course, just general annoyance. Each time he restrained himself from giving her a noogie or bear hugging her to rumple her good clothes, she was reminded that he wouldn't be going anywhere. That he cared, not only about her, but her passion as well. Her good clothes were off limits, no matter how many buttons she pressed.

Elesa barely noticed Ingo entering the room until he spoke up. "Don't let the paparazzi see you looking like that. They'd think you're in love."

"But I am. Platonically. He's- you both are so-" at a loss for words, she made vague motions with her hands. 'Perfect?' nah no one is perfect. 'Great' just seemed too vague. 'Kind? Considerate? Wonderful?' all true, but it wasn't enough to express the enormity of how much she appreciated her weapon partners. Sadly, her mouth moved without thinking and she finished with "So cool!"

Ingo put a hand over his mouth, but could not stop the laughter at all. It was a line so often used by little kids at Gear Station, looking up at them with stars in their eyes and dreams budding in their hearts.

"We find you cool as well, Elesa." Ingo said when he finally got his chuckling to a manageable level. "Or 'verrrrry cool', as my brother would put it."

"Hm, your impersonation needs work."

"Much like your etiquette," He said, pointing to her still-upturned salad bowl before righting it. "It works better like this."

"Why thank you, kind Warden. Your guidance is always appreciated." Her sarcasm was dulled by the way she took his hand, running a thumb over his knuckles. It was a soft gesture, typically an unspoken offer to let him shift if he wanted. A remnant of parties that got too big or loud even before his disappearance, it spoke in ways words couldn't. It was an offer of escape, understanding, support.

Ingo gave her a genuine smile. It caught her off guard enough that she didn't catch the mischievous twitch of his eyebrow. In one quick motion, he grabbed a bit of salad dressing on a finger and booped her nose with it.

"Ew! Ingo!"

[mysticmayhemwrites]

✨It’s Girls Day✨

(I say in my best Jacob Drawfee voice)

Tried my hand at a basic three panel comic. Elesa wants her turn to spend quality time with their favorite niece. (I may or may not add another panel with the twins’ reaction later.)

EDIT: now with part two!

Girls Day pt2

[mynamesaplant]

Friendship Smells like Pizza and Laundry Detergent

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Just a little short story about @critterbitter's hc of Emmet, Ingo, and Elesa. Please go take a look at Critter's work, it is beautiful in every sense of the word.

Japanese is not my native language, so if I've made any errors please let me know. Also, I'm sorry for the phonetic spelling for Clay in advance.

Don't like to read on Tumblr? Read it here on AO3.

Enjoy!~

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Tonight was the night.

Elesa was coming over for a sleep over.

Drayden would have found it amusing that his nephews were running all around his house preparing for their friend’s arrival, but they were quite particular about how they wanted the house to look, and it was turning his house upside down. Already the linen cupboard and beds were ransacked for every sheet, blanket, comforter, and pillow that he owned. All around him, the boys meticulously constructed a pillow fort, and it took every ounce of willpower in his body to ask them not to make such a mess of his living room.

He sucked it up. They were excited their friend was coming over – their only friend.

Listening to Ingo’s meandering request to have their friend over for a sleep over, Drayden could tell this meant a lot to them. Even Emmet, who was hard pressed to pipe up his opinions to him was bobbing his head along in time with his brother’s speech and offered stilted yeps to emphasize his brother’s points, eyes glittering with such hope that it physically pained the Dragon master to say no.

“Verrrrry good!”

Emmet chirped, crawling out by the tv, which also had a sheet over it. They had tried to put a quilt over it and Drayden pointedly told them no. Although not the newest model by a long shot (he hadn’t been able to be as frivolous with his money since his nephews had been dumped come to live with him), he didn’t want to risk the television falling over and breaking, or worse injuring one of the kids. Emmet and Ingo were exceedingly careful with everything in the house, they treated everything like glass with a steady mantra of ‘safety first’ that he was sure would be seared into his brain for the remainder of his days.

With this one exception, the twins frequently kept to themselves and their own possessions, either roaming his property, Anville Town, or in the woods just outside town. This brief and altogether understandable lapse of judgement Drayden could overlook – just this once.

“Ingo, are the snacks secured?”

“Affirmative!”

Ingo moved into his periphery with an armload of bags, ducking beneath the patchwork fort to deposit them, and the other was bouncing on the balls of his feet, working out his excitement through movement. Drayden watched this all go down from his armchair that he had dragged out of the way for them to build, steely eyes glancing over the top of his drooping newspaper every so often. The boys surveyed their work, beaming in their own ways at the admittedly impressive arrangement.

“Please try not to spill anything on to the carpet.”

Their uncle rumbled and they both assured him that that would not happen. They had already planned for any accidents by retrieving a towel and handheld vacuum to clean up any messes that were inadvertently created.

“We shan’t.”

Ingo promised and Drayden grumbled something unintelligible behind the rag, staring at the same article he’d been reading about the delays for the new rail lines out of Nimbasa. Something about permits and a minor scandal with the head of transportation using Pokémon laborers that weren’t native to Unova.

Warm weight settled against his legs and Drayden lowered the paper to his lap, narrowly avoiding Emmet and Ingo as they stared up at him. He braces himself because he knows this look – although it was not presented in this double whammy form – and it usually came with an out of the ordinary request.

“Yes?”

“We would like to request three pizzas tonight because we are not sure if Elesa will like the toppings we like.”

Drayden had to bite his tongue because nobody liked the toppings the twins liked. Most children didn’t like white pizza with broccoli or Alolan style – but Emmet and Ingo did.

“You’re not going to eat three pizzas worth of pizza. It’s bad for you.” Not to mention all the junk food that they bought in preparation for the sleepover. They’re kids Drayden, he told himself, they’re excited and their eyes are literally bigger than their stomachs in this case.

Compromise.

“I’ll get you some personal pizzas. How does that sound?”

They looked positively ecstatic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bedraggled looking man who escorted his young daughter to his door had a glassy look to his eyes, waving to his daughter as she offered Drayden a polite bow and foreign greeting to Drayden before tearing over to Emmet and Ingo. Her Blitzle tottered in after her cautiously with a red backpack draped over the Pokémon’s back. If Drayden had to guess from the flared nostrils and the darting eyes, the small equine creature could smell the Druddigon lurking in his room on the second floor and was nervous. His Druddigon was too well trained to attack, but smaller Pokémon tended to get nervous around most dragons.

“Thank you for having my daughter over.”

Drayden had almost forgotten the man was there, so small and quiet as to be completely unnoticeable. His voice was flat, almost toneless, which reminded Drayden of Emmet, who had a hard time conveying his emotion through his words unlike his brother. This man sounded exhausted.

“Sure…”

There was an uncomfortable pause as the man blinked at him, Drayden almost thought he wouldn’t supply his name – instead, just pass out in his doorway.

“Rin Kamitsure.”

“Drayden Gray.”

Rin’s torso was already bending forward, clearly a reflex he had developed from a lifetime of practice before he jerked to a stop. His arm lurched up, perfectly straight to the point of looking uncomfortable, holding out his hand and staring expectantly for Drayden to take it.

The handshake was cold, absolutely nothing friendly to the stiff fingers, and went on for far too long, neither of them seemed capable of breaking the shake first.

“さようならお父さん.”

Rin’s daughter’s voice sounded flinty, almost as though she was annoyed that he was still there. If her father noticed the chill to her voice, he didn’t acknowledge it, although Drayden guessed he most certainly did not from the slow way he let go of the Dragon master’s hand.

“Bye Ellie.”

He nodded to Drayden and trudged back up the walkway and down the street. When he turned around to face the children, Emmet and Ingo were thumbing through some books while the girl scribbled feverishly on a whiteboard. With her tongue stuck between her teeth, she was scribbling symbols that were unfamiliar to Drayden with careful strokes of the marker before her hands moved in a flurry before her. That he recognized as sign. The boys had been practicing together. This girl must have been the reason.

The signing was actually helping his nephews a lot, each had their own unique challenges with how they communicated with the world around them, and signing was helping them bring a different option for verbalizing their thoughts and feelings. Emmet in particular was fast to pick it up, his lack of inflection was made up for by his expressive features, which helped emphasis his signing. Ingo’s language was emotional from the word go, but his face was like stone, that’s where his gesticulations and other body language helped him articulate his sign better.

Drayden never could read either unless they told him how they felt. It also didn’t help that the brothers were so in sync with one another that they often left their uncle metaphorically scrambling to catch up to understand them.

“Oh! Elesa, you must meet our uncle.” Ingo insisted, ushering her over to him where she bowed again. Her face scrunched and she glanced toward his nephews, Emmet silently mouthing the words ‘hello sir’ while Ingo announced that this was their goof friend Elesa. “She moved here recently with her father from Sinnoh.”

“Hello… sir?”

She said slowly, watching Emmet mouth the words one more time, before looking up at Drayden. Most children found him intimidating between his stature and inscrutable expression, but this little girl looked him in the eye with nothing short of fierce determination. She refused to be intimidated. That made him smile.

“Nice to meet you.”

Ingo frantically flipped through the pages of the book still in his hand and squinted at the page – dear Reshiram, was Ingo going to need glasses soon? Yet another thing to add to the ever-growing list of things he didn’t sign up for but found himself doing. The text was inches from his nose,

“はじめまして.”

It must have been a translation into Kantonese and Elesa gingerly corrected his pronunciation. Drayden had prepared to get virtually no sleep tonight because the kids would be loud, but it appeared he had nothing to worry about.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their uncle said he would be in his study if they needed anything after ordering their pizzas for the kids and Bouffalant burger for himself. He handed Ingo some money to tip the driver and reiterated to be careful with any food and drinks on the carpet.

Ingo offered him a smile, something that made Drayden’s heart warm a little because that did not always sync up properly with his eyes to make the expression seem so genuine. He truly wished he felt that way more often, but that kernel of resentment he felt for Kaita and Lucielle – especially Kaita. His sister all but dumped her sons on him, their parents too elderly to look after them and Lucielle’s father rendered incapable of care due to dementia.

His burgeoning career nearly came to a screeching halt when Emmet and Ingo were unceremoniously dropped into his life, Drayden was lucky he had such good friends like Clay and Lenora who offered him endless support and advice.

------

“s’not their fault, ye can’t blame ‘em fer what their mas did.”

Clay had told him, taking a long pull on his cigar just as Drayden stamped out his half-smoked cigarette. A habit he had only recently picked up and was not trying too hard to quit. The clove scented smoke soothed his nerves like nothing else could these days.

“Be patient. Kids like them can have a hard time expressing themselves.”

Lenora advised when Drayden came to her with the twins’ charts, panicked because he wasn’t sure he would be able to sufficiently take care of children like Emmet and Ingo. Audiobook and podcast recommendations always arrived in his emails when he felt the weight of the situation suffocating him.

------

He was glad he listened to her because they had bloomed into such wonderful boys.

Although that bitterness was still rooted in his heart, he did his very best to never expose it to Emmet and Ingo, because they had done nothing to earn his ire. It shamed Drayden to no end that sometimes it did come out in the form of hands-off parenting, in his absence where his nephews needed a parent (one which he was never quite prepared to be).

Drayden did the unthinkable and lightly tousled Ingo’s hair, reminding him to get the door when the delivery driver came, and to give the driver their tip. When he removed his hands, Ingo’s eyes were round and shining, his mouth was slightly open as he looked up at his uncle. His nephew managed a nod, lifting his hands to pat his hair, and slowly made his way back to his brother and their friend.

About thirty minutes later their pizzas arrived and all three kids pelted toward the door, lurking just over Ingo’s shoulder like hungry Sharpedo in anticipation. A chorus of ‘thank yous’ sent the delivery driver on her way, grinning a little at the kids as the door closed. With the personal pizzas divvied up properly, the trio clambered into the fort and settled in for the preselected documentary.

Tynamo and Blitzle were under there, already snoozing as the kids ate and watched the screen transfixed with the visuals. Emmet and Ingo had selected a documentary about Unova, selecting Kantonese subtitles for Elesa so she didn’t have to rely on the audio. Although it wasn’t their preference – that was reserved for trains and professional battling – the boys chose this documentary to help acquaint Elesa to the unfamiliar region she found herself in. She didn’t really seem to have an interest in Unova at all, so they wanted to change that.

To them, Unova was the most beautiful place in the whole world, but admittedly, they hadn’t been to many places. Galar sounded amazing, but Emmet and Ingo had to acknowledge that they were biased because there were just so many trains there – so it had to be amazing, right?

They had come to love Unova through the pictures and trinkets that their mothers sent to them. Glass paperweights that contained stylized Frillish suspended in a permanent bubble from Humilau. Frayed ticket stubs from the sports arenas in Nimbasa. Luminous crystals that refracted a thousand tiny rainbows, and still contained a little bit of static hidden in their crystalline depths, from Chargestone Cavern. Pressed flowers and leaves that still smelled as fresh as the day they were picked from Pinwheel Forest. Vibrant, but uncomfortable t-shirts advertising the famous Casteliacone alongside the stand’s Vanilluxe mascot, Mochi.

But their most prized possession? Two slightly tarnished, golden subway tokens with a stamp of the front of Gear Station on one side and the NTA symbol on the other. The transit system operated on automated cards and scanners and digital tickets nowadays, but these? These things were ancient. Mom had found them and sent them back with burgundy lipstick smudged at the bottom by their names.

Found in an antique shop a few blocks from the station. A set soon to follow, my loves.

The train set had never come, so Emmet and Ingo learned to be satisfied with the tokens.

“エモンガ?”

Elesa jerked forward with her eyes wide while she gesticulated at the screen with a ferocity that made the Pokémon wake with a start. Blitzle nickered softly, stretching his neck to rest on Elesa’s knee and nuzzling her skirt until her hand came to stroke his flank absently. Tynamo flitted over to Emmet, tucking himself into the loose collar of his trainer’s sweater and buzzing Emmet with a faint electrical charge.

A pair of Emolga were skittering across the screen; chittering and squeaking while they darted through the trees of Lostlorn Forest without a care in the world at the humans filming them. The next shot cut to two males with their hackles raised and massive incisors displayed in their yawning maws, the smaller one was getting bullied out of the other male’s territory. Another shot took the documentary to a whole tree hollow full of feathery down, fur, leaves, and dry grass with small, glittering black Emolga eyes blinking back at the lens.

Elesa covered her mouth to stifle a little noise of adoration, unwittingly leaning forward with undisguised interest at the flying squirrels that plagued the whole of Unova. Emolga were few and far between in Anville Town compared to the rest of the region, they were more at home in the trees, which their hometown lacked to accommodate the rail yard and its acres of track.

“I… love…”

Elesa said the words slowly, feeling how the Galarian syllables felt in her mouth. It sounded like such a mouth full compared to 好きだ. The name of the Pokémon sat fresh in her mind as she watched them on the screen, so carefree and happy that it made her smile softly with a fondness she thought she only held for Pachirisu.

“エモンガ. Eh- what… is エモンガ?”

Emmet and Ingo exchanged looks, although they didn’t understand Kantonese, and they were at times hard pressed to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings, Elesa was telegraphing all they needed to know with how her blue eyes stared with longing at the screen.

“Emolga.”

Emmet said slowly and watched Elesa incline her head, acknowledging that she had heard him but not looking his way.

“Emolga…”

She repeated the word, drawing out each sound as she heard it from Emmet’s lips. They sat in silence for a moment, the documentary had moved on to Venipedes and their natural instinct to curl up when in danger.

“They’re delightful little scamps.”

Ingo finally said, putting down his slice of pizza on a neat square of paper towel and scratching his cheek, hesitating on even bringing it up when Emmet piped up.

“Mom has one. Her name is Daisy. She likes to groom mom’s Stoutland’s coat. Brutus likes that verrrrry much.”

Ingo pursed his lips, balling his hands up in his lap, waiting for the question that inevitably came up when anyone heard about their mothers. Uncle Drayden rarely spoke about them, only passing off the mail that one or both had sent to their sons. People were curious to say the least when Drayden suddenly had two boys in his home and when their guardian didn’t satisfy their curiosity, it meant Emmet and Ingo were often asked directly.

“Where are your mothers?”

Emmet would stare at the ground, twisting the hem of his shirt in his hands, and Ingo would go unusually quiet, fumbling for words because he didn’t know what to say. Their mothers dropped them off here one day and they hadn’t seen them since, plenty of letters and trinkets, but never their mothers.

They didn’t know why. They tried to be good kids. They tried to be the best kids. They got good grades. They never caused trouble. They always did their chores and took care of the Pokémon.

It must not have been enough for them to stay.

Emmet shifted on the spot, tapping his nails against the plastic cup to fill the silence, and wordlessly murmuring something under his breath. Ingo knew it was the train schedules in and out of the rail yard. Emmet recited them when he said or did something that he didn’t realize was uncomfortable.

If Elesa noticed the weird pause, she didn’t mention anything, but she did say,

“I… want… one. Emolga.”

The moment of tension passed, and the twins felt like they could breathe again. They didn’t know that Elesa felt those same things about parents and had just as hard of a time putting those feelings into words. For now, they didn’t have to talk about it. They didn’t have to do anything, but sit back, eat pizza, and go to sleep late into the night in a castle of blankets that smelled like fresh laundry detergent.

“Have no fear! We will locate a nest and you can catch as many Emolga as you want.”

“Yep yep! A whole team!”

Elesa caught maybe every other word, but her mouth curled and her eyes crinkled at the excited murmurings of her two friends.

[blueisquitetired]

New chapter time!

Submas FaeU- Fairytales

Chapter Two: The Knight (Part 1)

Summary: Elesa (forcefully) befriends the twins

[eriathalia]

I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sweet comment on my fic The Nimbasa Trio Walks Into a Bar!

I'm so happy people still love and reread even my oldest submas fics, and I'm also so happy it's brought you so much joy!!

~ingo-ingoing-ingone

Aww, you are very welcome.

I'm glad it made you happy. I truly love your style of writing. It made me want to read all of your fanfics in an instant (and I did).

Or as Ingo would say: SUPER BRAVO!

[ingo-ingoing-ingone]

Submas Fic Rec

Part 1! This is for @waywardstation :)

I’m just going to be giving names and authors, no links. One, because I want this to show in the tags, and two bc all my fanfic links save for a few are on my phone lol. I read most of these as they were coming out, you lucky ducks get to binge em. :P

Type: Happy ending Shipping: None Length: Variable Status: Complete (almost all of them) AUs: Light on the AUs

Thrown Home Again by FluentInFangirl12 - Ingo arrives back in Unova and must readjust, while having sustained several injuries in Hisui that left him disabled. Multichapter, complete, verrry sweet. One of the first submas fics I read!

After All These Travels by SilverheartSP - Basically an A-Z story about how Ingo and Emmet still manage to mirror each other despite the separation. Slow burn to a happy end (that, much like my fic, almost didn’t happen according to the author lol). REALLY GOOD short little snippets.

The Hand by Grimtrack - This one is a LITTLE dark but also funny in chapter 2? Anyways, Ingo arrives in Hisui... but the portal also dropped off a mysterious severed hand with him. Almost like someone had tried to grab him before the portal closed. I find the concept really interesting! Really interesting writing too.

The Hashtag Train Twins Collection by Magical_Awesome_Kid - MY FAVORITE series (yeah this one is three fics not just one!) about the Nimbasa Trio and their shenanigans on social media. Truly funny, I laugh out loud when I read this. One of my favorite fics of ALL TIME. Covers the Hisui separation but manages to make it lighthearted, and of course there is a reunion. Sibling shenanigans abound!!

Intermittent Retention by NeoAsh - Ingo remembers everything. But only while in spacetime distortions... But he makes it home regardless of this. Really neat concept I am really glad this author explored.

recollection, retrospection, recognition by ApatheticRobots - (hiiiiiii Salem lol) Ohhh this one is so GOOD. I beta’d it, my friend is a verrry gifted writer! Ingo falls to Hisui and forgets nothing. A lot changes, but a lot also stays the same... Truly magnificent characterization, I love it so very much.

Standard Operating Procedures by layren and pointvee - Oh man. This is my favorite fic. It is LONG and hurts to read. It hit me VERY close to home but somehow also in a good way? It’s fucking BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN. And the ending is absolutely superb. But it is heavy. It remains heavy for quite some time. Anyways, Emmet pretends to be Ingo, and that Emmet is missing. He tried at first to play both parts in some form of normalcy, but, caught acting as Ingo, he lies. As that all comes crashing down SPECTACULARLY, there is the thread of “much changes, but much remains the same.” Cried. Cried so many times reading it. But it does hurt until it stops hurting, so yeah some caution advised.

The Sound of Silence by FluentInFangirl12 - Ingo returns to Unova and his brother thinks he needs to get his hearing aids fixed. Short and very sweet!!

You Don’t Have to Do That by FluentInFangirl12 - Ingo’s back, but he’s acting different than Emmet knows him to act. Emmet explains that he no longer has to mask in public. He can just be himself without worrying, and figure out what foods he likes again. More readjustment to modern times!

Null Point Exception by twixtthelines - In Hisui, though he didn’t remember why, Ingo always did his point and call pose. Always felt off though. Then, eventually, it feels right again. Really good 5 + 1 fic!

Another Detour by Grimtrack - Just realized this author wrote two of my favorite shortfics exploring really interesting ideas, HUH! Ingo returns... And learns that his brother pushed himself to the breaking point and passed away in his absence. The heartbreak does NOT last long (this is a two-shot) because Ingo IMMEDIATELY goes “oh absoLUTELY not” and fucks with time and gets his brother back. Another favorite of mine, it hurts then heals. Can’t explain why, I just. Love it.

Through Fire and Fury, You Will Come Home by ToriiStorii - Has one of the coolest titles lmaoooo. Emmet gets eeby deebied instead of Ingo! And ends up Braviary’s Warden! And then. Ingo shows up to get his brother back. Contains so many shenanigans lol. Longer fic!

coming home by KaitoKitsune - A series of 2 oneshots that explore both twins’ perspectives on a reunion!

familiarity by clockworkcheetah - Another Ingo readjusts to his old life. Can you tell I have a type. Characterizations are lovely here, author really captures how off-kilter it must make one feel.

Arrival at a Familiar Station and The Journey Home by agonyaster - Two views of a reunion, with Akari in tow :) Love the scene the author set with these two!!

Gloves by WhisperingImagination - Another one that is funny! Ingo and Emmet have to come to terms with exactly... how popular they are when a video goes viral. Based on some wonderful fanart, contains aroace Subway Masters and Elesa being a great friend. FUNNY AS HELL I LAUGHED SO HARD.

A Touch of Love by Bluegamergirl11 - Series of drabbles about the subway boys, Akari, Elesa, and Sneasler and how they show affection to one another. HUGS.

Why do you do that? by AquaMarina924 - Akari looking out for her Uncle Ingo <3 He tries to be more expressive so people can read him better, but Akari insists that he does not need to

Null and Void (Your Smile Shines Like the Stars) by PhantomBagels - Based on the famous reunion comic by @/pigdemonart, Ingo has a confusing as fuck time before his brother literally crash lands on him

Five Times Ingo Roasted Documentaries + One Time Someone Else Did by BloomingMiracle (Luna264) - Much like in our world, historical documentaries can be a load of shit. Ingo and Akari/Dawn find this out by watching some. Oh, so inaccurate lol

I HOPE YOU ENJOY AT LEAST SOME OF THESE AAAA all of them are 100% read by me and contain no shipping of brothers. I can guarantee that much lol

So I don’t consider ‘not canon compliant’ to be an AU really. Especially considering a) we have no goddamn clue what Emmet is up to, and b) we have no GODDAMN REUNION >:( SO. Most of these are just explorations into what could be.

Also yes, YES I know a ton of these are reunion fics. I really, really have a type, and I hope you guys don’t mind! XD Also I did not put my own fics on there. Pester me about those separately if you want!