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coramatus · 10 months

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A Unovan in NYC outline snippet

A reunited Emmet and Ingo slowly figure some things out between them.

Meanwhile, Emmet is helping a freshly washed Ingo get set up for the night. He insists that Ingo take the bed and he’ll sleep on the floor. Ingo tries to insist that he has a bedroll and will be more comfortable on the floor anyways, not wanting to steal Emmet’s bed. They go back and forth on this before Emmet sighs and throws his bedding on the floor. Ingo is startled, wondering what he’s doing when Emmet declares that they’ll both have to sleep on the floor. He offers Ingo a cheeky grin. This way they get to sleep side by side again!

As Emmet sets up both his and Ingo’s sleeping spots, Ingo feels more hesitant about everything. He’s unsure of where he fits in Emmet’s life anymore. Hell, he hadn’t remembered he even had a sibling until Arceus told him he needed to go fetch him barely a day ago. The fact that he needed to physically see Emmet to finally remember his name makes him feel intensely guilty.

Emmet senses Ingo’s brooding and asks him what’s up. Ingo tries not to worry Emmet and just says he’s just thinking. Emmet considers this for a moment before reassuring Ingo that he already knows about the amnesia.

Ingo is shocked, wondering how Emmet knew, to which Emmet explains that he found a book on Old Hisui that had a few passages on him, one of which mentioned his memory loss. Ingo says he isn’t sure whether to be relieved that he doesn’t need to offer a painful explanation or uncomfortable that someone saw fit to give him a place in history.

To his confusion, Emmet makes a weird face, snorting that someone else saw fit to do even more than that for Ingo. Ingo asks what he means but Emmet brushes it off, saying he’ll explain when they aren’t so tired. He pats the bedding, telling Ingo to get over here and go to sleep.

As Emmet slips under the covers and settles in, Ingo sets his things aside. He quietly looks around Emmet’s room, noting how well his brother settled into this world. He finds pictures of unfamiliar train designs and subway system maps mixed with curious, marked up charts of unknown stats. Although for a universe without Pokémon, Emmet sure seems to have a curious number of Pokémon-themed trinkets scattered about…

After turning off the light, Ingo slips in next to Emmet. His brother is quick to affectionately bump shoulders with him. He asks how Ingo is doing, to which Ingo replies that he’s a bit overwhelmed. This is a lot to take in all at once, this universe, this city, even Emmet is a lot for him to handle. Emmet seems sad at this and asks Ingo if he can hug him. Ingo is quick to agree, which brightens Emmet’s mood. Emmet considers that a good sign that Ingo is more than ready for Emmet to return to his life. As Ingo thinks about it, Emmet rolls over to hug him, snuggling against him with a happy sigh.

“I missed you so much,” Emmet says, his voice hitching with emotion.

Ingo isn’t sure what to say until he’s struck by a dawning realization.

“This entire time, I couldn’t remember you… I… I still missed you too, Emmet,” he whispers in awe. A sheen of tears builds in Ingo’s eyes as he pulls back to stare at his brother’s dimly lit face in open wonder, as if he’s truly seeing him for the first time. He raises his hand to gently cradle the side of Emmet’s face in his palm, his calloused thumb brushing over his brother’s cheek. Choked with pain, his words border on a sob, “Everyday, it hurt how much I missed you. But I didn’t even know I was in pain until I finally got you back.” Ingo softly bumps his forehead against Emmet’s, his voice brimming with an overjoyed smile, “Emmet, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Emmet whimpers with a wet sniffle, his tears freely flowing as he presses his forehead back against his brother’s.

They hug again, unwilling to let each other go, even as they doze off together into a sound slumber.

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #a unovan in new york city #submas #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #subway boss emmet #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 10 months

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A Unovan in NYC outline snippet with 700% more cats

Dawn and Ingo meet some normal Earth kitties. :3

Dawn and Ingo step into Emmet’s room, a plainly furnished place with touches of himself here and there.

Most curiously though, there’s faint squeaky mews coming from underneath Emmet’s desk.

Ingo immediately perks up. He hears babies.

Dawn follows the tiny mews to a blanket-covered cage and carefully lifts the cloth to discover it full of kittens and a mother cat that’s eyeing her cautiously. Dawn is immediately enchanted, asking what they are.

Emmet informs them that those are domestic cats he’s fostering. The mother cat’s name is Lulu and all her kittens are named after beans: Garbanzo, Pinto, Adzuki, Cocoa, Cannellini, and Mung. Lulu was a stray caught in a Trap, Neuter, Release program and found to be friendly. And very, verrry pregnant. He carefully picks a kitten up and shows it to them. It’s just a squirming, squealing fuzzy ball with soft blue eyes, so small that it perfectly fits in his hand.

Dawn and Ingo both start fawning over it. Ingo asks how long ago it hatched. It seems worryingly underdeveloped to him. He’s shocked when Emmet casually informs him that cats don’t come from eggs, they give live-birth like humans. He got to experience it firsthand when this particular adorable kitten was birthed in the grossest way possible directly onto his lap. He gives baby Mung a little kiss on the head before returning the kitten to its patiently waiting mother.

Dawn’s questions about cats come thick and fast: what do they evolve into? Are they good battlers? What kind of moves do they have? What’s its typing? It looks like a normal-type?

Emmet chuckles at her enthusiasm. She's well on her way to becoming a hell of a trainer when they get back. Those are exactly the right questions to ask for a Pokémon.

These little guys work differently though. He explains that the animals here aren’t much like Pokémon at all. There’s superficial similarities but they generally aren’t intelligent enough to consent to battling and have no real special combat abilities to begin with. Even the strongest Earth animals can’t hold a candle to the weakest Pokémon.

Anticipating her next set of questions, Emmet tells Dawn that these cats will be adopted out as pets. He’s been socializing them so that they can live with humans in what will hopefully be their forever home.

Dawn’s eyes go wide at the term ‘forever home’ and squees over such a sweet sentiment: a home that will forever love and cherish their pet.

Emmet’s grin softens at her words, encouraged by her earnest support.

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #submas #subway boss emmet #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #akari #dawn #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 11 months

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A Unovan in NYC rough draft snippet pt. 2

Disclaimer: This part will be rewritten bc it turns out some details are very wrong. But it was cute, so it’s being saved here for posterity.

Emmet finds himself sputtering out a laugh, “I have never heard Ingo described that way before.”

Jamal gives him an incredulous stare, “Seriously?? No one at home ever called either of you that? Do you have any idea how hard it was to beat you two? Singles, doubles, multi, it doesn’t matter. I lost sleep as a kid trying to figure out a counter strategy for you guys constantly steamrolling me!”

��Oh, wow. I’m sorry?”

“Ah, it’s fine. It’s not like I actually battled you,” Jamal waves him off with a laugh. He gives Emmet a cheeky smirk, “My inner child just wanted to give you a piece of his mind.”

Emmet just laughs, watching as Jamal finally gets to a fast travel point and goes for the southwest corner of the map, the screen shifting to a humble village. Jamal immediately goes tearing off to the right, aiming for a set of steps that lead up to a dojo-looking building.

As they crest the stairs, Emmet’s breath catches in his throat.

There in cartoony graphics is his brother, his back slightly hunched but calmly waiting to be challenged. He looks just as rough as he did in his old photo, his signature frown as present as ever.

Jamal’s character approaches video game Ingo and challenges him to a Path of Solitude battle. Emmet watches in fascination as the battling Pokémon use Strong and Agile styles. The battle is tough, but Jamal wins by the skin of his teeth.

“Hah! Finally!” Jamal pumps his fist triumphantly.

He then remembers himself and holds up the screen for Emmet. There’s some more dialogue between game Ingo and Jamal’s character as they wrap up their match. Ingo finishes by doing a familiar pose and…

And…

And there on Ingo’s face is a small satisfied smile.

Emmet suddenly finds himself sniffling, running a sleeve over his nose as he realizes he’s crying. He beams at Jamal and thanks him.

“What for?” Jamal asks uncertainly.

Emmet’s smile is bright.

“For letting me see Ingo again.”

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #a unovan in new york city #submas #subway boss emmet #jamal bashir #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 11 months

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A Unovan in New York City (part 1)

An AU in which Ingo and Akari go on a rescue mission to retrieve Emmet, only to find him living a perfectly normal life… in our universe’s NYC.

(Currently incapable of committing to a full story. Hope rough summaries will suffice.)

Our story starts in Hisui, where Akari, or rather Dawn, and Ingo have said their goodbyes and are about to head home by speaking to Arceus. Arceus is happy to send them back to their time, but something has come up that is relevant to them. It seems Ingo’s twin brother has thrown himself through space-time and landed somewhere that Arceus’s influence is almost non-existent. They can all still go home together if they use a macguffin device on the machine that eeby deebied Ingo’s brother. They just need to find him first.

The two humans exchange glances. Ingo tells Dawn she ought to go home to her family, but she shakes her head. Dawn is all too happy to help Ingo with this retrieval mission. Knowing how capable she is, Ingo accepts her assistance with a small smile.

Before they leave, Arceus warns them that they need to exercise great caution in this world. Pokémon do not exist there at all and the presence of theirs could cause trouble if they’re too reckless. Which sounds completely insane to them but if Ingo’s brother is there then they have to go.

Arceus nods, opening a glowing portal with a thought. Dawn reaches out for Ingo’s hand, who grasps hers with a comforting squeeze. Hand in hand, they step through into blinding light.

When the light clears, Dawn and Ingo find themselves blinking away light spots in the middle of a large city on a cloudy day. Towering buildings of stone, metal, and glass loom around them and bustling crowds of people and vehicle traffic are everywhere. Between the sounds of countless humans chatting and shouting blending into a noisy thrum, indistinct music can be heard playing from the many surrounding shopfronts, vendor carts, and cars. In the distance they can hear the piercing call of sirens, sharp whistles, and dull rumblings of heavy machinery at work. Lights and screens of advertisements play continuously, screaming for attention despite it being the middle of the day. Punctuating all of this chaos are the scents of wet pavement, hot food, and old trash mixing into a smell that was unmistakably of a developed city. (Not Times Square)

But all of that is suddenly lost to the sound of screeching tires as an incoming car brakes to a stop mere inches away from a startled Ingo. It’s followed by a cacophony of screeches as the cars following it are forced to suddenly stop too. Dawn looks around and realizes they’re on a street in the middle of an intersection. The first car blares its horn loudly and repeatedly at the two, the driver even sticking her head out the window to scream at them to get out of the road (“I’m drivin’ ‘ere!!”). More horns blast as people behind the first add into the noise by throwing in their displeasure. The explosion of sound only causes bystanders to stop and stare at the scene unfolding before them, a fair number pulling out flat rectangles that resemble smartphones of some sort and aiming them in their direction.

Ingo freezes. His mind is instantly overwhelmed by both sensory overload and a visceral memory of experiencing almost the exact same situation long, long ago.

Dawn is quicker on the uptake and grabs the dazed Ingo by the arm, pulling him out of the asphalt road and onto a sidewalk, ignoring the angry shouting behind them. Onlooking pedestrians back away at their approach but otherwise they just give them the stink eye. She mumbles shy apologies and hurriedly pushes past the small crowd, dragging Ingo along the sidewalk, who thankfully seems aware enough to keep his balance and follow after her.

After a lot of shoving her way through throngs of people, Dawn finally comes across a small park with trees and a fountain. Ducking into it, she and Ingo collapse onto a bench, taking a moment to regain their bearings. As Dawn catches her breath, she notices that Ingo is… somewhere else, slightly disconnected from reality as far as she can tell. She gently shakes his shoulder to get his attention and asks what’s up.

In a daze, Ingo says he recognizes this.

This place feels eerily familiar to Ingo. The crowded nature of the city, the traffic of motorized carriages, even the rude attitude of the people… he’s lived this life before. It was what he was used to until… until Hisui…

Dawn looks around in confusion. Here? Here, here??

Ingo snaps out of it and shakes his head. No, not this place in specific. It’s too… strange. There’s not enough Pokémon.

Wait…

They’ve seen neither hide nor hair of a single Pokémon since they got here. Checking around her, Dawn finds a lot of bird things that look like tinier Pidoves but literally nothing else. It seems that Arceus wasn’t kidding about this world’s lack of Pokémon.

Pulling out her Arc-phone, Dawn checks the device’s functions. Fortunately, it seems it’s granted her access to this world’s internet. With a little poking around, she finds a map site that shows them being in a place called ‘New York City’. Ingo shakes his head, those words meaning nothing to him. Zooming in and out of the map doesn’t offer much more context, just the names of more unfamiliar places and unrecognizable geography. All they can say for sure is that this city is stupidly huge and finding Ingo’s brother in this won’t be easy.

Deciding they need a better place to start, Dawn asks Ingo if he remembers anything about his brother. Arceus said he’s his twin? That had to be the ‘man with a face like his’. Right?

Ingo gets that distant look again as more bits are shaken loose from his damaged memory. He remembers a few scraps: the color white, a broad smile, the crackling of electricity, something about fuzzy yellow things, someone always at his side in the good times and bad. And a lonely sadness.

But those are just thoughts and feelings, nothing substantial worth mentioning to Dawn. And unfortunately, none of them came with a key piece of information: a name.

But Ingo does remember the word ‘train’ being strongly associated with his brother. More specifically the word: ‘subway’.

Now that they’re in a place with internet, Dawn realizes that finding things out should be a lot easier. On a hunch, she finds a search engine and looks up the word. The results are quick with pictures and articles aplenty.

There’s a choked noise from Ingo and Dawn turns to find him staring wide eyed at her screen, a shaking hand raised as if trying to reach for her phone. Dawn wordlessly hands the device over to let Ingo look at it and he easily thumbs through the webpages. His eyes keep drinking in the images, unable to get enough.

“This… This is it!” Ingo breathes out as long withheld memories finally break free. “This is exactly it!! THIS is a train! A machine on rails! The greatest form of transportation ever invented! I used to drive these all the time! How could I have ever forgotten this?!”

“Ingo??” Dawn gently squeezes his arm in worry, “You’re crying.”

Ingo blinks at her before pressing the tips of his fingers against his cheek. They come away wet.

“Ah, so it seems,” he acknowledges, wiping his face with the back of a sleeve. He chuckles reassuringly, “Never fear, Miss Dawn. These are happy tears. You’ve rerouted an important part of me back to my station. I should be thanking you right now.”

Without another word, Dawn holds out her arms in a clear offer for a hug. He embraces her in gratitude.

“So your brother worked on trains too?” she asks when they part.

“Yes… we did it together,” Ingo says wistfully, “Like everything else we did. He would battle Pokémon alongside me in a moving subway car. It was what we were renowned for.”

Dawn shoots to her feet, her fist punching her palm as she grins at him, “Then that settles it! First, step! We find a subway. If your brother is as obsessed with these things as you are, then he can’t be too far off from one!”

“That sounds like a good place to start,” Ingo nods sharply. With a dramatic sweep of his arm, he points towards the road, “Next stop: a subway station! All aboard!!”

His moment of triumph is interrupted by a surrounding flock of not-Pidoves erupting into flight, startled by the sudden boom of his voice. Parkgoers and pedestrians are equally startled by the fleeing birds, eliciting a few shrieks of terror. Some people turn to glare at him and Ingo has the good grace to duck his head down, tipping his hat brim over his eyes in embarrassment.

Dawn just about loses it from laughing so hard.

His shout also catches the attention of a colorful group of people who immediately start excitedly pointing at them and chattering amongst themselves. Dawn pays them no mind until one breaks off to approach them.

She looks a few years older than Dawn with brightly colored hair in pink and purple and wearing a slightly off-beat outfit compared to most of the city-dwellers around her. She smiles at them, raising a hand in nervous excitement.

“Hello! I’m really sorry to bother you two, but I just wanted to say that I love your cosplay! It looks amazing! So on point!”

Dawn and Ingo exchange glances.

“Oh, uh, thank you!” Dawn says, thinking fast. She has no idea what this stranger is talking about but she seems to be nice enough. Dawn hopes that’s the end of it, but the girl pulls out a smartphone and looks a lot more nervous.

“Um! May I please take a picture of you guys?” she asks with an embarrassed flush in her face, yet looking hopeful, “It’s just that you did such a great job on your costumes!”

Ingo looks like he wants to say something but Dawn cuts in with a polite but rueful smile, “Ah, I’m sorry, no, we’re kinda in the middle of something. Maybe some other time?”

There’s a look of faint disappointment, but it doesn’t last as she grins in reassurance, “Oh! Of course! I totally understand. I’m really sorry for interrupting you! Have a great day!”

And just like that, the stranger waves goodbye as she makes her exit and jogs back to her friends. A few of them tease her but she takes it in good stride, tossing a few comebacks at them. They depart trading playful insults.

Dawn sighs in relief.

Ingo looks puzzled.

“What is ‘cosplay’?” he asks.

“It’s a dress up thing, where you wear what a movie or tv show character wears. It’s just for fun,” Dawn explains.

“Hrm,” Ingo rubs his chin in mild concern, “I wonder what they think we are cosplaying as.”

Dawn shrugs, “I guess they have something where characters wear clothes like ours?”

Ingo makes a noise of uncertainty but doesn’t press the matter.

They have to walk a few blocks, but they find the nearest subway station easily. Going down the stairs, they are met with a scene that makes Ingo stop and stare as familiarity washes over him once more, the feeling rocking him even more powerfully this time.

Ticketing machines, turnstiles, worker booths, the smell of stale air and the faint rumbling of fast-moving steel.

It’s like he’s come home.

Dawn is just as fascinated by Ingo’s reaction, “Is this what your subway station looked like?”

“Stations,” Ingo absently corrects her, his eyes sweeping across the station interior, picking out every familiar detail, “And yes, some of them were not dissimilar to this.”

But as he takes a closer look, the reality of this place seeps in. There’s litter strewn everywhere, the lights are too dim to be effective, several machines are labeled with out-of-order signs, and that odor… Ingo makes a faint sound of disgust and covers his nose with his coat sleeve.

“Except my stations were far more sanitary than this! Ugh, did someone urinate in here?!”

Dawn crinkles her nose too. “So they’re not supposed to smell like pee?”

“Not in a properly run system, no!” Ingo growls in a rare show of irritation. “If my brother holds a job here, he has some explaining to do!”

“I get the feeling this is something out of his control,” Dawn comments. Then a lit board shifts her attention, “Oh hey! A map!”

She hurries over to the display, but as she gets close she realizes they may have underestimated things.

“Ingo? I think we have a problem,” Dawn calls over her shoulder.

He’s not sure what she means until he gets a clear look at the map for himself: a sprawling mess of lines and stations crisscrossing the map in a dizzying display. Even he has to admit that this is going to be a daunting task.

“That is… a lot of stations,” Ingo mutters in awe.

Dawn doesn’t recognize the characters used on this map. She pulls out her Arc-phone and thumbs over to her translator app. Holding the phone up to the display, the screen instantly offers an overlay of letters she can read.

She turns to look at Ingo expectantly, “Any ideas? You’re the subway master.”

Ingo squints at the translated map, the corners of his mouth pulling down in visible concern, “It’s hard to know where to start, even for me.” His frown deepens as something else occurs to him, “Not that it matters. Neither of us has the local currency to purchase tickets.”

Dawn realizes he has a point there and thinks about it, “Ok, plan B! We walk to each station!”

Ingo side eyes her, “That will also be a significant undertaking.”

“Well I don’t have any better ideas.”

Dawn is about to suggest using one of their Pokémon when she suddenly remembers that might cause more problems. She sighs and shrugs.

They stand there, stumped.

This is when the group of fans pop up again. One of them notices Ingo and Dawn and excitedly points the pair out again. This time they can see that the two ‘cosplayers’ seem to be having some trouble and offer to help. Akari tells them they want to ride the subway but they don’t have any money on them, laughing it off as the result of a long story. One of the fans is feeling charitable and gives them both twenty dollars. A friend makes a small objection to the amount so Akari gets the idea to offer them those pictures they wanted earlier as thanks. The group excitedly agrees and they head back up to start their impromptu photoshoot.

On Twitter, Youtube, Tiktok and Tumblr, images and video of two cosplayers start making the rounds through the Pokémon fandom circles.

In the photos, an Akari cosplayer is grinning widely with her fingers up in a v-sign. Her outfit is remarkable in how worn it looks, like it had been repeatedly rolled in mud, grass and stone. Her makeup is on point too, looking scratched and smudged with dirt.

She is accompanied by an Ingo cosplayer, who is dressed in a similar state, though his outfit is far more realistically tattered and frayed, as if it had become that way through natural wear and tear. Even his face seems naturally lined and aged. What really stands out is how he’d styled his trademark knife-sideburns/locks, which seem to offer a definitive answer as to what they really were. This cosplayer, however, looks genuinely baffled, wearing an uncomfortable smile that borders on a grimace. All of this is perfectly in-character of course and he absolutely sells it.

Most of the pictures features a group of friends posing with the two, either just smiling in excitement at the camera, doing silly poses, or are seen in a few candid shots of them marveling over the costumes.

However the most notable result of this meeting was a short Tiktok they’d shot together.

The Tiktok video only features the Akari cosplayer. There is a brief blip of the Ingo cosplayer in the beginning, the camera turning to him sitting off to the side, shyly begging off from whatever came next before the camera refocuses on the Tiktoker and Akari. The rest of the video shows Akari being shown how to do the steps of a Tiktok dance, followed by a few clips of some goofy failed trial runs, before concluding with Akari and the Tiktoker successfully pulling off the dance together. They excitedly high-five and congratulate each other, punctuated by a loud ‘BRAVO!’ booming in the background, before the video ends.

The Pokémon Legends Arceus fans are particularly tickled by the new images and happily share them amongst themselves. It doesn’t take long for them to land on the Tumblr dashboard of one Jamal Bashir.

By the time any of this reaches Jamal, he is still waking up from a nap and sleepily flipping through his phone before he has to get back to work on a project. When the first pictures flash by, he chuckles and taps the like button before adding the posts to his queue. He figures that’s the end of it until he comes across a reposting of the TikTok video. The video is short and sweet and he gives that a like and queued reposting too. On a whim, he rewatches it to admire the realism of the outfits. But as he spots the Ingo cosplayer again, something catches his attention.

There’s something familiar about his face.

Intrigued, Jamal goes back to the photo posts and studies the man a little more closely. His side hair and goatee are spot on and natural-looking in a way that is difficult to replicate without actual facial hair. Jamal has only seen one other person who managed to pull it off so well and that person is…

When the realization hits him, Jamal just about falls out of bed.

He frantically checks and rechecks the photos, scanning over them and picking out details that only add to his theory. He even pulls up a few of his photos to be sure, because if this isn’t anything less than what he thinks it is, his friend is going to kill him. And he can’t do that to the guy after everything he’s been through.

But he’s almost positive.

Only one last thing to do.

With his heart pounding in his throat, Jamal sends a frantic text to a contact only labeled with a train emoji.

DUDE HOLY SHIT YOU SEEN THIS?!?!?!?!??

He attaches links to the videos and images, practically flooding their chat history with embedded media.

I THINK ITS HAPPENING GET UR ASS READY

The next hour is agonizing.

Jamal has probably worn a track into his floor from all his anxious pacing as he tries to figure out what’s taking so long. He’d figure the guy checked his phone on occasion while working, but has to remind himself of who he’s dealing with. He absolutely would not check until he was on a break. Just as Jamal is about to march off to go find him, his phone dings with a new message.

The reply is concise in its desperation.

WHERE

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #a unovan in new york city #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #akari #dawn #arceus #jamal #jamal bashir #subway boss emmet #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 1 year

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Black Reshiram AU - part 2

I wrote more to this angst train. Plz help.

Part 1

A few days pass. Emmet finds some peace in the knowledge that his brother is dead. He’s starting to work on a memorial service when there is a knock on the door.

Emmet finds a despondent Ingo on his doorstep.

Looking at Ingo, Emmet can see that he’s been through a lot. His dress is dirty and missing feathers, his long hair disheveled, and his eyes shadowed with guilt. Ingo doesn’t seem to know what to say.

So Emmet lets him in, inviting him to sit anywhere. Ingo does so, looking distinctly uncomfortable as Emmet prepares some coffee for the both of them.

When Ingo is handed his coffee, he’s surprised to find it prepared just the way he likes it (sugary and pale with creamer). Emmet smiles sadly, he guessed it would be the same as his brother’s. Ingo goes quiet at this.

For a long moment, the two sit there in uncomfortable silence.

Then Emmet asks if Ingo is alright. Ingo is quiet for a long time before answering in a soft pained voice that he is not. He got into a fight with his parent. Their first genuine fight.

In the time since Ingo last spoke to Emmet, he’s been doing a lot of soul-searching. He researched his past life as both Subway Boss Ingo and Warden Ingo, trying to understand who they were even if ostensibly all three of them are the same person.

But the very last thing Ingo wanted to do was to seek out his parent and demand answers. He loves his parent! They raised him from an egg! They taught him everything! He owes his life to them.

And yet as the Dragon of Truth, why did they never directly tell him he was the reincarnation of a man displaced in time? He too can sense lies, but lies of omission can slip by. Had his parent withheld some part of the truth?

The questions continuously eat away at Ingo until he finally cracks and hunts down his parent.

(Not sure what Reshiram would be up to after the events of BW2. Released? Still hanging around with protagonists? Chilling with N? Return to rock mode? I’m going with: got released for AU purposes)

Until that point, Ingo had been trying to avoid his parent in an eager attempt to prove that he was a self-sufficient adult dragon and didn’t need their help anymore. So Reshiram is quite surprised when a visibly upset Ingo in human form tracks them down, insisting that he needs answers. Worried, but happy to see their son again, they oblige.

Ingo gets straight to the point and tells his parent that he got his human memories back. He’s not sure what their reaction will be, but he doesn’t anticipate Reshiram visibly perking up, pleased to hear that those finally kicked back in.

Ingo is stunned and baffled at this. That’s it? They knew this was going to happen this whole time? Why didn’t they warn him?!

Reshiram seems confused. They thought Ingo would be happy to have that part of him back. Now he can carry on where he left off now that he’s in his proper time period.

But Ingo vehemently disagrees. That’s not how this feels to him.

“All you did was replace him with me!” Ingo snaps harshly. He looks up at Reshiram accusingly, “I have his memories but that Ingo is gone.”

“You are still Ingo,” Reshiram calmly reassures him, “Be it of the past or of now, they are both you. Your soul remains the same.”

Tears of frustration prick at Ingo’s eyes as he shouts up to his parent, “You don’t get it! I’m not the same as him. I didn’t live his life and he didn’t live mine. We can’t be the same person! We’re not even the same species! I’m a dragon for Arceus’s sake!!”

Reshiram is taken aback by this. Ingo has never raised his voice in this much genuine anger before. Concerned for their child, they try to reassure him,

“I thought it was an elegant solution at the time. We would both get what we wanted. I would have a child and you would live to see your proper time again.”

This just upsets Ingo even more and he demands to know why would a Legendary want a child to begin with??

Knowing this would come up eventually, Reshiram admits that they spent centuries longing for a child to raise as their own. A desire born out of simple loneliness. Though they have a sibling in Zekrom, they both split from the Original Dragon for a reason and generally keep apart. Few others can ever hope to provide a close-knit, long-term bond when a Legendary’s lifespan runs into the tens of thousands of years.

But to have a child?

Then they have someone to nurture, an individual to focus their energy into for the rest of their long lives. They would never have to be lonely again.

But Legends like them cannot reproduce on their own. They have to be granted special permission to circumvent this. Reshiram had only just received Arceus’s blessing to take in a lost soul as their own when the original Ingo’s plea came through. To Reshiram, if a doomed, time-displaced human was willing to take on that role, they weren’t going to question it.

Ingo is left devastated. He feels taken advantage of, like he’s little more than a plaything. An entire life thrown away just so a powerful being can play at parenthood.

Reshiram argues that wasn’t the case, this was never some game to them. They love Ingo with all their heart; they’ve only ever wanted the best for him.

Ingo then asks why past-Ingo wasn’t allowed to go home. If Reshiram picked someone else, could that Ingo have simply gone back to his proper time instead of becoming him?

To this, Reshiram grows quiet as Ingo’s point finally seems to dawn on them. They’re genuinely uncertain, but as they think about it… they admit that Ingo might have had a decent chance of going home if Reshiram had chosen literally anyone else.

Hearing this, Ingo loses it.

In a fit of rage, he shifts to his true form and attacks his parent. Both dragons tussle in a roaring, snarling fight as they bite and claw at each other. But Reshiram is millennia old and easily wrestles their child to the ground, pinning Ingo down. Ingo thrashes and roars to no avail. His parent is heartbroken that it came to this. They love their child and they believed that Ingo would understand their choices were all made for his sake.

Laying on the ground, Ingo’s emotions have nowhere else to go. He howls in anguish as he breaks down crying. He is in so much turmoil that he shifts back to his human form. His parent solemnly releases him and watches him sadly as his small, crumpled body lays there sobbing brokenly.

With a regretful sigh, Reshiram shifts to his human form, crouching down to speak to his son,

“Ingo?”

“…why?” Ingo whimpers, his words muffled with his face buried in his arms. “Why him? Why me?”

Reshiram doesn’t immediately answer, taking a moment to think through his words. When he finally speaks, he sounds hesitant admitting,

“I saw something special in you, Ingo. I still do. There is a beautiful flame that burns in you. One that I do not wish to see snuffed out. If I simply let you be, you would likely die a mortal death no matter where you went. And then that fire would truly be lost.”

“So you just had to be a selfish asshole about it,” Ingo spits at him, “That wasn’t your decision to make!”

Reshiram winces, “Ingo…”

“How could you?! Did you even think about what this would do to me?! To him??” Ingo shouts, the pain in his voice ringing far too clearly. He turns away, his breath hitching with a sob, “This wasn’t fair…”

His parent’s normally stern, placid face now dawns with growing shame, “I am starting to see that now… Let me at least try to—”

“No. Just, stop. You’ve done enough…” Ingo chokes out. He can’t even bear to look at his parent anymore, purposefully keeping his back to him, “I don’t ever want to see you again. Please, just go…”

Reshiram is left stunned. And yet the Truth in Ingo’s words is undeniable.

He has no choice but to respect it.

He starts to reach out to Ingo’s shoulder, but stops, thinking better of it. He collects himself and gets up to leave. Before returning to his true form, Reshiram turns to Ingo one last time, regret weighing heavily on his voice,

“For what it’s worth… I am sorry, Ingo. I love you.”

Ingo doesn’t look back at him. Choking on his sobs, he hoarsely whimpers, “I love you too…”

There’s a gust from a mighty flap of wings and a mournful roar as Reshiram flies away, leaving Ingo to deal with the fallout alone.

Ingo cries as he finishes relating his story. His heart is broken and so is his trust in his parent. He has never felt more lost.

Emmet wordlessly hugs Ingo, who clings to Emmet like a lifeline. Ingo feels like he’s drowning, his emotions eating him alive.

They stay like that for a long time as Ingo gradually calms down.

Wanting a distraction, he quietly asks Emmet if he could tell him what his brother was like. Emmet understands what he’s asking for and gladly tells him of his experiences with his brother. How he was a passionate battler, one of the best trainers he’s ever known, a diligent subway manager, always better at filling out paperwork and working out logistical problems, but most importantly that he was a devoted older sibling, always there for him when he needed it and perfectly in-tune with each other.

Ingo listens quietly, simply letting Emmet’s words wash over him as he builds a better picture of who he once was. The sheer passion with which Emmet speaks in spite of his monotone inflection tells Ingo so much about their former relationship.

…the old Ingo deserved to come back home as he was. He deserved so much more than to be nothing but a memory of a past life.

All of a sudden, Ingo can’t take it anymore and hurriedly opts to leave. He quickly excuses himself, hiding his tears for Emmet’s brother.

But before Ingo can escape, Emmet stops him. He hands Ingo Chandelure’s ball, telling him she’ll be happy to see him again. Ingo is hesitant to take it but Emmet presses the Pokéball into his hands. He thinks Ingo could use some company right now.

Unable to argue against this, Ingo quietly accepts the Pokéball. He thanks Emmet and makes his way out, cradling the ball with the utmost care.

Emmet watches Ingo until he’s fully out of view. When he closes the door, he hits it backfirst and slides down against it, crumpling to the floor. Burying his face in his arms, Emmet screams.

He doesn’t know what else to do.

Part 3??

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #black reshiram au #submas #subway boss emmet #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #black reshiram ingo #coramatus’s writing #a bit nervous about this one but i tried

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coramatus · 1 year

Text

A Unovan in NYC outline snippet, feat. Akari/Dawn and Ingo

(Dawn and Ingo’s first day in NYC on the hunt for Emmet. They’ve already run into this group of Pokémon fans before, who think they’re just really good cosplayers, when this happens.)

They run into the group of fans again who notice they seem to be having trouble with something and offer to help. Akari tells them they want to ride the subway but they don’t have any money on them, laughing it off as the result of a long story. One of the fans is feeling charitable and gives them both twenty dollars. A friend makes a small objection to the amount so Akari gets the idea to offer them those pictures they wanted earlier as thanks. The group excitedly agrees and they start their impromptu photoshoot.

On Twitter, Youtube, Tiktok and Tumblr, images and video of two cosplayers start making the rounds through the Pokémon fandom circles.

However the most notable result of this meeting was a short Tiktok they’d shot together.

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon diamond and pearl #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #a unovan in new york city #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #dawn #akari #jamal #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 11 months

Text

A Unovan in NYC rough draft snippet

In which Emmet sees his first Pokémon game and Jamal gets embarrassed about his OC self-insert.

“Jamal? Do you know where Ingo is?”

“I… Yeah. He’s in Hisui.”

“Is there a game for that?”

“Um, yeah. Pokémon Legends Arceus. It’s still pretty new.”

“Show me.”

“…Now?”

“Please. I want to see how he’s doing.”

Jamal hesitates, uncertain if indulging Emmet this way is what’s best for him.

But considering everything the guy just went through?

He rummages through a drawer, and pulls out a red and blue device with a wide screen in the center. A Nintendo Switch, Jamal calls it. He loads in a little chip and powers up the device.

Emmet leans in with bated breath as Jamal navigates the starting menu and jumps into a save file. The screen lights up and the landscape of Hisui is rendered in all its glory. In the center of it all is an unfamiliar dark-skinned boy with a curious white Zoroark mask.

“Who’s that?”

Jamal stiffens and looks a little embarrassed, “Th-That’s… uh… it’s me. Kinda. Sorta. Y’know, roleplaying. I might’ve gone a bit overboard with customization there.”

“It looks neat,” Emmet says earnestly, now vaguely wondering how much of himself he could customize into the character model.

A small smile lights up Jamal’s face before he quickly clears his throat and returns to the game to guide his character around.

“Alright, gimme a sec to get to Jubilife. I was in the middle of shiny hunting so it might take a minute. This is post-game by the way, so Ingo hangs out around there.”

Half of Jamal’s words barely make sense but they’re not what’s important here.

“What is Ingo doing there?” Emmet asks

“Battle stuff,” Jamal says, busy guiding a weird Braviary’s flight, “He’s the guy you challenge if you want to get your ass beat.”

Emmet finds himself sputtering out a laugh, “I have never heard him described that way before.”

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #a unovan in new york city #subway boss emmet #jamal bashir #coramatus’s writing

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coramatus · 1 year

Note

Please inflict this idea upon us, I am extremely curious about why it’s a bad idea

Welp. Y’all are verrrrry curious!

I’ll just dump most of the brainstorming text here.

(It’s a bad idea bc it came from me 8’3)

Tl;dr: Ingo makes a deal with Reshiram and is reborn as a baby black Reshiram

Basically, Ingo gets royally screwed over and left stranded in Hisui, destined to die there without ever getting the chance to return to his proper place. Ingo isn’t happy about this but what can he do?

On a whim, he makes a heartfelt plea to whoever from his homeland can hear him to help him go home. He just wants to go home…

And something is compelled to respond.

Ingo is met with a bright flash of light and a strangely familiar roar. When the light clears, he is faced with a great white feathered dragon staring down at him. He is quick to bow in reverence, but the dragon tells him it won’t be necessary. It introduces itself as Reshiram, the Twin Dragon of Truth.

Because he is a child of Unova, Ingo is under its influence and it has a way to help him get back to his proper home. But seeing as how Ingo’s home is in the future, that method won’t be straightforward. Reshiram has no power over time itself; their only way forward is to go the long way. Of course, Ingo’s human body can’t be sustained for such a long time. Ingo will have to be changed, given a form that can last until the right time when said memories will be returned. A form that will be under Reshiram’s direct protection.

Ingo is unsure about this whole thing and asks for some time to decide. Reshiram obliges.

Initially, Ingo goes around Hisui asking for advice but he quickly realizes that if this is his only way back then he has to take it. His travels turn into him saying his goodbyes to everyone. Most are sad to see him go, but they know how much he’s wanted to leave.

In the end, Ingo returns to Reshiram and agrees. He asks what he’s supposed to do and Reshiram simply tells him to hold still. It leans in and bumps Ingo’s chest with its nose. Warmth washes over Ingo’s body and he starts to feel faint. Reshiram tells him to sleep, he will reawaken when it’s time. Until then, he should enjoy his new life.

Ingo tries to hold on but darkness overtakes him. Suddenly, he’s in a tight dark space. He tries to move but finds he doesn't have a body to move anymore. Any panic and fear quickly fizzle away as his mind fades to nothing.

Where Ingo once stood, his empty clothes fall into a pile over a large egg. Reshiram nuzzles the egg, promising to take care of him before sweeping the clothing and egg bundle into its grasp. With everything secured, it soars back to Unova, building a nest in a distant cave where it can brood over the egg.

Inside the egg, something that was once Ingo starts to stir. Any knowledge of what he once was sinks away into a locked and buried space. New ideas bubble up into his mind. The thought of soaring in sunny blue skies brings a sense of wonder and joy. The image of hot burning flames warms his heart. The knowledge that he is of dragons takes root.

For Reshiram, several years pass as its ward incubates. They are patient though, staying on the egg for months at a time, turning it over, and doting on it.

At long last, the egg finally starts to move, wriggling as its occupant starts to break free. Faint peeping can be heard as he calls out plaintively.

Reshiram gives the egg a rumbling nudge of encouragement and it starts to crack in response.

After several hours of struggling, enough eggshell is broken away to allow the hatchling to come tumbling out with a weak peep. He is a black, baby Reshiram, his feathers still not fully developed, his body weakly gasping and shivering.

‘Hello, little Ingo,’ Reshiram warmly welcomes him. It nuzzles the tiny black hatchling and the reborn Ingo flops against it in loving relief. A warm tongue bathes him as his downy black feathers dry and fluff up, allowing him to warm quickly. He soon falls asleep against his parent’s feathery fluff, exhausted but happy.

The first hundred years are busy, Reshiram teaching its child how to be a dragon. Ingo eagerly takes to his lessons even if he is a clumsy, peeping hatchling at first. He slowly grows into his body, his flight feathers developing, his wings strengthening. He learns to use his fire, burning a silvery-blue shade. He calls Reshiram both mama and papa and later on just ‘parent’. As he grows more confident in his body, Reshiram teaches him more of his inherent powers, showing him how to live among both humans and Pokémon by disguising himself. His human form is unsurprisingly identical to his past self’s appearance. He also learns how to attune himself to Truths and sensing lies. Lies don’t mortally offend him like his parent but he doesn’t like them either.

His first century is a blissful one.

Ingo reaches maturity at a hundred years. Though he’s ecstatic at being able to venture out on his own, it’s not entirely by choice. His parent tells him that they need to leave, they have a greater role to fulfill. But he should be ready for whatever the world throws at him. All he has to do is remember that when the time comes: he is Ingo, he has always been Ingo and that will never change.

Ingo doesn’t know what that means. Reshiram nuzzles him one last time and simply tells him it will fulfill a promise they made to him a long time ago.

With that, Reshiram flies away, leaving Ingo to forge his own path ahead.

Ingo spends the next hundred or so years simply living his life and having a great time. He observes Unovan society, easily taking on human guise and walking amongst humanity. He watches the development of trains and adores them (gets a job as a fireman at one point and his trains weirdly tend to run faster). He watches the rise of modern Pokémon battling and loves that too. Meanwhile, he builds up a bit of a reputation of being a big ol’ cryptid ‘The Black Reshiram’ and he thinks that’s hilarious.

As his proper time comes closer, he doesn’t really notice anything off. He never sees his past self or Emmet due to not being around Nimbasa much and not being able to access the Battle Subway (legendaries are banned after all lol) (took one look at the banned sign, went ‘aww man…’ and left)

He does see his past self’s missing posters and that is really concerning because uh… how is he missing and which human even knows he exists???

Several years after Subway Boss Ingo vanishes, the day comes. (Reshiram didn’t have an exact date so it gave itself a few extra years as a buffer.)

This could go several ways, but I’m a whore for angst so that’s where I went

Dragon Ingo is sent into an existential crisis.

Ingo is having a nice flight over the sparse desert when his old human memories slam into him like a Thunderbolt. Confused and terrified, he involuntarily shifts to human form, sending him crashing back down to earth. But he doesn’t care. He’s too busy trying to figure out who he is as he screams in horror, his mind melting down from the conflicting histories.

When he comes back to himself, Ingo feels like he’s been torn in half. He remembers and it’s the worst pain he’s ever felt.

And yet he has no choice but to move forwards.

Past Ingo didn’t remember his past life, leaving current Ingo to start picking up the pieces. He learns who Subway Boss Ingo was, his life and legacy before disappearing.

And he learns who Emmet is.

Ingo is terrified, but is inevitably drawn to Nimbasa and watches Emmet, feeling a strange longing pulling him to the man. But Ingo still doesn’t know who he really is anymore. He’s spent so long as a dragon, his past human life feels less consequential. And yet it’s part of him; it will always be part of him.

It’s in one of those moments of hesitation that Emmet spots him.

Their reunion doesn’t go well. Though Ingo tries to hide from Emmet, Emmet still zeros in on him and tries to hug him. But Ingo is still suffering from his identity crisis and freaks out, shoving Emmet off, begging him to leave him alone before fleeing. The sight of Ingo’s retreating back almost breaks Emmet. He’s so hurt and confused but he won’t let that stop him.

So he gives chase.

Their chase lasts for a while before Emmet ultimately tackles Ingo, demanding to know why he’s running, where he’s been, what is going on, etc.. Ingo can’t handle it anymore and throws Emmet off as he starts shifting back into his dragon form. Emmet is left to watch in terror as Ingo begs him to stay away, his fingers turning to claws, black feathers growing from his body, his teeth shifting to fangs. Where his brother once stood is a terrified black Reshiram, cowering from him, weeping. Emmet is at a loss for words and can only stare as the dragon takes to the air and flies away. For a long time, Emmet sits there in shock, unable to move as he struggles to understand what he just saw when a large black feather is blown to him. Emmet picks it up, examining the sleek feather. Something in him breaks and he crumples, cradling the feather as he cries. He apologizes to Ingo, begging him to come back. He misses him. He just wants his brother home again. A teardrop lands on the feather…

Ingo’s heart clenches in his chest. He can hear Emmet’s Truth. But he can’t respond. He’s too scared. He doesn’t know who he is anymore. He flies out to the desert, roaring mournfully as he collapses back into human form. He curls up in the dirt and cries.

The next day, Ingo is awoken by human hands shaking him. He opens his eyes to find unfamiliar people fussing over him, thinking him a lost hiker of some sort. They offer him food and water which he sluggishly accepts, still lost in his existential crisis. Then one of them recognizes him as the missing Subway Boss. Ingo tries to push them away to say that he’s not, he doesn’t know who he is, he wants to be left alone. But his rescuers are so kind and gentle with him that he can’t bring himself to do anything against them. So he reluctantly allows himself to be ushered into a vehicle and taken back to Nimbasa.

For Emmet, he’s ready to spend the whole week sleeping. He doesn’t understand what he witnessed yesterday, what he has undeniable proof of. He saw Ingo and Ingo saw him. But Ingo was afraid… and then turned into a dragon and flew away.

What is he even supposed to do with that?

His phone rings and he ignores it. It rings again and he still ignores it. And then it won’t stop ringing. Emmet gets fed up and answers, aggravated. The voice in the other line immediately tells him they found Ingo! Out in the middle of the desert, just laying there. Emmet realizes that is where Ingo went. But if he could turn into a dragon why didn’t he do that with these strangers and just fly away again? He doesn’t say this but tells them he’ll be in the hospital soon. He makes sure to take Ingo’s feather with him.

In the hospital, Ingo sits on an unused bed, allowing himself to be checked over by doctors. They’ve diagnosed him with amnesia, which isn’t wrong, but otherwise he has a clean bill of health. He still wants to be left alone, which is thankfully largely being respected. Until he’s told his brother is coming. Ingo realizes he can’t avoid Emmet forever and reluctantly acquiesces to Emmet’s visit.

When Emmet walks into the room, he’s disappointed but not surprised to see Ingo flinch from his entry. With a much quieter approach, he sits in a chair further away from Ingo and waits for him to speak first, not making eye contact. This approach seems to work better as Ingo slowly feels compelled to talk.

“E-Emmet…” Ingo whispers.

“Hi… Ingo…” Emmet responds softly.

Ingo isn’t sure how to respond. This is a completely different reaction from yesterday.

With clear movements, Emmet pulls out the feather.

“You… ah… left this. Yesterday,” Emmet says uncertainly. He holds it out, “Do you want it back?”

Ingo stares at it and shakes his head.

“May I keep it?”

Ingo considers this and nods quietly.

“Thank you,” Emmet smiles in gratitude, tucking the feather into his shirt pocket.

Silence continues.

“…why did you run away?” Emmet asks softly.

“It’s a long— I-I’m— I’m not… I’m… sorry…” Ingo stumbles, at a complete loss of how to explain anything. So he tells Emmet what he’s sure of: “…i don’t know who i am.”

“But your name—”

“Is Ingo… I know… but… I haven’t been Ingo the human in t-two hundred years…” he says, his voice fading to a quiet whimper, “That Ingo… he gave up his life… I’m just what’s left…”

“Is that why… the dragon thing?”

Ingo nods, starting to cry, “Your brother was sent to the past. He wasn’t allowed to come back. So he begged for help… My parent… I don’t know why they listened… They promised a way for him to survive the passage of time…”

Emmet starts to understand, “…and you were it.”

“He became me. And he… his memories were locked away. Until… until a few days ago…” Ingo curls up, his voice pained, “I’m sorry, Emmet… I don’t think I’m your brother anymore… I am so sorry…”

Ingo is openly sobbing, grief overwhelming him. Grief for the old Ingo, grief for Emmet, grief for the bond they once shared.

He doesn’t move when he feels the bed dip by his side. He doesn’t move when Emmet lays a gentle hand on his shoulder. He doesn’t move when Emmet gives him a soft side hug.

“Do you… want to be that Ingo again?” Emmet asks carefully.

“I don’t know…” Ingo whispers, shaking, “I-I want to… but I… I’m scared…”

Looking at Ingo, Emmet knows what he has to do. It will break his heart, but it’s the right thing. He rests a hand on Ingo’s back.

“You don’t… have to be that Ingo… if you don’t really want to,” Emmet says, tears welling up in his eyes. He’s letting go of his brother; he’s finally letting himself grieve. “I miss my brother. But I would never force you to be him. He wouldn’t want that either.”

Ingo says nothing, only crying in shame.

“And if you’re not ready… then I won’t force that either.” Emmet leans in and kisses Ingo on his forehead, hugging him once more. “I love you, Ingo. Whenever you’re ready… the door home is always open for you.”

Ingo sobs harder as Emmet stands up and leaves.

He doesn’t know what to do.

Emmet is heartbroken to leave Ingo behind, but his brother… or whatever he is… doesn’t want him. Not now anyways. All he can do is respect that and mourn Ingo properly.

A few days pass. Emmet finds some peace in the knowledge that his brother is dead. He’s starting to work on a memorial service when there is a knock on the door.

Emmet finds a despondent Ingo on his doorstep.

Ingo doesn’t seem to know what to say. So Emmet lets him in, tells him to sit anywhere. Ingo does so, looking distinctly uncomfortable as Emmet prepares some coffee for the both of them.

And the two talk…

(And this is about as far as I got so far. There’s probably more but we’ll see.)

#pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white #pokemon black 2 and white 2 #submas #subway boss ingo #warden ingo #subway boss emmet #reshiram #coramatus’s writing #tldr: turned ingo into a creachur again #basically the thought of melanistic reshiram spiraled out of control #black reshiram au #i guess

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coramatus · 8 months

Text

A Unovan in New York City (part 2)

How exactly did Ingo’s brother wind up blasting himself all the way into a universe with no Pokémon?

Two years ago…

He finally had an answer.

After many long days and nights of extensive research, hunting down rare, antique book collections and driving librarians the world over up a wall, Emmet sat in silence in Canalave Library. His missing brother’s stupid face stared back at him from a yellowing photo taken over two-hundred years ago in a region almost halfway around the world.

He knew where Ingo went.

The questions, the guilt, the fear, all of it constantly swirling in his mind had gone quiet, stunned into silence by Emmet’s hard won discovery.

Next to Ingo’s picture in the journal of one Professor Laventon was a description of the picture. The passage was short but informative: Warden Ingo was a man of unknown origins, his past lost to him from a case of amnesia.

All it said of what became of him was that he left with the Sky Child, the main field researcher of the first Pokédex, departing through a portal of some kind.

…a portal, huh?

It was with that in mind that Emmet wound up coming up with the Actual Worst Idea of His Life:

He was going to Alola to steal a portal.

Not an actual, literal portal, of course. That would likely be physically impossible. But certainly a device capable of generating holes in space-time.

Those Aether Foundation guys had been going on about handheld machines that could punch through dimensions. Surely they knew a thing or two about that! Enough to know how to travel in time and space within the same dimension!

Right???

It made sense at the time as a viable way to launch himself into two-hundred-years-ago Sinnoh or Hisui or whatever to retrieve his brother..

But man… the brain cell must have been on Ingo when he got blasted to the past. Because the heist itself went about as poorly as he could have imagined.

Ultimately left scrambling down Aether’s sterile corridors, Emmet ran away at full tilt from the enraged shouts of security and scientists alike, a nondescript machine clutched tight to his chest. At this point, any and all preparations for a stealthy getaway were long out the window. Now he was flying by the seat of his pants, his long coatends trailing after him.

“Just give it back! We promise we won’t be mad!” someone shouted. A bit too close for comfort.

Emmet ignored this and kept going, eyes searching for his break-in point. Down the hall he spotted the door he’d marked when he began his heist and ducked inside, quickly shoving a filing cabinet and desk against the door to thwart his pursuers.

For a moment, it was quiet and he had to wonder if he’d lost them.

Then the heavy banging started. His heart dropped as he saw his blockade rattle and shift with each shove. Deciding he’d wasted enough time he checked the window he’d cut for a clear path, only to discover guards waiting for him outside. As they began to converge, Emmet shoved another filing cabinet over the window.

He was trapped.

He felt his heart pounding even harder as he tried to find a way out of this. He could use his Pokémon, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone in the process. Causing more pain just to ease his own went against everything he and Ingo believed in. But if he didn’t, then it was only a matter of time before he was caught and all this would have been for nothing.

He had nothing.

Except…

He held out the portal device and stared hard at it.

He’d intended to take it elsewhere to study it first, maybe gain a gradual understanding of it before finally committing to a portal to Hisui and Ingo.

It seemed like he wasn’t being afforded that luxury.

The door echoed with an even harder shove, the desk and filing cabinet scraping the floor with a shriek of metal. The remaining glass on the window shattered as security began to breach it.

He was out of time.

Armed with a backpack of supplies, both his and his brother’s Pokémon teams, and absolutely nothing to lose, Subway Boss Emmet activated the device. It started up with a droning whine, a holographic screen activating and flashing the logo of the Aether Foundation.

A window opened, prompting Emmet to input… temporal gravity weights? He squinted at it, bringing it up to his nose as if that would help make sense of what he was reading. Another window popped up, asking for atomic spatial fluctuations. Yet another popped up, requesting planar resonance calculations. More and more appeared, flooding him with demands for values he couldn’t possibly know.

Behind him the door shuddered with a bang. Emmet could hear more angry yelling from behind it but he paid it no mind. He was too busy trying to figure out how to operate the damn thing in his hands. He tried to exit out of the windows but they kept returning, more insistent than ever. More banging sounds filled the room as more people worked to smash the door open.

In the center of the whirling orchestra of chaos, Emmet found himself starting to panic as his senses were overloaded with noise and stress. He knew he was in over his head. He had no clue what he was doing. He was going to get himself killed at this rate.

For a single, sparkling second, Emmet’s mind was clear:

This was a terrible idea.

But if he turned back now… the consequences would be dire. The courts would not show him mercy just because he was the head of a battle facility. Not when he broke in on his own volition to steal dangerous tech. Meaning he would lose both the Battle Subway and any means to actively find Ingo.

Totally unacceptable.

In desperation, Emmet experimentally flailed his hand at the holo-screen, feeding in gibberish parameters. To his surprise, the windows began closing, seemingly satisfied at his nonsense keysmashing. When the final one closed, a simple prompt popped up:

‘Establish link to set target?’

Emmet smiled grimly. It was completely wrong but it would have to do. He needed to get out of here. To get to a siding where he could pull the brakes and think. Then he could fine-tune things.

He hit ‘Yes’ and the device began emitting a droning whine.

…was it too late to change his mind?

The doors burst open with a loud bang. Emmet had just enough time to look up and see the scientists’ faces turn from an angry red to a terrified, pale white. Before he could wonder why, everything was engulfed in a brilliant explosion of light.

For a split second, Emmet swore he saw a strange white, four-legged entity desperately trying to grab him as he flew past. But he shot away so fast that it almost instantly became nothing but a dot in the horizon. In the next second, it was gone.

#pokemon #a unovan in new york city #subway boss emmet #coramatus’s writing

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