Arceus allowed Ingo to return home with only the clothes he wore, right? Did he leave his Celestica Flute and Warden bracelet with the Pearl Clan? It'd be interesting if he ended up seeing those particular items again in a museum! And it's sad, but understandable, that he had to leave his Hisuian Pokémon behind...
Exactly right, anon. The bracelet and flute had to be left behind for Lady Sneasler's next Warden, and his Hisui team needed to stay in their appropriate time.
As for when/where Ingo might encounter the Warden equipment again... That's still being decided, and it'll be connected to whatever the heck happened to all that diversity on the road to modern-day Sinnoh.
In some Legends-related fanworks, Emmet runs the Single Train in Ingo's absence, sometimes impersonating him. But in your fanfic, Emmet's the one who's indisposed. Assuming the Battle Subway is still in service, will Ingo be running the Double Train in the meantime?
Thanks to the derailment the Doubles Train was taken offline until further notice, and with Emmet unable to run it anyway there wasn't really a point to focusing on bringing it back. On top of that, Ingo was in such a broken emotional state over what happened to Emmet(at this point he fully believed that the derailment was his fault) that he was barely able to keep the Singles Trains going, so him being able to run Doubles was out of the question. Then things got even worse when Ingo disappeared since that meant there were no Subway Bosses to oversee the Battle Subway. I figure that Ingo and Emmet have a bit of a fan following, they're sort of the main attraction of the Battle Subway, so with them gone there wouldn't be many challengers anyway. When it came to Pokemon battles, Gear Station lost its spark with them gone.
For the fic I hc that Gear Station has trains that are only for transportation(as in more transit-dedicated routes than just the one to Anville Town) on top of those that serve the battle facility function. So Gear Station would've continued being able to transport passengers in the twins' absence, it just couldn't do the Battle Subway anymore. Now with Ingo back(and not drowning in guilt and grief), they'll be able to move toward getting part of the Battle Subway up and running again.
So Ingo's gonna have a lot on his plate now that he's back: working with specialists to help Emmet wake up, keeping an eye out for whatever task Arceus wanted him to do, starting to unravel who caused the derailment and why, the questions surrounding his falling back in time and wtf was up with Lucius, getting the Battle Trains running again(just Singles to start, since making Ingo overwork to run both trains would cause problems) on top of general Gear Station responsibilities...
Would you say Ingo's a supernatural conductor of sorts in terms of your AU? He already guides people to their destinations in his regular job (either to physical locations or encouraging trainers in battling), so him guiding the displaced to where they belong makes a lot of sense.
Yeah yeah! You got it! That's the task Arceus meant for him to carry out when it gave him the Arc Watch. It allows Ingo to see natural weak points in the dimensions where he can then use it to open up routes to send extradimensional entities home(like Ultra Beasts, and things that are sort of proto-Pokemon in nature--they're moving toward becoming Pokemon but they aren't there yet, so they lack a stable "real" form and come off as incredibly unnerving to both humans and Pokemon. Mushi from Mushi-shi vibes). After a while he even develops the skill of being able to see these spots without assistance(due to the influence of his traveling through time and from the Arc Watch itself). He also eventually teaches Emmet how to carry out these duties as well, once Emmet has recovered enough. c:
And of course, yeah, sometimes his supernatural conductor duties involve moonlighting as a psychopomp. :( Those missions are the most emotionally-taxing for him.
Maybe it would be fun to add a dusknoir to his team to help with that part eventually... Hmmm...
are the protoforms MISSINGNO? or just random static?
I'd say that if MissingNo are a type of protoform, they're ones that are very close to becoming proper Pokemon, which is why they're even visible to normal people at all.
[AU spoilery stuff under the cut if you want more in-depth info]
In the ficcanon, there are multiple ways for new Pokemon species(as in not from another pre-existing Pokemon species) to be created.
Arceus can make new species of course, but it stopped doing that quite a long time ago and has been content to allow natural processes to run their course instead. The last Pokemon it created by hand came about long before Hisui’s time, which is why it wanted the player to go down and look at the new Pokemon that had come about in its stead(stuff tends to break when Arceus interacts with it too much, it’s simply too big of an entity).
The most well-known means is through zoic evolution, zoics being regular animals(humans are also zoics). Usually this one occurs when zoics have been exposed to certain energy types for a long enough time, though it can also happen spontaneously under the right conditions. Most of the animal-shaped Pokemon species come about through this process.
Stuff gets weirder when looking at the more conceptual and item-based Pokemon. These tend to involve power injection or coagulation. Injection happens when inanimate objects are exposed to high amounts of a certain kind of power, resulting in that object taking on a life of its own. Pokemon like the claydol and bronzong lines come about this way. Coagulation is when the power or energy-based entity takes on a physical form, usually taking a concept or widely-held belief as the basis of its form. A lot of ghost-types get their start this way(ghost stories and urban legends, anyone?) as do Pokemon like hatterene(from stories about the witch of the woods).
Protoforms are entities that are on their way to becoming Pokemon but aren’t there yet. They’re far more simplistic in form(if they even have a stable form at all, they’re very much inspired by the mushi from Mushi-shi) and the vast majority cannot be perceived by normal people. MissingNo would fit into that category as protoforms that are very close to becoming Pokemon, close enough that they can be perceived by normal people and can be detected by the PokeDex. Pixel-static are probably looking for an idea to coalesce around, the ghost ones haven’t been “claimed” by a pre-existing ghost type Pokemon(or haven’t found a ghost story to shift around), and the animate skeletons have been hit with a power injection.
The fics will delve more into it but this is a decent rundown I think. I really want the crew to actually witness an instance of Pokemon genesis(Colress is basically going to be pointing at it and yelling “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” because of how unbelievably excited he is to witness it) later in the series so be on the lookout for that! The static protoforms in Emmet’s mind are actually leaning toward psychic-type and they have a cosmic connection of sorts: the static they’re made from is actually the static created when the energy readings of the Cosmic Microwave Background are picked up--the lingering echoes of the Big Bang. The CMB is actually part of the static you see on an analogue TV when you tune in to an in-between channel! Super cool right?
EDIT: OH WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT some of the MissingNo are harmful, and I’d like to incorporate that too if the crew run into them. Stay tuned. >:3c
Chandelure may be the main influence of Ingo's design, but his coat reminds me of Drifblim's tails. And now I have an image stuck in my head of the Spectral Conductor floating while leading a lost child back home by the hand. XD
What that's so cute omg!!
But hmm you have a good point with his coat. I was trying to mimic the "toothed" look to chandelure's little arm-candles, but I might only do that on his sleeves... Or just not at all cause the toothed design doesn't quite look the way I want it to? 🤔 I'll play around with it and see how I like it. I need to break up the solid color of his coat with stripes too...
Ingo looks fancy in Victorian Goth in that sketch. The waistcoat, the jabot, Chandelure's influence with the hat emblem, long coat, and flames... He's a spectral conductor!
Yesss hehe and I want to make him even more fancy! Drawing is kind of hard for me to get started with for some reason, but now that I have something to work from I think it'll be easier. And it'll look even better when I start to add in color.
And yes! Spectral Conductor Ingo! \o/ It's a fun concept I think!
Did Ingo gain muscle and stamina in Hisui? And if so, did it carry over to modern times in his younger body? Imagine Ingo utilizing his newfound strength in Gear Station and somehow impressing his coworkers (and Emmet when he wakes up).
Given that Ingo was hiking all over the place and doing more physical labor in Hisui yeah, he would've gained muscle and stamina there. Not bodybuilder levels by any means, but he would be stronger and more physically fit than he was before he went. Being able to keep it relies on him maintaining that level of physical activity and taking care of himself so just given that he won't be hiking as much(or doing physical labor as much), he'll start to lose it after a few weeks but will probably stay on the stronger side in general after that(though when he starts having to run around dealing with dimensional incursions, that'll probably start building the muscle again).
Actually given that Ingo's gonna have a lot of fighting and running around to do eventually... He'll probably decide to start actually working out as part of his "staying prepared" routine.
And omg that's such a cute mental image! Slender twig Ingo surprising everyone with his strength. X3 Emmet seeing how much stronger his brother is and he starts bragging about it to everyone(and would probably push himself too much trying to catch up which. Emmet, sweetie, no. Go at your own pace).
