#a unovan in nyc
Note
so like. I know you mentioned that UNYC!Emmet brings Stacey back with him, but does he bring back other things? Like, do you think he’d download the soundtrack of B/W and just compare how well the music fits each area of home?
Oh he brings back a bunch of other stuff! Pokémon trading cards (all the holofoil versions of his and Ingo’s teams obvs), a 3DS and Switch with B/W 1 and 2, PLA and a few others, a few cute Pokémon figurines, whole charts of data about egg moves, IVs, natures and all the meta stuff I can’t comprehend, and definitely the game’s soundtracks which he’ll listen when revisiting them with Ingo to hear if they fit!
Other things include a hard drive jam packed with Earth movies, books, and his notes about Earth, his Android Earth phone, a ton of touristy pictures and videos of places he visited around New York, neat local events, more artsy pictures he took while at work, and a ton of pics and vids of his friends and coworkers and some of Ingo and Dawn enjoying the city in their short time there.
And probably plenty more things too I can’t think of atm lol.
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
Since Unova is based on NYC where the metro is a PVP enabled zone my proposal is that the Battle Subway got its start as a sanctioned line of the subway system where people could have pokemon battles without endangering other passengers. The fact that it became a Battle Facility was basically the Unovan government going 'this might as well happen' and endorsing it.
#pokemon#i actually have more non-joke ideas about the battle subway#namely that it does predate ingo and emmet being in charge#but it was like#on the level of johto's battle tower in terms of prestige vs hoenn's battle frontier#it wasn't until the submas twins took charge that the battle subway became a world-class battle facility
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Do you think unovans and galarians act the same way to each other as Americans and Brits do (cuz unova is based off of NYC and Galar is based off of the uk)
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Random ass Unova headcanons I have (as someone who lives around the area Unova was based on and also as someone who sees more than just NY in Unova)
You know the NJ Pork Roll VS Taylor Ham debate? Unova has that. Northern Unova calls it Taylor Ham while Southern Unova calls it Pork Roll. Central Unova? It's a toss up.
Castelia City has THE BEST pizza you can get in the region and it has to be from the pizza places that are secretly fronts for the mafia
Unovan mafia exists and is real and Grimsley owes them A LOT of money
The crosswalk exists. Does that mean people actually use it half the time? No. Not really. What are you gonna do? Run over the cute girl with an eevee in the middle of the road? What are ya? A monster?
Castelia City is 100% NYC, no doubt about it
Fuck what bulbapedia says, idc that Floccesy Town and Ranch are based on North Jersey towns. The farms are in South Jersey. Floccesy is basically Southern New Jersey and you cannot change my mind
I like to think Nimbasa is a nice mix of NYC, Philly, and Camden because of the entertainment district, the railways, and the sports complexes. All three of these cities have things similar irl
Okay here me out. Nacrene City? The Museum? That's soooooo a mix of the Liberty Science Center and the Franklin Institute. Very Philly and Philly suburb-coded to me, honestly
Unovans will be the first to argue with each other, but catch someone from like, I dunno, Galar, butting in or saying something bad about Unova then it's suddenly like the Unovans that were arguing are best fucking friends
Pinwheel Forest? No, that's the fuckin Pine Barrens in NJ bro
4 notes
·
View notes
Note
seeing some internet rando describe themself as an irl unovan a is a first
Its just because Unova is based off NYC and that's where I've lived my whole life. I live in the IRL equivalent of Unova, that's all that means
1 note
·
View note
Text
Me reading fanfic: Oh neat, they're expanding the world! I won't check this, it sounds about right
Me writing fanfic that, realistically, only one or two people will ever read: I NEED TO HAVE AN ACCURATE WORLD MAP OF THE POKEMON WORLD SO I CAN TELL HOW FAR APART THE REGIONS ARE RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER
#I'm writing a very self-indulgent self-insert fic#but like i'm from quebec#so i decided that meant i was from kalos#but would i sound more unovan when i speak (since unova is based on nyc)#or would i sound more kalosian/french??#ship: eorđdracan ealdwrītere
0 notes
Note
Hey sorry if this has already been asked but, do you know how the Galar trains compare to the Unova trains? Feel free to infodump as much as you want!!
Hi, anon! This hasn't been asked, actually!
So the in-game difference is basically that the trains you take in Galar are for transport only, whereas the ones in Unova are both for transport and an actual battle facility.
But for a more technical answer...
The trains you're taking in Galar are intercity trains. They're for long-distance runs, and they're likely either electric or diesel, most likely electric - though we never see it. I'm leaning towards electric since the jobs mention Electric-type Pokemon being needed to test new cars. Since they're longer-distance, instead of a third rail they likely run via overhead wires, with a pantograph. The trains in Unova are subways, probably running on a third rail - I wrote a post explaining how they run here.
The thing I REALLY like, though? It's the difference between the Unovan Depot Agents and the Galar Rail Staff. It's verrrry clever if you're a train person. I figured it out as soon as I saw it, but it's pretty subtle if you're not a train person.
The Unovan Depot Agents use primarily Ground, Electric, and Steel Pokemon when you run into them in a battle facility setting. This makes sense, because our subways here in NYC run underground (Ground), are powered by a third rail (Electric), and have steel cars (Steel). But in Galar, the Rail Staff you meet in the Battle Tower tend to have teams with Fire, Rock, and Steel Pokemon. This might seem a bit odd at first...unless you know your railroad history. The steam locomotive was invented in the UK - steam locomotives traditionally are operated by burning fuel to boil water to produce the steam. The most common fuel? Coal. So you've got Fire and Rock there instead!
218 notes
·
View notes
Note
Thinking about Malleus trying castelia cones HSKSGSKSG- you know that the stand always has a long ass line? Sebek would volounteer while Silver, Lilia and Malleus Malleus visit the city with MC
Oooh 👀 that sounds really cool tbh; Lemme paint the scene!
Imagine in this setting, Soni managed to find a way back home and could bring the others along with her on trips to the Pokemon world; for the sake of convenience, I'll put this in the same universe as the "Wish Upon A Star" event because it does the explanation for me lol
When Soni is in Unova and recognizes it as Unova, the first thing that is immediate to her is the fact that Castelia City was huge and bustling
It was fine for her; she grew up in Lumiose City for all her life before going on her journey and Lumiose City felt bigger in her opinion
For the others, she was a little unsure of how'd they react and for some, she wasn't wrong
For the Diasomnia Group, they were fascinated by literally everything, even Lilia was looking at the casual Pokemon partners in the street and the ever-winding city that went on for ages
She figured that she'd show them around the place and (like in the events that showed off the world) Soni brought them through the city
After they got dressed in normal clothing because they hopped straight in the mirror with their school uniforms ☠️
Soni told them to change into normal wear and they wondered why; this was why 😂
Diasomnia would be walking down the street and Malleus would immediately want an ice cream cone when Soni mentions how delicious it was that it could cure all Status Conditions; it was the long wait that made it just annoying to get
Sebek: "How could ice cream do something as miraculous as that?"
Soni: "It's ice cream, one of the best that you can get around here. Also, it might just be me, but when you finally get your ice cream cone after waiting a while, everything seems better in comparison."
Malleus looking at the ice cream with longing eyes: 🥺
Sebek: "I will do this duty for my lord!"
That convinces Sebek to line up (with Soni having given him money to pay for it as they were all broken besides her alkdsfjlaljkfa)
That's another thing: Soni is the only one with usable currency in this situation and she's a Champion who gets money from battles, regulated battles, on events, and even more
Basically she rich here
The Diasomnia group will pay her back in Madols when they go home; don't worry, they've seen her with Crowley (who sometimes forgets to pay her) and they're much more responsible
The problem is, she's explaining something to the Diasomnia group and there's someone who wants to challenge her to a battle (a casual one) because that's the rules of battling
Some of them are polite to ask after she's done talking, but others just barge right into the conversation and demand a battle
Soni goes through the requests like it's nothing and then moves on with her explanation
Eventually, they go to a park (similar to NYC Grand Park and there would definitely be one there) and have lunch there
The twist would be to get it from good food shops/where food was
Lilia and Malleus go to the vending machines for drinks; Malleus gets two-for-one Soda Pop, delighting him greatly
Sure, Silver could've gone with his dad and Malleus, but the two were powerful on their own; Lilia told Silver to go and enjoy himself while he was young, etc.
Silver and Soni went to the bakery that sold her favorite Crustle Unovan Style Cheesecake as well as delicious sandwiches that were tried and true
Silver got a free sample of their desserts because Soni was a regular and the business was strong as ever due to her patronage
Soni likes smaller shops like this since they gave her privacy and felt homey, which is difficult to achieve in the city without immense effort into making it feel comforting
By the time everyone came back, everyone got what they needed
Sebek finally brings their ice creams (he bought the 12 pack of Ice Cream because he stood in line for way too long) and when they eat them, it's a revelation
Malleus polishes those ice creams off easily; he ate 4 of the 12
From then on, it's a lovely put-together picnic lunch in Castelia City where they looked around the place and enjoyed the sights
#ask#twisted wonderland x pokemon#pokemon#twisted wonderland#soni monet#pokemon trainer oc#malleus draconia#lilia vanrouge#sebek zigvolt#twst silver
51 notes
·
View notes
Text
HEADCANON 01 - IRIS + THE UNOVA LEAUGE
The Unova League, much like the other Leagues in the Pokeverse, is made up of the Elite Four and the Champion. The common Language among the League is Unovan or American English, but other languages may be spoken if needed, or wanted. In fact, there is a high likely hood of diversity in the League itself, since Unova itself is based in the NYC metro area.
The Elite Four has not changed since Alder’s time as Champion, Iris takes over the position 2 years after B/W. Currently, Iris seems to be trying to win over the hearts of the Elite Four. Until recently, Alder commanded them. Now that burden falls on the shoulders of a small child. Iris finds Mr. Grimsley’s kinda scary looking, but he’s not a BAD sort of person. Ms. Shaunti is nice, albeit reserved and quiet. Mr. Marshal looks like he wants to fight everyone all the time, but he’s quite polite with challengers. Ms. Caitlin makes Iris sleepy when she looks at her.
Mr. Alder is quite supportive of her and tends to check in from time-to-time. She feels guilty taking the title from him, but she earned it... right? If she wasn’t able to win against him, why, she wouldn’t be sitting on her Champion throne:tm: in the first place.
0 notes
Text
A Unovan in NYC writing snippet
Ingo meets a normal Earth tarantula
Ingo looks to the glass tank and is surprised to find that a sizable hairy creature has emerged from its webbed hidey-hole and is now creeping around on far, far too many legs. Fascinated, Ingo moves closer, trying to understand what he’s looking at.
For starters it has ten legs, all extending from the undercarriage of a core body section while a fat abdomen tipped with twin appendages makes up the rear end of the creature. It’s entirely covered in dark hairs save for splashes of bright orange-yellow fur decorating the joints of its legs and ringing the edges of its core. Its movements are sedate, using its small front set of legs to feel its way around. Although perhaps those aren’t legs, but large pedipalps? Which would mean it actually has only eight legs. But that still seems to be too many limbs for any one creature to have.
“What are you?” Ingo mutters at it under his breath.
Emmet makes a sound of curiosity and sees where Ingo is looking. His explanation is chipper,
“Oh, that’s Stacey! She’s my pet tarantula. I found her while doing my final rounds one night. Someone must have abandoned her because they never came back to claim her.”
Ingo blinks in confusion as he turns to Emmet, “Taran-? You mean a Galvantula?”
“Nope!” Emmet says with a grin, “Stacey is a tarantula! A Mexican redknee to be specific.”
“Ok…?” Ingo says, maybe only understanding half of his words. “Why does she have so many legs?”
Emmet’s eyes light up with excitement, eager to share his knowledge of this world, “All spiders have eight legs in this universe! Isn’t that weird??”
Ingo tries to imagine Galvantula sporting eight legs. For some reason he just imagines her tripping all over herself with so many limbs to manage.
“That seems a bit excessive,” Ingo comments with a puzzled frown.
“Right??” Emmet laughs.
Ingo turns back to the tank, keenly studying the movements of Emmet’s alien spider pet, trying to understand how Stacey coordinates herself. “So what does she do? She looks too small to battle.”
Emmet bumps shoulders with Ingo as he joins his brother’s side. His grin is wide as he happily announces, “Stacey does absolutely nothing of interest!”
He doesn’t give Ingo a chance to respond when he eagerly follows that up with,
“You wanna hold her??”
#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#stacey the tarantula#coramatus’s writing
117 notes
·
View notes
Text
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
79 notes
·
View notes
Text
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
81 notes
·
View notes
Text
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
77 notes
·
View notes
Text
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
82 notes
·
View notes
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.
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.
#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
65 notes
·
View notes
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
48 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
melneedsakidney
Tuff Love
rileys-battlecats
Rye's Warriors Art
borbonesa
Borbonesa
marsmalade
if sorry was enough, we wouldn't have seppuku
wisepainterperson
Journal of a Hopeless Romantic