#submastober

For another thing, Ingo had a ghost pokémon as a partner. Obviously, ghosts couldn't exist without death, right? Even Ingo, who loved Chandelure greatly, always warned about how dangerous she could be. If not watched carefully, all of Chandelure's evolution line was capable of stealing life force. Litwick had been particularly naughty when they were kids, and Emmet had more than once found Ingo groggy after letting Litwick misbehave and eat some of his life energy. Well, Ingo called it groggy, Emmet called it passed out.

Even with Ingo's too permissive behavior of Litwick when they were younger, Ingo never came close to dying. Emmet was always able to find him before Litwick snacked too much, and Emmet had more than once scolded her over getting carried away. Once, she had flared her wick at him; by the time Ingo woke up, they were deep in an argument over how Ingo wasn't allowed to be eaten.

Yes, Emmet knew what death was. But just because he knew didn't mean he could accept that as a descriptor for his beloved twin.

Despite explaining this to people, they still continued to insist that Ingo being missing for this long surely meant the worst. The word 'dead' never came up directly; it was always skirted around, people used euphemisms because they were too uncomfortable to say what they were thinking. Emmet was always polite but firm when he countered people who insisted Ingo was dead. He did say the word - if they were going to assume his brother, the other half of his two car train, was such a thing, then they best say it outright.

Thinking back on it, maybe Emmet was not polite.

But! What else was he supposed to do when people insisted that he give up the search for his brother, when they wanted him to believe that Ingo must be dead? For the first time ever in the entirety of his career, Emmet banned someone from the subway for coming to him with the offer of organizing a memorial for Ingo. Although Emmet thought he kept his composure, Cloud asked him if he was okay after the now Perma-Banned-Passenger was escorted out.

Emmet answered as honestly as he could, because he couldn't lie to Cloud. No, he was definitely not okay. Ingo was missing and he'd lost any viable leads and now people wouldn't stop telling him Ingo was dead. Even when Emmet said it wasn't true, they kept saying it. It was rude! And frustrating! And-!

Clenching his hands into fists at his sides, Emmet only stopped pouring his heart out when his vision became blurry with tears. Even though Cloud wouldn't think less of him for it, Emmet tugged his cap brim down to cover his eyes. Cloud would understand, but Emmet still wanted to maintain the proper image of a Subway Boss. If nothing else, Ingo would be disappointed in him if he caused too much discomfort for their important guests of the subway.

Cloud and Ramses intercepted anyone who looked as though they were seeking Emmet out for anything other than a pokémon battle. He wasn't in the mood to battle with his thoughts occupied with plans on how to find Ingo, but he went through it anytime someone asked him to. Emmet lost more battles during Ingo's disappearance than he ever had before then. Without Ingo around as his friendly rival, wins and losses didn't feel as important.

I'm just gonna ramble underneath this, you don't have to read it at all

I hadn't plan the second picture when making the first, but it seemed evident I had to, so I did a bit of planning to make them complementary and opposites. Here are a few things:

Emmet is looking down at something he found. Ingo is looking up at something he lost. When placing the drawings one under the other, they look as if they're staring at each other, Ingo trying to reach out but being unable to.

Emmet has a light coat in a dark environment. Everything there is geometrical and symetric, and the lines are thick. Ingo has a dark coat in a light environment. The landscape is more organic, with the lines being more shaky and faint.