Miles to Go Before I Sleep

For the sake of this outline, this is a setting where the twins don't have any relation to Drayden, because the emphasis is very much on Unovans taking care of/watching out for Ingo while his family is gone.

I don't have my heart set on any particular region for Emmet and Elesa to be in. If they have a tip off about the time travel, Sinnoh (but I don't want to go that route, honestly), if not, they may have decided to look into Ultra Wormholes, which would make Alola the best option.

A stray Joltik smuggled itself along with them, so they've been mildly concerned about accidentally bringing an invasive species in. It's also been causing problems by leeching off of electric devices, and finally just fried Elesa's Xtransciever.
Emmet has long since made it known that he will not be responding to emails during this time, and has essentially turned his off/left it at the bottom of his bat. He's not a big social media guy anyway.
Contrived, yes, but we'll allow it for the plot.

So, basically, neither of them can be reached for a fair amount of time/are unaware.

In Unova, we'll start in that bit of water at the base of the cliff on Route 12.

Ingo wakes up sopping wet, still partially submerged in the pond. Getting up the cliff isn't hard, but it does get him absolutely filthy.

For reasons yet unknown to me, he's got a massive bruise across part of his face. It was something that happened in Hisui, and, while annoying, he doesn't give it much thought.
I was thinking he might only have Gliscor, Tangrowth and Machamp with him, but we'll see.

Obviously he doesn't know where's where, and this is a very distressing situation to find oneself in, again, and he just... kinda wanfers on autopilot while his thoughts are busy elsewhere.

This leads him to Lacunosa Town. In the middle of the night (we'll say like, 4 am bc oooooo~). All but confirming their folklore about a monster appearing.

This is probably where the trail begins.

Most places are locked up tight, and he's not inclined to bother them, anyway.

He just ducks in under a bridge until dawn.
At some point, he begrudgingly takes his coat off. Multiple sopping wet layers aren't going to dry if left like that, and it's the middle of the night. It's not doing him any favors.

When the sun is coming up, he takes another look around.

Gets distracted by the Lacunosa subway stop (green line?) and wanders in.
It's about 6 now, so the doors are open and business has started for the day.
He just hangs out there for a bit, coat still hanging over an arm.
Watches the early morning trains come and go, but at a distance
When it departs, so does he.

I don't think there's any reason to go into Route 13. Maybe he's challenged to battle offscreen.

May end up ducking into a Hidden Grotto?
Options are Spheal, Tangela, Foongus, and Skorupi. It could be cute to encounter another Tangela.
None of this matters, tho.

He really gets distracted/turned around in Undella Town.

This is likely the first place someone recognizes him. Probably someone staying at Caitlin's Villa.

The BW2 rotation is Cynthia (no), Shauntal (maybe), Caitlin (maybe), Elesa (obviously no), Skyla (no) and Roxie (probably the best bet). BW2 also has Lenora (too busy) and Iris (too busy).
I'm gonna go w/ Roxie.

She tries to get in contact with Elesa, but obviously no dice.
She doesn't know him that well, but may have talked re: Garbodor in the past.
Basically, she knows enough to tell that something is wrong here.

There could reasonably be a station here, and it's along the same line, so we can add that.

It would give Roxie a chance to frantically get ahold of someone who might know what to do.

Honestly, I kind of feel like she's trying to buy time so someone can help her.

Fortunately, he's more interested in Reversal Mountain than Route 14, so they can hit the dead end in Lentimas and maybe then someone will know what to do.

She's going to accompany him to Reversal Mountain.

Again, not much to say. I do like the idea that, at one point, she brings out her Garbodor, and that gets another minor reaction. Her ace is Colipede, though, so that would probably be downtime.

Absolutely nothing to do in Lentimas Town.

There's a move tutor here. Let's teach Gliscor Earthquake (not really)
We can probably do something social. Really pick up the whole 'Unovans start to rally' thing.
This detour lasts around 1 1/2 days; navigating the mountain is actually surprisingly easy.

Undella Part 2

Nothing impressive happened, but it's in good form to heal up when you get the chance, so Roxie steers them to the Pokemon Center.

Probably isn't making any secret of the fact that she's trying to get in contact with someone who knows/can help him.
Mentions that the best suggestion anyone has had, so far, is going to Nimbasa and just hanging.

This was Skyla's doing. Her second suggestion, actually, after coming to Mistralton so she could keep an eye on him.
That was rejected because this guy's not gonna sit still that long. It's the same problem with Nimbasa, but that's at least got the potential to shake something loose, and plenty of ways to keep him going in circles.

Notably, she doesn't say 'We're going to Nimbasa' or anything. More like, 'Well, you're from Nimbasa, so...'

really

What she means is that she's gonna go change and come back. This is not what she says.
Ingo takes it to mean they're parting ways. Thanks her. Honestly, Gliscor barely needed any treatment, so he's ready to go.

When she gets back, Roxie realizes what happened. Tries to chase after, but it doesn't work out.
Fortunately, someone else decided, 'You know what, I'm gonna invite myself along to keep an eye on our dazed Subway Boss.' I'm thinking Nate.

No notes for Route 14.

Not the route itself, at least.
This is the point at which #SlowTracks becomes a thing on Unovan social media.

It's an unofficial confirmation that, yes, this is who we thought it was, he's not doing the greatest right now, and nobody can get ahold of his family. We're taking care of him.
Nate says online that they're heading to Nimbasa. Other trainers chime in, saying they can help out, so someone's always with him/knows where he is once they finally get someone to answer.

Re: #SlowTracks, there are only going to be a few trainers depicted, but I want to imply that there have been a lot more involved, both actively helping and invested in the situation.

Between the two options, we're going with White Forest.

Changing of the guard happens. We're now being escorted by the NPC (Scientist) Marie (see the White Forest spawn details for... details. I only picked her bc she corresponds w/ Magnemite.)
Marie is the one who sets the standard of 'coordinate who you're meeting where and when,' 'while you're with him, try to take a photo so we know this is legit,' etc. Safety measures.

She's the one who comes up with this/does it for Nate.

Nothing too exciting about the walk through the forest. We meet (Backpacker) Talon.

Route 15 is, again, not too exciting.

At one point, Ingo climbs one of the cliff faces and freaks Talon out.
...you can find Gliscor in rustling grass, here.

They part ways at the Marvelous Bridge. Theoretically, it should be easy to meet up with (Depot Agent) Hank on the other side.
Somewhere on Route 16, however, Hank has been briefly delayed.

It's not his fault. The other Depot Agents got overexcited and/or over-exacting in his instructions.
Because of this, and the fact that nobody's asked him to stay with other people, Ingo gets waylaid.

He wanders up to Lostlorn Forest.

Encounters a Zorua, and, possibly, N. That could be an interesting interaction.
Before too long, though, Hank tracks him down. Is incredibly relieved.

He keeps us on track and wastes no time in getting to Nimbasa.

There's a lot to touch upon in Nimbasa City.

Obviously the first place Hank takes him is Gear Station, which is... intense.

As much as the Depot Agents have overthought, there's still kind of a sense of 'idk, I didn't think we'd get this far.' They're trying to figure out what to do now, since he can't go home at the moment.

Someone is always keeping an eye on him, but he's mostly just wandering around the parts of the station that are available to the public, and shows no sign of trying to leave.

Eventually one of them asks if he wants to ride on one of the trains.

He misinterprets, thinking they mean a battle line. No, they mean a regular train.

Finally accepts. The Agent intentionally offered when the train to Anville was there, so there was no chance of anything going awry.

Not that it matters much. He spends 15 minutes on said train and passes tf out.
They let him sleep for as long as the train runs, and makes sure he disembarks with one of them in Anville.

He's actually very content to spend a chunk of time in Anville Town.
On the return trip/circuit around Niimbasa, though (conducted by Beauty Nikola from the gym) it becomes clear that, whatever he'd been led to believe he'd find here, it's not there.

(Everyone involved was... well aware of that fact, and mostly hoping to bide time.)

Ultimately, nobody forces him to stay. When he indicates that he's going to head south, they just pick up the same routine as before.

It's at this point that someone's finally managed to contact Elesa. I think they just managed to figure out where they'd be and talked to the next Captain or Kahuna to convey the message.

Honestly, a lot of the above is going to happen offscreen, or not be relevant to the story at all. It's just there as a guideline. I want most of this to be from their POV following the social media trail back.
I think they're clued in around the time Ingo is out cold on the brown line.
The Captain/Kahuna doesn't have much ingo. The most they have/pass along is 'your friend's turned back up in Unova. Last update says he's near Nimbasa.'

Obviously, they want to follow up on this, make sure it's legit before walking away from what they're doing here. Idk who started telephone tag here, but they'd call that person first.

Let's go with one of the Depot Agents.
The Agent confirms that yeah, seems like he turned up in northeast Unova X days ago-- the Lacunosa station's security system caught him wandering in/watching the 6:XX commuter train.
They've been following the [media] thread since Skyla got into contact with them, after Roxie called her, and had Hank meet him at the end of Marvelous Bridge. (This Agent doesn't know about that small snafu.) He's asleep on the brown line right now.
That said, he's... in rough shape. He seemed to recognize the parts of Gear Station with muscle memory attached, but a lot of the time there wasn't any recognition.
They're going to try to keep him distracted until the two of them can get home.

And that's comfortably enough to redirect toward the nearest airport.

It takes time to get there, obviously, and I think they may need to wait for something going on in the correct direction.
In the meantime, they dig out Emmet's Xtransciever, and try to follow up on the social media trail the Agent mentioned.

The first place they look is Gear Station's profile, which is, in fact, the latest update.

He's clearly asleep, still partially sitting up with his hat tilted down. It's also easy to see what the Agent meant by 'in rough shape.'
('I feel like the boss is going to kill me if he ever sees this.')

That post leads them to the hashtag, in turn. Reverse-order highlights include:

Someone going 'That Gliscor's a pain in the ass, but I'm glad the boss had a friend with him.'
Talon's minor crisis about the cliff.
Possibly Gliscor v Gliscor
Someone noting that the bruise is looking better
Marie noting that he recognized a Xtransciever, but didn't know what it was.
Nate responding to Roxie freaking out about having lost Ingo.
(Out of order, but they discover this later: someone notes that he was really quiet.
Several posts that weren't tagged/seem unrelated, but have since been put into perspective.

Roxie's freaking out/asking for help.
A Lentimas resitent joking about the strange house's inhabitants branching out.
Someone in Undella station going 'subway ghost?'
someone from around Route 13 lamenting the fact that they got destroyed in a battle. They thought it was gonna be a breeze. The dude barely looked like he knew where he was.
Lacunosa's after-dark ghost sightings.

These are, without a doubt, the worst looking.

Both in terms of light quality and appearance.

The bruise is dark/highly visible, his coat's sopping wet (highlighting the tatters) and extremely dirty, and the lighting is making things look worse than they probably were.

Notably, there isn't anything prior to that, so people have decided he either just showed up in Lacunosa (unlikely, since he's dripping wet in those photos, and there's not a large enough body of water to do that there) or Village Bridge (but there weren't any odd reports there).

How that could be possible is still hotly contested.
There's a related tag, too, where people are expressing concern or collaboratively trying to pull strings/make this work. #SlowTracks is purely for people who are reporting in.

Air travel begins. Probably not directly to Unova, but there's not a huge break this time.

They check in, just to make sure nothing's gone completely wrong.

He's been successfully waylaid in Anville. They have a good laugh about that.

Unfortunately, by the time they arrive in Mistralton, he already wandered off into Route 4, and the tag says Castelia was a little overwhelming, so he didn't stop there.
Planning suggests Cilan had volunteered to meet him at the end of Skyarrow.

That's workable. They'll catch the orange line and disembark in Nacrene.

I'm not going to bother writing a reunion at this point, because I've done a bunch, and it feels kind of derivative. Apply your favorite here.