• Canon psychic abilities:
• Telepathy
• Have been telepathic since they were v young.
• Have that 'always talking to each other' thing going
• Sometimes forget they need to talk aloud so others can hear them
• If one of them gets a song stuck in their head it's a problem. Not a big one, but still a problem.
• Neither one will abide All Paul for this precise reason
• OH GOD. KEEP THEM OUT OF FATHERLAND FOLLIES.
• Mental Connection
• Learned from Hollis shortly after being recruited
• Have a weird way of using it, distinct from Raz's weird way.
• They can focus in on a singular thought and track it. Either what led to it, or where it's going.
• This is, of course, referred to as a train of thought.
• And yes their names still work perfectly in this regard.
• They're really good at linking thoughts together, too. Or. You know. Coupling them.
• It's frowned upon, so they don't do that much, if ever. Maybe just to harass each other.
• Pyro/Hydrokinesis
• On paper, Emmet's Pyrokinetic and Ingo's Hydrokinetic. Technically, both are both.
• We'll get into the details w/ Duality
• They can use the other's ability, but, due to training one over the other, aren't as good.
• Teleportation
• Goes with the transportation thing
• If teleporting someone else, they go, too, before returning to base.
• It's easiest that way, and the best method to ensure safety
• They can pick a target and teleport them w/o leaving if the need arises.
• You migh note that this has offensive applications. They're aware.
• They can teleport to one another with, like, half a thought.
• Things get weird if they try to teleport to one another at the same time
• Mental Projection
• They prefer not to use it. The two of them are plenty capable of balancing each other.
• Most of their archetypes are differing shades of grey. Emmet's lighter, Ingo's darker.
• Both have one that's, inexplicably, a grey one step removed from their brother's coat
• I think their archetypes draw points of inspiration from their main-verse Pokemon
• And possibly also the genres from their mental world
• Non-Canon psychic abilities:
• Duality
• Their signature, if not specialty. They can't/don't teach it.
• It's usually an invisible skill, used to balance oneself. Uses include:
• Self improvement/actualization
• Coping with change/circumstance, etc.
• Overcoming psychosomatic illness/etc.
• Grounding oneself
• Oh goddamn it, this is just Here Comes a Thought
• You could describe it as taking a Censor's job into your own hands.
• They use it to support one another. Specifically by sharing/lending their psychic power
• Going back to Pyro/Hydrokinesis, both are capable of both powers. They semi-permanently lend the other the power they're not as practiced in to boost their brother's ability.
• while doing so, they can't use the one being lent.
• This can be done with any power, but can only be sustained if there's give and take.
• The secondary set of powers they use this on is Shield/Marksmanship.
• Unlike Pyro/Hydro, this is as-needed, and based on who needs what.
• Both have plenty of experience with either power, and are equally skilled.
• It can also be used to give one another an over-all psychic boost by temporarily sacrificing most (if not all) psychic ability.
• This is 100% what happened with both final bosses, btw. Raz would realize that.
• Conduction (aka Electromagnetism)
• Named as such because it's a threefold pun: obvious train reference, electrical conduction and temperature conduction (re: pyro/cryo)
• This is the skill they're the designated tutors for
• Applications include
• Magnetizing/demagnetizing
• Sensing electrical or magnetic fields
• Producing power/sparks
• Using/messing with technology (to an extent)
• I'm just saying. The brain works on electric signals.
• In terms of how it could be used gameplay/puzzle-wise, I think mostly magnetizing things to move on a set/chosen track. Things powered in this way are charged and will hurt with contact.
• Thermokinesis (aka Cryokinesis)
• The only power one of them can use that the other couldn't/they didn't learn together.
• This has since been amended, though it's something they're still experimenting with
• The only reason Ingo can use it is bc of his time wandering around in the arctic
• They learned it via pyro/hydro, but can also apply it elsewhere
• Can be used either way. Pyro can be made cold/superheat, or hydro can swap states of matter.
• They're even worse with opposite thermo than non-dominant pyro/hydro.
• Other notes re: powers
• Emmet's psychic powers default to white and orange, Ingo's default black and blue.
• Confusion is their biggest weakness
• Due to the fact that they share a mental landscape, if you hit one, you hit both
• If this happens, they tend to forget who's who, or even that they're separate people
• In the event that they can muddle through to use powers, they swap pyro/hydro
• Sometimes they may get caught in a psychic feedback loop
• You'd think this would mean they're especially culnerable to psilirium, but not really.
• They've got a shared mental landscape and, thus, shared defenses
• The difference is that psilirium has to breach the defenses; confusion is sparked in the mind
• Powers re: one another
• Offensive powers just no-sell each other. Marksmanship, telekinesis, etc.
• Area of effects (including offensive use of pyro/hydro) will leave the other as the only think in the affected field untouched.
• This means they can't confuse one another and, by extension, themselves.
• They're still fully capable of bothering one another with their powers-- it's just that they're completely incapable of hurting the other.
• Disclaimer:
• They are way OP. I'm aware of this. It just makes sense to indulge in it for this AU.
• They're kind of psychic outliers the way Raz is, just with X formative years of someone to be psychic at and a further Y years of formal training/work in the field.
• To be fair, some of their biggest strengths are also their biggest weaknesses.
• Mental World: Similitude Circuit
• "Circuit" for how it combines electricity and tracks. "Similitude" for genres, motifs and counterparts/comparisons
• I want to find a good theme beyond just "trains"; we'll work on it.
• I'm kind of thinking classic movie genres. Like, the hub is still styled after Gear Station, but each of the platforms develops a theme as you approach it, and the train there is visually themed.
• Like, Western, Sci-Fi, Horror/Ghost, Murder Mystery, Heist/Spy Thriller, Fantasy/Steampunk, Disaster/Post Apocalypse?, essentially Ghibli, Samurai?
• It could be a little like Gloria's Theater-- departing from one station/genre and exiting into another to alter the course of things.
• There could be a static set of cast members (passengers, possibly mental constructs of the twins themselves) that change roles depending on the genre.
• That's the gimmick, at least. I think it's bigger/more than that. Like, there are stations outside of the Gear Station expy that can be accessed for needed set pieces.
• Role in the agency
• They're the heads of the Transportation Department.
• This deals in mass transport (like the jet) and small-scale (usually teleportation).
• Good at keeping travel/arrivals discreet, even when you'd think it impossible.
• They're also in charge of storage for these resources (the jet being at Whispering Rock), arranging maintenance, making sure the equipment is up to code, etc.
• De facto Conduction tutors. Are occasionally assigned interns.
• And I mean, they are high ranking agents, and take on missions as need be.
• They keep repairing the funicular over in the Questionable Area, but every time they leave for a mission, someone sabotages it again.
• Relation to other agents
• They're friendly enough, but can come across as off putting. People respect them as coworkers, but generally don't socialize if they don't have to.
• Exceptions/Notable cases include:
• Hollis, Sasha and Milla, no notes
• Oleander may have worked, briefly, with Emmet during the shitshow. Not on good terms.
• Villain arc rejected.
• Otto, due to Conduction and tech; Gisu for the same reasons.
• Norma and Lizzie were mentees at one point, but that didn't work out.
• Terryl a) can't tell them apart and b) can't remember their names to begin with.
• Personal notes/characterization
• Their surname is Motif. Usually referred to in plural, as The Agents Motif, and not individually.
• Obviously, it's a play on motive, from locomotive
• But, given their particular use of Mental Connection, they're pretty good at tracking down what led a person to act in a way, or what they might be in danger of doing if unchecked.
• Coincidentally, after Shit Went Down, some agents started calling Ingo "locomotive"
• Mission code names are Salt and Pepper Shaker
• They're trans men, but that's unlikely to come up.
• Still friends with Elesa, but I don't think she's a psychic in this.
• May have a shared interest in film.
• I want to give them an analogue to battling, prior to the psychic stuff-- bc they would've needed an outlet when they were kids, aside from trains.
• Maybe they took dance lessons as kids? Swing could work.
• They live in-state, but teleport to the Motherlobe every day.
• Since The Fuckening, they have a pete/therapy cat named Lady. (Small world of pet names!)
• That said, she answers just as well to Sneeze. (She had an allergy to their old detergent)

Backstory-wise

• Recruitment
• As per Venus, Truman found them via their work.
• They'd been on the Psychonauts' radar already, but things came to a boiling point when they accidentally teleported a boxcar into the Rhombus of Ruin.
• There was a mechanical malfunction; without thinking, both of them tried to teleport to the other.
• After the situation was dealt with, they were recruited and properly trained.
• The Rhombus
• Their first mission/deployment was the Charlie Psycho Delta, for a number of reasons.
• They're serious about regulations, and acted as safety marshals.
• Ingo, being hydrokinetic, could act as a last line of defense if something went wrong.
• Onsite teleportation to get people in/out of the outpost due to its high turnover rate.
• Training suggested they were better equipped than most to resist the psilirium's effects.
• Not immune, but so long as they were together, they could withstand it okay
• They needed to figure out how to get that freakin train out of the ocean.
• They were only there for a few months before the outpost was shut down.
• The boxcar, however, became a personal project. A white whale.
• Post-Rhombus
• Were standard agents for awhile, handling whatever missions they were assigned.
• Assigned to transportation
• I think maybe they had to cover for someone at one point, and that reminded Truman, 'oh yeah, I found those two in a sunken train.'
• Would occasionally, work and mental states permitting, return to the Rhombus to figure that out.
• Ah. There it is. The Fuckening.
• Shit went down on return from a Train Brainstorming Trip.
• We'll say this happened a max of a few years ago.
• I'm not gonna get too bogged down in this, but it was a combination of (minor) built up fatigue from the Rhombus, something going wrong w/ the equipment (sabotage?) and confusion.
• Basically, they were incapacitated and separated. Emmet woke up alone on the research vessel.
• Emmet took it about as well as you'd expect.
• Their mental landscape was largely unchanged. There was just one smallish chunk that he couldn't access or speak through, no matter what he tried.
• Duality was still being supported, too, which was a reassurance, at least.
• He mostly focused on trying to break through the mental barrier, bc he wasn't allowed to go on field work at this point-- not that he would have accepted/been able to focus on other missions.
• Even though Duality/Pyro was fine, he was not used to or trained for working solo.
• Any shared protections, like mental defenses, were diminished, and he was thrown off-kilter by the silence in his own head.
• Plus, even though they were cut off from each other, their confusion quirk was still in full effect, which had been proven multiple times, to Emmet's dismay.
• Months after the fact, Ingo was found in the arctic, by mundane researchers looking into odd aurara behaviors (auroras are affected by earth's magnetism, goes back to Conduction)
• Didn't know who he was, didn't know where he was.
• Was under the impression he was serving some purpose in regards to a nearby volcano.
• He also had a big chunk of psilirium wrapped around one wrist, and was averse to removinng it.
• While he still couldn't remember (what with the active psychohazard on his person), he automatically fell back in line with Emmet as soon as he showed up.
• That's how they finally got the psilirium cuff off of him. Took some convincing, though.
• Don't have a lot planned, honestly, but here are assorted thoughts:
• Prior to this, he was only trained in hydrokinesis. Exposure to cold branched into cryokinesis.
• Volcano is there because a) Coronet, b) I want Emmet to set it off and cause volcanic lightning.
• While there's a culprit to be fought/caught, they never actually find out why this happened, even with Emmet doing his best to track the line of thought that led to it.
• He... went a little far in using Mental Connection. The Good Cop was busy recovering.
• Said culprit can be found in the brainframe.
• The answer is that it was an experiment in manipulating a hydrokinetic.
• This does, in fact, have ties to the person who wanted Raz's brain.
• Possibly also Gristol.
• Recovery
• Again, this happened a few years back. They've since had time to recuperate and adjust to whatever couldn't go back to the way it had been.
• Admittedly, removal of the psilirium bracer did wonders for Ingo's memory and perception.
• There are still blurry spots to this day, but Emmet's always been more than willing to help.
• That said, there was a lot of cleanup to be done, between the simultaneous mental crises.
• Suffice to say they were off duty for awhile, and it was questionable if they would return.
• I know I want there to be some psychosomatic issues and side effects from the psilirium, but it's getting late, I'm drawing a blank, and I don't want to read the wikipedia entry on somatic illness rn.
• Duality is going to be the MVP here, in its standard use.
• I want there to be some ice themeing. Like, maybe Hydro wasn't working in favor of Cryo, which was what necessitated Emmet learning Thermokinesis-- like, to help get it under control/get Ingo's mind back out of the arctic.
• They kind of closed the world out for awhile at this point, which didn't help their social lives in the agency.
• At first, this was a natural response to being reunited, but then Emmet caught wind of the whole 'locomotive' thing and decided to hell with them.
• The circumstance might have caused their telepathy to go nuts, cluing him in on this.
• I'm thinking, maybe they voluntarily went into Psychoisolation for a bit.
• Hence their interaction/history with Terryl.
• I think this might have been when they became the heads of Transportation. Before they had clearance to go out in the field, they were able to handle the logistics on that front.
• They probably also had to do some recertification or something, on the psychic front.
• To present day
• Have played mentors to a number of interns. Most notably Lizzie and Norma re: pyro/cryo.
• The twins' emphasis on collaboration and the polar opposite sisters was a bad combination.
• This is why their mentor assignments seem so haphazard. Normally it's not Hollis's job to mentor an intern, just manage the program. And Compton is... uh... retired.
• They've decided the Rhombus's boxcar is a lost cause. There's no way they're going back there.
• Have conducted research/investigation into what, exactly, happened. No dice.
• Tried to fix the vulnerability re: confusion, but that didn't work out. Can't aggro each other.
• Sasha tried to help, but got completely sidetracked by the nature of their connection.
• That sounds like a lot of negativity, but those are just the points that came to mind rn.
• (Present day POV, but referring to something that happened in this timeframe)
• Lili: Emmet made a volcano erupt once. I tried to get him to teach me, but he said no, which was weird since that's usually Ingo's job.
• PN-PN2
• Hollis got utterly fed up with Emmet incessantly reminding her of work obligations one week, and sent them on a mission a continent away to get a break. Truman was promptly reported missing.
• She would have loved to throw Raz at them at this point in time. Oops.
• Would've been nice to have a hydrokinetic on-base for that huh. Oooops.