We're starting up from Elesa's POV, and this is a very important note: she and the twins have never met.
She's aware of the Battle Subway's existence, but hasn't ever had reason/time to challenge it.
Knows the theme, obviously, that it tends toward non-traditional battle styles (read: doubles and multis) and that it was headed by a pair of twins.
As you might have gleaned from the past tense there, she's also aware that some time ago (just to have a number, we'll say about a year; idk if it makes much difference) one of them vanished.
So the tricky thing about this technically being post-PLA is that it's also pre-BW/BW2.
Elesa is a fairly new gym leader, and is still trying to figure out what she wants her gym to be like/how it'll be distinct and how to present herself.
(The battle portion of the subway is relatively new, too. It's been established for at least two years by this point, but it's still considered a little bit less... legitimate, I suppose? Like, it's yet to prove that it will last. And, tbh, Emmet's behavior for the past year hasn't helped.)
There's not really much in the way of build up here; she crosses paths with Ingo/lends him a hand in regards to the city, and knows just enough to go 'hold up, there's something wrong with this picture.'
While trying to figure out if she's got this right, uses the title 'Subway Boss', which nets a reaction.
He's not sure, but he vaguely recognizes it, and thinks he answered to it at one point. Is emphatic that "the" Subway Boss isn't right, though; he feels like it's supposed to be 'a' Subway Boss.
While he's severely amnesiac, he looks exactly the same as the other one, and is wearing an inverted-- if half destroyed-- version of the uniform, so she's inclined to believe this could be something.
There are two ways this could go, and while I like the drama of one, I'm going with the simpler version for now. If I get the logistics figured out by the time I wrap this up, maybe I'll add in the dramatic version, too.
She heads to the local precinct with Ingo in tow, hoping to get this missing persons matter settled.
The problem here-- and a key detail that Elesa just didn't have-- is that the Subway Bosses are fraternal twins; the elder, and the one who'd gone missing, is a woman. This doesn't seem to track.
A bit reluctantly, Ingo puts in that, when he'd been found, the people who took him in identified him as a woman; the fact that he's not is... something he's only recently started living true to.
(After making that decision, he intentionally started trying to look more like the person he remembered, because it felt correct. Did a better job of it than he realized.)
Easy enough way to figure this out; they'll just draw some blood and see if they can't find a match.
Elesa, meanwhile, realizes 'oh shit, that's right actually'. Had seen the black uniformed person on promo material for the subway, but considering the ridiculously strong resemblance between Ingo and the other twin, didn't make that connection until just now.
We stan lesbian Elesa, so if she once thought Gay Thoughts, that's cool.
I know blood tests can actually take a bit, so idk if we want to treat this realistically and fill some time or just play it the easy way/say it's a more expedited process in the Pokemon world.
Either way, of course it comes back to say that the Subway Boss and Ingo are the same person.
At this point, he gets to make a statement about where he's been for the past year/what happened. He has absolutely no answers. We're going to let this shitshow play out offscreen.
Elesa, meanwhile, is taking initiative and gets in contact w/ someone at Gear Station. That person recognizes her well enough to take her seriously and, while slightly reluctant, agrees to get her in contact with Emmet.
When this does happen, he's immediately dubious. Unlike whoever convinced him to call her back, he's not famliar with her/doesn't necessarily believe she's the Nimbasa gym leader.
He hasn't been keeping up with changes in the league, preocupied with the subway and his missing sibling.
Her version of this story, at least, is a unique one from his perspective. The bottom line is, 'hey, so about your missing sibling-- he's your brother now. Come retrieve him.'
Emmet flatly asks if she expects him to believe that his twin ran away without a word to him in order to become a man. It's not the latter portion of that theory that he takes issue with.
'Look,' she says, believe her or don't. If he doesn't want to come to the police station, she can and will take this to Gear Station.
He really only humors this to keep her from making a scene.
He gets there before Ingo is out of... idk what you would call it. Questioning? An interview? Only just before, but still enough time for him to start picking a fight with Elesa.
Is only stopped when someone-- almost questioningly-- calls his name from a nearby doorway.
While he does deadname Ingo in response, it's an instinctual 'holy shit, you're really here' thing, plus he doesn't actually know his name yet.
Ingo doesn't care at all; gently corrects him, but isn't upset about it.
If anything, he seems happy. Not re: the deadnaming, but that Emmet is here.
Emmet echoes it back at him, really looks at him properly for the first time. Observes somewhat unnecessarily that they look alike.
Doesn't mean to be rude, but abruptly starts speaking to whoever had been conducting the interview, who would have been trapped in said interview room, considering this has been going on right outside of it. Basically just asks if they're sure, that this isn't a trick/mistake.
Is told that the blood work matched, so they're 99% positive.
He turns his attention back to Ingo, reaches over as if to touch, and hesitates, non-verbally asking permission. Instead of answering, Ingo tilts his head to initiate that contact.
Very quickly devolves into a hug and questions from there (what happened, where he's been, if he's okay, etc. Obviously, the first is a big ??? and admission re: amnesia; second is better left for later; third is suitably happy, he's doing wonderfully, now.)
Without breaking free of this, Emmet says they'll get food on the way home and figure things out from there.
When he finally does pull away, tilts his head, considering, and tries Ingo's name again.
Decides it's perfect, actually.
While he's still close, Ingo leans in and says something we don't hear from this POV.
Emmet considers it, looks to Elesa, and then invites her as well. She doesn't have to be there for the talking part, but he'll happily treat her to dinner for her help. And uh. As an apology for his skepticism.
She decides to take the offer, and we end.
For the dramatic variant... I think how we'd have to handle it is having Elesa split off, temporarily, during the police station bit. I was thinking she stayed when she was supposed to be heading back to the gym, so we'll say in this version of events, she did head back to work.
This means she doesn't know about the 'fraternal twins' thing, or that, while Ingo is the missing Subway Boss, said Boss was recognized as a woman prior to disappearing.
(I was going to skirt around actually giving Ingo a deadname here, but I think I might have to, for clarity's sake. I'm just going to default to Anette, a la Annett's Key, because I've used that before.)
(Also, it would fit a twin naming scheme and explain why Elesa might have heard that name, but not thought twice about it. Just assumed she misheard 'Emmet' and didn't know Ingo's at all.)
So while they do make these connections off screen, Elesa isn't there to learn it, herself.
Also off screen, they try to get in touch with Emmet, as his emergency contact, but there's some kind of issue with it. Might be dead/off when they try? Or maybe the number changed?
Another difference is that Emmet isn't actually in town, and so can't be reached through Gear Station like in the other version of events.
Basically, this boils down to them calling Elesa, asking if, since she brought Ingo in/seemed to know anything she has any idea how to contact his family.
As much as she'd love to help, she recognized him just enough to realize who he was. She doesn't have any relationship with him past getting him to the station that afternoon.
Alright. They'll... figure something out. Thanks her again for her help.
A couple of days go by without incident; in a free moment, curious how things panned out, Elesa calls the station to ask if they got a hold of Emmet.
No such luck yet. Since they can't exactly send Ingo home, considering he doesn't know where that is and he's still incredibly amnesiac, they convinced him to stay put at one of Nimbasa's Pokemon Centers. Last they heard, he was helping and making a menace of himself in equal measure.
Elesa decides to pop over after work, to see how he's doing.
He's... alright. He doesn't understand why people keep challenging him to battles, but he can't say he's upset about it. That much has been fun.
(It's also been part of the trouble, actually. Some trainers will come in to have their Pokemon treated, recognize/challenge him, and then have to have their Pokemon treated again.)
During this conversation, Elesa notices that he's still in the same ragged getup from when they met.
Offers to show him to a decent shop and find something that isn't falling apart.
He's a bit reluctant at first, but agrees.
(Privately, he's admitting to himself that, while these clothes are important to him, he does need something more suited to the weather. Getting new clothes doesn't mean he has to get rid of the old ones.
This mostly consists of Elesa picking out good looking outfits and Ingo staring on, bemused.
Texture and sizing are both hurdles here. She's having a heck of a time figuring out what he needs, because he refuses to stand up straight.
Eventually they land on something that works, and since he's been doing a fair amount of battling, Ingo's able to pay for it easily enough.
They pass Gear Station on the way back to the Pokemon Center. He makes some kind of comment about it, and Elesa realizes that it's also been affected by his memory loss. Suggests that maybe he should head inside sometime soon. Not today, since it's getting late, but when he feels up to it.
Return to the Center, part ways
Or, at least, they separate until the next afternoon, when Elesa receives a call from said Pokemon Center informing her that one of her purchases accidentally ended up with Ingo's, and he can meet her somewhere to return it, so she doesn't have to walk across the city again.
This eventually ends up w/ him accompanying her to the gym, to spectate for a bit.
Around this point, Ingo's getting a little uncomfortable with the situation he's in. He feels guilty that he's taking up space at the Pokemon Center, and any attempts at repayment haven't gone over well. He's happy to make his own accommodations outside of the city, but the police are insistent that they're able to get a hold of him. To be fair, the last thing they need is to lose a formerly missing person again.
I might need to stretch the timeline a little more for it to be feasible that Elesa would offer, but from her POV, she knows this person is a trusted-- if amnesiac-- public figure. She knows he's very polite and sweet tempered, and that they get along fairly well. It's not unthinkable that she would be okay letting him crash on her couch for a few days, until they get this mess figured out.
There would be more content here to fill things out, but that's exactly what it is: filler.
It would be a great opportunity to meet the Hisuian team, at least, and get a few weird hints about how he's been living in the time since his disappearance.
The main conflict in this version happens when, after a week or something, Elesa gets another call.
After a little more consideration, I think the reason the attempts to talk to Emmet failed were because, wherever he happened to be, it just wasn't letting the calls through. He's left that area of effect by now, and is following up on what he missed.
He's already spoken to the precinct, which left him with a lot of questions. He was told that Ingo was with Elesa now, which is why this call is happening.
This will depend heavily upon the wording, but the gist of it is that Emmet tells her that his twin sister, Subway Boss Annette, is missing.
Oh. Did... did he not know something happened to his brother in the time he was away, then?
At which point Emmet says, flat out, that he doesn't have a brother.
The call eventually ends.
Elesa does a little research, finds the old Battle Subway promo material featuring the person Emmet was talking about.
(To be completely fair to her, this is very confusing and feels like a betrayal. She feels unsafe because she thinks she doesn't actually know the person she let into her home.)
But yes. She confronts Ingo, who doesn't really understand what's going on/what he's done wrong.
Any resistance he puts up is solely to figure out what she's upset about, which doesn't work.
Leaves without a fuss. Thanks her for her hospitality anyway, which only nets more hostility.
I have to assume she gets in contact with the authorities again, to report this.
Don't think much is going to happen on that end, though. They're assuming this is some kind of conflict that arose re: housing situation, and since that was a verbal agreement, they can't help.
They do note, with some resignation, that the missing person is missing again.
Remember, they had blood work done, and know that Annette and Ingo are the same person; when Elesa tries to tell them that he's lying about that, they know that's not the case.
They don't quite know what she's trying to report, honestly. It's one big miscommunication.
Inevitably, Emmet gets back to Nimbasa. The fact that he gets in contact with Elesa at all is because he doesn't really have any other options.
As it turns out, Ingo did take Elesa's advice, and visited Gear Station fairly regularly. Regularly enough that the agents started taking notice and asking questions amongs themselves. As Ingo had been acting with the understanding that he was in fact the missing Subway Boss, had reintroduced himself thusly, and all the behavior he exhibited seemed to back that up, save for missing memory. They believe him.
They also tried to get in contact w/ Emmet, but obviously couldn't get through. He's been updated as to this situation since getting back to Nimbasa, but Ingo hasn't visited for the last couple of days.
That leaves Elesa as the next person he knows had contact-- unaware of the fact that they parted ways on less than amicable terms some time previously.
'I didn't think I had a brother when we talked, but apparently I do now' explains a lot.
Unfortunately, she can't really help; she hasn't seen him X amount of time and, honestly, she doesn't know why he would want to talk to her again, after what happened.
...she has a couple of things he accidentally left behind at her place, if Emmet wants to hold onto them in the meantime. She didn't throw them out because they looked old, but hadn't gotten in contact w/ Lenora about what to potentially do with them, yet.
This is the middle of the day and she still has work, so they'll meet up at her place later.
So when a more appropriate time rolls around, they meet up and Elesa hands over a bag of miscellaneous items.
Emmet's trying to figure out what in the fuck half of this is for/why Ingo had it; Elesa can offer absolutely no insight into the matter.
She asks him to apologize to Ingo for her, whenever he finds him. Emmet shrugs; his brother likely wouldn't hold it against her-- especially if he knew that she felt unsafe.
As this interaction is drawing to an organic ending point, Emmet receives an incoming call and turns away to take it. Elesa backs off to give him some privacy.
She kind of expects that once he's done, he'll just say bye and that'll be the that, but instead, he tells her that if she wants to apologize, she can accompany hiim to Gear Station.
Seems like the reason that Ingo hadn't turned back up at said station was because he'd walked all the way to Undella, which they know because a) he hadn't taken a train there, and b) he's taking a train from there back to Nimbasa.
It goes without saying that Emmet is headed to the station to intercept. Elesa... decides sure, she might as well see this through.
There's a break between the time they arrive at Gear Station and when the green line is scheduled to get in, and there's not a ton to talk about in the interim.
Because they definitely have this much in common, they end up chatting idly about Pokemon/battling.
Turns out they both have an Eelektross and Galvantula; end up focusing on that for a bit.
When the inbound train from Undella arrives, Emmet moves to a better vantage point; Elesa hangs back wherever they'd been chatting. (She doesn't want her presence to be an issue, since she would have said something to the effect of not wanting to see Ingo anywhere near her again.)
Given the time of day, there's a decent amount of foot traffic, but most of it is boarding. Coming from Eastern Unova, there are comparatively fewer people disembarking. It's not hard to find Ingo.
Emmet calls out to him, and once they're out of the way, starts speaking.
(This might be more of an omnicient POV at this point, but if it's still Elesa's, we would hear much less/almost none of this conversation.)
Trying to be polite, Emmet at least makes an attempt at introductions. Asks-- his name is Ingo, correct? Goes on to say that he is Emmet; simultaneously, Ingo says something like 'You're Emmet?'
Emmet pauses, breaks out into a smile. Reaches over to straighten his hat, lets hands idle on either shoulder. Says Ingo looks different than he'd expected, but... good.
Ingo laughs at that; they look the same.
Yes. And?
The contact eases into a hug from there.
Rehash the questions from this point in the simple version, with one exception. We focus more on the 'where were you', which Ingo interprets as 'where have you been the past few days'
He was hanging out at the Abundant Shrine, actually. Got lost for a little while, saw this big cliff and decided to climb it. Found the old village up there. It was nice. Fmailiar.
From that vantage point, he saw how near Undella was/that it has a subway station.
They spend a little more time talking like this, before Emmet waves Elesa over.
She hesitates for a second, which his validated when Ingo backs off at her approach.
Grimances, waves a hand hoping her own willingness to interact will help smooth things over.
(It's more Emmet not taking his cues that keeps Ingo there, but technicalities don't mean much)
Elesa cuts to the chase; explains what happened and why she acted like that.
She gets it if that was too much for their budding friendship to go any further.
While he's still pretty tense, Ingo cedes that it would have been a frightening situation; he understand why she reacted the way she did.
It also helps him understand what happened, because he couldn't figure out what he'd done to incite that interaction, and was worried he'd done something that hurt her.
She hands him the bag of things that had been left behind at her place.
Instead of calling it quits at that point, though, asks if they can start over...?
Since he's finally standing straight (subconsciously mirroring Emmet) and she can see what the problem was before re: clothes shopping, they could take another stab at that, if he wants. Seems like as good a place to start from as any.
While that's definitely not happening today, Ingo is amenable to the idea, so long as she's comfortable with it.
We just ease out of the scene, leaving them to work out a game plan on the platform.