Most of this is set firmly before BW, and that's because it serves as a more character/relationship-centric piece. Here are the basics that led me to it:
Obviously Elesa having any relation to the Subway Bosses is rooted firmly in fanon, and I've seen multiple takes on it. Usually it's 'like a sibling', but I've seen a few where they're actually triplets.
What I haven't seen, and what I think would work very nicely, given BW/2's emphasis on contrast and grey areas, is theirs being a blended family.
Peronally, I like Big Sister Elesa, so we're going to start with her situation.
I'm also a fan of the idea that Elesa's family moved to Unova from another region, so I'm going to say that they're native to... somewhere else. Maybe Johto or Kanto? Not Sinnoh, for predictable reasons; I don't like Galar or Kalos for this, either. Hoenn, Alola and Paldea are options but idk.
It doesn't actually matter that much, so if we wanna go crazy and say Almia or something, w/e.
Originally, I was thinking one of her parents passed away, but now that I've thought about it a little more, I kind of like the idea that they just split up. Amicably, I think, because I don't want to delve into the nastiness that could result otherwise.
With that in mind, I'm not entirely sure how the logistics of her primary caretaker moving would work out, but for at least part of the year, Elesa lives with this parent in Unova.
Probably some kind of joint custory agreement, where she spends X amount of time w/ either parent, holidays and birthdays negotiated.
I'm using 'parent' intentionally, because I don't want to assume 'one mom, one dad', considering Elesa being AMAB and dealing w/ identity is goung to be part of this.
I don't want to put any hard numbers down, either, but she's not older than 4 here.
Anyway, I don't think her primary caretaker goes out in search of another partner, but does take interest in someone and they begin dating. I'm a little torn on this, but I think for now, I'm going to go ahead and say that the new partner is Drayden.
That's only partially because I like the idea of Elesa and her parent having black hair, and if we're running w/ colors, that fits nicely against Drayden having naturally white hair.
(Note: my other option was giving Drayden a brother, but that's an extra step of convoluted, and as we get further down the line, we don't want more complications.)
Elesa doesn't... dislike him or anything, but she's old enough to remember her parents being together, and doesn't quite understand. Also, she spends X amount of the year with her other parent, so she doesn't know Drayden as well as she might otherwise.
That ambivalence shifts, however, when the two become engaged and, eventually, get married.
Just for the record, Drayden is happy to have some manner of relationship, but emphatically isn't trying to be/replace her other parent. It's a matter of whatever she's comfortable with.
And at this point in time, any relationship with her can be tough.
It only gets tougher when, by design or not, Drayden and Parent have the twins.
I wanted to put the age gap at ~5 years, but we'll see if that works out.
Also, as per usual for me, they're AFAB.
With this development, Elesa's relationship w/ various family members begins to change.
Opinion on Drayden begins to sour, worries she's been replaced in Parent's eyes. Isn't terribly fond of her new half-siblings. Out of a sense of needing to belong, wants to spend more time with her parent abroad.
Messing with an established custody agreement can be tricky, so I don't think any major changes are really feasible, but the household is also very hectic at this point, so it might be considered a good thing for everyone involved to give Elesa a break.
I kind of like the idea that her first Pokemon is her Ampharos, given (as a Mareep) by her other parent-- but it stays with them/they look after it when she's in Unova.
Haven't said as much thus far, but I think the other parent is involved in battling to some degree, while Primary Parent isn't so much. Maybe part of why they split was because the other parent wanted to get back into it/their goals didn't align anymore?
That might be where some of Elesa's interest comes from.
I have no earthly idea whether Drayden started as mayor or gym leader. Don't know that it really matters, since this is just an outline.
I'm tentatively leaning toward gym leader -> mayor, since it makes more sense to me that he'd branch out into politics than the other way around.
That said, I could see something happening to the previous leader, and someone going 'uh, uh. Shit. Well, they mayor's good with dragons, right??' and it sticking.
Whichever way it goes, after their relationship gets better, he might be the inspiration for Elesa becoming a gym leader.
There's not a ton here to detail, but it is worth mentioning that, due to the age gap between them and Elesa's frequent periods of absence due to custody stuff, things stay a little chilly between her and the twins for a bit, still.
(Okay, so that's a lie. They're little kids and adore her, because she's a cool bigger kid-- and, because of that and some of their eccentricities, it just pushes her further away.)
Even when she starts getting closer to Drayden, there's that fear that she'll always be less important than his "real" kids, and that's... not taken out on them, but is reflected in this.
When Elesa's ~12-13, she and her Mareep are set loose upon Unova.
She already has an affinity for electric types, but I think she also catches a number of other Pokemon that aren't part of what will eventually be her gym team. Maybe they're more house Pokemon or something, idk. It just seems unrealistic that she would stick strictly to a theme at this point.
While, parent situation depending, she might have had somem exposure to/thoughts on gender ID, being on her own for a bit is when she really starts considering it.
I also like the idea that she and Burgh met during this time (may even have traveled together for awhile), and stayed friends.
This isn't so much a solid block of beingon the road until her gym challenge is complete as it is being gone for awhile, coming home and continuing to train, and then heading back out.
I think this is the turning point, actually. Because there's no way the twins aren't captivated by her Pokemon, and how can she not be a little flattered?
(Note: Tynamo and Litwick became fixtures in the household before Elesa set off, so she caught her own Tynamo knowing a little about them, and it helps here. It uh. Also emphatically doesn't help in another sense, but we'll get there.)
Before she turns 15, she comes to the conclusion that she's a girl, actually, and tells her family as much.
So it seems pretty widely accepted that, in Unova, roaming age is generally a little higher than 10, but we still see the usual school kids and preschoolers, so I think there's some wiggle room. Which is to say that, if one's 15 year old sibling were to accompany them, it's not out there for kids to do a little adventuring.
(Not participating in the gym circuit yet, mind you, just adventuring/light training. It's also less likely that they stray too far from home, so camping is at a minimum. For farther destinations, they take advantage of the rail system.)
This is where the alluded to conflict comes into play. Emmet's starting out with a Pokemon Elesa has experience with training, and later acquires another she's really fond of. This has... predictable consequences.
Combined with the fact that near everyone-- most family members included-- have a difficult time parsing Ingo's expressions, there's a little bit of favoritism going on.
Elesa doesn't even realize it, and Ingo stays quiet on the matter, but definitely notices.
I'm not sure how viable this would be, but like. We could spin this as the basis for the Mold Breaker/Earthquake combo. Would take place over some time, but still.
Let's say Elesa takes to having them challenge her 2 on 1, to get the feel for battling. If she's trying to demonstrate w/ Eelektrik, she'd naturally target a non-electric Pokemon first, which leads to always being the first one down and not feeling great about that fact.
And yeah, Elesa's the oldest here, and should pay attention to that pattern, but she's also 15 and probably not totally aware of what's going on.
This is a learning experience in a way she didn't intend, and is eventually countered by Axew overcoming the usually immunity to ground/lack of weaknesses with Dig or Bulldoze (depending on how Gen 5-accurate I want to stay) to deliver a decisive blow.
The unexpected KO might also feed into this ongoing problem.
I want Elesa to encounter her Emolgas during this span. I really like the way it fits, thematically.
Just to continue the parallel, I think she knew going in that she wanted an Emolga, but, while they live all over Unova, they're a little tough to actually find, which is why it took this long.
Ironically, I think this encounter takes place on Route 9, 10 or 11-- right outside of Opelucid.
So she meets a pair of them, and while one's interested in training with her, the other doesn't seem as into the idea. This is a problem because, when faced with making a choice, the first Emolga retreats to stay with the second.
This is initially very frustrating-- just because the second Emolga doesn't want to battle doesn't mean the first shouldn't get to. But, then again, it's not like the second Emolga decided for the first; it decided for itself, and the first adjusted its choice from there.
She doesn't argue against it, though, and leaves the two be.
They do, however, meet again on repeat visits, and eventually warm up to her.
Eventually both will decide to join her team, but that will take a little while.
Before they decide to join up in a battling capacity, I think maybe they followed her home and just cohabitated as wild Pokemon acting more as pets.
Anyway, back to it. Because they've been utilizing public transport so much, the subway system has become a subject of fascination for the twins.
This actually started because Ingo recognized his attention was neither required nor especially wanted when it came to discussion of Tynamo and Joltik, and he took an interest in the subject/started reading up on it when he had that spare time.
As is often the case, though, what catches on with one catches the other, too.
While it's not uncommon for them to pair off and disappear for hours at a time-- especially back home-- after spending more time with Emmet, Elesa notices his absence, now.
It doesn't particularly bother her-- she's got her own interests to pursue-- but it's something that does occur to her.
That said, I like the idea that, while she's not jealous, the fact that they're so close does weird her out a little bit, and she starts trying to encourage independence.
(Again, she's 15 and thinks she understands how everything works. She doesn't recognize that their relationship isn't an unhealthy one just because they choose to spend so much time as a unit. Goes right back to the Emolga thing; she may figure it out because of that.)
This unspoken/semi-unrecognized conflict comes to a head within the next year, when Emmet bluntly asks why she doesn't like Ingo; when asked why he thinks that, goes over some of what we've detailed.
Turns out that he's also noticed, and they've talked behind closed doors.
Ingo's inclined to let it go. He's tried to improve things and it didn't work; sometimes people just don't get along, and there's no use in forcing it. That's fine.
And sure, Emmet gets that line of reasoning, but wants to know why. Looking back, she didn't really used to like either of them, so what changed? Why only him?
When confronted head-on like that, I don't think she really has an answer for him; she hadn't consciously realized what she was doing, after all.
Takes some time to consider what had been pointed out to her and how that might have come across. She hadn't meant to hurt anyone, but can definitely see where it would've hurt.
While her apology isn't really the greatest in terms of like, knowing exactly how to articulate her point (considering it's still relatively new info and she feels really fucking bad about it), it is legitimate, and she does want to do better.
There's a sort of hesitance on the opposite side. It's not that he doesn't believe that she feels bad for hurting him, but Ingo's halfway convinced that she's just talking herself into this. He'd really rather she didn't force herself into interacting with him.
That's not it. She wants to make the effort to improve their relationship.
It's not something that can change overnight, but bit by bit, they work on it.
(This isn't something that I've had any reason to add into the outline prior, but I think there was also this subconscious like... recognition of something she struggled with-- coming across too intense/serious-- and was pushing back without realizing it.)
I like tying this to the memory link explanation for her puns. Which could also make wordplay or something kind of speciial between the two of them, a la the electric types.
Emmet objects not due to what it represents, but bc they're puns.
Last point of interest for this span is that when the twins reach the appropriate age to challenge gyms, they do so. They don't need a chaperon this time, and Elesa is busy w/ career prospects, anyway.
By the end of the circuit, they're really good for their age. While it would've bothered her before, now Elesa's more proud than annoyed when either one beats her in battle.
Make no mistake, though, there's still some annoyance. It's a sibling thing.
If I want to, this would be a decent place for the Archeops backstory.
'Where did you find Archen's fossil?'/'Ingo threw a rock at me.'
'Do you have anything to say for yourself?'/'You're welcome.'
[Elesa trying not to laugh in the bg]
From there on, I have less detail, but I do have a number of notable events.
Elesa starts w/ working at a gym, eventually becomes the gym leader. After falling into Volkner syndrome, decides that's not enough and adds modeling into the mix, too.
Meeting Skyla helps a lot in regards to maintaining enthusiasm.
The twins are the opposite. While neither has let battling fall by the wayside, they were far more interested in working for the Unovan railway system than they are competitive battling for a living.
In this version fo events, I like the full circle feeling of it being Elesa who proposes the general idea for the Battle Subway.
Again, Emolgas. The want to battle didn't win out against X, but is 'both' an option?
That said, they're still very much the ones to figure out how to make that concept work at all.
At first, I think it's only multi battles, because a) it's treated as a proof of concept before burning a lot of resources and b) it's unique for a battle facility and they're good at it, anyway.
(That, too, has its influence w/ Elesa, and the 2 v 1 practice battles.)
I haven't touched upon the rest of the gender stuff, and that's because I dig it when characters come to a realization past their teen years. In this case, they come to an understanding (first privately, then w/ one another etc.) in their early 20s, while working at Gear Station, but before the Battle Subway.
Only come out publicly after the Battle Subway opens, w/ the debut as Bosses.
Elesa promptly pivots from whatever mildly embarrassing endearment she'd used previously and starts calling them her baby brothers instead.
She's likely the one who designed their coats. Asked the train nerds questions for inspo and functionality, but put the various details together herself.
Drayden takes Iris under his wing, ostensibly as a pupil only. Yet-unnamed partner/parent sighs and humors him, waiting for him to realize he's all but adopted this girl.
This might happen late enough that she doesn't know her siblings are trans.
This isn't an event, but a note. While Elesa and Ingo have definitely overcome that misunderstanding, they aren't as close with one another as either is w/ Emmet. It's fine. Legitimately no hard feelings.
It's also no secret that Emmet himself is closer with Ingo than he is with Elesa. Kind of a no brainer.
BW, BW2
And then we've got the lead-in to PLA. In this version of events, there's nothing to go off of when Ingo disappears. Nobody has any clue what might have happened. Right now, I don't think it matters what the actual cause is. I'll decide if I have to/it becomes plot relevant.
Their family is pretty devastated. Emmet goes without saying, Drayden hides things better than Unnamed Parent, but if you know where to look, you can see it. Iris probably handles things best, but it's still hard.
Elesa pretty immediately has a 'woulda coulda shoulda' reaction. She would've spent more time/made a greater effort to be close if she'd realized they'd lose him so soon.
I'm not going to worry too much about padding things out appropriately/exact timings; just know that it's a couple of years between the initial disappearance and enacting a plan.
While he had a pretty intense spiral, Emmet's settled into keeping things moving according to schedule, even if his enthusiasm has dimmed noticeably.
For our purposes, Elesa is the one who discovers... not what happened per se, but the end result of whatever temporal nonsense.
This is subject to change, but as of right now, I kind of think she goes abroad/to Sinnoh for modeling, and this particular show features a fashion set inspired by the extinct Hisuian Pokemon.
She's not involved with that line in particular, but thinks it's pretty cool. Takes an interest in Hisuian Lilligant in particular, but the stye she saw associated with Sneasler was pretty bold, too, so that would also pique her interest.
As someone involved in the industry, she's able to get a look at the design/inspo pics, and she shuffles through them. Some of the display pics are the Pokemon the designs took the major cues form, some are people in that era's dress as minor inspo/reference.
There was someone-- dragonofthedepths maybe?-- who had this prompt about a shiny Sneasler causing havoc, and I kind of love the idea that one of the photos Elesa sees-- and the first one relevant to our plot point-- involves a shiny Sneasler in this capacity.
This particular picture was clearly taken after a fight; a shiny Sneasler takes up the foreground-- scuffed up and licking her wounds-- while another, larger, Sneasler can be seen in the background, sulking as she's dragged off by a dark humanoid shape.
Because there's nothing super identifiable, Elesa laughs and moves on.
Her interest wanes after a bit, considering she's seen what she wanted to.
She eventually gets distracted by looking at pretty historical women, and, inevitably, we get to The Pretty Woman herself, Zisu. She almost skims over one of the less interesting pictures-- angled behind Zisu as she battles a Surveyor (there for, presumably, a look at the back of her uniform)-- but something about the challenger, or maybe the Pokemon on the fiield catches her attention (I could see her taking a minute to study Zisu's Hisuian Zoroark.)
It's as she's about to go to the next image that she notices the match's referee-- only caught from the side because, again, this is being shot from Zisu's end of the field-- and, in rapid succession, goes from '???' to 'chill out, braini' to 'no, shit, wait, it's not just that the uniform's similar, the ref is pointing and calling'
Trying to keep her cool, she asks the designer she'd talked to earlier if they know anything about this person. The designer-- who has to have known a little bit of the history, even if they didn't study extensively-- laughs a little. Says yeah, that's Warden Ingo. Doesn't exactly belong int he fashion industry, now does he?
Elesa is trying very hard not to jump to conclusions. Says she doesn't know/it's hard to tell; are there any better pictures?
(She's also a little offended because, excuse me, I designed that coat.)
There are. In spite of the snark, something on the Sneasler outfit was based on him, likely incorporating the 'tattered' ook into the design.
While the quality/angle is better, and it's shot from the front, this picture was clearly focusing on another subject entirely, and this version has been cropped to get whatever detail the designer was looking at.
This picture is much more conclusive, and Elesa asks where they'd found it-- gets the source, snaps a picture of this one, just in case, and probes for any further info.
Doesn't get much, but has key words to work from, and instead of further socialization, spends the next hour deep in research on her phone.
When she gets back to whatever hotel she's been staying at, immediately calls Drayden.
Notably, she doesn't breathe a word of this to Emmet, Unnamed Parent, or Iris, for various reasons.
Drayden, though... she knows he's the best second opinion she can get right now.
She has to go through the whole 'where I found this', 'who it supposedly depicts', 'when it's dated' rabbit hole, which doesn't answer how in the fuck it happened, but gives them something.
Drayden concedes that this person does look a hell of a lot like Ingo, and, on his side at least, they don't have any family from Sinnoh, so that shouldn't be a possibility.
(Looking into it would reveal nope, no Sinnoan ancestry on the other side either)
He doesn't want to jump to any conclusions, but he'll look into it and see what he can find.
Elesa snorts, says she's already done that. Most of what she found has to do with training/battling with Pokemon in a time when it wasn't commonly done.
What little else she found on the warden had to do with the mystery surrounding his sudden appearance in northern Hisui and tense cooperation with the Pearl Clan.
I don't want the focus to stray too far from the more character/dynamic based storyline, so I'm just going to have them work on/find a soltuion off screen. We're going with Celebi here; nothing new.
Other family members definitely notice that they're up to something, but, reasonably, don't have any inkling what they're trying to accomplish. Not for lack of trying on Iris's part.
They only approach Emmet with the new information once their collective efforts have paid off and they have a plan in place.
While excited by this lead, he's actually kind of cross with them for waiting so long to say anything. Yes, he gets it, neither one of them wanted to raise his hopes for nothing, but clearly they've known it was legitimate for long enough and still stayed quiet.
It's not even that he could have helped/made things easier or shorter; it's that they were purposefully shielding him from it.
While both of the twins got to deal with the whole 'baby brother' thing after the fact, Emmet was the one who got the worst of it growing up, which is something I may have alluded to, but wasn't important enough to weave in, specifically.
(He's mostly bitter about it because it's kind of demeaning, but it also tied into the sibling interpersonal conflict.)
Ultimately, yes, they agreed to keep it between them just in case, but there was also the fact that he'd been doing marginally better in X time frame, and neither wanted to jeopardize that.
Saying as much right now, however, is a bad idea. It would just be taken as confirmation.
He doesn't bother fighting them on it for now, but it's made relatively clear that he's prioritizing. He'll go back to being mad about it after the fact, likely once he's got his ally again.
(I said in a different outline that I think the twins would be absolutely impossible to deal with if they argue on the same side of a subject. Not that their logic is perfect or their arguments are super sound; they're just stubborn and ride-or-die. That holds true here, too, and is one of the few things neither Drayden nor Elesa is looking forward to.)
Before anything else happens, the rest of their immediate family is brought into the loop, too.
While that had definitely been the intention, Emmet is very vocally insistent on it. He's really turning the screw on that one, even if, on the whole, he's leaving the subject for now.
Given the roles involved, it's probably a bad idea for too many of them to leave the region at once, so while Drayden was involved in planning things out, he's not actually part of enacting them.
The idea is/was probably for Celebi to assist in/near Jubilife City, since that's where the training grounds were, and there are a lot of records indicating Warden Ingo spent a fair amount of time there.
Unfortunately, they neglected to consider what that might look like in Jubilife Village. This is a problem that's only compounded by unforseen language barriers.
It's not even that neither of them knows any Sinnoan, because both have a rudimentary understanding given their lines of work. It's that this is different.
Luckily, it's Jubilife, and there are immigrants from all over the world, so there are a few people around who can understand them.
One of these is Professor Laventon. Another is Kamado.
(I'm not 100% sure what to make of the armor, so we're just taking the path of least resistance in this and saying he's been to Galar.)
Even before there's a firm understanding of what's being said, it's pretty clear the villagers have a) noticed a resemblance and b) seem pretty uneasy about all fo this.
Kamado, likewise, keeps his guard up while they speak.
Specifics won't matter too much, and I'd rather leave that open for now.
When it comes down to it, we get this much: 1) Yes, there's someone of that name who frequents the village, 2) No, he's not here right now, 3) He's set to return within the week. They'll stay in the village until that time.
While it's not the most polite decision, inviting guests into some else's quarters while they're gone, there's enough reason to believe that these people all know one another, and it's easiest for everyone involved.
It's only a couple of days, but that amount of time can be spent poking around as much as either of them dares. Anything they learn, it's more through observation than conversation.
While some people chill out a little bit, there are plenty who stay on edge around them this entire time. There's a lot to read into that fact.
Also, Elesa meets The Very Pretty Woman.
This is a conundrum, because Zisu would definitely be up for battling, but is it a problem to battle with the Pokemon they have? Would it cause a temporal anomaly or something?
They definitely see one particular teenager running around all over the village, but she seems pretty busy and neither of them has any reason to bother her.
Coming back to add this, bc I can't believe I spaced on it: they did not go into this knowing about the amnesia. Throughout this, they find out and deal w/ that realization.
It's worth pointing out that, between jetlag, time nonsense, and general cultural differences, the village wakes up far earlier than Elesa or Emmet can really deal with at this point in time.
So when Ingo returns to Jubilife, it's quite early in the morning. I'm not sure how much of this we see/is from his POV, but we'll go over it, just because.
Upon arrival, he's taken aside and filled in on what's been going on. Two people appeared, looking for him by name; one looks exactly like him. They were instructed to wait here until he returned, and have been staying in his quarters.
I kind of want to imply that there's a measure of suspicion here on Kamado's part-- directed not only at Emmet and Elesa, but Ingo too, in the wake of their arrival. There may be an allusion to his amnesia, potentially implying that it could be an act.
If I go w/ that, Ingo doesn't rise to the bait. He's dealt with worse, and has more important things to focus on.
Depending on POV/narration, state that he'd intended to visit Akari first thing, but she'd probably appreciate the extra time to sleep, and the circumstance has changed.
Instead, he changes course and the POV switches, because I like this from the other side.
(I know I've had an emphasis on Elesa through a lot of this, and it would fit with that to have a major development from her POV, but let's be real: there's no doubt who Ingo is approaching first, so it makes sense to view it from Emmet's perspective.)
To Ingo's credit, he's being very gentle and very patient, but this is the man he remembered, and whatever happens here is going to be important. He doesn't want to be rude, but he does need them to wake up.
Emmet would rather not, thank you. Is aware of something nudging him-- assumes, reasonably, that it's a Pokemon-- and tries to ignore them. Processes that someone's talking to him.
Whereas before he'd been waking up by a matter of degrees, when the speaker tries to rouse him again, the voice finally clicks and he is awake.
He scrambles upright and, while it's clear the suddenness of the motion startled Ingo, he hadn't actually made any move to back off or put any distance between them.
Whatever Emmet says here, it isn't exactly the most illuminating. Reasonably understood to be on the level of 'thank god, thank god.'
Without further provocation, throws himself forward.
It's this commotion that wakes Elesa up.
Takes a second to realize there's anything out of the ordinary about the twins waking her up way too early; her instinct is to tell the both of them off and go back to bed.
About halfway through turning over and trying to muffle their nonsense, the last X amount of time rears its head and she remembers that, actually, this hasn't happened to her in way too long
Not waiting for either to right themselves, she hauls both up (or maybe only has the right angle to grab one, but by the nature of things, the other comes with) and holds on for dear life.
I'm not 100% sure how much we go over here, but definitely establish the nature of various relations (though, to be fair, one is pretty obvious), that he'd disappeared without a trace one day and they'd been trying to find him ever since.
(Before they have a conversation, Ingo goes out of his way to verify the correct language-- he hasn't relied on this one in quite some tmie-- which throws the others for a loop.)
Just to move the plot along, we get to the fact that they have every intention of bringing him home.
This is phrased as an immediate thing, and he has to hastily ask them to stop/wait.
Isn't very specific-- or maybe, without thinking about it, defaults to Hisuian for part-- but they're able to make out that he just said something about 'my daughter'.
Proceeds to grab Emmet by the wrist and drag him across town.
Emmet is more puzzled by this development than anything; recognizing the flow of things, is trusting that he'll get an answer within the next 45 seconds.
Elesa's thought process, meanwhile, does directly from 'what did he just say' to 'who the fuck knocked up my baby brother'
This concern is mitigated when, instead of a child fewer than X years old, we're met with one entire teenager, slightly bitter about being dragged out of bed.
Akari's reaction, upon seeing this tableau, is 'Now I know I need more sleep'. She attempts to do so.
On the other side of things we have, 'Okay, so you don't remember dad, but you take after him enough to adopt a teenage girl without telling anyone.
Honestly, I... don't usually ascribe this dynamic to Akari and Ingo, and I'm not especially confident in filling this bullet point out in detail right this minute.
All we really need to know is that she eventually gets with it enough to realize what's going on-- and that she could have met her adoptive aunt and uncle way sooner if she'd been paying more attention. Also that they did, in fact, start off from the same era.
At this point, the game's events have since concluded, and there's no work to be done re: the Pokedex. They were kind of just making the best of it here, without any prospect of change.
Basically, we do the usual wrap up in Hisui and pivot to going home.
I'm torn on how to handle Sneasler, because I think it would be funny if the reaction to her was, 'So you actually adopted two teenage girls', but I don't want to disrupt the flow of things to bring her along for the ride.
(Does anyone else remember that CR2 echange where Nott's like, 'Our relationship is that of a parent and child. I am the parent'? Because that's Sneasler's view on this, and by her understanding, she just inherited another couple of wards.)
The only real note I had was that, in watching-- if not with any deep understanding of what's being said-- it becomes a lot clearer that a fair number of people are wary of their entire group, even Ingo and Akari, who have been here far longer and theoretically know them.
When asked what's up, neither is particular forthcoming. Ingo's the one who picks up the slack; says their fear is understandable. There's no forcing the matter, so it's best not to dwell.
Which, yes, does unintentionally smack Elesa in the face. She doesn't know if the amnesia makes the parallel situation better or worse.
Anything else, I can add in when relevant, but for now, we'll just skip ahead to being in the correct time.
I'm going to set up from Drayden's POV, getting a call from Elesa for the first time in Y days/weeks, steeling himself because it's going to be big no matter what she has to say.
'So,' she says, 'Good news and bad news.' The good news is, mission successful.
The bad news is that they didn't really consider the specifics of traveling home, and due to a foreseeable-- yet unforseen-- lack of documentation, they can't leave Sinnoh yet.
It was prudent not to have a bunch of them leave before, but maybe if he, Iris and Parent could visit for a few days...? (The answer is that of course they can make that happen.)
It's definitely around here that she admits-- in the interest of keeping expectations in check and everyone as chill as possible-- that the amnesia is a thing.
And it's bad. 'He remembered Emmet-- thank god-- and Chandelure got a reaction, but everything else is just... gone.'
While they're stuck in Sinnoh, they're going to consult a professional, to see if there's anything that can be done in that regard.
The full implications of that will take longer to set in, but he can accept it, so long as all of his kids are back not-quite-home.
(That gets a tight smile that he's a little too distracted to notice. It would set off alarm bells if he had seen it, because it definitely spells mischief. On a related note, Elesa hasn't breathed a word about Akari at this point, very purposefully.)
I have to assume that they're at a hotel or something, and that the others are pretty nearby-- though Elesa's found a spot to have this conversation. Maybe a balcony?
When Drayden asks where the twins are, she scoffs, finds a better vantage point, and yells for the boys to say hi. One does. The other stares, uncomprehending, and haltingly follows suit.
Not wanting to explain the concept of video calls just yet, she goes back to whatever private nook she'd found, anticipating what comes next.
Lo and behold, Drayden sighs, admits that Ingo looks worse than he'd hoped.
Elesa grimaces, says this is already better, if he can believe it.
With any luck, they'll make more progress by the time the rest of the family gets there.
They go over a little more info-- where they're staying, how long it'll take to get the right papers, etc-- and eventually they say their goodbyes. Drayden also says he's proud of her, and asks that she keep an eye on her brothers just a little while longer.
She laughs, says they're lucky if she does anything else, at this point.
I know I alluded to it earlier, but didn't have a great place to explicitly say as much: by this point-- and from about her teen years on-- Elesa has no qualms about calling Drayden 'dad.'
There's a second call the same day, this time with Unnamed Parent and Iris, since the first call had come in during work hours (nobody really thought about the time zones involved, focused elsewhere.)
It's mostly so they can also get a word in right away, because, as tempting as it is to drop everything and make the trip immediately, everyone recognizes that it would be a terrible idea.
On our Sinnoan side, there are a few things happening.
As mentioned before, there are medical visits in the near future, for both Ingo and Akari.
There's also getting a renewed passport and what have you, but that's not all the paperwork they need to get a hold of; they also need to figure out who Akari was/find any family she has/make sure they can legally take her back home when the time comes.
Emmet has been trying to explain to both Ingo and Akari who's who in their family, but all three of them keep getting distracted and going on various tangents.
Elesa asks, exasperated, if they're sure there's not some manner of Pokemon bullshittery going on, because if there is a blood relation, then at least Akari came by that enthusiasm honestly.
To be fair to Akari, the recurring problem is that one of the twins will get caught up in his own excitement and unintentionally riles the other up, who then repeats the process.
It's annoying, but, somehow, Elesa missed it.
There's also the exact inverse of what happened when they were kids going on. While he's trying to balance where his attention is/is needed at any given time, Ingo spends a lot of time focused on Akari, reasonably, considering he thinks of her as a daughter/she doesn't know the others yet.
Absolutely no slight is intended-- he really is trying to make sure he isn't ignoring anyone-- but it's not like it's just a matter of socializing. There's a metric fuck ton of stuff going on, especially for those who have to readjust to modern life.
And she understands why things panned out this way, but Elesa still finds hereself in a situation of 'I'm 30-something and this feels bad. What would that have been like at 10?'
Privately, she waffles on that point; on one hand, he can't remember any of the shit from when they were kids, but on the other, the effort they both made to get past it is gone, too.
This is also a good point in time to try to get to know Akari.
Something that goes a fair ways toward this is Elesa roping her in on a joke-- specifically, springing the whole 'daughter' thing on the rest of the family, because if she had to endure that moment of all-encompassing 'what the fuck' she's inflicting it on them, too.
Akari's down for it. Emmet's on the fence, because it would be mean, but pretty funny. Ingo is the lone voice of dissent, despite being the original (if unintentional) perpetrator.
Emmet is swayed when Elesa reminds him how Drayden randomly showed up with Iris
If I decide we actually did bring Sneasler along, she's part of the prank, even if she doesn't get a vote.
I'm going to take a break here because it's 2 am, and god willing, I'll remember what comes next. As a note to myself, we're moving on to whenever those in Unova can get to Sinnoh.