The world will rue the day it struck me down. I will ram into the back of its legs with my wheelchair (She/her 23)
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Blueisquitetired - I Have A Job Its Called Writing Fanfiction - Tumblr Blog
Pokémon battles with friends is fun
(Original making out meme by kupahdraws on Twitter)
When you got time, do you have any tips on writing Ingo and Emmets dialogue? I really like how you write them but I can't seem to get their speech down. It's mainly Ingos which is annoying since he canonical has more dialogue than Emmet.
Oh thank you!! I’m glad you enjoy- writing these boys dialogue is one of my favorite parts of writing and has made me seriously consider how I write speech for every character I do. It’s been great practice!
Okay, actual advice time lol.
HOW TO WRITE INGO AND EMMET
(According to me, Blue)
(Now, keep in mind that there isn’t one true way to write the boys, and this is just how I personally write them. Take this with a grain of salt)
When you’re first starting out writing the boys I recommend writing dialogue in your own voice and then submasifying it.
For example, let’s take this dialogue and transform it:
“Sorry I’m late for work! My dog chewed through my nice pants so I had to find some new ones! It’s been a bit of a rough day today, not gonna lie.”
So starting with Ingo-
Ingo talks extremely formally and is super long winded. When writing dialogue for him, try to imagine a fancy British butler who uses long words and long sentences. Replace normal words with more “fancy” ones and use more words then you really need to. (A thesaurus can be extremely useful for this)
“My sincerest apologies for my tardy arrival!”
Then, pepper in train terms as much as possible. If he goes three sentences without saying something train related, find a way to stick one in. If you’re stuck, look up a list of train words and take inspiration (I’ll include a list of train expressions I commonly pull from at the bottom of the post) (Make sure to use “Bravo!” and “All aboard!” whenever applicable as well)
“I awoke to the unpleasant surprise of joltik holes in my trousers this morning- which delayed my cab significantly as I was forced to find an undamaged pair!”
I personally strive to use consonants (stuff like I’d, we’ll, don’t) as little as possible with the boys. For Emmet it’s to add to the choppiness of his dialogue and for Ingo it’s because that man would rather use fifty words when one will do. (It also makes them sound more professional!)
“Honestly, after a morning like this one, I pray that the remainder of today’s tracks prove to be much smoother.”
Another thing to keep in mind is that Ingo is extremely polite while Emmet is a bit more blunt. Try to use titles like “sir” and “miss” when writing Ingo- and then just don’t bother with Emmet.
Next up is Emmet, who I personally find much harder then Ingo! Unlike Ingo who’s dialogue you need to add words to, Emmet you need to subtract and simplify! This is the post I originally read to kinda get the jive of things, but here’s my pointers!
First off, figure out what concepts the are being expressed in your sentence, and split those apart.
“Sorry I’m late for work!” has two parts- an apology and an acknowledgment that the person is late. For Emmet we would want to split this single sentence into two.
“I am Emmet! I am late! Sorry!”
Next is vocal ticks! Emmet has several, and they should ideally be sprinkled in sparingly through his dialogue. (You can see that I used ‘I am Emmet’ in the previous section)
‘I am Emmet’ should be used when he is joining a conversation or when he’s about to say something about himself. It CAN be used more then once in a single conversation- but try not to overdo it.
‘Verrrrrrrry’ is another one! Other submas authors have him roll the r on other words as well, but I stick with verrrrrry. This one is easy to use- just extend the word very with extra Rs and use very whenever naturally applicable.
‘Yup’ is one as well- and one I admittedly don’t use often. It rarely jives with the way I write Emmet so I usually don’t bother- but you should definitely keep it in mind!
And of course, train terms! Less often then Ingo of course (since he says less words in general) but if you can find a way to fit it in, go for it.
“The joltiks chewed holes in my pants! Verrrrry naughty. Had to find new pants. Holey pants do not pass safety checks! Yup!”
Finally, the man likes his patterns! When writing Emmet it’s a good idea to have his Blubapedia page open nearby so you can just steal chunks of his script from that. (You can, and should do this for Ingo too!)
“Bad morning. Oh well. Follow the schedule! Everybody smile! All aboard!”
Of course, the man is perfectly capable of speaking longer sentences- but when and where he does so is up to the author.
All that being said, it’s important to remember that you’ll likely have to attempt their dialogue a few times before getting a sentence to flow right. Even for these examples I had to do a couple takes until I found one that really worked!
Here’s a couple of other notes for writing Pokémon characters in general:
Watch out for expressions and words that use animals. (like beeline or ‘in the dog house’) Try to replace those words with their Pokémon counterparts- (such as combeeline [which I’ve typed so many times I’ve started using internally in my day to day life]) or something that sounds close enough (like if your censoring f***, ducklett doesn’t work nearly as good as duck. So try muk instead!)
Do your best to replace religious swears with Pokémon religion! Instead of heavens, or the big G word, use words like, ‘Dragons!’ Or ‘Sweet Swords of Justice!’ (Of course, these are Unovan swears. For Hisui you should be using things like ‘Sinnoh’ and ‘great Time!’. Other regions have their own legendaries as well)
And finally, my list of train terms I pull from regularly!
Cab (or car): To refer to one’s body
“I am afraid my cab is in need of repairs.”
Tracks: A plan or intended route
“Very well! I will follow the tracks you have set!”
Destination: The goal or like, the actual destination
“Bravo! Your talent has brought you to the destination called victory!”
Station (or terminal): A location
“Very well! Let us set our tracks to the Pearl Clan’s station!”
Two Car Train (or three or four or whatever number you need): Friends or a team
“Emmet and I are a two car train!”
Couple (opposite being uncoupled): To join together
“I must ask that you couple your car to mine as we make our way through here. It can get quite dangerous!”
Engine: Another term for your body, but more specifically in regards to energy or drive
“I’m afraid I must rest my engine.”
Refuel: Eat.
“It is getting quite late- let us take a break to refuel.”
Conducting: Guiding
“I look forward to conducting you on this endeavor!”
Derailment (or collision, wreck, trainwreck): Something that has gone wrong.
“Apologies. It appears I have been derailed.”
Unscheduled (opposite being scheduled): Something unexpected
“Ah! A cave in! It appears we must make an unscheduled stop.”
Passenger: Person (or Pokémon)
“It appears we have picked up some unexpected passengers!”
Conductor: Ingo sometimes uses this to refer to himself (works especially well in Hisui)
“Passenger, please refrain from stabbing the conductor”
Delay: Something happening later then scheduled
“Apologies for the delay! Let us begin!”
Sidetracked: put off course
“Ah, but now I have sidetracked us with this talk.”
All aboard!: Good conversation ender 💙
“ALL ABOARD!!!”
In everyone goes feral in Hisui, I think Akari should be able to bite Arceus, as a treat.
She should. It’s her right.
Everyone goes feral in Hisui 25: Anticipation and Steel
Summary: The rift goes quiet. Melli meets a train
This is part two. Read part one here
The Sentinels (Emmet)
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
“Liar” Emmet smacked the side of his radar, but the message didn’t disappear. “Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Lie-“ Smack “-er.” Smack “Warning. Sentinel detected.”
Groaning, Emmet admitted defeat, flopping back onto the stupid reflective ground he was sitting on. He’d heard that traveling through black holes damaged equipment, but he hadn’t realized just how much it damaged them. Although, maybe that was just a consequence of being literally ripped out of his ship. Honestly, Emmet was lucky to be alive.
Still, nearly ever single feature of his suit had been non-functional when he came to, and his first few hours awake had been spent frantically fixing all of it. Thankfully, his equipment was all designed to be easy to repair with any natural elements around, but it was still a tense few hours. Especially when his radar warned him of sentinels the moment he got it working.
“Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Yup yup. Sentinels detected. You said that already.”
Of course, there wasn’t any sentinels around, no matter where Emmet looked or what he did. Nothing was there to bully him for mining, nothing was there to shoot him for daring to exist. Yet. Still. His radar insisted.
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
Emmet had uninstalled and reinstalled the stupid thing four times, had checked every single connection and part- and had even straight up built a new one, and still it insisted there was sentinels nearby. There wasn’t, and Emmet was sick of its whining.
“Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Shut up. Please.”
Was there a way to turn off the voice warnings? Or make it stop searching for sentinels all together? There was obviously something about this planet that made his radar glitch out, and he doubted it would stop detecting the dang things until he was off planet.
Which would be hard to do without a ship.
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
Man, he wished Ingo was here. Sure, it would be nice to get a second opinion on whatever was going on- but mostly he just missed his brother. He hadn’t responded to any of Emmet’s messages, so he was probably out of range of his local communicator. Honestly, he could be on the other side of the galaxy at this point, flung somewhere else entirely by that stupid black hole.
But hey! That’s why they had an emergency plan for situations like this! Emmet just needed to get to this system’s space station and then everything would be fine.
Which. Also required a ship.
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
And that brought him right back to his stupid radar. He needed the dang thing in order to locate any nearby settlements, and he needed a settlement of some kind in order to hitch a ride on someone’s ship. Heck, he’d settle even for a wandering pilot at this point- just any kind of sentient life form!
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
Maybe even a sentinel.
One of them would be better then the endless stretches of glassy hills, pillars of fractured glass and floating shards. Better then these oil slick skies and their sixteen bright stars, blinking down at him judgmentally.
He hoped that wherever Ingo ended up, it was nicer then this.
We’re back baby.
Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui Chapter 24: Travels and Separations
Summary: Elesa quells Lord Avalugg. The gang splits up.
Sorry for yet another week without an update. My family left for an out of country trip two weeks ago and just got back yesterday. This had been the longest I’d ever been on my own before and something about the experience made concentrating in any way basically impossible.
But, as I said, the family is back now, and I have three and a half chapters of backlog that are just begging to be edited. Thank you for your patience- hopefully I can become consistent again soon.
Happy pride month. Have a crack ship.
Mirror Image, chapter ten: INTERMISSION
Summary: Meanwhile…
The bots have gotten smarter. They spam reblog cat videos now.
Sorry I didn't write this earlier, but we gotta know what Emmet is going through in the Astral Shards au.. especially after the tags under the sentinels post
Awesome Sneasler ship drawing btw!
Thank you for the ask! This is actually what helped me power through and write the second half to that, so look forward to that.
In reference to the tags-
When Ingo get's Emmet out of the Land of Glass he's not... quite.. natural anymore. He's broken, shattered, literally smashed into tiny pieces that don't properly follow the laws of reality. He physically shouldn't have been able to leave the glass dimension... but Ingo found a way.
The autophage helped with that.
They were familiar with being broken, with being rejected by the Atlas. It was the Void Mother who helped them, who showed them how to use atlantideum to build themselves up from nothing.
But Emmet is a biological being, not mechanical, so they cannot fix him. They can only keep him from falling further apart.
For Ingo to save his brother, he'll need help of an... organic being.
I’m curious now- what were the rest of emmets messages? Was he sending them while being cut apart in the Evil Glass Dimension?
Oh I was sooooo gunna write them all out for you... but that would b a fic's worth of words and I'm doing this format to avoid too much extra writing. Regardless...
As soon as Emmet could get his communicator working he started sending messages to Ingo. It was... discouraging when the first few obviously didn't go through, but he kept at it. Not really because he expected a response, but more because he needed to someone to talk to, even if they couldn't talk back.
Unbeknownst to him, Ingo was getting his messages, just not when he was sending them. Instead, Ingo's grand quest is to travel the far reaches of the galaxy to receive each one- each message its own tiny shard of glass.
Each message is a quest to obtain, and each shard leaves Ingo feeling more and more worried.
Sure, it all starts okay, with Emmet absolutely sure that he can find some locals and borrow a ship out of there...
But slowly things start to become... off.
He's forgetting things- his plan, where he's been, where he's going. It starts small at first, Emmet doesn't even notice, but...
But he does eventually.
Eventually he realizes that he's losing himself, piece by piece, and he's scared. He's scared because he doesn't know what's happening, doesn't know how to stop it, doesn't know what he's losing.
Each message gets more and more disjointed, less coherent.
He forgets his name at one point.
...He forget's Ingo's a while later.
He can't remember who he is or who he's talking to, can't remember where he's going or where he's from.
He knows.. he knows he's talking to someone but-
He knows they must be dead. Whoever it was. That's why he's alone now right? That's why... that's why...
He has to keep sending messages.
It's all he has.
Please.
I miss you
Oops. I dropped off of the face of the earth again.
Whatever. Lady Sneasler but she has spaceship rights.
(This is from my Astral Shards AU! You can read the pitch for it here.)
And we’re back baby!
Ingo Orders a Pizza (and Ends up Regretting it Immensely)
Summary: After three years in Hisui, Ingo has finally returned to Nimbasa! Unfortunately, he’s a bit lost and maybe a liiiiittle bit hungry. A slice or two of pizza couldn’t hurt… right?
Hello, yes so! Irida and Adaman! I have, So many questions about them in your Astral Shards AU. do you have alien species in mind for them or isit just "not human" at this stage? how did they first meet when the iterations arent supposed to be able to interact? did they create the in-between space or did they just happen upon it and decide to build a station in there? considering they think the god equivalent, atlas, is a liar how does that change their personalities from what we see in PLA (especially irida whose reverence for almighty sinnoh and Vast Hisui seemed to be emphasized even more than with adaman). im curious to know what theyd be like in a world where they not only both know exactly who/what created the universe but also think its kinda a dick and want to avoid it instead of worship it.
Adaman and Irida aren't super duper important for this AU in general, so I probably won't ever draw them or anything- but species wise they are travelers!
That is to say- whatever they frick they want to be. If anyone has any ideas for potential designs I'd love to see them, you can get really creative here lol.
"how did they first meet when the iterations arent supposed to be able to interact?"
We'll see, that's how it's supposed to be. One traveler per universe, and the universe's stay separate. Except they kinda... don't.
On occasion, the walls between realities will grow thin, and travelers echoes will pass though dimensions. They aren't really there and you can't fully interact with them, but you can talk and that's all that Irida and Adaman really needed. The anomaly was created so they could truly interact, truly stand in the same room together, finally no longer be alone.
They did a lot of research to get to this point, to figure out how to open spaces between dimensions and how to gather other travelers together. In that research they learned more about the Atlas... and they didn't like what they found.
"considering they think the god equivalent, atlas, is a liar how does that change their personalities from what we see in PLA (especially irida whose reverence for almighty sinnoh and Vast Hisui seemed to be emphasized even more than with adaman)"
These are all interesting ideas- and actually ones they play around with in text!
This is Nada and Polo, the characters I had Irida and Adaman replace. They serve the same role in the game as I've given Irida and Adaman... including their distrust of the Atlas.
Which is especially juicy when you notice that Nada is a Korvax... aka those guys that worship the Atlas.
(They are also the only people aboard the anomaly who aren't travelers! ...don't ask why I made Adaman and Irida travelers in spite of this, I don't have a good answer lol)
I think Irida probably worshiped that Atlas before, after she learned of her special role in the universe and how much the Atlas loved her personally. I think she started asking too many questions though, which lead to her learning more and inevitably growing bitter with it.
All that being said though, Irida and Adaman are just minor characters in this AU and don't have too much impact on the over arching plot. Knowing how much you like Irida though, I'm sure you would have much more thoughts on the matter than me.
Thank you for the ask!
Tags from @reblog-subway-station:
#do they [the sentinels] mess with Ingo's plans? #i imagine they do because. he probably isn't a big fan of the Atlas either
The Sentinels (Ingo)
“Warning. Sentinel detected.”
Ingo flinched at the sudden voice of his exosuit, his hands threatening to drop his multitool in surprise. That wasn’t a message he hadn’t ever gotten before, although the alien dread and irritation suggested that before his memory loss he had. Getting a better grip on his multitool, Ingo turned to where his visor was directing him, coming face to face with-
A little red drone.
He tensed for one anxious wordless moment… before the drone tuned away with a wirr, floating a ways away to scan a nearby tree. That was…. anticlimactic. For all the hubbub involved, Ingo assumed that they would attack him or something. The warning was still ever present on the bottom of his visor screen and it didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon. But why? The drone wasn’t doing anything- just scanning random rocks and trees as it buzzed around.
….well whatever. Ingo shook his head and went back to mining. He had a brother waiting for him, and his ship was almost finished. Just a couple more materials and he-
A metallic shriek was the only warning Ingo got before a sleeve of bullets got fired into his back. He whirled around as his visor lit up with red, his suit’s shields wailing about the damage they had taken. The sentinel- because it had been the sentinel who attacked him- began charging up another volley. “Hey!” Ingo shouted in alarm as his shield took another round of bullets. “Violence is highly unnecessary! Words would suffice!”
Unfortunately, the sentinel didn’t seem interested in (or capable of) starting a conversation, and Ingo had to dodge another round of ammunition. Irritated (and a bit scared for his life) he turned his mining laser on the aggressive little droid- which did little more the singe it. Still, Ingo didn’t have much other options, so he kept at it, slowly racking up damage while doing his best to avoid as much fire as possible.
By the time he finally managed to take the thing down, his shield was critically damaged and flashing at him aggressively. “Serves you right.” He spat at the exploded shrapnel on the floor, its internal parts fractured and and broken, strewn wildly in all directions. The parts were strange though, hardly resembling the internal circuits of his own ship and looking more like jagged purple shards. ….shards that eerily resembled the message from his brother.
“Warning. Sentinel reinforcements approaching” Oh heck no. Investigation abandoned, Ingo hightailed it out of there, running up the nearby hill and praying he could get far enough away in time. In less than thirty seconds the area he had previously been in was swarming with little red drones, the little buggers having blinked into existence between one moment and the next. Ingo had no idea where they could have come from- but he wasn’t sticking around to find out.
Questions from someone who (regrettably) hasn't heard of the No Man's Sky before Astral Shards :P
What is Atlas? Since they hide from it, is it like Giratina in this au? Or Arceus?
The Atlas is many things.
The Korvax call it a god. An intelligence beyond comprehension and judgment. It created the world and all that reside in it, and the Korvax hope that by worshiping it, they too can obtain similar greatness.
The Vy'keen feel differently. The Atlas controls the sentinels, and the Vy'keen have been at war with them for generations. They do not trust something with that much power, and insist that if the Atlas is a god, then it must be insane.
The Gek are more neutral. They care little for things like higher powers and gods, and are much more concerned with their trades and profits. Still, even they acknowledge the power of the Atlas, of its ever present nature.
(The Korvax, Vy'keen, and Gek are the three main races in No Man's Sky, each with their own language and history)
Adaman and Irida think differently. They call it a liar, a hypocrite, a false god. They have spent most of their lives avoiding its crimson gaze, slipping into the cracks between worlds and leaving its jurisdiction.
The Atlas is all of these things and more. It is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything and the keeper of order. It made the galaxy and all its wonders- every galaxy in every universe. The infinite cosmos is it's garden, and the sentinels are it's gardeners, tending to it's creations and making sure everything is in proper order.
Yet what is the point of a garden without someone to visit? What is the purpose of art if there is no one to view it?
And there in lies the hypocrisy. Because the Atlas craves order, demands assimilation- yet it created the travelers, the antitheses to all that it is. The travelers are the outliers, the mistake, the glitch in the code, yet the Atlas adores them more then any of it's other creations.
The traveler is the observer, the aesthete. Their entire purpose is to behold what the Atlas has made, to revel in its glory.
Forever adrift and aimless, doomed to always move and never stay- no home to call their own.
Is it any surprise that some rebel against that fate?
Tags from @reblog-subway-station:
#woah!! I assume the ship crash and Emmet falling in were the same event or at least connected
Yup yup! They’d run into some nasty pirates while traveling and quickly found themselves out gunned and outmatched. Both of their ships suffered massive damage during the fight, and if they didn’t find a way out of the situation quickly, there was a very real chance they were going to die. So they pulled a Hail Mary.
They entered a black hole.
Now black holes are risky and dangerous- but they are a legitimate form of travel. They could send you to the other side of the galaxy in an instant… but you can't control where exactly and it would seriously damage your ship. Neither Emmet nor Ingo had ever wanted to take those risks, but they were out of options.
It didn’t go well.
(Also, I'm not sure why they're called black holes in game when their function is that of a wormhole???)
#I don't know if it's like that in the game but the glass dimension being purple reminds me of space time distortions #they also remind me of glass domes
You know, I’m not sure how I haven’t made the connection between the distortion world and the land of glass. But you’re totally right that they’re similar!
If I had to guess why, I'd wager it's because the Land of Glass isn't purple... even though the glass itself is.
(The forbidden screenshot)
That’s kinda counterintuitive, but the reasoning for the discrepancy lies behind a part of the AU I haven’t actually mentioned yet:
The Sentinels.
Aka, the antagonists of this AU.
Astral Shards AU
TLDR: The Boys are in space and they have a Bad Time. (Lady Sneasler is there too)
(This is technically a No Man's Sky AU, but you don't need to know anything about the game to follow along just fine)
Welcome to the pitch! All art for this AU will get their own posts, so everything here will be in game screenshots. There's also a lot more to this story then just what's written here (As this is, you know, the pitch) so please leave any questions, thoughts, or ideas in my inbox. This bad boy isn't getting a fic anytime soon, so it's tumblr only for now!
(In game models of the boys. I'll post a drawing of their actual designs sometime in the future)
Post proper under ReadMore!
This is honestly half fic if I'm being honest.
Length: ~3,000 words or so. Sorry not sorry.
Disclaimer: I don’t know every single No Man’s Sky lore detail, and I’m not going to scour the wiki for every piece of information and spoil the whole game for myself, so not everything will be 100% lore accurate. And I’ll be ignoring the giant late game twist (if you know you know) because, as cool as it is, it’s very much a twist that consumes all narratives set in this universe, and I’d rather not make my story *also* about that. (Also, as with all AUs not currently written down in fic form, details are subject to change)
Anyway did you know the No Man’s Sky protagonist suffers from amnesia?
Picture this- Ingo wakes up on a frozen planet next to a crashed starship. He's a bit confused and lost- but his space suit is damaged and that kinda takes priority. Because of that, it takes him a hot minute to figure out he has no memories- but as he’s gathering the materials needed to not die he figures it out
The starship recognizes him as its owner and he feels relatively confident in his ability to fix all of this jazz, so he did exist before... but besides that he’s kinda stumped
But this place sucks- he’s constantly freezing to death, stuck either recharging his hazard protection with sodium or siting in his (still wrecked) starship until he warms up enough to go mine stuff with his handy dandy laser again.
And he’s alone
It’s very lonely
(He’s not supposed to be alone)
So the tentative plan is this: fix the starship enough for space flight, launch into space, and then fly to this solar system's space station. (which he has a gut feeling exists. “Every solar system has one” he mutters to himself. He’s not sure how he knows that)
It’s….. slow going. But it’s going
There’s a lot of mining involved, a lot of looting crashed space junk, a lot of mind numbing boredom as he goes to the same spaces over and over and-
And then he sees something weird in the distance.
(This is a monolith. In game it’s used to learn space language words and history and to get l o r e. I’m taking advantage of it)
It’s kinda a hike over there, and it uses up a lot of his sodium reserves, but eventually he comes face to face with….. whatever this is
So he walks around it, trying to figure out what it is, before eventually finding a platform he can interact with.
Stepping up to it, he’s filled with strange sensations and knowledge, a story of an alien race that is familiar yet he hasn’t actually seen yet-
And then the world shatters in front of him
He steps back in shock as a tear in reality forms, a crack in the cosmos widening and fracturing, the sound of breaking glass as everything s h a t t e r s-
And then everything is fine
He stands there, dumbly for a moment, mind reeling….
Until he notices something that wasn’t there before
A shard of purple glass
Carefully, he picks it up, holding it up to his visor-
It whispers
It’s faint, too faint. He can’t hear it well- but it’s important. The whispers are familiar and he needs to know what they’re saying.
So he treks back to his ship, filled with a purpose he hasn’t had in his entire remembered life.
It takes a bit to wire his radio receiver to accept strange reality shards as a valid form of input, but eventually he figures it out. Connecting the last few wires and attaching the shard to it-
“Ingo, where are you? Please respond.”
That’s- that’s- that’s his brother!!!! His TWIN!!! Ingo doesn’t know much but he knows that’s his brother and he’s not supposed to be alone and what happened, why did he crash and why is his twin not here, where did he go? What happened?? He needs to find him!! He needs to find him NOW!
This lights a fire under him
Suddenly it isn’t “hey let’s fix my ship because I have nothing better to do” it’s “I have to fix my ship so I can find my brother” he’s working in overtime
He visits the monolith once or twice too, hoping to get another hint, another clue, maybe even respond- but it has no more answers. Reality is stable, and there are no more shards of glass
It takes forever and the fixed spaceship is…… not great- but at least it flies.
It works well enough, and Ingo has enough oxygen for his life support and enough fuel for his ship to get to the space station- even if it’s on the other end of the solar system.
Ingo…. reeeeaally wishes it was better put together, but this is the best he can do for a previously totaled starship.
So, he lifts off.
And things go great at first!
His radar manages to locate the space station without much trouble, and his pulse engine should get him there fairly quickly.
He charts a course and gets going, little purple shard tucked into his suit. (He’d listened to the message on repeat hundreds of times. Over and over “Ingo, where are you? Please respond.” He’d combed through his ships logs as well, but they were almost all corrupted, left with nothing but fragments of his brother’s voice. This was his only true connection)
And then the engine dies
The engine dies and Ingo is in the middle of nowhere, ages away from any planet, stuck in the middle of empty space with no hope of getting anywhere.
No debris, no friendly ships, no nothing.
He’s going to die out here.
He's going to die out here and his brother will never know, will never see him again, will think he just forgot him-
He has a nice panic, looking at his limited supply of oxygen and mildly freaking out
(Majorly freaking out)
But at least he has his radio.
He doesn’t…. know any frequencies or anything, doesn’t know what to tune it too, but he has to try something.
So he just, turns it on and hopes for the best.
“Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Tune the frequency one more decimal point “Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Turn the dial-
And so on and so forth.
Eventually, his wordy message turns to just a hoarse plea of “help”, and he’s started switching the stations willy nilly, no longer one decimal at a time.
He’s going to die out here.
Hours of this, hours of desperately pleading into the vast depths of space-
The frequency changes without his input.
“….help?” He asks hesitantly, staring blankly at the radio transceiver. How did it do that? Why did it do that? Why was the display filled with random symbols instead of numbers-
“With what?”
Ingo jolts upright in his seat, adrenaline rushing through his veins and his heartbeat in his throat “I am stranded in deep space and require rescue.” He wheezes out, his throat sore and dry
“Oh yeah that’s no good. You sound awful- you must have been stuck there a while.” There’s the sounds of buttons beeping and fingers tapping before- “Ah found you. We’ll open a pocket near your location. Sit tight.”
And then reality warps and-
That’s new
It’s uh…. A bit too far from his ship though. It’s a nice, rational distance away, but his ship can’t move.
But it’s close enough he could probably jet pack over there.
Making sure his shard is close to his chest and firmly secured, he opens up his cockpit and leaps, propelling himself into the docking bay-
And oh
Artificial gravity kicks in, and he falls to the floor in a crumpled heap right by the entrance.
Impossibly, a ship flies in a mere moment later, even though there had been no ships anywhere nearby Ingo before. Several more soar in and out as he ungracefully shuffles to the station proper. Somehow.
And by the stars, is it loud.
(Please imagine this area being far more busy than it is. I took this photo on a weekday, but even on its busiest days it’s still a game that probably maxes out at lobbies of thirty or something. Since, you know, it’s an indie game)
After weeks of total isolation, the sheer hustle and bustle of hundreds of people is far too much to handle, the echoing reverb of ships landing and taking off sending spikes through his skull.
But, as uncomfortable as it is, it’s still people- and Ingo is so so glad to have company
“You okay?” A young voice asks as he clambers up to the parking space nearest to the entrance. “You took quite a tumble there.”
There's a short being on the platform, one that helps Ingo up. It's a youth, maybe female- and she almost seems to be the same species as Ingo. (Ingo has the feeling that he doesn't meet members of his own species much... or ever)
“Everything is operational.” he reassures, standing at full height and towering over the girl. He hunches down slightly, as to not seem intimidating. “I am just relieved that I am no longer trapped out there.”
The girl nods and gestures him forward, walking towards the station proper and expecting him to follow. He does
“Yeah I bet! If your ship wasn’t even working well enough to fly in….” She shakes her head. “Well enough of that. I’m iteration Akari! What’s your name?”
“Ingo.” He replies, a little more directly then he prefers. His voice is still hoarse. “What is this place?”
“The anomaly!” Akari replies, as they get closer to the crowd proper. “I guess this is your first time then?”
“Yes it is.” What in the world is this place? And where are all these people coming from??
“Then you should meet with iteration Adaman and Irida!”
Akari begins leading him past the crowds and towards a curving ramp.
“Iteration?” He asks, noticing the pattern in their titles.
“Oh yeah uhhhh… I’ll let one of them explain that.”
Akari chatters to him as they walk along, pointing out different landmarks and explaining their purpose
Eventually they reach a wide room that seems to overlook the entire station, just as bright and colorful as everything else.
“Hello!” A voice calls, and an alien decked in dark blue greets him. “You took quite the fall there! Are you alright?”
He is iteration Adaman apparently, and iteration Irida stands nearby. She waves when Ingo and Akari approach.
They are the leaders of this place- the founders of the anomaly. A place between dimensions, a safe haven for people like them- one's who are alone in the worlds they inhabit.
They ask about his lack of spaceship and Ingo tells them of his plight, eventually explaining his goal.
“I need to find my twin.” He explains, pulling out his shard of glass. “I remember little, but I know we are not meant to be separated. I fear for his safety.”
“A twin???” Irida sounds completely shocked, the plants she was monitoring forgotten as she turns to the group. “That’s not possible.”
“It could be.” Adaman counters. “In the infinite reaches of spacetime anything is possible.”
“The odds of such a thing are so astronomically low. Do you mean a brother in arms? A family chosen by bond alone?”
“No?” Ingo responds. “He looks like me.” He saw his reflection in the ice, his brother whispering in his ears. They shared a face.
“Impossible. Mathematically impossible”
“Improbable Irida. Not impossible.”
“The odds are far too low-"
“Plenty of people have siblings. And plenty of twins exist.” Ingo interrupts, irritation coloring his voice. “It is not that rare.”
“But not travelers.” Akari pipes up, finally joining the conversation. “Travelers are always alone.”
“Traveler?”
“That’s what you are.” Irida explains. “A traveler. We all are actually- everyone here. A being cursed to wander the stars, one with no home of their own. They may stop and rest, may find a place to settle down- but there is no place that is theirs, no community for them. No sky they rest under calls them its own.”
“Only one can exist at once.” Adaman adds. “Every dimension can only host a single one.”
“Hang on.” Ingo shakes his head. “That does not track. You just said that everyone here is a traveler. Which contradicts your earlier statement.”
“We are in an in-between space.” Irida explains, her tone pitying. “We founded the anomaly so travelers could find each other. So that the iterations could finally interact.”
“So we wouldn’t always be alone.”
“I…. I need to sit down.”
Adaman pulls up a chair and Ingo slumps into it, his head and helmet falling into his hands
“You can stay as long as you need.” Adaman reassures, his tone soft. “Our home is open to all, a bastion of safety.”
“I cannot.” Ingo sighs, before straightening back up. “I must find my brother.”
He holds out his shard of glass, reflections of multicolored light gleaming off it.
“This is the only clue I have”
“May I?” Adaman holds out his hand and Ingo hands it over reluctantly, watching as he holds it up to the light. His face falls as he examines it.
“Oh dear. Irida is this….?”
“Yes.” Irida's tone is grave, somber and mourning. “A shard of the glass world.”
“Your brother is almost certainly gone.”
“No!” Ingo leaps to his feet, his hands clenched in fists. “He is not! He sent me that message-“
“There are many in between spaces.” Irida interrupts. “We are in one, a stable pocket that hides us from the world, from the gaze of the Atlas.”
She frowns.
“Larger ones are far less stable. Refractions, cracks. The-"
“-world of glass.” Adaman finishes for her. “Any living being unlucky enough to fall in there will cut themselves on its fragments, their very being torn to shreds. Your brother would not survive."
“Not necessarily.” Ingo counters, his voice tight. “If I could get him out-”
“He would be nothing like he was before, shattered beyond compare.”
“But he would be THERE!” His voice is loud and booming, his throat stinging in pain. “I refuse to let him suffer and die in there. I refuse to just…. give up on him! I will get him out!”
“It will be difficult.” Adaman hands him his glass back. “To find a way in will be tricky enough, but to find a way out….”
“How do I get in.” Ingo holds the shard to his chest. “How do I find him.”
“Well…."
Adaman frowns, drumming his fingers on his arm.
"Entering the world of glass shouldn't be much trouble. It's a vast space, and opening pockets in spacetime is our specialty."
"But finding him is the actual problem." Irida adds, her face grim.
"Yup. Which makes your encounter at the monolith even more strange." Expression contemplative, Adaman once again holds out his hand. "May I see your message again?"
Tentatively, Ingo places it back in his palm, still reluctant to part with something so precious. Adaman hardly seems to notice, casually turning it back and forth in his hands as he re-examines it- before eventually scanning it with a tool on his table. Data streams onto his screen, and he hands the shard back to Ingo before examining what he received.
The group is silent as he scrolls through the data, a tension in the air.
".... I think you could probably find more of these shards. Going off of your account of the event and the frequency of the shard itself..." He trails off, expression contemplative. "They seem to be... tuned to you somehow. Connected somehow. Maybe it's related to you two being 'twins'."
He hums.
"Maybe your predecessor was split into two. Maybe you are connected more than you know."
Ingo has... questions about that, but he keeps silent for now. Better not to interrupt him and break his train of thought.
"If you can find weak spots in your universe, places where the boundary between the world of the living and the world of glass is thin... Maybe you can find more of these."
"And then what?" Irida asks, her tone annoyed. "What good would more of those do?"
"Why, that's where you come in my dear friend!" Voice light and face playful, Adaman turns to his partner and grins. "With enough data points, I'm sure you can triangulate his location!"
"And send this man on a suicide mission?"
"I will find a way." Ingo interrupts the two before their argument to escalate, his determination swelling. "A way to travel there without losing myself. I will not go in unprepared."
"You heard the man!" Adaman claps his hands merrily and Irida groans. "He's already made up his mind! Better to help him where we can, hmm?"
Irida shakes her head.
“Fine. I’ll rig you up a scanner. A way to find unstable areas.”
"And then you can gather more of those shards!"
“But you’ll need to go all over.” Irida huffes.
“Not just yellow stars. Red, green, blue. You’d need to build an intensive warp drive, which is expensive and requires so much materials and nanites and you don’t even have a ship-”
“We surely have an extra we can spare.” Adaman interruptes, flashing Ingo an apologetic look. “And while the trials will be difficult, I’m sure your determination will see you through. Akari?”
“Yes?” Ingo startles as the girl speaks. He had forgotten she was there.
“Can you check the hangers for a ship we could gift our friend? I’m positive we have a few that have been abandoned.”
“Of course!” Grabbing Ingo’s hand, the girl leads him onward. “Let’s find you something good!”
Unfortunately, ‘something good’ was a tall ask when looking through old abandoned spaceships. Most had been left behind for good reason, old piles of junk that barely flew and would require extensive repairs. Certainly not anything close to the state of the art traveling ship Ingo would require.
“Okay this isn’t looking great,” Akari started, no doubt noticing Ingo’s discouragement. “But you could probably break one of these bad boys down for parts and then buy a better ship? Work your way up?”
“I suppose.” Ingo frowned as he brushed his hand over one of the ships, a part coming off under his hand.
“Or maybe….” The girl trailed off, and Ingo gave her an inquisitive look. “I mean it’s kind of a long shot- but I do know a ship that has all the required technology you’re looking for already.”
“Really?!” Hope bloomed in Ingo’s chest, his hands shaking in excitement.
“Yeah. But uh, don’t get your hopes up too high. She’s really picky.”
“…..she?”
‘She’ was a ship by the name of ‘Lady Sneasler’, a living breathing organism that happened to also be a spaceship. A marvel of biology that was like nothing Ingo had ever seen before, a pure wonder and the most beautiful thing Ingo had ever laid eyes on. And he told her as much.
(Living ships are a very canon thing in game and they are so cool! I'll post some art of Lady Sneasler later, but for right now, here's my personal in game living ship, Darling)
She was flattered, and was even more flattered when Ingo broke into an excited ramble as he examined her thoroughly, reverently running his hands up her flank when she gave him permission. She was a prideful one apparently, and had refused a pilot for centuries- but Ingo’s genuine wonder managed to easily win her over.
And so Ingo got himself a ship.
Thus, the two begin their cosmic journey together, traveling through the galaxy to gather all of Emmet’s messages and eventually save him.
It’s long and arduous, rife with danger and trials... but eventually they manage to force their way into the world of glass, and pull Emmet out.
And boy howdy is he messed up….. but that just means they get a healing arc lol.
But yeah, that’s the basics! Feel free to ask questions if you’re curious, (I have a lot more I haven’t shared yet) and I hope you enjoyed! There’s a very decent chance I might end up writing a fic about this in the future, but that’s so far off that you shouldn’t hold your breath.
Thank you for reading!
THEY ARE HERE!!!!!!!!
@antidotesprout thank you so much!
I’ve mentioned a few weeks ago that I’ve got a new AU incoming- and I’m really excited to share it with you! But, as you might have noticed, I currently have way too many projects rn to take on any other fics, so this will have to remain a tumblr only thing for the forceable future.
THAT BEING SAID
I really want this to be an AU people are curious about and want to interact with! Especially if it isn’t leaving tumblr any time soon.
So!
Silver Bloodstains FINAL CHAPTER: Sleeping Beauty
Summary: Emmet fixes things
Oh did I promise a new AU today?
SURPRISE FRICKER!! NEW CHAPTER INSTEAD!!!
Silver Bloodstains chapter 19: Cinderella
Summary: Emmet meets with Mistress Cogita.
Obviously it’ll be a while until I post an actual writing update, BUT I’ve got an AU post lined up and almost ready to go, so we’ve got that at least. Maybe next Monday? Look forward to it- it’s long