Ingo And The Sinnoh Underground Headcanon

Ingo and the Sinnoh Underground headcanon

I love these headcanons where Ingo tries to make trains in Hisui, whether he succeeds or not. I especially love the one where he turns his house into a replica of a train station for historians to goggle at.

So here’s my take: Ingo built the Sinnoh Underground. At least, he carved the first tunnels.

Ingo wanted to make a subway system, and since Melli had a point about not disturbing natural habitats, he dug new, deeper tunnels. He could catch and train tunneling Pokémon, no problem. The Underground loops around the way it does so that multiple trains can run at once.

He discovered too late that Hisui doesn’t have the infrastructure for trains. Metal’s too precious to waste on this passion project, especially since iron rusts and he’d need to replace the tracks. He might be able to make a small track for fun, like a roller coaster, powered by gravity.

But even if there aren’t any trains, the Underground can still work as a subway. Imagine carriages pulled by Ponyta, the tunnels lit by their flames, traveling along roads safe underground. Ingo built the tunnels with opposite train traffic in mind, so traffic works as long as you follow the painted rails.

Ingo’s first tunnel was between the Highlands and Jubilife Village; he wasn’t allowed to tunnel directly underneath the village, but it make his commute a lot easier (actually, it would have been funny if one end was right outside his tent, and the other was next to the dojo). Then the Security Corps asked him for some emergency tunnels. Since the clans are implied to be nomadic, a tunnel between Diamond and Pearl clan settlements would be more symbolic than practical, but he makes one anyways.

If the tunnels don’t make sense as subway tunnels, then let’s say that once miners came in, they built new tunnels to follow the veins.

Ironically, the tunnels eventually become a protected historical site, so once the train arrives in Sinnoh, they’re not allowed in the tunnels (Mining is okay because the gems and stuff magically regenerate). When Ingo returns to the present, he is annoyed that his lovely subway can’t legally be a subway. And maybe Emmet has to stop him from making a second, deeper subway (or would it be the other way around; Emmet is annoyed that nobody can ride his brother’s lovely subway, and Ingo has to stop him from putting down tracks?).