Submas Headcanon!

I come bearing 28 shitpost submas prompts

Thank god tumblr implemented the shorter posts or else I would’ve been ashamed of making this post so long

shitpost generator here!

To continue my dumb ideas about our lovely but idiotic subway boss twins, Ingo and Emmet: In the modern era, they were best known in the population not for their Pokémon skills or roles as the heads of transportation in Nimbasa, but as social media stars.

It started with Elesa showing them videos on Youtube or the Pokémon equivalent which are basic train videos and what not, and Elesa asks them if they want to make a safety video that's cool, because these basic bitches in Kalos can't do it for shit. Emmet and Ingo, looking at the combination of trains, safety, and their patented brand of chaos, agree.

The video is actually super informative on train safety, but it's also incredibly chaotic. Emmet does most of the voice over because his deadpanned tones just set the mood that it's a normal video, and meanwhile the scene described is pure chaos.

"Make sure to secure your bags to your person while on the move." Emmet, over the top says. It pans to Elesa, who has a ton of bags around her from shopping, but, as the train starts, the bags all fly towards the back. Ingo, who just stepped in the car, is instantly KOed by them.

"Make sure to stay behind the yellow lines on the platform until the train comes to a stop." It shows Emmet standing in front of the line as Ingo is directing traffic. Emmet falls on the tracks due to his Archeops crashing into him, but, just as it seems like the train is going to hit him, it's revealed to be Chandelure pretending to be an engine on the tracks.

They even do videos specific to battle train safety. "Please make sure that you are on a certified Battle Boss Subway locomotive when visiting Nimbasa! Only those are certified for Pokémon battles." It then pans to Ingo and Emmet facing off against Nate and Rosa. One of them uses a Cryoganal, which proceeds to use Ice Beam, and, from the outside, we see the entire car freeze. The video then rewinds to before the battle, and Ingo points to a sign on the car that says 'not for battle,' so they move to a car that says 'battle car.' Ice Beam is used again, but this time the car has a protective area for trainers and built-in fail safes keep the car in one piece and moving along.

Emmet also occasionally curses out terrible passengers, and SOMEONE doesn't properly edit them out (*ehem*Elesa*ehem*).

Eventually they branch out into random videos. Using Snapchat apps that guess who's your celebrity look alike (and somehow the twins end up with different people and they're like "we're twins???") or videos that Elesa snuck like when it's the Pokémon bath day, and, while some pokemon are gentle and easy... they have a lot of Pokémon that would disagree with water.

(And when Ingo goes missing, Emmet reaches out over social media. Turns out, the internet is the best detectives, because someone finds a picture of what looks like Ingo in a museum and is like "what the fuck??? When did this get here???" and THAT leads to time travel. The international police took a year to find nothing, but one call to the internet and about three weeks, and Emmet was sent a ton of historical records that just... appeared? And he realizes that he's going to need to hunt down a legendary to fix this).

(In the past, Akari is staring SO HARD at Ingo because oh hell this is the social media train influencer and how the hell is she supposed to explain that she knows who he is but only from that one video where he got bodied by a Mincino while discussing trains - he doesn't even know what a phone is!)

i have found myself wanting platonic submas reader insert fics . So Bad like i just wanna hang out with The Boys for a day

i want emmet to do his swingy arm walk and then reader copies him and then ingos like "sure why not" and he does it too!! and/or they all keep shouting "ALL ABOOAARRD!!" together for no reason

id kill for a fic thats essentially just oneshots of reader and the twins hanging out where its not really a Story its just a series of events that take place in 1 consistent universe

like!! theres potential for dumb sibling antics here!! exploring what theyd do on casual days outside of work! what theyd do for fun aside from battling and trains! i Wanna be their Friend

Emmet suggestions! If anyone criticizes you for typing quirks, stims, tics, or just your overall personality?

Deck them.

25th of March, 2022

I saw this character popularity poll floating around where, for the women specific poll, plot-critical N lost to Ingo with Emmet coming in right behind him. Seeing N sandwiched between the two muppets of all people cracked me up so much I dropped my other projects (again) to draw this.

Why people find the Subway Masters so appealing is a mystery to me, despite being a person who finds them very appealing. I just love those funny little train guys. They give me the autism representation I crave.

❌ Brother shippers, do not interact

Here’s a list.

What’s it for? yeah.

Ingo Confirmed Canon Information - Bad at facial expressions but good as vocal expressions (his face looks very neutral even when he sounds excited) - Speaks very loudly, has no indoor voice - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Ingo speaks in a overly polite/formal way - Yells “BRAVO” when anything smth he finds exciting happens - Left handed Manga Depiction - Appears to be easily frustrated when losing battles - Emmet’s impulse control through brute force, will simply grab and remove Emmet when he’s being too abrasive - Repeats the name of the trains destinations in the speaker after Emmet does the first announcement. Maybe this is just a thing trains do but it’s important to me. - More expressive than in the games (not by a large margin) Pokemon Masters - Seems to have an overbearing sense of responsibility(?) - Hisui is not the first time he’s been transported into a different universe for unexplained reasons. - Does not seem to be aware that his face doesn’t show the emotions he’s feeling. - Most of his conversations are about trains and rail systems. Emmet Confirmed Canon Information - His face is always very expressive but he speaks in a monotone way ( he will look very excited and yet talk in a very neutral way) - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Emmet speaks in a more informal way than his brother - Gets very serious while battling - Right handed - Starts the majority of his sentences with “I am Emmet” - Says “very” as “verrrry” - Likes winning more than anything else - Prefers double battles

Manga - Will loudly announce he is going to eavesdrop on your conversation as he walks towards you - This depiction of Emmet appears to generally be louder and more energetic - Does this weird stiff walk a lot - Mainly does the location announcements on the train speakers. Idk how you call them.

Pokemon Masters - Really looks up to Ingo - Prefers the rules of a double battle - Puts a great deal of importance on safety - Seems to have a thing with combinations; he states multiple times that he loves combinations when it comes to pokemon battles and takes great interest in the sync pairs system. - Mentions Ingo a lot - Considers him and Ingo as “each other’s closest rivals”

What the bloody hell is this.

emmet brings up safety checks quite a bit. do you happen to know what those involve doing?

Yes! I can speak to it more now that I've actually driven a locomotive once.

When operating a train, you're in constant communication with the rest of the crew, and you have to be intensely aware of your surroundings. The locomotive I've worked with, Strasburg #90, weighs 212,000 pounds. That's 106 tons of steel. And that's not factoring in her tender! 90 could get up to 50 mph in her days hauling freight in Colorado (and probably still could if she was allowed to at Strasburg, since they take such great care of her).

So imagine this. You've got something that weighs 106 tons going at 50 mph. Behind it are a bunch of cars laden with goods (in 90's case, she pulled sugar beet trains). You are NOT going to be able to stop on a dime. That's why trains require constant communication with both the entire crew and signalpeople and dispatchers along the line - to make sure traffic flow is kept clear and to warn of any incidents well in advance that would require the engineer to stop the train. Stopping #90 was a multi-step process - I first had to close her throttle down, and then I had to ease on her brake until she came to a stop. It wasn't instantaneous, like it would have been in a car. We came to a rolling stop. No matter how modern or efficient your train is, you're not going to be able to jam on the brakes that way.

I wasn't allowed to take any photos in the cab (safety, again), but here's two shots of me driving her backwards:

Note that I am a) verrrry focused on what I'm doing and extremely serious about it and b) leaning out the cab window for increased visibility. The door in the front of 90's cab was open, too, which helped me see further out the front, but when it comes to going backwards, I had to lean out the cab window. Steam locomotives actually usually have cushioned arm rests in the windows because engineers have to lean out the window going forward and backward.

Staying in communication has gotten a lot easier with modern technology. Although she was built in 1924, 90 has a radio installed, so the engineer overseeing me driving and a conductor were in constant communication, with the conductor reporting distances in terms of car lengths so those of us in the cab knew when to cut the speed. He was an extra pair of eyes on the back of the train. On longer trains, you'll usually have a team of people working under the head conductor to do this, including brakemen, who historically would use flag and lantern signals to send information up to the head conductor and engineer. Nowadays, we have radios, but on heritage railways, these signals survive in places. I try to learn Strasburg's hand signals whenever I'm there, just in case I need them. They're helpful, especially since steam locomotives are quite loud!

These days, trains usually have something called Positive Train Control, which basically sends the train information about where it can travel safely, how fast it can do so, etc. If you see a steam locomotive doing a mainline excursion and it has a diesel behind it, the diesel is likely providing Positive Train Control for the train (as well as power to air conditioning for passenger cars, etc.). In terms of pulling the train, the steam locomotive won't need the diesel's help - it's significantly more powerful. But in terms of staying in touch, that's where it comes in handy. Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 has actually been fitted with PTC, because Ed Dickens is a fucking steam god and I want to be as cool as he is someday.

Before you take off, you need to go through and make sure everything's in working order, too. The system of pointing and calling is an effective way to do this, and it helps improve your muscle memory, to boot. By verbally stating each task as you go through it and check to make sure each step is done in the right order and everything is functioning, you don't miss them or skip over things, you don't rush, and you're more likely to notice if something isn't right. In the NYC Subway, we have these things called zebra signs (or should that be Zebstrika signs?) at each station above the platform. They mark the specific spot on each platform that the train needs to stop at. When the train stops, the engineer should have it lined up so that the car the conductor is in is lined up with the sign, and the conductor confirms this by opening their window and pointing at the sign in acknowledgement. Once you know they're doing it you can start watching for them doing it, or, you know, stand under the sign and hold up funny signs for them that they're legally required to point at.

So Emmet bringing this up isn’t just an off-handed thing. This is a legitimate and extremely important aspect of his job, especially since he and his brother work with moving passengers in a densely populated city. There’s a lot of extra safety things to be concerned with regarding passengers - their safety needs to be ensured if there’s an emergency, the train gets stuck in a tunnel and they have to be evacuated, etc. You have to know exactly how to handle those situations, and you have to be prepared if they do come up, but you also shouldn’t usually get to that point because you already made sure the passengers were kept safe because you followed signals and scheduling.

A quick, tl;dr version would be something like this:

Before you even get into the train, check the locomotive and cars to make sure they’re serviceable (on steam locomotives, this involves the engineer oiling the wheels, etc.)

Once in the cab of the locomotive, go through the operating procedure to start driving

Do NOT start driving without signaling that you’re going to move. Usually that’s two short whistles if you’re going forward or three short whistles if you’re going backwards. This gives people time to get out of the way. You’ll also ring the bell when you start moving, too.

Stay in constant communication with the crew and keep an eye on your surroundings.

At a crossing, you have to whistle AND ring the bell to give cars and pedestrians a clear warning that you’re coming (whistle pattern is long-long-short-long). Repeat as necessary until you hit the crossing.

GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO STOP. This one’s crucial. You can’t stop right away, you’re moving too much weight to do so.

Follow any light signals you receive, as they’re a good well-in-advance warning of any issues, and make sure your radio is working all the time. If you lose that communication, you’re in trouble.

Don’t be this guy. (Okay, this one is a joke, it’s a VHS I grew up with as a little kid. But seriously, don’t be this guy.)

Hopefully this makes some sense, anon!

🤌 its about making sure your bestie doesnt get trampled on her daily commute

I wanted to draw them aggressive walking like new yorkers do, ended up drawing them arm in arm, which ended up becoming a mini comic OOPS.

はたらく細胞 by mery