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The Entity was stuck.
That was all it was really aware of. Being stuck. It could walk around and move in any direction, which it did more out of primal urge than true want, but nothing ever changed.
There was a wall of mirrors. Those changed sometimes but mostly they simply reflected itself. Which made sense. They were mirrors.
With nothing else to look at, It grew to know itself well. It’s frown, the slight glow of its silver eyes. Hair formed into sharp sideburns. A black coat and hat. The pin on its hat. A pink kimono with a strange symbol on it.
However, Sometimes… sometimes the mirrors did not show it as it knew itself. Something Just like it but… off. White where it is black, a smile contrasting its frown. The Entity was particularly excited when this thing appeared. Something different! Something new!
Usually, even with a smile, the thing looked sad.
The Entity grew to dislike this.
It was impossible to tell time in this… place(?) but the Entity knew it had stayed there for a Very Long Time. It also knew that… it wasn't supposed to be here. A feeling deep in its gut, next to the pain it felt within the thing that pulsed beneath its skin.
The Pain only grew worse at the Other’s worsening mood. The smile grew strained. Eyes shadowed. Posture slumped. The Other was not supposed to look like that.
On a particularly bad time, the Entity couldn’t help but place its hands on the mirror. The Other had liquid leaking from its eyes, smile pinned in place even when it looked like it Pained the Other.
The mirror shook slightly, ripples like water traveled around its hands. The Entity looked at this new thing until it noticed the Other looking at it.
The Other stared, wide eyed and mouth agape. The Entity moved closer, placing its nose on the mirror. The Other leaned over the sink and placed its hands on the glass, right where the Entity’s were.
The Other opened its mouth, breathing out a single word:
“Ingo?”
The Entity did not know what an ‘ingo’ was. Was… it an ingo? Did that mean the Other was an ingo too?
The Entity… the… ingo stated at the Other… the other ingo. It tilted its head. The other began crying even more now, sobs shaking its frame.
“Ingo… what… how..?” It looked lost.
Oh… oh no… the Entity.. the ingo did not mean to make the other sadder! It frowned more severely and lifted its head from the mirror.
“Wait! No Ingo hold on!”
The ingo pulled its hands away at the shouting, surprised and scared of the new Loud. It was not loud here, only a quiet static. The ingo had not heard anything louder than that.
The mirror stopped its rippling, turning back to its original smooth surface. With the ripples also went the other ingo, face twisted into panic fading into the Entity’s frowning.
…what was that?
It… wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but it was clear that the other ingo finally saw it. It did not know what this could mean but…
…it wanted to do it again.
It did not take long to see the other ingo in the mirror again.
The Entity ingo was walking down the… path when it spotted the other ingo out of the corner of its eye.
It had rushed over, immediately placing its hands on the mirror.
The other ingo startled when the mirror rippled, leaning forward and looking closely. The other ingo looked intently at it, fluttering between looking into its eyes and the rest of its appearance.
“Ingo what… what happened?” The other ingo leaned closer, “where are you..?”
The ingo in black looked around, “I am not sure,” it spoke. It jumped at the sound. It was different from the other ingo, louder. Less flat. It didn’t know how to feel about that.
“What?” The other ingo whispered, “I… I am Emmet, I can’t hear you.”
Emmet… was that..? Oh! A name! It saw now. The Other’s name was Emmet and the Entity’s name was Ingo! How fascinating…
If it was not already clear, Emmet knew … Ingo… somehow.
If Emmet knew it, they why didn’t Ingo know Emmet?
It looked at the other's face while in thought. Was… was it missing something? Surely it would remember where it met Emmet. But it did not remember.
Did it… forget?
that would explain why it didn’t know where it was. Or how it got here.
“Ingo..?” Emmet caught its attention once more.
Ingo opened its mouth again, “I am Ingo, and you are Emmet.” It said simply, amazed at the amount of New things it knew.
Emmet’s brow furrowed, smile confused. “What… what is going on..?”
Ingo copied Emmet expression, minus the smile, and tilted its head.
“You…” whatever Emmet was about to say was interrupted by a loud squealing sound. The other jumped and instinctively turned to look. A growl soon followed the squeal and Emmet tensed. “Arch-!”
Ingo backed away once the other got Loud again. Ow.
The mirror once again rippled to show Ingo’s face. It sighed. It would have to learn to get used to Loud if it were to keep meeting Emmet. It hated how short their interactions were.
But! It had learned a lot, so it would survive untill their next meeting.
It got up and kept walking, white void giving nothing away but the line of mirrors on the ‘wall’.
It took a while longer for Ingo to see the other again. Rushing over and not looking twice before placing its hands on the glass. It was exited to see Emmet again, and hopefully lean something New!
It was not expecting a second thing to be there, and definitely not expecting the other… other to scream. Ingo almost pulled back, but managed to keep its hands on the mirror.
“Emmet you-!”
“Elesa calm down! I just told you he appears in mirrors!”
“I didn’t think you meant-!”
“I am Emmet, what did you think I meant?!”
The other… Elesa? Just gestured to Ingo. Which was fair, Ingo did not know that other things that didn’t look like him existed until five seconds ago.
This thing- Elesa, had colors. Not the muted off white of the walls in the room in the mirror, and not like the deep blue and brownish red that it and Emmet had, but a bright happy yellow. Elesa’s headphones also had bright happy colors in them, a pretty blue and red.
The conversation continued as Ingo stared at the other two. It spent more effort in analyzing Elesa than paying attention to the conversation. But also… What was a ‘he’? It snapped out of its thoughts when it heard it’s name.
“Ingo? Can you… hear us?” Elesa asked.
Of course it could hear! Ingo opened its mouth to say this, but it seemed like the others couldn’t hear.
It tried again, “yes. I can hear.” But the other two just looked confused.
“He is opening his mouth… but there is no sound?”
Again with the ‘he’…
“I am Emmet, I don’t think sound can go past mirrors.”
“You don’t usually see missing persons in mirrors, Emmet. And look at him!” She gestured at it again, “he is clearly reacting!”
Emmet's smile was strained as he put a hand to his head, “How… how are we going to get him out ?”
Elesa looked just as lost as Emmet. It looked around a bit, noting any possible differences (there were none, still a white void, but he was beginning to feel the need to start moving again) and looked back to the other two.
It didn’t think it could leave this place, it wasn't entirely sure there was something to leave to . Sure there were the other two, but… it didn’t know anything beyond that room Emmet appeared in.
It supposed Elesa had to come from somewhere but… what was that somewhere like?
It didn’t know, but it thinks it would like to know.
“Ingo? Ingo?!” The shouting caught its attention. Emmet and Elesa were looking rather panicked. Ah… had it spaced out?
“Okay he’s… responding again at least…”
He… he… they had also used ‘Him’… wait no it… knows this…
Pronouns!
Yes! It- he had pronouns!
Ingo felt the tips of his (His!) mouth tip upwards. He had not known that he missed pronouns, but they felt much better than calling himself ‘it’. Ah… did that mean Emmet and Elesa had pronouns?
“Ingo?” Came a flat question. He felt that there should have been more of a questioning tilt at the end, but Emmet couldn’t quite seem to get it.
That was fine, Ingo could understand anyway.
He nodded and looked to the other, lips going back to a frown (not that it was exactly not a frown before) at Emmets worried expression.
“Ingo, do you know where you are?” Elesa asked, leaning closer with a hand on the counter.
Ingo looked around. Still a white void. It knew the void well but… he had a feeling she meant more than just ‘did he know the space he was in’. He wasn’t sure he was… well, anywhere really. Like he was two steps to the left of reality.
He had no idea how he knew this, so he just shrugged at Elesas question.
He tried to ignore the need to move, he was in the middle of a conversation and it was rude to walk away!
“He doesn’t know. How… how does he not know?” Emmet was tapping his finders hard to the counter. It looked like it hurt.
Ingo, more on instinct than anything, shot him a narrowed look and purposefully looked down at the other’s hands. Immediately (which also looked to be an instinctive response) Emmet balled them into fists and stopped tapping.
Ingo huffed.
“Well that’s definitely ingo,” Elesa said, sounding vaguely amused if a bit horrified.
“There was a question?”
“I mean… it's hard to think of ingo like… this.”
Ingo tilted his head. Was he strange somehow? Different? It was hard to think of himself as different, as much as he had looked at himself in the mirrors.
Emmet turned to him, “are you… okay, over there?”
Ingo… hesitated. He was fine physically but… there was no question that the white void… got to him, sometimes. Honestly, seeing Emmet was one of the only interesting things that happened here, other than gazing into his own reflection, there was simply… nothing.
Ingo opened his mouth, unsure how to respond when he heard it .
It was incomprehensible. Static layered with thousands of creature sounds. Chirps and cries melded into a single ear piercing cacophony.
Ingo recoiled from it . One hand lifting from the glass as he saw it . His mind couldn’t quite process what it was seeing, glitching over and crating static where it couldn’t comprehend its form.
The sudden need to Run was one ingo couldn’t ignore.
He could barely hear the concerned shouts of the things in the mirror, so consumed with the all powerful Need to Run.
He shot them a panicked look, then one back to it , and lifted his other hand off the mirror.
Now he knew why he moved. Why his very would wished him to do so.
As he ran as fast as he possibly could, he vowed to not stay in the same place so long again.
It took a very long time for ingo to feel safe again.
Safe was more of a relative term now, considering the fact that Ingo was pretty sure that it would always be chasing him around here. He had a sneaking suspicion that it was only letting him think that he got away.
It… did not particularly matter, all that mattered is that it was not here now.
He only managed to find Emmet and Elesa once more, and not for long. The creeping sensation of it was still there, getting stronger and stronger. Ingo was really beginning to hate it.
The two immediately began asking him was what wrong, what had made him run away like that. He could not answer, not with words, but even if he had words he wasn't entirely sure he could describe it. Still, he did his best to reassure them, glancing over his shoulder every now and then.
“Ingo?” Emmet called. He looked back from where he was watching the line of mirrors he came from, “we have a plan. I am Emmet and I promise we will get you out.”
This caught his attention. Ingo still had no memory of what “out” was, but he was excited to see it. Emmet would be there. Elesa would be there. He wasn't sure what else but something had to have made the screeching sound when he and Emmet met for the second time.
Honestly, he felt that anything would be better than this place.
The white void which was once so peaceful was now more like a prison. The white vastness was never comforting, but now it felt like a threat.
Ingo no longer felt safe here.
Emmet did not manage to tell him what the plan was, Ingo began to hear static and had to run, but it was nice to know that Emmet had not given up on him. Elesa was strangely silent throughout the conversation, deep in thought.
He hoped the plan worked. He was beginning to see things in the void.
Not anything dangerous, just… small things. The white space forming shadow as if there was a living being in it, small discolorations that took on human or creature-like form. It was… unsettling, but better than the nothing he was used to.
Time passed, a lot of time. He couldn’t use his surroundings to tell just how much, but he could feel the constant terror numb into exhaustion. He had been scared for so long his body simply ran out of steam. This did not stop him from continuing to move, however.
On his travels, a strange thing seems to happen to one of the mirrors, like something was trying to push its way through. It was a shape ingo had not seen before, vaguely like Emmet and Elesa, but smaller. He was not entirely sure what this thing was doing. It reached out to him, mouth opening in a soundless call. It seems quite desperate, fear and worry all wrapped around a spark of hope. Ingo hesitantly took a step to the strange thing, noting the blue creature on the things side of the mirror, but glitching had him whirling around to see it again.
It appeared it had gotten tired of playing its game, coming to reap the rewards early. Ingo took a step back, hearing the faint, so very faint, calls of whatever it was on the stretched out mirror.
He couldn’t help it… in the face of two strange unknowns… he ran.
He felt guilty as the calls he could hear faded away, but he didn’t know what else to do. Emmet and Elesa would come from him. They had promised.
But it would not stop now, hovering just far enough away to make Ingo believe for a split second that he could actually outrun it. Could escape its seemingly infinite reach.
Time passed still. Continuously. For a long while.
Ingo felt he should have long gotten too tired to move. Still, his legs continued to push himself further as his body was dragged along, mind almost going numb from the constant static. It still followed behind, screaming at his heels.
Ingo stumbled. Tripped. Fell.
He did his best to stand up, but his legs were shaking too badly to manage, making his arms do all the work in dragging him along. He glanced over his shoulder at the glitching mass, vague shapes of creatures clawing at the void.
Ingo felt his head pound in pain, eyesight going spotty at the edges as his mind did its best to comprehend the incomprehensible. He didn’t appreciate the effort.
It was hard to summon up the will to be scared.
Finally, his arms gave up too, making him collapse to the ground with a wheeze. He didn’t feel tired but… he would like to just… not move. For a long time.
It approached. Moving staccato towards him, screeching in victory as he just laid there. Something reached out to him, something his mind fuzzled out. He closed his eyes. He could not move.
A weight fell on his chest… he could never see Emmet and Elesa again…
Suddenly, the sound of something tearing filled the air, like expensive fabric. The void shook, and it with it. There was a sound, two cries melded together, a sound he did not know but understood its power .
“INGO!” Two voices. Those ones he did know. Emmet and Elesa.
That really had come for him!
Ingo opened his eyes to see a black and a white dragon, his two Humans on their backs and smiling wildly at him. Ingo tried to shift, and found that he still couldn’t move. It had backed off but was lingering.
The dragon in black, that one Elesa was riding, gently picked Ingo up in its mouth. He felt like he should have been more scared than he was.
With a huff at it the two dragons' tails lit up, and they raised their wings. Then they went up .
There was nothing like the feeling of utter weightlessness at one soared into the sky… even if there was no “sky” for them to soar into.
The two dragons twirled around each other, Emmet shouting in joy as Elesa laughed and held on tighter. Another rip had space and time falling apart under the dragon's claws, carrying them into a space with so many colors Ingo could hardly process it all.
Suddenly there was pressure, Ingo felt like he was getting squeezed into a tiny ball. And then it was gone, and then. Noise. Lots of noise. It was hard to tell what was what with all the chirping and trilling and rustling all around them. Something made his coat billow out around him, making him shiver as he was put down.
His legs immediately collapsed beneath him, hands catching his fall as he felt the crumbling dirt and rocks beneath them. He could only think deliriously that this… was far better than the ground in the void.
He looked up at the bright blue sky. The clouds and creatures floating through the air and the sun beamed down on them. It was blinding. It was overwhelming. It was beautiful.
“INGO!” Emmet.
Ingo looked to the side just in time to see Emmet ram into him, nearly bowling them over and tucking into Ingo's side. Emmet's arms wrapped around him, warmth penetrating the fabric and settling comfortably over Ingo’s skin. He decided he liked this. He would like to stay like this, actually.
And so, they did. Elesa came stumbling over, hugging Ingo’s other side and humming. It was very soothing. The two dragons watched over them, keeping an eye out and growling when a creature got too close.
Ingo, for once, felt completely safe and comfortable. He was not cold, nor alone and wandering. He had two Humans that literally tore apart the universe for him.
Elesa hummed in their ears and Emmet whispered stories of what Ingo could only understand as fairy tales. Ones of a floating lamp that would be happy to see him, sentient gears and drills. They felt along his coat, rubbing at pains Ingo hadn’t even noticed. They soothed the ache of his muscles and warmed his core with love.
The time for conversations and the discovery of Ingo’s memory loss would come later, with many hugs and tears. Drayden would finally embrace the son he had lost for far too long. Iris would proudly show her champion badge, and even without really remembering, Ingo would scoop her up in the warmest hug he could give.
Tears would be shed, doctor visits would be had. Wonder and horror shared in equal measure as everyone attempted to piece together what was once Ingo’s life. Before the void. Before he forgot.
But now? On top of a mountain with the sun shining warmly on three lost siblings, it was a time to love. The trials and tribulations of the future could wait. All they wanted was a hug.
And so, they hugged. And all was right in the world. Even if only for a short time.