Notes: So I've been working on this off and on for a few months, and I'm not 100% sure where it's going yet. Some background info: this is set in a "future" of the pokemon world where pokeballs are illegal, but an offshoot technology is used to change a pokemon's size and shape to approximately human so that they can live and work with humans more easily. They are referred to as "therians" (from the Greek therion, 'beast') or as "elementals", since "pokemon" is a defunct term without the pokeball. I wouldn't classify this as a "pokemorph" story though, as the shapechanger is more of a utility than a life choice (there also will definitely not be the kinds of sexual proclivities that your average pokemorph story is inclined to). Pokemon battles still occur and are still very popular but the pokemon are more independent and largely train themselves and each other, with input from coaches rather than trainers. Gyms also exist and maintain their hierarchy of levels, all the way up to the highest level league tournaments, they're just not primarily human-run.
I haven't really divvied up the sections into chapters, but I'm pretty confident about leading with these portions. Don't be scared of the free verse section, the majority of the story will be standard format.
=====
He dreams.
Swimming
again
down in the dark
Lights flicker by
sun glitters on scales
The sea caresses his body
soothes parched gills
stringy and inflamed
by water tainted
artificial
He swims the paths of
his first year
navigating by earth-field and current
and then
delirious
electric dancing
he feels them
he hunts
chase
bite
blood
mouth
He misses that.
Misses what?
Taste. Blood. Simplicity.
He wakes
He never slept so much
Nor dreamed
He walks to the bathroom
rough scales catching on carpet
tastes the sink water cautiously
when he came here first
wrong salt
wrong taste
it dried and burned
Filtered water now
most of the time
empty water
better than poison
He looks
in the mirror
at his own face
scaled and scarred
horns chipped
It is a sign
of greater social intelligence
to recognize oneself in a mirror
she said
He is aware
on some level
that she thinks this
insanity
is a development
a breakthrough
He fights
for the joy of fighting
changes shape
for convenience
but he would eat his own sired brood
eggs in their millions
just to escape
the voices in his head
they call self-awareness
They call him Jormungard here
some snake from a story
they tried to tell him about names
it made no sense to him
names were to say, this one
Bad Mother
Big Fish
Broken Horn
Many Whiskers
Gill Scar
those were names
they described a thing
so one would know
which thing was which
and run
or pass by
or fight
What was he?
mouth
hunger
belly
blood
He is Maw.
He walks to the pools
human sized
through human size halls
falling through the air
dry
heavy
he falls in
Salt water
not the same
but
not unpleasant.
He touches the back of his head
and for an instant
he is energy, formless
and then
another shape
but still
cradled by water
Ocean-mother
calls him home
Smaller monsters
retreat into corners
boisterous play, interrupted
he is amused
as if he would eat them
as if he could.
=====
Dolores sighed and shifted another file to the ‘complete’ folder. The ‘incomplete’ folder was still intimidatingly full, bristling with documents. She twirled her moustache idly, thinking of the weekend, when she could get some proper rest. She’d evolved months ago, but some habits died hard. She took another look at her to-do list, and decided to make a trip to the kitchen for some emotional support.
She liked her job. It was boring, routine, safe, and she was helping the Antherian movement. Elementals and humans living together, forming stable communities in a variety of settings: police work, search and rescue, exercise programs, medicine, forestry, agriculture, energy generation—data entry and analysis by those with a grasp of numbers and letters, like her. She was lucky to be human-shaped already, and not need the anthromon shapechanger.
Her mother hated the a-mon. “It’s necessary to join society, they say—human society. So much work into a device that’s just glorified cute-washing. And en masse, therians flock to imitate their oppressors, fit into their version of the world, be useful to them. And what human wants to join therian society?”
She’d had the argument many times. A few humans, adventurous ones, primitivists and survival enthusiasts used the shapechanger to become an elemental of their choice. They wrote books, made video serials. The gist of every account was, ‘it was awesome, it was invigorating, but boy am I glad to be in my nice safe bed where no one is trying to eat me.’
Elementals didn’t have society. Most elementals weren’t capable of it. They were intelligent, smarter than chimpanzees or dolphins, but most were far closer to animals than humans. Even of the more intelligent ones—psychic types, mainly—living in the wild precluded luxuries like compassion, discussion, art, music. Wild elementals, if they communicated at all, talked only about food and where to get it, and who had mated with whom, who had hatched and who had died.
Elementals who were different, less animalistic, with a yearning for something greater, had always sought out humans: for battles that were more than just scuffles and retreat; for companionship and friendship that lasted more than a season; for a place in warmth and health. So, yes, she was giving in to her oppressors, joining their society, but frankly, it was the far more intellectually stimulating option.
And they had espresso machines.
=====
I haven't really divvied up the sections into chapters, but I'm pretty confident about leading with these portions. Don't be scared of the free verse section, the majority of the story will be standard format.
Invictus
And I heard, as it were the sound of thunder: one of the three beasts saying, "Come and see." And I saw. And I went forth conquering.
And I heard, as it were the sound of thunder: one of the three beasts saying, "Come and see." And I saw. And I went forth conquering.
=====
He dreams.
Swimming
again
down in the dark
Lights flicker by
sun glitters on scales
The sea caresses his body
soothes parched gills
stringy and inflamed
by water tainted
artificial
He swims the paths of
his first year
navigating by earth-field and current
and then
delirious
electric dancing
he feels them
he hunts
chase
bite
blood
mouth
He misses that.
Misses what?
Taste. Blood. Simplicity.
He wakes
He never slept so much
Nor dreamed
He walks to the bathroom
rough scales catching on carpet
tastes the sink water cautiously
when he came here first
wrong salt
wrong taste
it dried and burned
Filtered water now
most of the time
empty water
better than poison
He looks
in the mirror
at his own face
scaled and scarred
horns chipped
It is a sign
of greater social intelligence
to recognize oneself in a mirror
she said
He is aware
on some level
that she thinks this
insanity
is a development
a breakthrough
He fights
for the joy of fighting
changes shape
for convenience
but he would eat his own sired brood
eggs in their millions
just to escape
the voices in his head
they call self-awareness
They call him Jormungard here
some snake from a story
they tried to tell him about names
it made no sense to him
names were to say, this one
Bad Mother
Big Fish
Broken Horn
Many Whiskers
Gill Scar
those were names
they described a thing
so one would know
which thing was which
and run
or pass by
or fight
What was he?
mouth
hunger
belly
blood
He is Maw.
He walks to the pools
human sized
through human size halls
falling through the air
dry
heavy
he falls in
Salt water
not the same
but
not unpleasant.
He touches the back of his head
and for an instant
he is energy, formless
and then
another shape
but still
cradled by water
Ocean-mother
calls him home
Smaller monsters
retreat into corners
boisterous play, interrupted
he is amused
as if he would eat them
as if he could.
=====
Dolores sighed and shifted another file to the ‘complete’ folder. The ‘incomplete’ folder was still intimidatingly full, bristling with documents. She twirled her moustache idly, thinking of the weekend, when she could get some proper rest. She’d evolved months ago, but some habits died hard. She took another look at her to-do list, and decided to make a trip to the kitchen for some emotional support.
She liked her job. It was boring, routine, safe, and she was helping the Antherian movement. Elementals and humans living together, forming stable communities in a variety of settings: police work, search and rescue, exercise programs, medicine, forestry, agriculture, energy generation—data entry and analysis by those with a grasp of numbers and letters, like her. She was lucky to be human-shaped already, and not need the anthromon shapechanger.
Her mother hated the a-mon. “It’s necessary to join society, they say—human society. So much work into a device that’s just glorified cute-washing. And en masse, therians flock to imitate their oppressors, fit into their version of the world, be useful to them. And what human wants to join therian society?”
She’d had the argument many times. A few humans, adventurous ones, primitivists and survival enthusiasts used the shapechanger to become an elemental of their choice. They wrote books, made video serials. The gist of every account was, ‘it was awesome, it was invigorating, but boy am I glad to be in my nice safe bed where no one is trying to eat me.’
Elementals didn’t have society. Most elementals weren’t capable of it. They were intelligent, smarter than chimpanzees or dolphins, but most were far closer to animals than humans. Even of the more intelligent ones—psychic types, mainly—living in the wild precluded luxuries like compassion, discussion, art, music. Wild elementals, if they communicated at all, talked only about food and where to get it, and who had mated with whom, who had hatched and who had died.
Elementals who were different, less animalistic, with a yearning for something greater, had always sought out humans: for battles that were more than just scuffles and retreat; for companionship and friendship that lasted more than a season; for a place in warmth and health. So, yes, she was giving in to her oppressors, joining their society, but frankly, it was the far more intellectually stimulating option.
And they had espresso machines.
=====
