Hello, all. This is a fanfic I've been working on from time to time since 2006. It won Best Story and Best Dark Fic on Bulbagarden in Spring 2012 when I last published any version of it. It's a story about pokémon-human hybrids, personhood, the implications of advanced genetic engineering, pokémon sapience, and personal agency. It's also a story about a cat who wants to be a person, and how she becomes one.
I hope you enjoy it.
Updates irregularly at least monthly. Will contain upsetting scenes of physical and emotional distress, extended sequences of fantasy violence, and the use of profanity by characters.
Prelude
The Hybrid Address
This is a story about pokémon who become people.
But before you can read that story, you should know some things.
The following text is a transcript of a speech that wasn't meant for you — it was given to the men and women in charge of Perihelion, and you are not one of them — but it will make things clearer.
The scene is a well-lit boardroom, the occupants are all human beings. Most of them have pokéballs somewhere on their person, but not all of them. A man in a dark suit is standing at the head of the long table at which his audience sits, and a wide computer monitor beside him displays a presentation at his direction. The name on the little stand resting on the end of the table is "Ewan T. Moore." You'll learn about him later. The title page of his presentation reads "Species Hybridisation Protocol." You'll know what that means later, too.
Imagine that we are there with them. Many of their faces are expectant, curious. A few of them have wine glasses ready. One of them is fidgeting anxiously under the table. Ewan stands at ease, left hand behind his back, wearing a confident smile. His teeth are like porcelain. The tall glass windows reveal a grand and modern skyline. The man is about to speak.
Excerpt from address by E. T. Moore to the Perihelion board of directors, Q2 2016
Perihelion Association Main Office, London
"Welcome, all. I trust your journeys were pleasant. Now, I understand that you expect greater transparency from the executive management about our research and development programs. This is perfectly reasonable, and so I would like to take some time to tell you the facts as they really are.
This is the truth you seek:
A new form of intelligent life has come into existence.
Permit me a preamble to explain the significance of this, before I disclose our current and future enterprises.
Until now, there were two kinds of sentient life in the world. The first kind are the mundane beings we call animals, of which humans are the most remarkable species. The second kind are creatures of inscrutable energy, which have been called magical beasts, fae, daemons, yokai, and in our generation, 'pokémon.'
It will soon become clear that a third kind now exists.
The relationship between humans and pokémon is intimate, despite the difficulty in communication between us. Humans are able to form bonds with pokémon, and thereby unlock their inner potential. Historically, this was done only by exceptional humans, but the mass production of 'capture balls' is changing this relationship. Now that almost any human can legally own a pokémon, they are an irrevocable part of all our lives, everywhere. There is now no symbol more widely recognised in this world than the pokéball.
Most people believe that only humans are gifted with sophisticated consciousness: abstract thought, creativity and complex language. That pokémon instead have the gift of mysterious energy, with which they wield their incredible powers. Moreover, that our physical forms are fundamentally incompatible, with no likeness between our DNA. This perspective is unsupported by modern research, but it persists nonetheless, perhaps because people are uncomfortable believing otherwise.
You may have heard rumours that in 1996, a hybrid was created by researchers in the private sector. Using genetic material from an uncatalogued pokémon species retrieved in the Guyanese Amazon, combined with the DNA of humans and other pokémon, a new kind of creature with the intellect of a human and the power of a pokémon was given life, not naturally, but through technology. This being, according to urban legend, soon destroyed its creators, and their research with them, before vanishing forever.
No significant investigation has been made into these allegations, but the idea of human-pokémon hybrids is now loose in the world as a conspiracy theory, a sci-fi trope, the stuff of children's make-believe. It grips people - the idea of a crossbreed between ourselves and pokémon, the concept of synthetic life, the thought that we might no longer be alone as intelligent beings on our world.
In truth, we have never been alone.
Pokémon intelligence aside, the hybrid life-forms, also known as 'pokémorphs,' are the third kind of sentient life, and we now share our world with them. Yes, 'life-forms,' plural. Many have been created, and more are being made even now. Only, they are no longer being cloned from fossilised DNA. They are being made from living, breathing pokémon, transformed through our innovations. It should not be surprising to learn this. There are plenty of volunteers.
After all, what pokémon wouldn't jump at the chance to become a person?"