Trigger Warnings: fantastical setting religious nationalist extremism, abuse (human and Pokemon), fantastical setting racism, transphobia mention, fantastical historic warfare / colonialism, imprisonment, nonconsensual experimentation, religious abuse, isolation
Also, this page contains human / Pokemon shipping. The Pokemon is fully sapient and telepathic, it's entirely nonsexual, and they only do anything beyond snake cuddles and little kisses on his little head when the Pokemon is in anthropomorphic form. If this bothers you, click here to go back.
Also, clarity note: Zahori is not intended to represent any IRL physical or mental health conditions; they are based on my own experience of "possession" / spirit channeling (see https://draggianuniverse.neocities.org/miscellanea/possession) and logical extensions of what telepathy would feel like. They're probably autistic because they're a sona, but that's it.
This takes place within the same AU as the Dudesverse, and is theoretically Dudesverse canon because there's no reason it couldn't be. In practice, this duo will never interact with the Dudes cast because they live on the opposite side of the continent and aren't part of the Pokemon training subculture.
History and bio:
Sinnoh is a region dominated by religion, and has been for approximately 250 years ever since the Sinnohite Empire and their religion based on the Pokemorphic deity Arceus "unified" the Diamond and Pearl clans and took over the landmass, later expanding to attack and convert Kanto and Johto before being stopped by the army in Hoenn. Approximately 90% of Sinnoh's permanent population, not counting Pokemon Trainers who travel from elsewhere to challenge the League, practices some form of Sinnohite / Temple of Arceus religion.
This domination expands to all parts of society -- students in school are taught theories of the creation of the world and origins of humans and Pokemon based on Arceus, laws about treatment of Pokemon are based on Sinnohite philosophy, and in some areas, actual or perceived blasphemy is punishable by revocation of licenses or even imprisonment. While Sinnoh has become somewhat less overtly theocratic with its membership in the international Pokemon League Authority, its position of historical power means that many elements of Sinnohite religious views on Pokemon, leadership, and the nature of animum are embedded into the League's operations.
Despite the continued dominance of Sinnoh and by extension Arceus in the Pokemon training culture and economy worthwhile, some religious groups aren't satisfied with this state of affairs and seek to extend the role of religion in Sinnoh society even further. One such sect is the Hisuian Church of the Almighty, deemed extreme even by other Sinnohites and considered a hate group by the Pokemon League, but powerful and entrenched enough in Sinnoh, especially their base in Hearthome City, that nothing has been done about them. The "church" believes that following the path of Almighty Sinnoh means having a Sinnoh without "degenerate" foreign influences, including the elimination and forced conversion of any residents who don't worship Arceus and leaving the Kantonian-origin Pokemon League in favor of the older imperial tradition of "Pokemon wielding", where Pokemon are trained as weapons and beasts of burden and treated as non-sentient creatures that can only learn via forceful punishment.
This Pokemon wielding would be used to restore Sinnoh's "rightful" domain, re-conquering Kanto and Johto and conquering Hoenn. According to the church, the invasion of Hoenn failed because it coincided with the invention of mechanical Pokeballs and the first concepts of modern Pokemon training in the archipelago, which led the army to lose the favor of Arceus. People and Pokemon who aren't from the Kantonian archipelago aren't actually children of Arceus because ancient texts don't describe other landmasses, therefore they cannot be enlightened and are best not acknowledged until the revived empire has enough firepower to kill them all and prevent them from contaminating Sinnoh, reclaiming the land for Arceus.
Despite considering the Diamond and Pearl clans, and remaining worshippers of Dialga or Palkia in Sinnoh, to be sinful heathens, the Hisuian Church of the Almighty calls themselves "Hisuian" after a name used for the earth in ancient texts. They consider it to represent a Sinnoh without foreign influence -- while the deity represented by Arceus is still called Almighty Sinnoh, they consider the name for the region to be a foreign contamination that takes Arceus' name in vain and acts as though the divine domain is only one island. Once the entire Kantonian archipelago is brought back into the embrace of a revived Hisuian empire, there will be no need to call "Sinnoh" that as a "region" because it'll control the whole landmass.
According to the church, the Pokemon League Authority and the idea that Pokemon are intelligent beings are plots by demonic servants of Giratina to remove the divisions between humans and Pokemon, perverting the natural order and strengthening the Regenade to overthrow Arceus and plunge the world into chaos. Arceus, despite taking Pokemon form, created humans to have dominion over Pokemon. Treating Pokémon as friends or partners reduces your soul and sacred mind, which Arceus via the lake guardians only granted to humans, to that of a Pokemon. This robs you of your divine self and leads you into "degenerate" behavior, ultimately resulting in your soul being sent to the Distortion World and turned into a demon upon your death. These demons then come to earth in the form of Pokemon given to trainers in order to steal and corrupt more souls for their master. Any Pokemon that appears to a trainer, in the church's view, is possessed and aims to drag you down with it. The only way to free Pokemon from posession is brutal training and physical punishment, because Pokemon are lesser beings that can only be brought into Arceus' light with instruction by humans.
The Hisuian Church of the Almighty believes that the souls of people who worshipped Pokemon before the Sinnohite Empire "enlightened" them are all in the Distortion World and strengthening Giratina. Because these souls' only crime is living before Imperial unification or in places Sinnoh hasn't dominated, the church decided once they learned about the Aether Foundation's work with dimensional rifts to use tech from Alolan heathens to save those souls in a top-secret project called the "Harrowing of Hell". This would consist of forcibly opening a permanent portal to the Distortion World in order to free the righteous souls trapped there. Any souls that weren't righteous would, of course, be prevented from entering the material world by burning in the light of Arceus. Ultimately, the Distortion World, once permanent access to it was available, would become inhabitable as Giratina's hold on souls weakened. Once it was, it could be mined for resources, terraformed, and colonized to provide space for righteous Sinnohites to live.
The rift generator exploded after its first use, and the Aether Foundation refused to send parts for another one after the reveal that they were working with a religious extremist group (that is also racist against native Alolans even more than everyone else, since Alola's indigenous legendary religion is more present than in other regions) resulted in massive internal and public backlash. However, before the rift collapsed in on itself, releasing enough energy to destroy the generator and killing two of the scientists hired by the church to manage it, a young Giratina was sucked into it and stranded in the Linear World.
The shock left the dragon Pokemon comatose for over a month, during which time it was bound with a Red Chain to prevent it from escape or attack and imprisoned in the Church's massive complex, kept secret from all but the project's leaders and the scientists and Ghost type specialists hired to keep it fed and perform experiments on it. The goal of these experiments was to turn this Giratina into the Church's ultimate weapon for the Harrowing of Hell -- with augmentation of its powers and Pokemon Wielder training, it could be used to open and maintain the portal to the Distortion World that would ultimately be used to destroy its home and conspecifics. Experimentation on Pokemon, or use of animum manipulation of any kind, is considered a mortal sin by worldwide Sinnohite authorities and the Hisuian Church itself, hence the top secret nature of the project.
Given Pokemon Wielder philosophy, the personnel hired to keep the Giratina alive while cruel experiments were performed on it were instructed to only feed the "monster" once every 2 weeks without giving it any social interaction or enrichment, and to punish it with harsh light and increasing the pressure in its enclosure if it cried out or tried to communicate telepathically. Other Pokemon with connection to dimensional rifts were sometimes kept in the complex for Harrowing of Hell experiments, but none of them could interact with each other and Pokemon that could communicate telepathically had their ability suppressed. Despite their best efforts, the Church was unable to fully prevent Giratina from telepathy; given its overwhelming power the best they could do was preventing it from using its non-physical attacks or opening rifts to escape. Being stuck able to send and receive messages, but with no conversation partners, it spent its isolated time feeling its fellow Pokemon's fear and pain but unable to do anything to help them or remedy its own.
After years of isolation, the Giratina found a companion in Zahori, the Harrowing lead's daughter born shortly after the Giratina's capture. Zahori was born with telepathic ability, possibly related to high prenatal animum exposure from the rift generator in the complex's basement. Overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions of the people and Pokemon around her, Zahori would frequently enter dissociative episodes as a young child in which she would act out the memories or thoughts she received, speak in languages she didn't know, and was unresponsive to all external stimuli. Later, she started writing and drawing what she sensed which helped to reduce her episodes and stress and keep track of everything in her head. At first, Zahori's creative talents and telepathic abilities were praised and nurtured by the church, being seen as divine inspiration, and her father hired the best psychics he could find to train her skills and regulation.
When Zahori reached puberty, her visions and drawings became grimmer in character as she became attuned to the abuse of people and Pokemon happening all around her. Faced with overwhelming trauma and pain internally and externally, her episodes returned. Concluded to be under attack by evil spirits but too well-known and beloved among the church members she had grown up with to be simply hidden or expelled, Zahori's father sent her to exorcise the demons through righteous work, cleaning and caring for the Pokemon in the secret facility where Giratina was held. Without being permitted to leave, and with no interaction with humans save delivery of bland, shelf stable food and new bedding once a month. While Church supplied researchers still periodically arrived to experiment on the Pokemon, with Zahori stationed, she became the sole caretaker for all of them so as to minimize the church's contact with trainers and Pokemon specialists.
Given both her innate telepathic ability and her own experience of being imprisoned and isolated by the very father and church she had been raised by, Zahori was unable to ignore "the monster's" sapience and suffering as the specialists before her had. In the first act of kindness anyone had shown to the Giratina during its time in the Linear World, when Zahori came over to its enclosure the first time she fed it, it told her that it was in pain from the Red Chain it had been bound with, which had become tied and tangled around its body as it grew and wriggled and was crushing its wings. Entering the enclosure without fear and using careful hands and the aid of the other Pokemon in the facility, Zahori freed the dragon. While unable to remove the Red Chain, which the Giratina's flesh had grown around and was bound to its soul, she was able to disentangle and break parts of it to allow the Pokemon to move again, turning it into the "scarf" or "necklace" it still wears today.
Each having each other as their only company and in constant telepathic communion, and both essentially adolescents at that point, the two imprisoned creatures rapidly bonded. Like any pair of companions, they vented their pain, shared stories and jokes, provided each other with physical comfort, and learned about each other's past experiences. The Giratina, having been kidnapped at a very young age, had few memories of the Distortion World, but was able to show Zahori its true role as a source of balance and protection for the Linear World, a role its conspecifics maintained and it was to be trained in before its abduction. It also remembered the name its parent had given it: a telepathic and animum pulse with no direct translation, but that Zahori heard as "Inevitable Prophecy of Reversed Descent". She started calling it "Verse" for short, the first time anyone had given it a name in the Linear World. Previous personnel were instructed to only refer to it as "the monster", "the demon", or "the weapon".
As their bond strengthened and they continued to comfort each other, Zahori had a telepathic episode, but something atypical happened: rather than all presence in the physical world disappearing, she felt Verse's presence more keenly than ever before and all around her, and herself alongside it. Looking at herself in the cracked, dusty, barely face sized mirror her cell had been provided with, she saw Verse not in his enclosure, but exploding behind and out of her as a flaring shadowy aura, her eyes glowing red and Giratina's patterns appearing on her arms. And noticed that she was levitating 6 inches off the ground, something Verse couldn't do due to its binding by the Red Chain. Verse seized control and attempted to try something else it couldn't do in its confined state, overjoyed at their new shared body, and fired off a Shadow Ball before both himself and Zahori abruptly lost consciousness after a moment of searing pain.
Upon coming to, they both remembered the moment, learning that Zahori's abilities and their bond allowed her to channel and fuse with Verse, letting it briefly regain the abilities it had been robbed of in its Pokemon form. While they couldn't maintain this state for long, they began spending their time together training, improving their stamina and letting Zahori channel voluntarily. Each time they came together, they only had enough energy for one move before both passing out, but those moves were getting stronger, so maybe one day they could...
Their training was interrupted when Verse experienced a traumatic flashback and blacked out during an experiment, and Zahori's attempts at offering telepathic comfort ended up resulting in an involuntary fusion of her into the Giratina's body, stronger than any she had experienced given its immense power. Sensing that the constraints placed on the room and the Red Chain had been overridden, the scientists in attendance frantically called church enforcers equipped with Ice and Dark Pokemon and turned the light and pressure in the enclosure to their maximum levels, enough to cause pain to humans let alone a creature from the Distortion World. Their efforts failed. All of the combined rage and pain experienced by Verse and Zahori over their time together, all of Verse's yearning for the power and the home that had been stolen from it, and all of their love for each other fused into a single driving thought.
ESCAPE.
A massive Shadow Force rift ripped apart the church's complex, freeing the research Pokemon and killing all humans inside. Zahori and Verse felt themselves vanish from physicality to travel to somewhere far away before blacking out, expecting to awaken in the Distortion World.
Instead, they woke up in a community health center, both having their vital signs checked and being offered food and water when they came to. The walls were lined with information about free vaccinations and testing, resources for victims of abuse, and queer events, something unthinkable in Hearthome City. Unsurprisingly, if Pokemon training was considered a perversion of the natural order and reducing humans to Pokemon, a human considering themselves to be genderless or changing forms like a Pokemon was even worse.
What's more, no one seemed the slightest bit surprised or concerned about Zahori's having a legendary Pokemon as a partner, confused by the Red Chain still hanging off Verse's neck that had prevented them from entering the Distortion World but assuming the Giratina had come from a Professor Willow lab event in Unova. This was Zahori's first revelation that she and Verse had transported themselves across the ocean, to a small city in a non-League region north of Unova. Neither of them is sure why they ended up there, but they do appreciate the combination of a small town feel with urban amenities and progressive values, the Sinnoh-like climate, and how hardly anyone has even heard of the Church of Arceus. Perhaps Verse's powers tried to bring them to somewhere they could find the safety and community they had yearned for.
Zahori didn't speak either of the region's official languages, but Verse's help and their mutual telepathic powers let them communicate. It was decided that Zahori could work and stay at the medical center with help from local mutual aid groups until she and Verse found somewhere to live that would accept large, powerful Pokemon. Even with the verbal language barrier, the duo's telepathy and animum sensing ability proved quite useful in providing healthcare, as did Verse's prehensile tentacles and Zahori's experience caring for Pokemon. They also both received language lessons from the community groups they'd been hooked up with, which telepathy aided in.
Zahori was able to get documentation and authorization to keep Verse as a companion Pokemon with a Trainer card, coupled with a work permit and status as an asylum seeker given the circumstances of why she left and can't come back to Sinnoh. International provisions for Fallers who get stranded after being sent from alternate dimensions or timelines by spacetime rifts or Ultra Wormholes also applied, maintaining Zahori's resident status while she works on citizenship and getting herself and her partner a place to live: a challenging proposition with a Legendary Pokemon, even if he can't use non-physical attacks.
When they aren't taking language lessons or working for the community health center, Zahori and Verse both enjoy heavy metal music, horror and science fiction books and movies, and other works with themes of darkness, death, and alternate worlds. Since Verse can't release its negative energy through Ghost type attacks, these provide both of them with a safe outlet for their trauma and rage and Zahori with a social anchor. Despite not remembering the Distortion World, Verse still feels a strong connection to it, which he can express through fiction and a strongly felt kinship with aliens, undead, and similar creatures.
Verse travels with Zahori outside of a Pokeball, and is legally considered a support Pokemon: when either of them experience traumatic flashbacks or Zahori has a dissociative episode, the other can provide them with comfort and help them regain control of themselves through channeling and telepathic messages. This is especially vital for Verse, who becomes triggered and loses awareness of his surroundings, lashing out with his tail and claws at anything around him, when he sees anything relating to Arceus or its religion. Verse travels in a Love Ball when required, but finds being in a Pokeball extremely stressful because it severs his telepathic connection to Zahori and the Red Chain fused with his body causes pain during the animum to flesh conversion that makes Pokeballs operate.
Character stats:
Verse
Species: Giratina
Appearance: Due to being raised in the Linear World and the experiments performed on it, Verse differs in appearance from a typical Giratina. He is permanently stuck in Origin Forme, but the Red Chain fused with his body prevents it from flying, levitating, or opening dimensional rifts. It moves by slithering on its tail or crawling on its six shadow claws, which are shorter, but thicker and more solid than those of a typical Giratina. Being raised under increased gravity and with lower animum exposure also has made Verse much smaller than a typical Giratina: he's about the length and thickness of a Burmese python (15 feet / 4.5 meters head to tail). Because slithering or crawling for extended periods causes pain for a creature not built to move with gravity, Zahori regularly carries Verse on her shoulders or wrapped around her torso. Despite the Red Chain preventing levitation, Verse has enough remaining ability to levitate or become partially incorporeal to reduce his weight so he can be comfortably carried. The Red Chain around his neck is permanently fused with him and can't be safely removed because Verse's flesh has grown around it and it's become integrated into the Giratina's animum systems due to being attached so early in life. It's been engraved by Zahori with "Reverse" to try to recast it as a symbol of the duo's freedom and individuality. Especially when bored or nervous, Verse frequently runs the claws on the tips of its tentacles over the engraving or fidgets with the dangling end of the chain. Verse's body is covered with scars from its former confinement and the experiments performed on it.
Age: Giratina are extremely long-lived and no one fully understands how aging works for legendary Pokemon. He was captured as the equivalent of a young child, met and bonded with Zahori when they were both adolescents, and they're now both in the equivalent of their early 20s.
Pronouns: he/it
Gender: Genderless and belongs to a parthenogenically reproducing species. Telepathically refers to itself with masculine or neutral terms and has an androgynous but male-leaning psychic voice.
Orientation: An asexually reproducing creature with no concept of romance or sex, but has an intense and all-powerful emotional bond with Zahori. They first bonded with each other when they were both teenagers, and in seeking companionship and physical comfort, experimented as teenagers do. While they can't do much else given anatomical differences, Verse does enjoy cuddling with Zahori using its serpentine body and tentacles and sometimes lightly scratches her with its claws or tail spikes as a sign of affection. Giratina in the Distortion World form "life-mate" psychic pair bonds with each other, which Verse considers Zahori to be for him. They can be drawn as a romantic couple with Verse in anthropomorphic or kemono form.
Abilities: The Red Chain prevents Verse from using non-physical moves, levitating, or opening space-time rifts. It can't use any special attacks, but is extremely strong physically, more so than a typical Giratina given its being raised in Origin Forme under the Linear World's gravity and trained as a weapon. He can communicate telepathically, see animum as visible auras, and see and enter other humans and Pokemon's dreams. When Zahori channels him or they fuse, can use special attacks, levitate, and open rifts, but will unfuse and become unconscious after doing so. In fused or channeling form, can only open rifts within the Linear World due to its connection to the Distortion World being blocked.
Occupation: Zahori's support Pokemon who telepathically comforts her, can possess him to get them to somewhere safe during episodes, and helps in her healthcare job by reading auras and providing additional telepathic translation.
Zahori
Species: Human, augmented
Appearance: Looks like fluffy Ronnie but short and maybe less heavily tattooed so the Giratina patterns are visible. Traditionally "scene" with stripes and such to match his Pokemon partner. Wears a necklace shaped like a broken Arceus ring to symbolize their survival of religious trauma, and has a red chain on their pants matching Verse's. Giratina-like black and red color scheme with silver and gold highlights. When channeling Verse, eyes glow red, Giratina stripes appear on his arms, and a shadowy aura shaped like Giratina-Origin appears around them.
Age: Early 20s
Pronouns: they/he; she/her is only okay in the past tense.
Gender: Didn't get to explore this side of himself until very recently due to growing up in a transphobic extreme religious environment, then having no interaction with humans, but realized that she related to Verse in one more way than he thought since moving. Not specifically labeled, but considers themself to have no particular gender. Generally uses and calls themself neutral or masculine terms, but they are Verse's girlfriend who is a guy.
Orientation: There is only one love of their life and that is Verse. They call him their boyfriend, partially tongue in cheek but mostly not. He is their closest emotional bond, best friend, they literally share a headspace, and the most reliable and trustworthy source of comfort in their life, physical and telepathic. Giratina does not physically have erogenous zones, the only part skinny enough and with enough maneuverability to attempt penetration is the claw spikes which would be extremely painful, and Verse has no concept of attraction anyway, so their physical interactions are limited to cuddles, dressing Verse up in cute accessories and feeding him poffins, and little kisses on his head in between the spikes. Can be drawn doing more clearly romantic stuff with Verse in anthropomorphic form.
Abilities: Can send and receive clear thought and emotion messages to and from humans and telepathically capable Pokemon. They cannot turn this off, and humans who aren't dedicated Psychic or Ghost trainers don't regulate their thoughts for telepathic consumption, so constantly wear headphones, write down what they sense or mutter it under their breath, and stay focused on Verse so they don't get overloaded. When overwhelmed by too many stimuli at once, his own flashbacks, or extremely intense emotion, enters an involuntary trance-like state of spirit channeling. While in this state, they sense what who they're channeling does and can speak the incipient spirit's language perfectly even if they aren't human or Zahori doesn't know the language. Loses all perception of their senses while channeling unless it's Verse, so in danger of harming themself if not monitored. Can voluntarily choose to channel / fuse with Verse, or he steps in to get them to a safe place so Zahori can decompress if they have an episode in public. When channeling Verse, they still feel their own environment and body but abstracted because it's filtered through Verse's telepathic connection. While channeling Verse, can levitate, open spacetime rifts, and use Giratina's special attacks, but will lose consciousness after using a special attack or opening a rift due to animum overload of their human body.
Occupation: Works at a community-run healthcare facility. They aren't trained as a medical doctor or therapist, but they're fast and skilled at preparing medicine and equipment, have high attention to detail, and their telepathy and Verse's animum sensing makes them great at providing comfort, explaining procedures, and getting information on how best to help.