Dawn's Origin: Researching Kabbalistic Science
Rated T for coarse language, sexual themes, and for the abuse of innocent Pokemon (and Bidoof).
Rated T for coarse language, sexual themes, and for the abuse of innocent Pokemon (and Bidoof).
Or D.O.R.K.S. (DORKS), for short.
Yes, I based a title around an acronym. Yes, now shut up.
Canon: Game-based (Platinum Version), with a few changes here and there.
Summary: Dawn is an aspiring Pokemon researcher. Above all, she wants to be appointed as Professor Rowan's newest research assistant. All that's standing in her way? One simple, undercover project, meant to study the Pokemon and current training environment in the Sinnoh region.
The problem? Training in general.
Oh yeah—and the fact that the Apocalypse is coming.
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LINKS FOR CHAPTERS:
Chapter One: Right here.
Chapter Two: Link.
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Want more in-depth information? Then look on my blog, because hell, I'm too lazy to post it here. Small bits, guys, small bits.
Chapter One:
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Chapter One
A Dorky Beginning
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Chapter One
A Dorky Beginning
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"Are you coming out yet?" Barry called from Dawn's bed. "You've been in there for twenty minutes already! I think it's about time you were fined a million Poke!"
Dawn's voice came from behind the velvet curtain, shouting, "Shut up, Barry! I have a few finishing touches to put on!"
"Yeah, you said that ten minutes ago. This is stupid." He pulled out a Poke Ball and began rolling it along the back of his fingers. "And it's boring."
"Oh, Barry, you lovable, attention deficit weirdo." She hummed a tuneless melody. "I'm surprised you're still sitting there."
He stuck his tongue out even though she couldn't see it. "At least I'm not a crossdresser."
"Bleh. I'm so not one."
After another five minutes that had Barry yawning and playing with his hair in the mirror, Dawn pulled the curtain back with a flourish and struck a pose, jutting out her hip and throwing her arms up into the air.
Barry pulled a face.
Pretending to spit into her hands, Dawn rolled up her sleeves and made a "manly" pose into the mirror. Instead of her usual look—which was usually a pink-and-black dress and knee-high boots—Dawn was wearing baggy pants, a blue jacket, and a nice hat. Her long hair had been cut short.
"Who's that stud standing there?" she asked, rubbing her chin and showing off her teeth. "Oh, that's right—I am. Gawd, I'm gorgeous, aren't I? Like, I expected this whole dressing like a guy thing to be all hard and shit, but really, it's like my perfectly feminine face can be molded into adorableness, no matter what the challenge. " She sighed and clapped her hands to her face. "Hell, if it weren't me, I'd be drooling over this guy. What a cutie!"
Barry slouched against the wall, frowning. "Isn't this some form of...nar...nar—er, narcolepsy?"
"Narcissism, you mean, and no, I don't have it." She twirled on her heel. "I'm just admiring my very, very, really cute self in the mirror."
"Well, I don't like your admiring yourself. It's sorta creepy. When're you gonna stop?"
"When I'm done with the project, duh."
Barry seemed tense for a moment.
"Isn't this gonna...be weird for you?" he asked hesitantly, his frown deepening. His foot involuntarily fidgeted. "I mean...you're sorta, kinda, not who I was expecting to do this. Maybe somebody else should do it...?"
She raised her eyebrow. "You don't think I'm good enough?"
"Hey, I didn't say that! Just...you don't seem...like this." He gestured vaguely around the room. "It's just weird. You haven't travelled since you were ten, and even then it was only to Jubilife."
Dawn fussed with her hair in the mirror. After another five minutes of personal grooming, she looked at him and smiled, stood up, and placed a hand on his messy head. The two stared at each other, Dawn appearing calm, Barry anxious and frustrated.
"Don't worry," Dawn said in a soothing voice. "I know what I have to do, and I know that I'll be able to do it. I know that you're upset about me going by myself—but you don't need to protect me anymore. I love ya, Barry, and I'll be back soon."
"In a year," Barry muttered, looking away.
"A year," she murmured. "Yep. But it'll be a quick year, I'll have all the logs written out and finished, and you can go back to training for the Battle Tower. Then I can grow out my hair, pretend to be my own age again, and we'll have a party, okay? Your birthday will be a few days away after that, so we can celebrate by getting drunk out of our minds, if you want."
Of course, that managed to make him brilliantly smile. He jumped up and pulled her into a hug, making her cry out for her ruined hair and make-up; but after a minute, her protests died down and she returned the hug with equal gusto.
"I'm gonna miss you, Dawn," Barry said, ruffling her hair and smiling sadly. "What's gonna happen to the Dynamic Duo now? What, am I going to be the Dynamic Uno or something? That's kinda stupid, and I don't like it. I mean, think of all the cooler names I could make later on and I'd be stuck with something stupid like that, and I'm really gonna miss you, and I'm gonna have to fine you a billion Poke just for this—"
"Eh kent breed!" came Dawn's muffled cry.
"Whoops! Sorry." He let her go immediately.
Her face seemed as blue as her hair, but after a few shaky pants she was back to her normal skin color and ready to kill him.
"Don't—" she said, punctuating ever word with a jab to his chest "—do—that—again. You messed up my work! Do you know how long it's going to take to reapply everything?"
"Thirty minutes?" he said, laughing.
"You wish."
His face fell, but this time it wasn't for comedic effect; for once, his eyes seemed sad and lonely, and it took all of Dawn's willpower not to immediately stop the whole project in its tracks. If it weren't for the fact her whole promotion to research assistant depended on it, she would've given him a hug, promised not to go, and maybe would have worked on a completely different thesis—but as it was, as she'd strived so hard for this, even her best friend in the whole world couldn't sway her.
This was a step towards her dream.
She looked away from him, glanced at her watch, and began packing all her things. Barry didn't look up.
After ten minutes of silence, she finally had only one more item to pack.
"Sleeping bag, please," she said, holding her hand out towards Barry. "It's...the last thing."
"R-right." Even though he'd tried to hide it, there was no mistake that his voice had quivered. He handed it to her.
The bag was all packed. Her clothes were in order. All her food supplies were ready. While she hated to leave her make-up set behind, she knew that she wouldn't need it; the dirt from travelling would cover anything too conspicuous. The only thing left were good-byes.
She had to make them count. For one year, Dawn wouldn't exist. And though she tried to console herself that she could end the project anytime she wished, it was still frightening to think she wouldn't have contact with anyone she knew. It would jepoardize her experiment to even say "Hello" to an old acquaintance.
"So," she finally said. "I guess I'm going now."
"Yeah."
"I'll see you...soon?"
"...Yeah."
"...Barry...?"
He grunted.
She pulled him down by his green scarf and planted a kiss on his cheek. As soon as she'd let him go, she dashed out of her house—she'd already made her teary farewell to her mother earlier; Dawn suspected the reason her mother wasn't there was to avoid anymore sadness—and jammed the hat onto her head.
It was early spring and a bit cold outside; patches of snow were under the shady trees. Dawn patted herself on the back for thinking to bring several heavier outfits along for the ride.
There was a thumping sound from the air, and Dawn looked up. From her bedroom window, Barry was striking a victory pose, both his hands thumbs-up and his legs spread apart. She wondered if she was imagining the tearstreaks on his face—but it was Barry, of all people, and she knew if he knew that she knew he was crying, she would start crying, too, and everything would go to shit from there, and she did not want that to happen.
So, feeling very much like as idiot, she mimicked his pose and grinned, blinking back a dozen tears that were threatening to escape. It was the least she could do for her best friend in the whole entire universe.
After a long, sad, humiliating, and very happy moment, they looked away from each other, and Dawn began to walk away, towards Sandgem Town.
And just like that, Dawn, the girliest and most ambitious girl in all of Twinleaf Town, was on an extended vacation.
The ten-year-old kid running to Sandgem?
His name was Lucas, and he was just starting out on his journey to become a master trainer.
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The journey to Sandgem was going reasonably well. Although she had no Pokemon of her own to protect her, Dawn knew the easiest way to get rid of the low-levelled Bidoof and Starly—to hit them over the head with her frickin' heavy backpack. As she went on, the trail behind her began to grow increasingly cluttered with unconscious bodies of small, fuzzy animals and cute little birds.
"I'm so getting tired of this," Dawn muttered to herself, watching as she brushed passed another piece of tall grass and another Bidoof came running after her. Without giving a damn about she was about to do, she heaved her bag off her back, waited for the Bidoof to Tackle her and—smack!—she sent it crashing to ground. "It's like they're trying to piss me off. Well, mission accomplished."
At her words, a Starly launched itself at her head. She instantly raised her bag up high, and the Starly, whether from stupidity or from far-sightedness, flew straight into it and crumpled to the ground like a rock.
She pouted. "At this rate I'm never getting to Sandgem in time. Gawd, what would a ten-year-old do in this situation?" She pondered this for a second before bursting out laughing. "Oh, Gawd, thank goodness I'm not ten."
She looked ahead and swore under her breath. There was about a mile left of grass ahead, and from underneath several eaves of limp leaves were shining, malevolent eyes and what looked like buckteeth.
She glanced at her dirty person, and had to restrain herself from screaming Bloody Mary. "My outfit! I am so freakin' sitting down now."
And she did, picking out a patch of trees without any tall grass nearby. Shifting through her bag, she found a paper towel roll, a full bottle of hand sanitizer, and a box of soap, and like a busy little Combee, she started scrubbing her pants and jacket, not caring at all for her own person but intensely focused on her clothes.
"Wonder where I put the water," she mumbled to herself, noticing how hard it was to scrub without it. "Stupid birds and their stupid literal shit."
About ten minutes later, Dawn finally gave up and wiped a hand across her sweaty face. The clothes, no matter how briefly she'd travelled, were going to be dirty no matter what she did, and stewing in her anger and irritation, she pulled out her logbook and wrote:
Shay 54, BTE, 10:52, ESRT
Ran into about two dozen Bidoof (Aplodontia rufa) and Starly (Sturnus sinensis);
Examined four unconscious specimens, two of each species. Subjects One and Two Starly; Subjects Three and Four Bidoof. Subject One molting on left side, wings look normal, "fluffy"; plumage fine, not coarse; beak rather short, blunt tip; the rest fine, but developing a cataract on the left eye. Subject Two molting slightly on left side, tail wings had slight clip at the ends; coarser plumage that Subject One; eyes fine, in-grown talon on right side.
Subject Three has several bald patches along front. Nothing else to report. Subject Four's teeth are warped, but general health is fine. Nothing else to report.
The habitats are fine, from what I've seen. Trees are growing back their leaves, plants are returning, and there is a fine layer of grass and undergrowth in-between tall patches of grass. Wild Pokemon are reacting normally, neither entirely hostile nor especially friendly. I estimate that after a few years with at least two good seasons and more people using the trails, the Pokemon will be a bit less populous and will be driven to the outer section of trees.
Nothing but my clothes are badly damaged. Unfortunately.
There was a scurrying noise, and Dawn looked up from her logbook with an annoyed expression. However, it wasn't a dreaded Bidoof or Starly that was in front of her.
No, it was a man.
"Hello there," he said with a smile.
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"May I ask what you're doing here?" the man asked.
Dawn took a moment to take in his appearance before replying. His hair was a light color and was greased back in a professional manner, which looked very nice with his well-cared for suit. His shoes were shiny—how he managed to keep them that way was beyond her—and his face appeared freshly shaven. On his wrist was a glittering, obviously expensive watch.
Dawn immediately grew suspicious. Why was a businessman of all people out here on a obscure route on the edge of Sinnoh?
"Uh..." she began tentatively, wondering whether to lie. "I-I, er, I'm gonna go see...my grandma. Uh-huh. My grandma is over there." She pointed to the direction of Sandgem Town. "I'm gonna go see her...sir."
"Ah." His eyes were like X-rays, the way they were focused on her. "I see. Does your grandmother know where you are?"
"...Yeah." There was something about him that made her want to avert her eyes. "I, er—I phoned her before I left. She knows I'm on my way."
"That's very smart of you, young man," he said.
Even though he was smiling, thought Dawn, he didn't really seem too nice. Of course, that was a red flag to her. A complete stranger striking up a conversation with what appeared to be a ten-year-old boy out of the blue? Yeah—rapist sounded about right.
And right when she didn't have a Pokemon, too.
"Yeah, I guess," she muttered, quickly grabbing everything and stuffing it all into her bag. She slung it over her shoulders. "Guess I'll be seeing you, then."
Before she could leave, the man said, "You're probably afraid of me, I expect. Seeing a man coming up and talking to you doesn't feel safe, isn't it?"
She wondered if she should ignore him and run. But there was something about him that seemed...different. Not in the crazy, I'm-going-to-kill-you kind of way...no, more like his thoughts were on a parallel wavelength way. Almost as though he were, er...inhuman.
Of course, that didn't mean he was safe.
"Sorry, sir, but my grandma's waiting," she said quickly before turning around.
And again, just as she was about to leave, he suddenly asked an unexpected question: "Is your grandmother paralyzed?"
"Uh—what?"
"Is your grandmother paralyzed?" he repeated.
Without thinking, she replied, "Uh, yeah. Both her legs are...gone." Though she couldn't remember her real grandma that well, Dawn knew for a fact that she'd been paralyzed from some sort of illness or another.
He gave her a very intense look that made her feel uncomfortable. "Don't you ever wish to see her walk again?"
"Well...yeah, sure," she mumbled.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to have her moving around? To see her standing and walking?"
"...I guess, yeah."
He smiled again, and his blue eyes grabbed her own like a magnet. "I'm actually a researcher. I've been working for the past few years on a small project that will help nearly everyone—people, plants, Pokemon—with any sort of problem. I thought, as you are a researcher yourself, that you would be interested."
Dawn's eyes widened. "Wait—how do you know I'm a researcher?"
"I saw you studying those Pokemon earlier. You wrote your findings in that book of yours, correct?"
She averted her eyes. "Maybe."
There came an almost soundless movement, and the man was looming overhead in front of her. For a brief and terrifying moment, she thought that he was about to do something—something horrible—but no, he reached into his suit's pocket and pulled out a business card.
"My working name and business address are on this card, young man." He handed it to her. "If you ever feel that you are in over your head with your grandmother, please come contact me. I'll help you if you need any assistance." He smiled. "I'm rather short on research assistants these days. It would be deeply appreciated if you decided to come work with me."
She didn't know whether to be happy at the business prospect or severely creeped out. Nonetheless, she nodded her head and tried to smile, secretly crumpling the card behind her back.
"Thanks, sir," she said. "That's really nice of you to ask."
"No trouble at all."
He held out his hand and she shook it.
"Good-bye," said the man, "and tell your grandmother that she is a very strong woman."
"See ya," she murmured.
He smiled one last time before leaving.
Once she was sure he was gone, she pulled out her logbook and wrote:
Five minutes after: Met a really freaky guy who just happened to be watching me earlier. Gotta put the police on speed dial in my PokeGear.
Underneath, she drew a quick sketch of the man, and then wrote a caption:
Creepy pedo that wants young boys to work on some "research project" or another.
She smoothed out the business card and read:
Elian Asashi
Research Scientist and Engineer
221 Garden Boulevard
Research Scientist and Engineer
221 Garden Boulevard
Unfortunately, the rest of the address and the phone number had been too damaged to make out. She tucked the card within the folds of her logbook, closed it, and let out a long breath.
"Gawd, I really am too adorable for my own good."
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