Pokémon Duck!

[kyeugh]

Duck!​

Spoiler: author's note

this was my entry to the poképod fic project. it's about duck. please check out the excellent podfic, performed brilliantly by sisi_rambles on ao3!

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"No, you may not take a break to play in the leaves." The little fledgling shrank into himself as Kikori huffed through his beak. "Do not despair. Play is for chicks and you are almost a full duck grown."

It wasn't entirely true—Kikori's protégé still bore the flaxen flecks of a nestling. But it was true enough that he was ready to learn the way of the woods.

"You are part of an ancient tradition. Greater than yourself. We fetch'd have tended the Ilex since the humans were babbling apes in the jungle. One with the forest, as much a part of it as it is of us. Come, learn."

Kikori placed a fresh limb of wood on his stump and got to work. "The greatest gift of the goddess. Thumbs to grasp. Leeks, but other tools too," he said. Presently he took the draw knife in wing and pulled it along the length of the wood. The bark fell in crumbly strips at his feet, exposing the white timber-flesh to the moist forest air.

"Now you try," he said, offering his ward the tool. The little fledgling operated it clumsily, sometimes peeling splinters of good timber off with the bark. "Gentle! Do not defile the wood. It will become useful. Gentler! Smoother!"

Frustration worked across the little one's face like a river gently overflowing.

Kikori stood with a straight back, wings tucked, eyes watching. He had trained countless fetch'd in his years. Learning was hard and few enjoyed this work in the beginning , but frustration was a tool. The self-criticizing eye was a better teacher than he could hope to be.

After a while, once the fledgling's feathers were lousy with splinters and he looked almost too frustrated to handle more, Kikori patted the little one's shoulder. "That's enough. The human will take the timber and do what he will. The wood he deems unfit will come back to us later for charcoal-making. For now, let us make potash."

The fledgling's eyes glimmered at that. Firemaking was certainly the most spectacular of the fetch'd arts. The fire was already smoldering nearby; only in rain did it perish. The little one helped Kikori gather the bark into a mound near the hearth, a blackened, stone-rimmed divot of ash and char in the ground some paces away.

When the fledgling reached hastily for the bark, Kikori swatted his wing with a leek. "No. You must demonstrate mastery over and respect for the fire before feeding it. All things in time, student."

The fledgling looked aside with shame, nursing his smarting wing. Then his breath caught abruptly, eyes widening, and he slowly pointed ahead of him.

"What is it?" Kikori followed the fledgling's gaze. "Oh."

Perhaps a dozen yards away, a glossy green pinecone stood perfectly upward and balanced, like a suspended top. A pair of red eyes stared at the fledgling from below its lustrous scales. Pineco.

"We must be very careful," Kikori said quietly. "Pineco can be dangerous. But there is one game the fetch'd play, even we grown ones."

The fledgling cocked his head.

"When I give the word, get down and cover your ears." With smiling eyes, he added: "Watch and learn."

Kikori gathered his trusty leak and approached the pineco with silent footfalls. It watched him impassively. At length he found himself within a wingspan of the thing, his heart hammering in his throat.

So carefully and slowly, he lifted his leek in an arc. Then, quick enough to miss it with a blink, he sent the leek swinging down at the pineco—WHACK! It shrieked as it vaulted into the distance, at least twenty feet in the air.

"Duck!"

Kikori fell to the ground and cradled his head in his wings. He peeked out one eye to see his fledgling doing the same, just in time.

The explosion was loud enough that Kikori felt it ringing in his hollow bones. There was a great rustling as he stood: every bird and bug within a league was taking wing, away from the disturbance. The only traces remaining of the pineco were the shards of its armor scattered on the underbrush and a puff of smoke in the distance, already being carried away by the wind.

The fledgling slowly lifted himself, eyes wide as he pieced together what happened. His face shifted from confusion to dawning to, finally, uproarious laughter that shook the last few lingering birds from their perches.

"You liked that, did you? Do a good job here and I'll let you drive the next. My grandfather was a sirfetch'd; you should have seen how far he could launch them."

 

[tomatorade]

Kyeugh distracting me by duckposting, for shame.

Unga Bunga duckies make fire.

This was very cute :3 A perfect little taste of duck life. I like the style of it especially, I can imagine this being a scene in a play or something. Which is reflected mostly in the way Kikori talks and acts--he's a sort of full-chest speaking duck. I can imagine him playing to the audience a little bit and strutting around on stage with his leek. It gave the fic a certain quality that's hard to describe.

Another element of that is that the fledgling doesn't speak. or, does, but we start right after unheard dialogue. It's a good choice to save space and words, for sure, it's easy to underestimate how chunky even a two-person dialogue can make a fic. The other benefit is that it does sell them as a learner duck, watching reverently as the teacher duck goes through the motion. Very respectful. Of course, going back to the play comparison, I could imagine this being a solo play where Kikori just talks to himself and a cardboard cutout of a bunch of trees the whole time.

Though I also liked that the little duck was super into this whole process. It's both funny and heartwarming that his eyes sparkle at the thought of making potash lol. The writing treats it with its proper respect, anyway.

Anyway, he just fucking kills that pineco goddamn. It was a little jarring to experience when the rest of the fic was so wholesome. I guess it depends on what exactly pineco are supposed to be in your world, but my man golfs with these things?

Do ducks have duck-sized golf courses for pineco shooting? this is an urgent question. And I shan't ignore the duck pun.

I appreciated the narration in this one. One of those instance where it takes on the character of the themes, I guess. I like all these careful little descriptions you included "Frustration worked across the little one's face like a river gently overflowing." and such. They felt restrained, but in a good way.

I liked this a lot for as short as it was. It was very well written, I like the vibes it cultivates especially. Naturally, you would get the farfetch'd entry and I think this is an interesting look into lives of the Ilex forest farfetch'd. Now if only we knew why they were all running away that one time.

 

[Inyssa]

Farfetch'd is one of my favorites from Kanto, which already counts with so many good birds but this one always had a lot of personality. And then the Ilex forest stuff and the evolution came and gave it even more, both of which I think you made good use of here, especially for such a short one-shot.

Your descriptions are so vivid, I felt like I could hear the sound of the wood cutting and sniff the scent of the whole work the poor little duck was put through, and that little game at the end was a really nice way of showing what they do to have some fun outside of work, even being such a diligent and hard-working species. I enjoyed your prose a lot, and I'd read a whole fic about these cute little fellas.

Great job!

 

[Phoenixsong]

ahhh, this was such a sweet little story when I first read it on release of the anthology, and it was fun to read it again now! Always here for more fetch'dlore from kyeugh. (Weird as it is to think of farfetch'd as having thumbs, haha.) I like that you take the time to show them using multiple tools and techniques, and that they have specialties and traditions that extend beyond just "lol leeks/onions"—not that I think you'd handle that so flippantly anyway, but it's just nice in general to see some detail given to/expanded on for what's normally a gag pokémon. Up until the gag at the very end, of course.

The fledgling has a lot of character even without any dialogue. You can really feel the youthful frustration coming from him, all the little aches and splinters, being chastened by Kikori's insistence that he focus on grown-up duck things. He's expressive and childlike and determined to (try to) put up with all this uncomfortable boring busywork to prove himself to his mentor, and he gives off great clumsy young apprentice vibes overall. Kikori is also fantastic as a traditional instructor: he comes across as appropriately harsh and detail-oriented, but uses that same eye for detail to read his student's mood and knows to back off before making him resentful of the work.

I wonder how closely the farfetch'd work with the humans? Do they just live alongside each other and cooperate, leaving wood and charcoal and potash and so on for each other by some mutually-beneficial agreement, or are they actually part of the same community?

The actual pun itself was about as expected, but getting to see stern, lecturing, Kikori with no time for childish things getting to have a little fun himself was lovely. Makes me a little curious what all goes into the actual "game" element of it, beyond just punting the explosive creature as far away from yourselves as possible: longest distance, biggest boom? (I suppose it also lightly begs the question of whether they actively go looking for pineco to do this to, and whether this is the sort of explosion the pineco survive if they *are* tracked down for sport, but given that it's really just there for the purposes of the "duck!" joke in the end it's really not that big a deal, heh.)

Really love the vibes of this. It's short and simple but hints strongly at a people with a history and characters with a passion for craft; it's quiet (except for, well, you know) and almost a little meditative but also adorable. Very glad you were able to grab the farfetch'd slot for the project!

 

[Nekodatta]

As a fan of Farfetch, of course I had to review this.

This was a delightful little read, really atmospheric. Even with the dialogue being completely unidirectional and with not a single word from the point of view of the student, I never felt that what the master said was unnatural or contrived just to conveniently relay some information to the audience. Everything the master says has its place; I really liked Kokiri. He says so little, but every word and tiny detail in the description paint this incredibly vivid picture of an old wise mentor. It felt like I was reading about an old martial artist teaching his pupil, or a samurai.

I love how you hinted at a whole civilization these Pokémon have, with way more tools than just their leeks, and how they have this symbiotic relationship with humans.
It did make me wonder what the farfetch get out of it in return though: is there some silent agreement between Farfetch and humans? Farfetch get the humans wood and in return are left alone in the Ilex Forest?

One thing that left me a bit perplexed was the description of the "game" played with the Pineco: the description says that Kikori

"So carefully and slowly, he lifted his leek in an arc. Then, quick enough to miss it with a blink, he sent the leek swinging down at the pineco—WHACK! It shrieked as it vaulted into the distance, at least twenty feet in the air."

If the swing is made from top to down, I found it really difficult to picture the Pineco being sent flying away instead of getting punted into the ground... Unless the Pineco getting sent flying is a result of the Explosion and whacking it is just a way to trigger it.

To send something flying, I was picturing a more sideways swing, baseball style.

That's really the only thing I wanted to point out, I really loved it otherwise!

 

[icomeanon6]

The title alone made this a must-read for me. It's funny on its surface for a story about Farfetch'd (the best duck pokemon), and it promises something funny or exciting to happen to invite the exclamation. S-tier title.

I love how the dignified beginning and middle of the story almost lead the reader to forget about the title, which makes the other shoe even funnier when it finally drops. What particularly sticks out to me is how one of Kikori's aims is to instill self-criticism in the student. There's real wisdom in that, which goes a long way to making him really feel as wise as he's framed as, which isn't a given when writing the "wise old master" type of character. And that of course makes it even more *chef's kiss* when we learn about the Farfetch'ds' wanton, gloriously irresponsible pastime.

One bit of description I really liked was "like a river gently overflowing." Nothing with the word "gentle" would be the first thing to come to mind to describe mounting frustration, but the whole phrase conjures such a specific image. Like, something bad that's happening too slowly to seem like a real problem, but which you know will only grow more pressing if it keeps going. Frustration being all part of Kikori's design makes it work even better.

So... Exploding Pineco golf. This is pure gold. This is just the sort of chaotic cartoon-violence energy that works so well in Pokemon. No notes. "Duck!" indeed.

I only have one quibble, which is that the downward swing might not put a golf-style swing in everyone's head. I pictured an overhand, more axe-like swing at first, then had to rethink it when the Pineco went flying. Not sure if there's a good revision for this, though, so make of that what you will.

Spotted one typo, coincidentally in the paragraph I talked most about:

few enjoyed this work in the beginning , but frustration was a tool.

Extra space before the comma.

tl;dr: This was great. Thanks for posting it!