Chapter 1
elyvorg
somewhat backwards
- Pronouns
- she/they
Well, here I am, somehow writing a Pokéfic again for the first time in forever. The kinds of fic I do occasionally write these days are always canon character-focused, which I never in a million years expected to want to do in the Pokémon fandom. But by some unprecedented miracle, the Pokémon games have finally figured out good nuanced complex character writing and have given me a character I absolutely adore, in Kieran. So naturally, as many good writers are wont to do with characters they love, I’m here to make him suffer more.
This is primarily a Kieran whump fic that exists to put my new favourite boy through the wringer, but in the process it’s using that as a catalyst for some character study of him as well. If you like both Kieran and whump, this story ought to be extremely up your alley. If you like just one of those two things and are at least okay with the other, you might enjoy this, too.
The plot of this is its own standalone thing that doesn’t require any knowledge of the SV DLC plot to be able to follow what’s happening. That said, there will be a bunch of spoilers for the DLC story in here, and a lot of the character stuff going on probably won’t mean nearly as much if you’re not familiar with Kieran’s canon arc.
Content warnings: Whump, obviously (which is to say, violence and suffering) but presented in a way that ought to be hypothetically suitable for children. I’ve aimed to more or less match the narrative tone of the Pokémon games themselves, just, you know, if they were whumpier. No blood, only very mild strong language, and things will turn out okay in the end.
Feedback preferences: Try not to dig too hard into the plot logistics here; while I’ve tried to make it all make reasonable sense, the plot basically just exists to facilitate the whump and character moments. In general, I don’t mind the occasional pointing out of an awkward bit that can be easily tweaked, but for the most part I’m not really that much about concrit these days. More than anything, I’d just love for people to engage with the story! Especially with regards to the character writing and the whump, of course.
Length-wise, this is going to be a short chaptered fic, so I’m hoping to get it finished within a reasonably quick timeframe. Not sure on projected wordcount just yet, but the rest of the chapters should be quite a bit longer than this bite-sized first one. Enjoy!
Kieran drew in a deep breath of ocean breeze as he watched the sun rise slowly over the waves. He was leaning into one of the round open holes on the east wall of the bridge, which gave the perfect view, something no-one else seemed to have discovered. The whole entrance area of Blueberry Academy was deserted at this hour, aside from a few wild Wingull – it was just him, here enjoying the sunrise alone.
Most students who woke up this early would be down in the Terarium right now, getting in some morning training before classes began. Not so long ago, Kieran would have been down there too, doing precisely that, every morning without fail, awake long before anyone else, relentless—
…Perhaps that was the very reason he’d taken to spending his mornings out here instead, even if it meant being on his own. The Terarium was an amazing place, and perfectly fine to hang out in in theory, but… sometimes the atmosphere in there just felt suffocating.
Besides, Kieran liked it out here for its own sake. It seemed kind of silly to think it, but this spot on the bridge was special to him. It was right here that he’d somehow mustered up the courage to ask Juliana if they could be friends again, after everything he’d done… and she’d just smiled and nodded eagerly like there could never have been any other answer. The thought of it still made him marvel, even now. It helped put his mind at ease, especially with Juliana back in Paldea for a while since a couple of weeks ago.
And hey – it wasn’t as if he was entirely alone, either.
“Mornin’, Dragonite.” The chubby orange dragon greeted him with a yawn as he sent her out. “Wanna go for another morning flight?”
She nodded, crouching to let him climb onto her back. Once he was sure he was secure, he gave the word, and they took off, flying out from the bridge to soar towards the sunrise.
Kieran readjusted his hold on Dragonite, trying to relax into the flight. This feeling of freedom, the wind in his hair, the sight of the ocean waves so far below unnerving yet exhilarating at the same time.
Only a moment later, he tensed up as Dragonite jolted briefly and water splashed over his leg. It was just a Wingull, it turned out, cheekily firing a Water Gun that Dragonite probably barely even felt – she yipped at it in annoyance, her antennae crackling with warning sparks, and the bird Pokémon quickly thought better of its mischief and flapped away.
With a long, steadying breath, Kieran forced himself to loosen his grip on Dragonite’s neck. Flying was still kind of scary at times… but it was really fun, too. There was nothing else quite like it. Which meant it was worth it to push through his nervousness and do it anyway – the only way it’d stop being scary at all one day was if he kept at it.
Dragonite was facing forwards, preventing him from seeing her expression, her body shifting subtly beneath him with every beat of her wings. Not for the first time, Kieran found himself wondering if things wouldn’t be so bad if he could just fly on any of his Pokémon except her. And then as soon as he’d had that thought, he wished he hadn’t.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her – really, it wasn’t. It was just… Dragonite was the only one of his Pokémon he hadn’t caught for himself. She’d been traded to him as a Dratini by his sister, during that time when Carmine had been visiting all sorts of other regions with Ms Briar, and he’d been… well, obsessed with training. For the rest of his Pokémon, Kieran had proven himself in the battles to catch them, allowing them to choose him as their trainer – but not Dragonite.
Still, he’d hadn’t ever had any problems with her disobeying him or anything like that. He knew he was probably overthinking it, being stupid, but even so, he could never quite shake the feeling that… maybe she just didn’t respect him like his other Pokémon did. (Why would she?)
Kieran shook his head, pushing the uncomfortably familiar thoughts of his mind. This had gone around and around in his head enough times before, and there was nothing he could do about it anyway. He nudged Dragonite to fly a little lower, watching the ocean waves rush by, smiling at the way they glittered in the sunrise.
Then an icy blast exploded into him out of nowhere. The world pitched and spun, his stomach lurching with it – and something large and flat slammed into his whole body.
The shock of the impact escaped his mouth in rippling salty bubbles, a heavy, cold sensation closing in around every inch of him. Water. He was underwater. His brain scrambled to piece it together: Dragonite had been attacked and he’d fallen into the ocean and he couldn’t swim!
Kieran clamped his mouth shut, more precious air leaving his nose in an exhaled grunt of terror as he fought the urge to take the breath he’d need to scream. Flailing his limbs, weighed down by his clothes, he opened his eyes against stinging seawater, straining to even figure out which way was up.
There…! One direction was brighter than the rest. He threw himself towards it with everything he had, grasping with his arms, thrashing with his legs, struggling with all his might to reach it. He didn’t know how to swim, but he had to try, he had to, he had to…!
One arm and then his head breached the surface, and Kieran gasped in desperate lungfuls of air. “Dragonite!” he screamed with his newfound breath, as loud as he could. Where was she? “Help me!” He needed her, he couldn’t keep himself afloat for long, his limbs were already burning with the strain of it, where was she…?!
There she was – some distance away, half-submerged beneath the waves, bellowing in urgent alarm as she caught sight of him. Sea spray kicked up around her, her image blurring towards him with the swiftness of an Extreme Speed – but then her trajectory swerved to the side and back again, around and around, caught in a swirling ocean current.
A… a Whirlpool?! She was trapped, unable to reach him… No, this couldn’t be happening…!
Dragonite looked beaten down, too, panting and grimacing as her spinning momentum slowed. How come…? Her Multiscale should have let her shrug off almost any attack from full health, even an Ice move, especially from a wild Pokémon. Shouldn’t it…?
No, that didn’t matter…! Kieran strained to keep his head above the surface, fighting against his sodden, heavy clothes that threatened to drag him down. He forced his jumbled mind to work with him, grasping for another way out, any other option – his Pokémon! He had other Pokémon that could help – Politoed…! Pokéballs couldn’t release underwater, but if he could just…
He stopped flailing one of his aching arms to reach down to his Pokéballs – and as soon as he did, his head went under, stinging saltwater rushing into his eyes and nose and mouth. Blind panic overtook him; he flailed again, harder, somehow just barely managing to resurface, spluttering and gasping. It took everything he had, both arms working non-stop just to keep himself from drowning, burning with the effort yet freezing from the cold at the same time.
No, no… there was no way he could reach his Pokéballs; he wasn’t strong enough…! Dragonite was his only hope, but…
He struggled to focus his stinging, streaming eyes to look over at her again. There was another shape in the water near her, a dark blue shell with spikes – a Cloyster? That had to be the source of the Whirlpool – if she could just take it out…!
Dragonite must have thought the same; she was roaring, her antennae crackling with the beginnings of a Thunder. But then she hesitated, glancing Kieran’s way for just a moment, and the sparks faded. She charged at her foe instead, slamming her tail into its tough shell. The Cloyster shrugged off the Breaking Swipe, retaliating with a point-blank Ice Beam that sent the dragon careening backwards with a mighty splash and a weak cry of pain.
“Dragonite!” Kieran screamed again, his head so horribly low to the surface that he couldn’t even see where she’d ended up past the waves all around him. Had she fainted? Why… why hadn’t she—
Something wrapped tight around his midriff and pulled him under.
Another bubbling gasp escaped him as he clamped down again on the urge to hyperventilate from sheer panic. Flailing his limbs was a hopeless endeavour; whatever had grabbed him was pulling him inexorably further and further away from where Dragonite had fallen, heedless to his struggling. He tried to tug against the long, thin appendages that had hold of him – tentacles, so many of them; a Tentacruel?! – but his aching arms were useless, sapped of all strength by the brief time spent fighting to keep him afloat. There was nothing he could do.
Why was this happening…? One aggressive wild Pokémon was bad enough, but two, at the same time? Did luck really have it in for him that much?
Kieran grimaced in terror, already struggling not to breathe in as the Tentacruel’s grip tightened, dragging him through the freezing water like hapless prey. He had no hope, no chance of getting out of this – unless…
Dragonite…! Please, please…
…But if she could have, she’d have reached him by now.
She wasn’t coming to save him. He hadn’t trained her to be strong enough.
(Or maybe she just didn’t care enough about him to try.)
He was going to drown. He was going to die, out here in the cold of the ocean where no-one would ever find him, alone and helpless and weak. All just because of some wild Pokémon, something any halfway-decent trainer should have been able to deal with – but not him.
His chest throbbed and writhed in pure reflex, his lungs begging for relief, begging him to stop denying them and let them breathe. It crossed his mind that he might as well just give in, let go, get it over with – but he still didn’t want to. The thought of water rushing in and flooding his body was too much, too terrifying. Even though he knew it was inevitable, he couldn’t stop fighting to put off that horrible fate for just a little longer, just a little longer, just a li—
There was a splash and his head broke the surface and – air!
He didn’t care how or why; he just breathed, gasping in great desperate relieved lungfuls of precious, sweet air. Sweet and sickly and… catching in his throat, making him cough, in a way that had nothing to do with the water.
Kieran opened his eyes, blinking seawater out of them to find his face surrounded by a cloud of yellow spores – spores that he’d been unthinkingly inhaling like his life depended on it.
Past that, the image of a red-and-white mushroom Pokémon, an Amoonguss, swam into blurry view, along with several dark-clad human figures, standing on the edge of a small boat of some kind. Huge concrete pillars towered even further back – he was under the entrance bridge…?
This wasn’t just a random attack from wild Pokémon. This was… a kidnapping…?
That realisation ought to have been even more terrifying. But with the spores still floating around him, coating the inside of his nose and mouth, Kieran couldn’t seem to remember how to be afraid right now. Everything was descending into a sleepy haze, his limbs floppy and useless as he felt the men drag his body up and over the edge of the boat, heard them saying words his brain couldn’t make out.
He landed in a soggy, crumpled heap on the deck, just briefly managing to hold onto one last thought before his consciousness slipped away.
Why’s… this happening…?
Why… me…?
This is primarily a Kieran whump fic that exists to put my new favourite boy through the wringer, but in the process it’s using that as a catalyst for some character study of him as well. If you like both Kieran and whump, this story ought to be extremely up your alley. If you like just one of those two things and are at least okay with the other, you might enjoy this, too.
The plot of this is its own standalone thing that doesn’t require any knowledge of the SV DLC plot to be able to follow what’s happening. That said, there will be a bunch of spoilers for the DLC story in here, and a lot of the character stuff going on probably won’t mean nearly as much if you’re not familiar with Kieran’s canon arc.
Content warnings: Whump, obviously (which is to say, violence and suffering) but presented in a way that ought to be hypothetically suitable for children. I’ve aimed to more or less match the narrative tone of the Pokémon games themselves, just, you know, if they were whumpier. No blood, only very mild strong language, and things will turn out okay in the end.
Feedback preferences: Try not to dig too hard into the plot logistics here; while I’ve tried to make it all make reasonable sense, the plot basically just exists to facilitate the whump and character moments. In general, I don’t mind the occasional pointing out of an awkward bit that can be easily tweaked, but for the most part I’m not really that much about concrit these days. More than anything, I’d just love for people to engage with the story! Especially with regards to the character writing and the whump, of course.
Length-wise, this is going to be a short chaptered fic, so I’m hoping to get it finished within a reasonably quick timeframe. Not sure on projected wordcount just yet, but the rest of the chapters should be quite a bit longer than this bite-sized first one. Enjoy!
This chapter depicts a near-drowning experience.
~~~
Chapter 1
– It’s because I’m weak –
Kieran drew in a deep breath of ocean breeze as he watched the sun rise slowly over the waves. He was leaning into one of the round open holes on the east wall of the bridge, which gave the perfect view, something no-one else seemed to have discovered. The whole entrance area of Blueberry Academy was deserted at this hour, aside from a few wild Wingull – it was just him, here enjoying the sunrise alone.
Most students who woke up this early would be down in the Terarium right now, getting in some morning training before classes began. Not so long ago, Kieran would have been down there too, doing precisely that, every morning without fail, awake long before anyone else, relentless—
…Perhaps that was the very reason he’d taken to spending his mornings out here instead, even if it meant being on his own. The Terarium was an amazing place, and perfectly fine to hang out in in theory, but… sometimes the atmosphere in there just felt suffocating.
Besides, Kieran liked it out here for its own sake. It seemed kind of silly to think it, but this spot on the bridge was special to him. It was right here that he’d somehow mustered up the courage to ask Juliana if they could be friends again, after everything he’d done… and she’d just smiled and nodded eagerly like there could never have been any other answer. The thought of it still made him marvel, even now. It helped put his mind at ease, especially with Juliana back in Paldea for a while since a couple of weeks ago.
And hey – it wasn’t as if he was entirely alone, either.
“Mornin’, Dragonite.” The chubby orange dragon greeted him with a yawn as he sent her out. “Wanna go for another morning flight?”
She nodded, crouching to let him climb onto her back. Once he was sure he was secure, he gave the word, and they took off, flying out from the bridge to soar towards the sunrise.
Kieran readjusted his hold on Dragonite, trying to relax into the flight. This feeling of freedom, the wind in his hair, the sight of the ocean waves so far below unnerving yet exhilarating at the same time.
Only a moment later, he tensed up as Dragonite jolted briefly and water splashed over his leg. It was just a Wingull, it turned out, cheekily firing a Water Gun that Dragonite probably barely even felt – she yipped at it in annoyance, her antennae crackling with warning sparks, and the bird Pokémon quickly thought better of its mischief and flapped away.
With a long, steadying breath, Kieran forced himself to loosen his grip on Dragonite’s neck. Flying was still kind of scary at times… but it was really fun, too. There was nothing else quite like it. Which meant it was worth it to push through his nervousness and do it anyway – the only way it’d stop being scary at all one day was if he kept at it.
Dragonite was facing forwards, preventing him from seeing her expression, her body shifting subtly beneath him with every beat of her wings. Not for the first time, Kieran found himself wondering if things wouldn’t be so bad if he could just fly on any of his Pokémon except her. And then as soon as he’d had that thought, he wished he hadn’t.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her – really, it wasn’t. It was just… Dragonite was the only one of his Pokémon he hadn’t caught for himself. She’d been traded to him as a Dratini by his sister, during that time when Carmine had been visiting all sorts of other regions with Ms Briar, and he’d been… well, obsessed with training. For the rest of his Pokémon, Kieran had proven himself in the battles to catch them, allowing them to choose him as their trainer – but not Dragonite.
Still, he’d hadn’t ever had any problems with her disobeying him or anything like that. He knew he was probably overthinking it, being stupid, but even so, he could never quite shake the feeling that… maybe she just didn’t respect him like his other Pokémon did. (Why would she?)
Kieran shook his head, pushing the uncomfortably familiar thoughts of his mind. This had gone around and around in his head enough times before, and there was nothing he could do about it anyway. He nudged Dragonite to fly a little lower, watching the ocean waves rush by, smiling at the way they glittered in the sunrise.
Then an icy blast exploded into him out of nowhere. The world pitched and spun, his stomach lurching with it – and something large and flat slammed into his whole body.
The shock of the impact escaped his mouth in rippling salty bubbles, a heavy, cold sensation closing in around every inch of him. Water. He was underwater. His brain scrambled to piece it together: Dragonite had been attacked and he’d fallen into the ocean and he couldn’t swim!
Kieran clamped his mouth shut, more precious air leaving his nose in an exhaled grunt of terror as he fought the urge to take the breath he’d need to scream. Flailing his limbs, weighed down by his clothes, he opened his eyes against stinging seawater, straining to even figure out which way was up.
There…! One direction was brighter than the rest. He threw himself towards it with everything he had, grasping with his arms, thrashing with his legs, struggling with all his might to reach it. He didn’t know how to swim, but he had to try, he had to, he had to…!
One arm and then his head breached the surface, and Kieran gasped in desperate lungfuls of air. “Dragonite!” he screamed with his newfound breath, as loud as he could. Where was she? “Help me!” He needed her, he couldn’t keep himself afloat for long, his limbs were already burning with the strain of it, where was she…?!
There she was – some distance away, half-submerged beneath the waves, bellowing in urgent alarm as she caught sight of him. Sea spray kicked up around her, her image blurring towards him with the swiftness of an Extreme Speed – but then her trajectory swerved to the side and back again, around and around, caught in a swirling ocean current.
A… a Whirlpool?! She was trapped, unable to reach him… No, this couldn’t be happening…!
Dragonite looked beaten down, too, panting and grimacing as her spinning momentum slowed. How come…? Her Multiscale should have let her shrug off almost any attack from full health, even an Ice move, especially from a wild Pokémon. Shouldn’t it…?
No, that didn’t matter…! Kieran strained to keep his head above the surface, fighting against his sodden, heavy clothes that threatened to drag him down. He forced his jumbled mind to work with him, grasping for another way out, any other option – his Pokémon! He had other Pokémon that could help – Politoed…! Pokéballs couldn’t release underwater, but if he could just…
He stopped flailing one of his aching arms to reach down to his Pokéballs – and as soon as he did, his head went under, stinging saltwater rushing into his eyes and nose and mouth. Blind panic overtook him; he flailed again, harder, somehow just barely managing to resurface, spluttering and gasping. It took everything he had, both arms working non-stop just to keep himself from drowning, burning with the effort yet freezing from the cold at the same time.
No, no… there was no way he could reach his Pokéballs; he wasn’t strong enough…! Dragonite was his only hope, but…
He struggled to focus his stinging, streaming eyes to look over at her again. There was another shape in the water near her, a dark blue shell with spikes – a Cloyster? That had to be the source of the Whirlpool – if she could just take it out…!
Dragonite must have thought the same; she was roaring, her antennae crackling with the beginnings of a Thunder. But then she hesitated, glancing Kieran’s way for just a moment, and the sparks faded. She charged at her foe instead, slamming her tail into its tough shell. The Cloyster shrugged off the Breaking Swipe, retaliating with a point-blank Ice Beam that sent the dragon careening backwards with a mighty splash and a weak cry of pain.
“Dragonite!” Kieran screamed again, his head so horribly low to the surface that he couldn’t even see where she’d ended up past the waves all around him. Had she fainted? Why… why hadn’t she—
Something wrapped tight around his midriff and pulled him under.
Another bubbling gasp escaped him as he clamped down again on the urge to hyperventilate from sheer panic. Flailing his limbs was a hopeless endeavour; whatever had grabbed him was pulling him inexorably further and further away from where Dragonite had fallen, heedless to his struggling. He tried to tug against the long, thin appendages that had hold of him – tentacles, so many of them; a Tentacruel?! – but his aching arms were useless, sapped of all strength by the brief time spent fighting to keep him afloat. There was nothing he could do.
Why was this happening…? One aggressive wild Pokémon was bad enough, but two, at the same time? Did luck really have it in for him that much?
Kieran grimaced in terror, already struggling not to breathe in as the Tentacruel’s grip tightened, dragging him through the freezing water like hapless prey. He had no hope, no chance of getting out of this – unless…
Dragonite…! Please, please…
…But if she could have, she’d have reached him by now.
She wasn’t coming to save him. He hadn’t trained her to be strong enough.
(Or maybe she just didn’t care enough about him to try.)
He was going to drown. He was going to die, out here in the cold of the ocean where no-one would ever find him, alone and helpless and weak. All just because of some wild Pokémon, something any halfway-decent trainer should have been able to deal with – but not him.
His chest throbbed and writhed in pure reflex, his lungs begging for relief, begging him to stop denying them and let them breathe. It crossed his mind that he might as well just give in, let go, get it over with – but he still didn’t want to. The thought of water rushing in and flooding his body was too much, too terrifying. Even though he knew it was inevitable, he couldn’t stop fighting to put off that horrible fate for just a little longer, just a little longer, just a li—
There was a splash and his head broke the surface and – air!
He didn’t care how or why; he just breathed, gasping in great desperate relieved lungfuls of precious, sweet air. Sweet and sickly and… catching in his throat, making him cough, in a way that had nothing to do with the water.
Kieran opened his eyes, blinking seawater out of them to find his face surrounded by a cloud of yellow spores – spores that he’d been unthinkingly inhaling like his life depended on it.
Past that, the image of a red-and-white mushroom Pokémon, an Amoonguss, swam into blurry view, along with several dark-clad human figures, standing on the edge of a small boat of some kind. Huge concrete pillars towered even further back – he was under the entrance bridge…?
This wasn’t just a random attack from wild Pokémon. This was… a kidnapping…?
That realisation ought to have been even more terrifying. But with the spores still floating around him, coating the inside of his nose and mouth, Kieran couldn’t seem to remember how to be afraid right now. Everything was descending into a sleepy haze, his limbs floppy and useless as he felt the men drag his body up and over the edge of the boat, heard them saying words his brain couldn’t make out.
He landed in a soggy, crumpled heap on the deck, just briefly managing to hold onto one last thought before his consciousness slipped away.
Why’s… this happening…?
Why… me…?
~~~
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