Recently found notes for a weird, and I mean weird human-centric mon fic...
The pokemon were all endangered, except for common mon because somehow, someway, in the past either with the blessings of science so advanced we can't comprehend it, or a miracle, people managed to empty out their chakras, leaving a skein/web that kept them functional, but in the empty "slots" other life could be absorbed, and since 'mon were already physically designed to be compacted "pokeballs" ect people found that in the right circumstances they could absorb 'mon and gain supernatural abilities for it.
It went about as well as could be expected, wars, social upheaval, all for someone trying to give humanity an immortality ticket that went badly. Come centuries later and society's been up-ended, then reformed back into something mirroring the "good old days/present" but with some really jarring differences.
People until they absorb their first 'mon have to deal with an EMPTINESS in their spiritual centers. This makes them suseptable to illness, physical and mental, and is treated almost as soon as a child is born by passing (tossing on them) the newborn a common 'mon.
This fills their first slot, bypasses most of the ill effects of EMPTINESS, and has produced a society where eighty percent of people are melded to rattata and pidgy newborns.
Why is the 'mon so young? It's best to have something without much personality/needs so the child doesn't get overwhelmed. Studies have shown that a newborn who melds to an adult 'mon can be overwhelmed by the creature's personality, as the 'mon is its own being with its own personal needs/personality/lives, this can overlap with the absorbing human's own and lead to madness.
so, eighty percent of the world never have to deal with their EMPTINESS, and most of the effects of the melding lead to them getting fluffs of feather around their ears, necks when startled, maybe cooing when happy, it's very superficial from childhood to adolescence, come fifteen, the 'mon either "wakes up" and the person has to start dealing with worse impulses/trades off with abilities, a lucky few can fly but have to wrangle with Pidgeot level predatory urges and their diets can change. Those "blessed" with abilities are driven to fight, train, and force their 'mon to evolve, granting them more and more power. It's a compulsive obsession that only tapers off when the 'mon hitching a ride in them is evolved and either murges personality with the host "a second sleep" it's commonly called, or if their "host" is heavily medicated. Also medicating someone until x amount of time passes doesn't work, and violence is required.
"carriers" are cursed with more fragile psyches and can turn feral, supposedly turning 100% to whatever their carrier is, but that's only when the human psyche is utterly lost.
But then imagine literally waking up sometimes around fifteen to having urges that aren't yours, and a voice in your head... not everyone can cope with it.
suffice to say mental health is handled very differently in this place.
For everyone else the 'mon "stays asleep" and nothing else seems to happen to their carriers except the occasional molt and itch for bird seed.
At this point, a child is considered stable, an adult in training, and encouraged to Journey to find themselves.
There's even a league, two leagues actually. The first one is familiar, people get a starter, get sent out, and rustle in the tall grass-catching things, this is considered safe at this point because for most the EMPTINESS is resolved, and it's TIGHTLY controlled since even common 'mon are rarer than rare. However, if you catch something powerful, evolved, and bring it back to society, there's a killer market for breeding. For example, a full-grown Persian of breeding age, with a mate, could raise someone out of the poverty line, and into the comfy middle or upper class, easily. Rarer 'mon are supposedly sighted, but not susceptible to present capturing tech so bringing anything from say... the Raichu line or the Evee line is going to be an act suitable to make someone a legend (and also going to take a lot of bribes, fast-talking, etcetera, because if a 'mon suffers too much or is coerced they can kill themselves vai stress or what's called "Aura imbalances" certain speiceis cant' even exist in cities at all (most grass types, or fairy types for example).
Under the table, theirs a second league, one where those who have "awake" 'mon go out to test their abilities to the maximum. You can't enter unless your "starter" is fully evolved and you pass a psych evaluation, but it's very much a case of looking the other way, on the official paperwork it looks exactly like a regular "journey" they may even have a mon and everything. There are "gyms" for this process, their leaders aren't openly acknowledged, but exist as part to test, and cull, those going mad or willing to do harm to others. Gym leaders have the obligation to "put down" any up-and-coming dangers to society while living luxuriously on the government's dime. You're also, legally, allowed to absorb more than one 'mon, though after each you have to have a competence hearing, a psych evaluation, and pain tolerance tests (no one wants someone to spit fire when they stub their toe after all), and blood work to make sure you aren't harboring any ill effects that will make others ill (a common concern of poison type "carriers").
Not everyone's on board with this world order, however.
The rich and famous have their children melded to more powerful infant 'mon to give them an edge. Accidents/mutations can occur, and there is even a chunk of the population who can't absorb a starter and are just "regular" humans (this is treated as a disability with all the attendant stigmas). Some allow their children to be raised with 'mon(a real dated holdback, near archaic) using modern tech to keep their offspring from "absorbing" the family pet. None absorbed 'mon who can tolerate human society/cities are able to exist as second-class citizens. (no voting, can work, limited rights but some protections)
There are old "hold over" families that refuse to allow their children's charkas to have any 'mon in them, thinking it's letting evil in.
There are others who hold onto the belief that their kids should be allowed to choose whether or not if they want to have something melded to them. And that the "mental illness" is society dumping on the kids and families that are resistant to the majority rules philosophies.
And there are families, secluded either by wealth or geology, that have traditions of binding their families to a specific breed of 'mon that isn't socially acceptable (anyone with a cat 'mon is going to raise eyebrows and get mobbed on, a lot because anyone with even a sleeping "pidge" is going to find something instinctually wrong with that person)
Then their an underground criminal element, allowing others to "bond" with dangerous fully evolved 'mon to do crimes, commit murders, sabotage, ecetera. They promise to have ways to expel the new attachment, risk-free, and thus loan out abilities/powers to the highest bidder and aren't above tempting those on a "special journey" to cheat for a slice of the winnings. They also have a tight fist on the human experimentation market, trying to improve, enhance, or alter people and 'mon to make both, and thus themselves later down the line, more powerful. They dip into terrorism, and run things under the table, though most people don't know anything about this organization called "Rocket".
Some of their tech has leaked out, emergency "'mon" extraction, for example, and it's being used in the medical community for those developing mental imbalances but hasn't done enough to warrant being "put down". Their attempting to fine-tune it so that it's not fifty percent lethal to the participant, it can be done involuntarily, and as an attempt to stop the old "culling" system used by the underground league.
As to why I hinged this system on charkas...
There are seven of them, one to hold the whole human soul, six other slots for the traditional "carryable" team.
And that's just the world-building, I've already pages on the cast and snippets that I will release as one-shots for this verse (once I think of a title) once some of my more present obligations are done..