Pokémon [Oneshot] Three as One

[Nekodatta]

This little oneshot was my contribution to the Pokepod Project held on Ao3, where the objective was to write little fics (1000 words maximum) for each of the 151 Pokémon of the first gen.
Of course, I choose to contribute with a little fic about the very Best Bird. It was fun!

The wide, sun-scorched plains of Kanto were only apparently barren and devoid of life. To spot both food and possible dangers, you needed very keen eyes.
Of those, fortunately, Sharp- Beaks had plenty; six, in fact.
The Dodrio had been running without pause since the crack of dawn, its strong legs and cream colored plumage making it a blur that was impossible to follow through the tall grass to anything that wasn't another Dodrio.

They slowed down as they finally reached a small river; Left-Beak bent down to drink, while Middle-Beak and Right-Beak kept vigilant.

Suddenly, Right-Beak let out a warbling cry, and both remaining heads turned to look in the same direction.

What they saw made all of their six eyes widen and they cawed in delight.

« Another one of us!»

And with that light brown plumage covering their necks, a female too!

The three heads of the female were timidly looking around, twisting continuously like they were trying to look in all directions at once.

Sharp -Beaks greeted them with all three heads simultaneously, eager to see their reaction.

The other Dodrio flinched, all heads turning to stare at them, before answering after a moment with a caw, the leftmost head coming a moment later.

Left-Beak clacked their beaks at that, narrowing their eyes at their respective head of the other Dodrio.

« What is up with them...?»

Sharp-Beaks clawed at the ground, their three hearts beating in excitement. That caw was a signal, she was interested in them!

They moved some steps forward and started doing a series of little jumps all around her, trying to get them to join in their dance.

The other Dodrio simply looked at them, tilting their heads sideways after a short moment.

Their hops and jumps around the female became more erratic and lively, Left -Beak and Right-Beak moving their heads in unison while Middle-Beak cawed.
After drawing a complete circle around her, all three heads opened their beaks, charging their Tri Attack. Left-Beak let out a flurry of snowflakes, Right-Beak breathed embers and Middle-Beak fired lightning. A perfect simultaneous display of their prowess!

They turned towards the female expectantly, before frowning in confusion. They didn't look impressed, and hadn't moved.

« Don't... they know the dance?» Left-Beak asked, worried. Right-Beak snapped at them, « Of course they do!»

Middle-Beak tilted their head, thinking.

« What's your name?»
Their collective name of course. The individual head's names were highly private. The Dodrio stepped away, their three heads looking away from them.

Were they just shy?

They tried again, doing the steps slower this time. Maybe they weren't confident in the dance... Or they just weren't interested?

But they had answered with that caw...

« Is everything all right?» Middle-Beak asked their counterpart, before they all flinched in surprise.

Something was wrong with this Dodrio... The three heads were shaking, and they hurriedly turned their face away, almost like they were trying to hide it...

Sharp-Beaks screeched when the other Dodrio's body suddenly started glowing.

« A Pokeball?!» was their immediate response, but even as they looked around, there were no Trainers or Trained Pokémon in sight.

Suddenly, they realized that the other Dodrio was laughing, the three heads shaking up and down before their whole body dissolved into a pink, gooey mass that - to their consternation - became a Pidgey and flew away.

« ...flying, really? Right under our noses? They just had to rub that in...» Left-Beak lamented as they all followed the Ditto with their eyes.

Right-Beak was positively furious, blasting flames all around until Left-Beak pecked at them to stop, using their own Tri Attack to avoid the dry grass catching fire by freezing it solid.

« But... There must be another Dodrio nearby for that Ditto to have copied! Let's go!» Middle-Beak cheered them up, and a moment later, they were back to sprinting their way across the dry fields.

 

[ShiniGojira]

Hello! How's it hanging? Fancy another review to your pile?

So to begin with. Dodrio's a cool mon and it's nice to read a Xenofic every once in a while. I always find it interesting in how different another creature's perspective can be on the world and it's doubly so when it comes to wild or caught mons.

Dodrio using its three heads to its fullest to check for predators whilst relaxing or drinking is a nice way to show how it survives in the wild though that does make me think how or why it went through an evolution process where nature went like "If that don't work. Use more head.". I also like reading the mating call and ritual, I think it's super creative having its 'signature' move being a part of its mating dance. Makes me wonder what a mating ritual between Exploud would look like and whether a Toxtricity ritual would be like a battle of the bands or a duet?

Plus the ending scene was fun. Having the female Dodrio being a Ditto was a nice twist, at least Dodrio wasn't too upset about it given that he didn't start firing Tri Attacks at the silly bugger.

Now onto my line-by-line comments:

Of those, fortunately, Sharp- Beaks had plenty; six, in fact.

Yeah, you can look left, right and up. Though unfortunately, you're still vulnerable under! So get growing Dodrio and become a Doquadro!

The wide, sun-scorched plains of Kanto were only apparently barren and devoid of life. To spot both food and possible dangers, you needed very keen eyes.
Of those, fortunately, Sharp- Beaks had plenty; six, in fact.
The Dodrio had been running without pause since the crack of dawn, its strong legs and cream colored plumage making it a blur that was impossible to follow through the tall grass to anything that wasn't another Dodrio.

Also I think these three paragraphs here need an extra space.

Sharp-Beaks clawed at the ground, their three hearts beating in excitement.

Three hearts? They have three sets of organs in them? That's both gross and interesting. How does it all fit in them? I mean I guess they have one more heart than a certain Doctor so maybe they're bigger on the inside?

Their hops and jumps around the female became more erratic and lively, Left -Beak and Right-Beak moving their heads in unison while Middle-Beak cawed.
After drawing a complete circle around her, all three heads opened their beaks, charging their Tri Attack. Left-Beak let out a flurry of snowflakes, Right-Beak breathed embers and Middle-Beak fired lightning. A perfect simultaneous display of their prowess!

Another broken(?) spacing. Actually, what do you call these paragraphs stuck to each other?

After drawing a complete circle around her, all three heads opened their beaks, charging their Tri Attack. Left-Beak let out a flurry of snowflakes, Right-Beak breathed embers and Middle-Beak fired lightning. A perfect simultaneous display of their prowess!

Also that's a creative use of Tri Attack. I don't think I've ever seen a mating dance for Pokémon using a move before.

Suddenly, they realized that the other Dodrio was laughing, the three heads shaking up and down before their whole body dissolved into a pink, gooey mass that - to their consternation - became a Pidgey and flew away.

Wait, lol was that Ditto?

Anyway, that's it from me. Have a nice rest of your day!

 

[StolenMadWolf]

Welp, time to begin my one shot stint for tonight as part of the Review Blitz! And this is the third one of the night. My usual disclaimers for most fics apply, albeit with a change up given that this is a oneshot. I tend to focus on worldbuilding, characters and plot over grammar and writing. There will be more of a focus on characters and plot this time round though given it is still a oneshot. So with that, let us begin.

Okay, this is a really short one shot. Exactly 1000 words here, so I can’t actually comment much on any of my usual details. This is essentially a short snippet of a scene featuring a Dudrio meeting… what should have been another. We get a good little bit of a view of how a three headed creature would actually start thinking and behaving towards others in a semi-natural situation. Basically, they are like a sapient animal, living wild, but clearly intelligent. They try to… I guess mate with the other Dudrio that shows up? Or at least get to know them. Their initial confusion is understandable when the second Dutrio doesn’t do much… and then boom, turns out it’s a Ditto. Of course they won’t exactly know what’s going on! And still, they move on to the next location.

There isn’t much I can say due to the short length, but this does seem like a handy addition to what is clearly a wider series. Sounds like a cool concept overall! It’s a bit short and brief for my tastes, but if it’s part of the much larger collective series of short chapters and posts, that completely makes sense. Would actually make a pretty cool challenge to do as well!

Either way, nice little snippet!

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, wound up a bit drained on time and energy today, so I thought that I’d try to squeeze in some light fare before conking out. I’d had my eyes on this one, and figured it was worth giving a shot after a bit of a long day:

Spoiler: Line-by-Line

The wide, sun-scorched plains of Kanto were only apparently barren and devoid of life. To spot both food and possible dangers, you needed very keen eyes.
Of those, fortunately, Sharp-Beaks had plenty; six, in fact.


The Dodrio had been running without pause since the crack of dawn, its strong legs and cream colored plumage making it a blur that was impossible to follow through the tall grass to anything that wasn't another Dodrio.

You had a small typo plus a newline error here. Though nice scene-setting moment there.

They slowed down as they finally reached a small river; Left-Beak bent down to drink, while Middle-Beak and Right-Beak kept vigilant.

Suddenly, Right-Beak let out a warbling cry, and both remaining heads turned to look in the same direction.

What they saw made all of their six eyes widen and they cawed in delight.

« Another one of us!»

Oh boy, they’re doubling now.

And with that light brown plumage covering their necks, a female too!

So, are we going to see Sharp-Beaks get his riflebird on there?

The female’s three heads of the female were timidly looking around, twisting continuously like they were trying to look in all directions at once.

I mean, you’d think with three heads with necks that they’d have an advantage on that front there.

Sharp-Beaks greeted them with all three heads simultaneously, eager to see their reaction.

The other Dodrio flinched, all heads turning to stare at them, before answering after a moment with a caw, the leftmost head coming a moment later.

Wait, do you mean to say that the female answers Sharp-Beaks with a caw from her left head? If so, I think your phrasing in underlined feels a little strange.

Left-Beak clacked their beak at that, narrowing their eyes at their respective head of the other Dodrio.

« What is up with them...?»

Left-Beak as a head has a beak, since the term encompasses both the top and bottom portion of it.

Sharp-Beaks clawed at the ground, their three hearts beating in excitement. That caw was a signal, she was interested in them!

Oh, so he is going to get his riflebird on there~

They moved some steps forward and started doing a series of little jumps all around her, trying to get them to join in their dance.

Lol, I knew it. Though let’s get some live camera footage for Sharp-Beaks there:

The other Dodrio simply looked at them, tilting their heads sideways after a short moment.

Their hops and jumps around the female became more erratic and lively, Left-Beak and Right-Beak moving their heads in unison while Middle-Beak cawed.


After drawing a complete circle around her, all three heads opened their beaks, charging their Tri Attack. Left-Beak let out a flurry of snowflakes, Right-Beak breathed embers and Middle-Beak fired lightning. A perfect simultaneous display of their prowess!

Huh. I actually completely forgot about Dodrio having Tri-Attack, though that does sound like it’d be a decently fitting part of a Dodrio’s mating dance.

They turned towards the female expectantly, before frowning in confusion. They didn't look impressed, and hadn't moved.

Female!Dodrio:

« Don't... they know the dance?» Left-Beak asked, worried. Right-Beak snapped at them, « Of course they do!»

[ ] Middle-Beak tilted their head, thinking.

« What's your name?»

Their collective name of course. The individual head's names were highly private. The Dodrio stepped away, their three heads looking away from them.

It might make sense to show off a bit more of the wheels turning in Sharp-Beaks’ heads a bit before they opt to take a different tack here, since something about this read a bit sudden to me.

Were they just shy?

They tried again, doing the steps slower this time. Maybe they weren't confident in the dance... Or they just weren't interested?

But they had answered with that caw…

So… she is interested after all?

« Is everything all right?» Middle-Beak asked their counterpart, before they all flinched in surprise.

Something was wrong with this Dodrio... The three heads were shaking, and they hurriedly turned their face away, almost like they were trying to hide it...

Sharp-Beaks screeched when the other Dodrio's body suddenly started glowing. [ ]

« A Pokeball?!» was their immediate response, but even as they looked around, there were no Trainers or Trained Pokémon in sight.

It probably makes sense to mention the color of light going on and the internal thought process of realizing “I’ve seen that light before” or something like that.

Suddenly, they realized that the other Dodrio was laughing, the three heads shaking up and down before their whole body dissolved into a pink, gooey mass that - to their consternation - became a Pidgey and flew away.

Oh. Oh. Well, that would explain a few things.

« ...flying, really? Right under our noses? They just had to rub that in...» Left-Beak lamented as they all followed the Ditto with their eyes.

Right-Beak was positively furious, blasting flames all around until Left-Beak pecked at them to stop, using their own Tri Attack to avoid the dry grass catching fire by freezing it solid.

« But... There must be another Dodrio nearby for that Ditto to have copied! Let's go!»

Middle-Beak cheered them up, and a moment later, they were back to sprinting their way across the dry fields.

Another newline error, but Sharp-Beaks is always the optimist there, I see. ^^;

Well that was a cute little piece. There’s only so much to talk about so this feedback will be a bit on the short side, but it does a pretty good job at building a unique mindset for Dodrio and showing it off as a character that’s quite clearly a bird, but at the same time one that has quirks that only a being with three heads would have. The overall tone of the piece was pretty cute and funny too, especially with the twist at the end and how it turned around into a funny and endearing “hope springs eternal” moment for Sharp-Beaks.

For criticisms, I’d say take some time to give this one-shot a once-over to smooth out typos and formatting goofs. There were also a couple points where I felt that you jumped ahead in logic a bit much or could’ve benefitted from an extra sentence to stop and describe things, but I suppose I can’t knock you too hard when you were under a very tight upper wordcount there.

Good work, @Nekodatta . I’ll be looking forward to crossing paths with your writing again in the near future, if probably with something quite a bit longer than this. ^^

 

[Inyssa]

Haha yet another one of these for one of my favorite Kanto birds, and one that's severely underrated in my opinion, so I'm glad you took the time to write this. And I always appreciate Pokemon POVs being more animalistic and not feeling like we're reading a human's mind, so great job there! There really is only one braincell between them, and that's precisely how I picture the species. Go fast, peck hard, no thoughts.

I'll be honest, I didn't even consider that the female Dodrio might've been a Ditto, despite the fact I realized exactly what route this was in Kanto after learning that. I'll never forget how long and interminable it was, filled with Doduos and Ditto.

I've also always liked the idea of the three heads having very different personalities, and needing to calm each other to work together. This was a delightful little drabble, I loved it!

 

[Phoenixsong]

Hello, Nekodatta! Dropping by because I wanted to make sure I got a good readthrough of all the other TR PokéPod participants, and also as good a chance as any to check out your work for the first time before settling into something longer. Dodrio's a lot of fun to explore, so I was definitely eager to see where this goes!

Overall, I think this was very cute! I loved how the heads' personalities come through, especially Left-Beak and Right-Beak; you can see that they're the "sad/skeptical" head and the "angry" head clearly without having to hammer anything in. They have a good bit of chemistry with each other as well, of course; I enjoyed how Left-Beak had to take it upon himself to clean up after Right-Beak's little outburst.

I liked the little hints that something's up with the "female dodrio" throughout the story, like the hesitation before she caws back to Sharp-Beaks, or the timing of one of the heads' responses being slightly off. And complete with a little laughter causing the ditto to drop its disguise, heh. All in all there are plenty of little nods to the species lore of both pokémon here, and a great sense of keeping in mind how dodrio might perceive other pokémon and other dodrio.

Also I am absolutely stealing the headcanon that tri-attack is an integral part of dodrio mating dances.

Just one tiny formatting nitpick right at the beginning:

The wide, sun-scorched plains of Kanto were only apparently barren and devoid of life. To spot both food and possible dangers, you needed very keen eyes.
Of those, fortunately, Sharp- Beaks had plenty; six, in fact.
The Dodrio had been running without pause since the crack of dawn, its strong legs and cream colored plumage making it a blur that was impossible to follow through the tall grass to anything that wasn't another Dodrio.

I think these are meant to be two or three different paragraphs, but they've all gotten collapsed together without paragraph breaks, so they're very slightly wonky to read (but the meaning still comes across perfectly clear).

I had a lot of fun with this! Thanks so much for sharing it!