Dojemon/Creatures
It was dark. Not pitch black, but dim...
Between Samalin's petering out and Dojemon's inception a year or two later I was still writing Pokémon fanfiction from time to time. One of my unfinished spinoffs was inevitably a Pokémon meets Digimon fare: when a PD Ball used by my OC Cedar ended up transporting her and a whole slew of Pokémon to a different dimension (not the Digital World) along with the cast of Digimon Season One.
Whilst that particular story never got anywhere, understandably, the seeds of "battle monsters teaming up for an vague yet epic climax" had been sown. Not only that, but Cedar and Tai have a chat in-story about different worlds, and wonder if it'd be possible to combine Digimon with Pokémon and call them Dojemon: the consonants of Digimon (well, sorta) and vowels of Pokémon plus a nod to 'dojo monsters', their subtitle.
(The temptation to write themes of dimensional-crossing antics remained for other, later, stories...)
Only at this stage I didn't have any clue as to what Dojemon were going to be, or even look like. I'd given up on Pokémon Meet Digimon. I hadn't even seen one episode of Digimon at that time and had just been going off my extremely limited understanding of that franchise.
But then one day I drew a thing. The original pencil sketch outlined in marker pen still survives to this day, amazingly. In his very first appearance, the toothy main character (eventually named Asarthi) was bipedal, had spikes, and a reptilian tail. Although the sketches and dialogue were absolutely awful, this was the proper start to my younger self's take on test tube animals turning on their human creators after seeing/reading this premise in other media.
I had known from the beginning that this would be the 'gloriously epic' climax of the story, rather than the opening as with Mewtwo Strikes Back or at least early on as with some of the Alien movies. Rather than the 'what if' prologue that had motivated Samalin and all my other attempts from the beginnings of ideas beforehand, it was the ending scene which originally saw light in my head.
After the former story's incredibly light and fluffy good vs evil, light vs dark premise, piecing the 'what came beforehand' together ended up grimdark, 'ow-the-edge' and faux-sciencey to the max; with no heroic characters besides, I suppose, the protagonist canine Asarthi who learns about the world alongside the readers after he's 'born'.
Dojemon was meant to get a rewrite, years later; retitled Creatures. I wrote two chapters just as violent and edgy, with extra worldbuilding and characters, but it never got anywhere. Kicking myself that I deleted a prologue-styled oneshot which related to the rewrite, as well.
For more indepth info about plot and characters feel free to read on!
Similar to Samalin, I have a few archived versions of the entire attempt unchaptered, plus separate chaptered files. The differences between them are barely worth mentioning, save for the very earliest and shortest I can find: riddled with spelling errors and awful, awful dialogue... in its absolute latest chapter-by-chapter incarnation it made up nearly 11K words over 10 chapters.
Sadly, not much art exists for this, unlike all the bits and pieces I'd done and filed away for Samalin. Asarthi was, however, the very first commission piece I ever received. It was such a great feeling having him properly brought to life like that in the hands of a pro artist after a few measly attempts myself...
Asarthi by the amazing Kimbo-Demonica, A.K.A TechnoForTomcats (dA account deactivated, gone silent on FA, website down for redesign.
(hope you're ok)
Chapter One: Introducing Radeka the human scientist, having to deal with a nasty tummy bug, a dickhead boss, and running late for a meeting. The boss, Professor Hardin, calls his team together after a recess and through the power of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY shows them that his computer in the lab is finally able to map DNA and create actual life from the program he's finally finished. Radeka has the first go, only for her to black out and have a vision of shaping her creature like clay in her hands rather than playing about on the computer screen. Once she comes to, the team celebrate their success.
The creature woke, and gazed at her adoringly. She took its head in her hands, noting the treacle-like consistency, and gently sculpted it; from its circle head to a bigger broader mammalian like shape, with short snout and hard skull.
Chapter Two: Asarthi proper slowly gains consciousness and rages impotently as he grows inside his tank, his thoughts completely unbeknownst to Radeka. She instead remembers the previous two failed attempts at his creation. After being soothed with Radeka's voice, Asarthi realises in surprise that the voices in his head aren't exactly all his own any longer. He makes telepathic contact with the other foetal creatures and one which calls himself White-Eye explains what he has learned thus far.
And then one day before Hardin intended to terminate the first, it had ended. In a desperate struggle with nothing, the animal had bitten down on one of its enlarged bottom teeth and pierced its entire top palette. Its screams were so loud they distorted over the microphone, and after a minute had died out of loss of blood, shock and head trauma.
Chapter Three: The humans birth their creatures. Asarthi can't quite figure out the breathing thing until he loses consciousness and White-Eye appears to him and explains some more. Asarthi struggles to find his feet once conscious. White-Eye is already up, as he is technically the 'oldest' of the creatures, having no failed attempts go before him. However, his eyes are coloured completely white, as if blind. Hardin scolds White-Eye's human, Gaera, only for White to easily win in the brief scuffle for dominance between him and Asarthi; proving he can see quite well.
He had no time to think any more though, White-eye advanced, growling. Then he wandered right, left, as if looking for his target. Gaera’s anguished look intensified, he was already too proud of his Creature to believe White-eye was blind.
Chapter Four: Gaera flashes a hand in front of White-Eye's face to test his sight. White bites it in proof, and Gaera wallops him repeatedly after pissing himself. This sends Asarthi and Fleeto - the feline creature - into a violent frenzy. Hardin knocks them both out. Asarthi wins the later fight for dominance against Fleeto. More battles between other pairs ensue. The group's hierarchy is slowly formed. White-Eye becomes the responsible alpha, diffusing situations and whatnot.
His head felt close to bursting as the pain started, and he suddenly vomited thin bile on the floor. Not pausing for an instant Fleeto took the opportunity to leap over his head, and Asarthi saw red.
Chapter Five: The humans take their creatures, all harnessed, onto the fells; the place outside the barrier protecting the city from the feral creatures outside. The Wulf: packs of man eating canines. The Fenile, large, solitary feline hunters. And others. A fenile charges at Radeka and Asarthi once outside on the fells, but falters once face to face with Asarthi. He doesn't want to attack it because it looks like Fleeto; but soon smells its intent to press a surprise attack after retreating.
Outside it was the midst of day, but overcast with grey murky clouds. Asarthi had never been outside. He stared in wonder at one thing after another, in fact, Radeka was having more trouble keeping him walking quickly then having to curb his bounding ahead.
Chapter Six: Asarthi takes the fenile on. Radeka orders him to kill it. He takes a moment to angst edgily and makes a show of 'mortally wounding' it with a telepathic warning. Someone makes similar contact soon after re-entering the city, and Asarthi realises in surprise that it's the fenile. Later, the whole group set out and take on a pack of wulf. White-Eye claims the alpha before the fight begins.
There was a cry, a chorus of cries, of hurt Wulf most, then a short scream from Stryke as the Wulf tore him off and threw him to the ground. But the Wulf pack was outnumbered. Asarthi, hearing Radeka yell one more time, leapt for the neck. A lust for blood spilled into his soul and he, now red-eyed, drew away with a spouting jugular in his teeth.
Chapter Seven: White-Eye snakes Asarthi's second kill. Later, Asarthi angsts edgily some more, this time to White about their purpose as killing machines. After eating, he wastes no time in continually goading a small grass-eating creature. It introduces itself as Rerbab, and trades a few choice words before psychically disabling Asarthi with a glance. White-Eye diffuses the situation.
Asarthi felt his mind relax, and colours bloomed before his eyes. Slowly he crumpled to the ground, muscles still tense. Rerbeb continued staring into his eyes until the pupils rolled back and closed.
Chapter Eight: Asarthi wakes with a splitting headache. White-Eye diffuses the situation. Weeks pass, feral kills start really adding up. Fleeto eggs Asarthi on to join her on a spontaneous hunt. Once outside, Asarthi can smell blood but Fleeto is evasive. They go to stalk some ferals only for Fleeto to fully go into heat then and there. Yes, it's my younger self's first attempt at a sex scene. A genetically engineered dog and cat randomly mating to some clunky metaphors and awkward naïveté.
They walked out confidently, yet keeping low. As soon as Fleeto stiffened a fraction and paused, with one paw still held up, Asarthi knew she had spotted the herd.
Chapter Nine: Radeka announces to the group at large that she discovered Asarthi and Fleeto mated, to Hardin's horror. Their creatures weren't meant to even have the capacity to breed. Somehow, a month later, Fleeto actually gives birth to live young. Kippens, apparently. Asarthi angsts edgily a bit.
Asarthi poked his head in for a look. Fleeto glared at him and the purr suddenly changed into a warning hum; deep in her throat.
Chapter Ten: Asarthi goes out on a solitary hunt but gets ambushed by a wulf pack. They wound him and he kills the alpha male. The alpha female stops the attack to converse, and tell him he fights well. She invites him to a lake to clean his wounds and talk further of old legends of other realms and other creatures. This is where it stops suddenly, halfway through a sentence.
She grimaced, looking at him. (Make?) She sniffed him intently. Asarthi stiffened at the contact but she didn’t respond to that. (You smell of life. You are not ‘make’.)