#implied quodo

So, anyway, got bored one day, came upon the idea of a Pokémon/Star Trek AU where it’s kinda like ‘His Dark Materials’ and their daemons, but without all the spiritual stuff. Essentially, almost everyone, universally, has a Pokémon partner, like Ash and his Pikachu, to whom they share a special connection with.

The fact that Pokémon have a very explicit supernatural origin leads me to believe they would be the first thing people had in common with each other when first contact was made; the fact that they share common species across the galaxy is one of the main things that connects people to other species in the galaxy. The different legendary Pokémon created different worlds, and all worlds have Pokémon. I have more, but that’s for worldbuilding posts if people are interested.

And now, the fun part. Alien Pokémon!  Pokémon from other planets can vary just as much as regional variations; they can be different types, but they’re still technically the same Pokémon!, Since I did choose these Pokémon to match the character, I still wanted some essence of the Pokémon’s theme to remain, so yeah! Fun!

Every world has Pokémon on it, although each planet has different species distribution, there are 17 types and 896 individual Pokémon species known to exist currently. Pokémon can massively change over time from their environment, so a Cardassian Zoroark is different than a Terran Zoroark.

(Cardassian Zoroark with a Terran Zoroark for scale. Click for image alone.)

Interestingly, Zoroarks aren’t very different between the Terran and Cardassian versions, they were already well adapted to sneaking around the darker caves, and remain Dark type, just adapting with an extra claw and growing slightly smaller. In fact, it’s speculated that Terran Zoroarks might have actually been the one to lose their extra claw in the less harsh Earth environment.

I chose a Zoroark for Odo because they’re associated with transformation and aren’t Dittos, because I was absolutely not gonna give him a Ditto because honestly, even with the transformation association, it just doesn’t fit Odo that well. That, and the other reason...

In this universe, I’m going with the theory that Ditto are a result of failed clones of Mew, so Dittos in the Poketrek universe were created during the Eugenics Wars during their experiments and attempts to recreate Mew.

In this universe, Odo’s life was a little bit different; when it was discovered he could transform, it sparked a debate on whether he was to be classified as a creature or a Pokémon.

Some people wanted to define Odo as a Bajoran Ditto, since his abilities are somewhat similar to the Pokémon. If he was defined as a Ditto, it would open some strange questions up, since Dittos were created by humans, and Odo was discovered somewhere where no humans had ever been, to everyone’s knowledge.

Eventually, after a lot of arguing and (painful) testing and experiments, it was decided, due to the fact that Odo was unable to copy the main defining trait of Pokémon, their moves, that he would be classified as an unknown alien. There’s still a lot of debate on this, and it means that some people still argue that Odo should be treated as a defective Pokémon rather than a sentient being.

Since Odo’s abilities were not unique, while this means he was treated less like an anomaly, it also meant that he was held up to the standards of another creature, and his inability to perfectly replicate humanoids and his slow learning was treated as evidence that he was imperfect and defective, and often was punished for his failures or pushed beyond his limits because they believed he was simply not trying hard enough.

When Odo was brought to Terok Nor and Dukat gave him the job as investigator, he was given a Zoroark as a gift to ensure his loyalty, and he named her Ital. Ital was meant to both ensure that Odo felt a gratitude to Dukat for treating him like a sentient being who deserved a companion Pokémon like most others have, and also as a threat; that Dukat could always take her away from him if he misbehaved.

Ital, however, bonded with Odo a little more than intended, and during their haste to retreat from Terok Nor, was not taken, and now Odo is her owner in more than spirit.

Ital is a Very Good Girl, and eager to please Odo, she loves solving crime and catching criminals and adores her job as Odo’s enforcer. She’s almost even more obsessed with her job than Odo is, although it’s more understandable, since she’s basically a very smart dog, she just is eager to do her job and receive the scritchies and brushies for a job well done.

While she is very much dedicated to being a Good Girl and doing her job, she does have one secret desire; she would love to just flat out eat Quark’s Meowth, Greech. It’s not even like Quark and Odo’s sexually and romantically charged rivalry or anything, it’s straight up ‘this smaller animal looks tasty and if my owner didn’t say no, I would eat him’. They still terrorize each other in a rivalry fairly similar to Quark and Odo’s, it’s just also kind of like Tom and Jerry, where one of them absolutely would kill the other given half the chance, and is only stopped by Odo forbidding her to actually eat Greech.

Berns scoffed and took another sip of her Risan mai-tai. This was easy. At first it had been being bored to death, but now her next biggest worry was… “Only thing I’m scared of, Antony, is the horror stories I’ve heard about running this place.”

“You mean, Chief O’Brian?” asked Jelep in a small voice. They had ordered a Sea Mule from the Ferengi bartender after their fellow ensigns had decided, but the Kelpian still hadn’t touched it, opting instead to examine their folded hands in their lap while Berns and Antony talked. Their behavior was starting to make Berns worried. She hadn’t had time to ask them how they felt about the assignment, really, between packing and preparing and then Antony who was proving to be the type of person who just never shut up.

“A little of him, but more like—” Berns started to agree when she was cut off.

“Heard he’s got a nasty temper! He’ll go off on anyone!” Antony said excitedly, leaning forward until he received a face full of Berns’ wet napkin.

“¡Chismoso!”

That elicited a small smile out of Jelep as their translator kicked in and Berns’ chest swelled.

“No, I mean literally running this place. All this Cardassian tech?” Berns clicked her tongue. “In a word? Sucks.”

Antony rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. He seemed to be a little put out. Maybe that would keep him quiet.

Jelep ran their long fingers up and down their tall glass, collecting condensation. “I’m also not looking forward to the Cardassian technology.”

“Why?”

They shrugged and blinked their large blue eyes at Berns. “Feels a lot like the Ba’Ul’s… All this dark and metal… That’s what I am least looking forward to. Living here with that.”

Berns’ heart went out to them and she wanted to reach out and put her hand on Jelep’s arm but…thought better of it. She’d grown really close to the Kelpian during their time at the Academy but hadn’t wanted to make living together weird with…complications. She didn’t know where they stood now, but the tall and graceful alien had always mystified Berns. Stuck her heart in her throat. Gave her butterflies. All that.

Antony took a long drink of his ale and regained his composure. “Well, I’m worried about…” He leaned in close over the table, “the shapeshifter.”

Jelep and Berns had the same reaction. They blinked at him. Berns had half a mind to tell her new acquaintance that nobody had asked him what he was nervous about in the first place, but that felt mean.

“Shapeshifter?” Jelep echoed dully after a heartbeat. They shrugged. “Now I know you’re making stuff up.”

“They really have one here!”

“So soon after the war?”

Antony leaned in conspiratorially. “He was here before the war. Maybe he was a spy the whole time. No one really knew…”

Jelep coughed. “I find that extremely hard to believe. If he was here, and he was a spy, why would he still be here? You can’t believe everything you hear, crewman.”

Antony waved their words away as Berns tipped back the rest of her mai-tai.

“Why would a shapeshifter make you nervous anyway?” she asked. “Why does he have anything to do with you?”

Antony tugged on his yellow security shirt and looked up at her, appalled. Apparently, it was supposed to have been obvious. She cocked an eyebrow and shook her head at him.

Rolling his eyes, Antony said, “He’s the head of security on the station.”

“Ohhh… so you are just afraid of your senior officer,” Jelep replied.

Antony choked on his drink. “No! I am not!” Berns met Jelep’s eyes and they both smiled and looked away. “I’m…I’m just concerned for my own privacy here.”

Berns shook her head and gave Antony a steady look. “I dunno…that sounds kind of hateful…”

Jelep came to her aid, nodding. “Sounds like you are letting your preconceived notions color your perception of the Chief of Security,” they said reasonably, blinking large eyes at him.

“It’s not about that,” Antony insisted. “It’s about how he gets to just do whatever he wants to keep order around here. He’s not Starfleet, so he doesn’t have to conform to our rules! That doesn’t seem suspect to you?”

When neither one of them answered, he sighed. “Ugh, gotta explain everything. Look! He has the run of the entire station! But he’s a shapeshifter!”

Jelep collected more condensation off of their glass and wiped it gently on the napkin in front of them. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that he can shift shapes—I mean, come on! He could be anything! He can blend into the wall! He could be anywhere any time! He could be that glass!!” Antony pointed wildly at Jelep’s untouched drink.

Momentarily stricken, Jelep released their glass and looked down at it fearfully as though worried it would change at any minute. Berns laughed at him.

“He could be listening to everything we are saying at any time. You don’t see that as a privacy issue??”

Berns looked at him doubtfully.

Antony threw his hands in the air and tried again. “He could be that chair you’re sitting in, Amethyst!”

A shadow fell over their table.

“Or,” came a gravelly voice, “He could be right behind you.”

With a squeak, Antony fell out of his chair and onto the floor. Berns might have laughed, if she wasn’t trying not to stare at the Head of Security Shapeshifter in question who glowered down at them from under smooth, deep set brows. She gulped.

“More new Starfleet recruits. I do hope none of you were planning on causing any trouble on my station,” he said slowly, looking at all three of them in turn.

“N-No, sir!” Antony said in a small voice. Berns was surprised he could still talk at all.

“Good,” the shapeshifter replied slowly. “Because I’ll be keeping an eye on you…”

Odo glowered once more at each shrinking Ensign and felt his annoyance ebb from him only to be replaced by a twinge of regret.

There were some days in which he was sick of the staring and the speculating about himself, his origins, and his loyalties. On these days he felt the impulse to do something about it. It could have easily been a day where he could ignore the talk but cleaning up Quark’s latest mess for the last several hours had Odo’s head pounding. Evidently that had now become the Ensigns’ problem. He only felt a little sorry.

He harrumphed once and turned to walk back to where Quark leaned over the bar with a bemused expression, his head tilted. Odo knew he had heard the whole thing.

“Hope you didn’t just scare my customers out of paying. Again,” the Ferengi said, his eyes slipping back towards the ensigns’ table. “That’ll teach me. Should have known better than to warn you. See if I ever share juicy gossip with you ever again.”

Odo slipped onto a barstool and grunted as reply.

Quark drummed his fingers on the bar and gave Odo a searching look. One he pointedly ignored.

“Did you really have to be so harsh with them? You and I both know you can’t transform anymore.”

Something of a smile slipped onto Odo’s face. “Maybe not… but they don’t know that.”

His own smile crossed Quark’s lips for a moment and then disappeared again, all business. “I’ll have you know, that if they skip their tab, I’m sending you the bill.”

Odo rolled his eyes.

“And don’t even think about trying to trick me out of it this time. I know exactly where you sleep! The left side.”

So, anyway, got bored one day, came upon the idea of a Pokémon/Star Trek AU where it’s kinda like ‘His Dark Materials’ and their daemons, but without all the spiritual stuff. Essentially, almost everyone, universally, has a Pokémon partner, like Ash and his Pikachu, to whom they share a special connection with.

The fact that Pokémon have a very explicit supernatural origin leads me to believe they would be the first thing people had in common with each other when first contact was made; the fact that they share common species across the galaxy is one of the main things that connects people to other species in the galaxy. The different legendary Pokémon created different worlds, and all worlds have Pokémon. I have more, but that’s for worldbuilding posts if people are interested.

And now, the fun part. Alien Pokémon!  Pokémon from other planets can vary just as much as regional variations; they can be different types, but they’re still technically the same Pokémon!, Since I did choose these Pokémon to match the character, I still wanted some essence of the Pokémon’s theme to remain, so yeah! Fun!

Every world has Pokémon on it, although each planet has different species distribution, there are 17 types and 896 individual Pokémon species known to exist currently. Pokémon can massively change over time from their environment, which means that a Meowth from Earth would look much different than a Meowth from Ferenginar.

(Ferengi Meowth shown here with an Alolan Meowth for scale. Click for image alone.)

Meowth on Ferenginar gradually became Bug type from a steady diet of nothing but bugs (this is Pokémon and I do what I want) and have grown in size slightly. Their most distinguishing feature is their headdress, which grew from the coin on a normal Meowth to a full crown, growing in their Persian rubies from birth (and becoming emeralds) instead of waiting til evolution.

I chose a Meowth for Quark because of the association with money, and then decided that most Ferengi would have cat associated Pokémon.

Ever since Grand Nagus Zek started keeping Incineroars, there’s been a trend among Ferengi to raise mostly cat Pokémon; Quark, ever the traditionalist, is no exception. His Meowth is named Greech, after a famous former Nagus. (who is not canon but whatever)

Greech is a complete gremlin beast of a cat, which is only fitting, considering who his owner is. He’s a wretched little thief who likes to pickpocket customers and has mastered using Payday to trick stupid people. (Payday generated money, in my imagination, works much like leprechaun gold in Harry Potter).

Quark claims no responsibility for any money lost by people stupid enough to fall for any tricks a Pokémon can perform. What his cat does with its fake money on its own time is none of his business and he can’t be held responsible for it, and he resents you insinuating he would use Greech as an accomplice in scams.

Greech has a lifelong rivalry with Odo’s Zoroark just like their owners have with each other. Actually, not really (for one, it’s not filled with sexual tension because they’re only Pokémon). Odo’s Zoroark just would straight up eat Greech if she was allowed to, and Greech is a little more genuinely terrified of Odo’s Zoroark. It’s mostly like a Tom and Jerry kind of situation.