This is a work of fanfiction by Butterfree/Dragonfree/antialiasis and is not to be reposted without permission. This story is in no way official or endorsed by Nintendo, GAME FREAK, Creatures Inc., or The Pokémon Company.

Morphic

Please note that Morphic is rated R (M if you prefer Fiction Ratings) for strong language, violence and other sensitive subject matter.

A few scientists get drunk and start fiddling with gene splicing. Ten years later, they're taking care of eight half-Pokémon kids, each freakier than the next, while a religious fanatic plots to murder them all.

This is a sort of alternate-universe closer-to-real-life deconstruction of Pokémorph fics that started out very experimental and mostly intended as dark humour but later gained more direction and turned out extremely grim, even for me. Please note the rating of R/M - there is a boatload of strong language, violence, blood, death, mild sexual references, and discussion of controversial, sensitive subjects. Not for kids who don't know what they're getting into!

The story itself was started in May 2007 and completed at the end of 2010. Thus, it's quite old, and parts of it make me cringe pretty hard today - however, I'm currently (2023) working on a rewrite, which I'll be sure to post here when ready. It also has a number of extras, written a little or a lot later.

If you go to TV Tropes, a reader made a page for it a while ago. Feel free to edit it.

This story is complete. There will be no more chapters.

Chapters

  1. Chapter 1
  2. Chapter 2
  3. Chapter 3
  4. Chapter 4
  5. Chapter 5
  6. Chapter 6
  7. Chapter 7
  8. Chapter 8
  9. Chapter 9
  10. Chapter 10
  11. Chapter 11
  12. Chapter 12
  13. Chapter 13
  14. Chapter 14

Silly (and Not-So-Silly) Extras

These things are honestly pretty pointless, so if you wouldn't enjoy reading them, just skip them; you're not missing much. Most of them are just me finding some potentially amusing excuse to write more about Dave and Mia, because I enjoy their interactions enormously. And the idea of Dave trying to give her dating advice seemed pretty hilarious to my sleep-deprived mind and refused to let it go until I'd written it. (Presented here in order of when they were written; the ones up through "Dave and Mia Watch Paint Dry" were all written in 2011 not too long after the story was completed, the next three in I think 2015/16, and the last couple in 2021/2023.)

Dave and Mia Discuss Sex: Chronologically happens sometime prior to chapter five, when Mia is still at school, but it's utterly meaningless (and considerably more disturbing) if you aren't already completely familiar with the characters, so please don't attempt to read it unless you've previously read the entirety of the actual fic. Be warned that, as the title implies, it contains (or rather consists entirely of) discussion of sex, including mentions of pretty skeevy stuff, but all in a completely non-graphic way (no body parts or actual acts are brought up). It also has swearing, though I should barely need to warn you about that if you really read the whole fic.

Dave and Mia Discuss Politics: In my head this happens before Dave and Mia Discuss Sex, but it doesn't actually matter. Unusually, it actually doesn't contain any swearing. It does have discussion of politics, including some pretty... interesting ideas, and a couple of mentions of murder and torture, but again there is nothing graphic. And again, it will probably make rather little sense if you haven't previously familiarized yourself with the characters involved by reading the actual fic.

Dave and Mia Discuss Horror: Yet another one. Swearing, discussion of gore and psychological horror, makes no sense if you haven't read the fic, etc.

Chapter 9.5: A bit less silly than the others, thanks to taking place the night after the end of chapter nine instead of pre-chapter seven. It's still mostly Dave and Mia talking, but they're not quite discussing any one subject in particular, it doesn't take place in his car, there is actual non-half-assed narration between lines of dialogue, a couple of other characters appear, and it's more than twice as long. I suppose there's nothing stopping you from reading it in chronological order, between chapters nine and ten, if you want, though it's probably more meaningful post-fic. Contains swearing (lots of it, thanks to Dave's state of mind), copious consumption of alcohol, mentions of sex, discussion of death and murder, objectification of women, and kicking of puppies. (Not really for that last one.)

Dave and Mia Discuss Relationships: Back to the pre-chapter-5 timeframe, this time with more Mia!POV. Contains swearing, more sex talk, disturbing bloodlust, and a complete veer off the initial subject.

Dave and Mia Discuss Hotdogs: This one is longer than usual and happens four years after the creation of the morphs, or six years before the bulk of the fic and the other extras. It is also written in present tense, so if that makes your eyes bleed, you have been warned. Contains swearing (surprise, surprise), the r-word, casual religion-bashing, a really terrible joke about river banks, and no actual mention of hotdogs until near the very end.

Dave and Mia Watch Paint Dry: At this point it will probably not surprise you that yes, I really would write about them watching paint dry. This is a drabble (i.e. short fiction that is exactly 100 words), and thus not actually long enough to contain anything objectionable, other than just being very, very silly.

Jack and Gabriel Discuss Death: A more serious extra this time, featuring Jack and Gabriel. Takes place after chapter 14 and references a lot of spoilers, so don't read until you've read the entire fic. Contains swearing and, incredibly enough, discussion about death.

Dave and Mia Discuss Family: An alternate-universe extra where a certain incident involving a Fire Stone in chapter 13 didn't happen and things turned out rather differently as a result. By which I mean it somehow turns out even more depressing than the actual fic. Note that this is still a Dave and Mia extra (and not a full alternate ending trying to provide closure for the whole fic), but it's a lot heavier than the most of the other Dave and Mia extras, so be warned. Contains swearing, violence, blood, character death, and mentions/thoughts of suicide.

Dave and Mia Discuss Nudity: In which Dave tries to convince six-year-old Mia of why people are supposed to wear clothes. Contains swearing and a brief, vague reference to child abuse (but no, there's no descriptive nudity).

Morphic Bingo: Three short extras written for a 'prompt bingo' on the Thousand Roads forums, where I got a personalized bingo card of possible prompts relating to the fic and had to complete three of them in a way that formed a bingo. The prompts I chose were "The Biggest Headline", "Studies Done on the Morphs" and "Morphic-Verse Media". Contains swearing, a relationship on its last legs, human experimentation, and questionable parenting.

Dave and Jean Discuss Swearing: Some insight into how Dave convinced Jean not to swear like a sailor. Contains swearing and some discussion of bullying and discrimination.

Groundhog Dave: In which Dave relives the day of chapter 13 in a time loop. This is a whump-heavy character study, primarily conceived to torment Dave in a variety of ways and see how he responds. Contains some strong violence including gun violence, suicide and suicidal thoughts, brief vomiting, a deluge of strong and demeaning language, consumption of alcohol, heavy emotional distress, existential horror, and a whole lot of children dying.

April Fools' Day Silliness: 2011

On April 1st 2011, the site's annual April Fools' Day joke revolved around Morphic and the plans for a sequel that I'd been talking about since I'd finished it that past New Year's Eve.

"Sequel" first chapter by Espeon: Espeon is a friend of mine who had never read the fic and wrote this bizarre sequel based on one-liner descriptions of the main characters. Needless to say, this is about as uncanonical as you can get. Features everyone being wildly out of character, Katherine as a bus driver, and doors made of solid pine.

April 1st 2011 "real" sequel actually written by me: After confessing that the aforementioned was a joke, I posted this more plausible version instead and claimed it was the actual sequel. It was not, but it can be seen as a kind of alternate universe canon. Features resurrections, a suddenly-discovered Mew and Mewtwo morph, and a dark twist.

April 1st 2011 postmortem, explaining how the joke came about and musing on it. Note that this contains spoilers for the actual fic (as well as the joke chapters themselves).

April Fools' Day silliness: 2021

Ten years later, on April 1st 2021, I wrote another fake Morphic chapter, this time purporting to be the first chapter of a rewrite that I'd been talking about doing.

Morphic: New and Improved: Effectively an AU scenario where, rather than being genetically engineered from birth, the morphs are kidnapped by Team Rocket as human teenagers and then turned into Pokémorphs for some nebulous purpose, in the vein of the clichés of the genre back in the day.

Page last modified February 1 2024 at 02:44 UTC