Hybrids - Inception Awoken

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Hybrids
on Joltipedia, the free Pokémon encyclopedia


A Hybrid, known more formally as a Human-Pokémon Hybrid, is a special type of human able to use the abilities of a Pokémon.

Biology
See also: Biology of humans

Hybrids are essentially humans. They have no traits of a Pokémon except for matching eye and hair color.

Genetics
Most hybridism is genetic. Whether or not a human is a Hybrid is usually determined by a recessive gene. However, exceptions have been known to occur; most notably Alex Pine, founder of Team Inception; she was born to two non-carriers of the gene and turned out Hybrid anyway. It is not known why this occurs.

What Pokémon a person will get seems to be genetic as well. A child can inherit the inner Pokémon of either of his or her parents, even if the Pokémon would not normally be the same gender as the child.

Reproduction
Hybridism appears to have no effect on a human’s ability to reproduce.

Abilities
Each Hybrid has the abilities of one specific Pokémon. This includes moves and passive abilities, as well as being able to understand and speak in Pokémon Speech. Any abilities that require a part of the body humans don’t have form that part of the body out of energy. The type of energy is unknown at the current time, though many theories exist. Ability to fly with these wings has also been documented.

Nullification
When a Hybrid is low on HP, their abilities become extremely difficult to use. This usually happens at around a quarter of their maximum HP. This is known formally as “nullification”, and is a temporary condition, just as fainting is in Pokémon. Unlike in Pokémon, a Hybrid can continue to fight while nullified, though this comes with a risk of serious harm to them. As a result, not many fight in this state unless absolutely necessary.

Reaction to items
Healing items for a Pokémon seem to work equally well on Hybrids, including potions, ethers, status healers, and berries. Revives don’t restore HP to conscious Hybrids, but they do end nullification.

Legality
Main article: Legality of Hybrid battling

The legality of Hybrid battling had been a debate for several years. As of 2559, it is legal for a Hybrid to participate in an official League match both as a Pokémon and as a trainer in all regions. Additionally, some regions allow a Hybrid to participate as part of someone else’s team, so long as they are not forced to participate. A Hybrid is considered unable to participate in the battle after nullification, despite remaining HP.

If a Hybrid trainer does partake in a League sanctioned battle as a Pokémon, and is knocked unconscious, their challenge is considered automatically forfeit unless they can work autonomously.

Gonna have to agree with Oyster on all counts here. On the one hand, I love the idea of opening with a wiki article. Like, I am a total sucker for telling a story—even just a little bit—in a way that experiments with form, be that straight-up epistolary or something that folds in visuals and medium, you know? And the way this wiki article was crafted definitely scratches that itch. You've got the whole wiki feeling down, from the stub warning and header styles to the actual, very detached tone that the information here is presented in. It's a great way to open a sci-fi novel, imo: detached and dangling little bits of information about this world right in front of our faces, before we can even get into any of the action.

And on that note, this prologue's delightful also because it's such a brilliant way of introducing us to your world. We get the bare bones of how hybrids interact with human (and pokémon) society, alongside a very vague notion of what they actually are (perhaps indistinguishable from humans aside from powers and therefore not your run-of-the-mill hybrids/gijinka). Not to mention there's an implication of what this story is about, what with the namedrop of Team Inception already, combined with that overview of how training works in that Legality section (and, well, the presence of a Legality section at all). So it's a great way to lay down the foundations of what you want to do here and spark some curiosity to boot.

But! On the downside, I also have to agree with Oyster, re, there isn't quite enough of it. To go a bit more in-depth, a lot of your wiki article focuses on how a hybrid battles and the very basic definitions of what a hybrid is. While that's okay in a world that's obsessed with pokémon battling, for a wiki article, especially one that deals with what's basically a genetic mutation of humanity, you'd expect more science in it. Take the genetics section. Sure, not much is known about the mechanics of hereditary hybridism—as noted with Alex Pine—but you'd think there would be theories, especially if it's known for certain that it's a recessive gene and that Alex represents an exception to the whole "your parents must be carriers" rule. Likewise, the breeding one-liner kinda feels, at the risk of sounding a little too blunt, out-of-left-field because ... there's not much else going on there—like it's about to go into more detail about hybrid reproduction, but it doesn't. (Sure, it could also be a straight-up sex joke, but in a pretty clinical article, it seems out-of-place.)

The same could be said for the legalities section, actually, but more on a sociopolitical scale. One of the reasons why I asked you over Discord so many questions about where your hybrids fit into your society is because, absolutely, that's a fascinating thing to think about. But in this case, adding in more detail about hybrids and society can add a lot of depth to your prologue. For one, it gives readers a timeframe. If hybrids are new, of course not much thought would be put into where they fit in because all of these questions would just be coming out (if it's not just a straight-up hot-button topic—something so new that contributors hadn't been able to add information concerning hybrid laws just yet). If they're not, then there's likely a wealth of information concerning the history of hybrids in society (controversies, fights for rights, and all).

Either way, though, adding in bits of information concerning hybrids in your society will likely open up this prologue by establishing that hybrids aren't just glorified pokémon. As it stands, the abundant focus on training and how hybrids function in a battle kinda creates a very narrow viewpoint for what hybrids are. It's almost as if you're saying that the contributors here or that the humans in this world only view hybrids as valuable in battle only, you know?

On the other hand, it's also understandable if you want to be brief. This is only a prologue, after all, and a good Wikipedia article on just genetics or sociopolitical history can be pages upon pages long. So it'd be tricky to find that balance between the amount of meat you can add to this article and the amount of space you can take up as a prologue. That's a question I don't entirely have an answer to, admittedly, but I think that if you considered focusing on only one subhead, rather than an entire article (as in, provide an excerpt to this wiki article instead of the whole thing), that might be an option that'll give you enough room to play.

But! Long story short, though, don't get me wrong. I think the concept is pretty boss, and judging by the implications you've loaded this article with, I get the feeling this'll be a fun ride. (For one, I really want to know about this Team Inception. If they're the Criminal Organization of the Moment, it's intriguing that this wiki feels A-OK to bring them up with no further commentary. Like, you'd think there'd be better examples, but hey!) Or tl;dr, as much as I kinda want to see more of the article, the whole format intrigues me, and I'd be down with seeing where this goes. 8)