Welcome to my Kiki Shrine!!!

This here's my corner to gush about this gay lil creature from the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC!! Click around and you'll find my doodles, writings on fandom phenomenon, and stupid meme edits. Maybe you'll come to love him as much as I do~

How Did I Find Kiki?

First of all, don't look at me. I was perusing the yandere tag on Pixiv in a moment of weakness. I say it like that not because I'm ashamed of my love for yandere characters but because most yandere content out there is bottom of the barrel garbo. It's the only thing I am a true snob about. I found a series of yumejoshi (basically self-shipping) comics featuring Kieran in appealing scenarios such as covering his wall in pictures of protag, guilt-tripping protag into staying with him in Kitakami, and refusing to leave protag's front door while they cower inside out of fear. I can't not love a character like that! Wait, haven't I seen that guy before? Isn't he from the new Pokemon games? Well, I'm not really interested because of all the glitches I've seen posted everywhere but I guess I'll check out his wiki page-

So Then I Got the Fucking Game.

As if the planets aligned, it was nearing Christmas time and my mom was asking what I wanted that year. I asked very nicely for the... NINTEY FIVE DOLLAR* copy of Scarlet with the DLC included. She not only bought me the game but also included a Switch controller that wasn't suffering from the dreaded joycon drift. Thank you, Mother. This makes up for the years of agony you put me through... For Now.
_{* In retrospect, I could've asked for a European copy for much cheaper. I keep forgetting that Switch carts are region-free. Consider this revenge, Mother.}

First order of business once I got the game was to make a boy worth going yandere for. I was delightfully surprised you could customize the character right off the bat this time! No more having to wait to reach a salon, thank GOD!! And the options aren't genderlocked! Thank you Pokemon for letting me be a femboy on my journey to ruin one(1) boy's entire life. If you'd like to know more about my protag as a character, he has his own lil page here.

The amount of fun I had playing this game shouldn't have surprised me. Like, it's a Pokemon game. Of course I was gonna have fun! However, there was so much doomerism being spread about Pokemon when gen nine was released that I just didn't wanna deal with it anymore. I was also underwhelmed by my time with Shield, so I thought... maybe Game Freak really lost their luster this time. Perhaps it's those rock-bottom expectations that made Scarlet leave such an impression on me. Nowadays I liken it to my love of Sonic Adventure. Sure, it's a bugged out mess that's held together with toothpicks and glue but within those fragile materials lies a game with SOUL put into it.

AND THEN I PLAYED THE DLC.

I liked it.

Why I love... The Kiki...

Kieran is like if a Weird Girl was a boy. His admiration of a monster everyone else fears, his quiet stalking, his go-to hang out spot being a cave called The Dreaded Den with a sign outside saying DANGER DO NOT GO HERE could be considered red flags by some. But not me. I'm built... different. I'm built... Autistic... Now, I'm not one to claim something is canon if Word of God has said nothing on the subject. THAT BEING SAID, Kieran reads so Autistic to me it's painful. The coding may not be deliberate but it's there and it gets messy and ugly and unflattering and I FUCKING LOVE IT.

Everyone loves to joke that if Kieran met Nemona instead of the protagonist then he wouldn't have gone insane. I'm glad he met protag. The betrayal Kieran felt from protag is one of the most compelling and relatable parts of his character arc for me. If I went to summer camp in my hometown (HELL ALREADY) where I met the only person to ever understand me and they suddenly stopped hanging out with me and lied to me and talked about me behind my back I think I would also punch walls and scream.

When I was Kieran's age, I may not have taken my self-hatred out on others externally but I certainly had the "I'm better than everyone here and I'll prove it" attitude stuck in my head. Sure, I superficially improved myself academically, but that line of thinking quickly revealed itself to be maladaptive when I started looking down on my own friends. I had to cut it out. I had to see others as equal to myself. I had to see MYSELF as equal to others. That's the case with Kieran, too. Kieran NEEDED to get hurt. He NEEDED to explode. He NEEDED to shatter his relationships to little bits so he could piece them back together by hand, forming a better understanding of his loved ones in the process.

And part of that process was realizing he had a crush on protag the whole time, right? His feelings have been romantic this entire time and we can all see it, right? He's not twirling his hair and nihehe'ing for no reason, RIGHT? God, this game really is Pokemeki Memorial. Every NPC you build a relationship with has some kind of moe point that sticks with you, BUT THEN THERE'S KIERAN... THE ABSOLUTE MASTER...

...OF MOE BOY SWAG.

Yes. Yes he did, Lacey.

Kill The Fourth Wall

My favourite genre of bad Creepypasta is the kind that threatens to crawl through the screen. An otherwise innocent character reveals they've been conscious the whole time with an extravagant display featuring the other characters' viscera before turning their sights on the viewer. Perhaps they possess a plushie, perhaps they just show up in the flesh. The threat is having the safety of the fourth wall taken away from the viewer. Reassurances that Sonic the Hedgehog isn't real and he can't hurt you ring hollow when you can feel his breath on the back of your neck... telling you you're... too slow...

... I forgot why I brought that up. Anyway,

This Line. This one line right here cursed me for a thousand years. Having Kieran LITERALLY call me "protag" sent me into goddamn hysterics. What do you MEAN he's aware of my role in this story?! Does he know he's an NPC? CAN HE SEE ME THROUGH THE SCREEN?! Make no mistake, though. What I was experiencing was not fear. It was excitement. What if he found out he was a character in a game? How would he try to reach out to the player? What drastic actions would he take in vain to escape the confines of code?

Thankfully I'm not the only one who was left with these questions! A premise like this is a no-brainer for yumejoshi. Like, what's more appealing to self-shippers than your favourite character literally acknowledging your existence? It's like making eye contact with a crush! Except said crush might want to kill you. And you kind of want him to.

For those who haven't read anything within the romance genre, this probably makes no sense. You may be asking, "why would you WANT your favourite character to kill you? Isn't that, yknow... abusive?" Yes. Yes, it is. But you have to understand we aren't following reality's rules here. What's horrible and terrifying in real life can be exciting in fiction. Again, the appeal here is the excitement. It's exciting when a character messes with the game. It's exciting when a character goes against their scripted dialogue. It's exciting when a character breaks through your screen out of sheer desperation to be with you.

Stamps (99x56)

Stuff I Use

Pokemon Sprites

• Gen 9 Resource Pack

Image Hoarding

• gallery-dl - a command line tool that takes the pain out of downloading entire galleries
• Hitomi Downloader - a more beginner friendly alternative to gallery-dl

Coding Help

• Music Player by Adilene
• Marquee (scrolling banner) by Scarecat

SuguIchi is the ship between Kieran and my Pokemon Scarlet protagonist, Ichigo! They're what you get when you google "emo boys kissing!" They wear Pokemon tails to the mall! Fate brought them together! They were doomed to meet!

Deviations from Canon

The boys have a few more days to bond before the festival in Teal Mask. This gives them time to shiny hunt together, goof off with Ichigo's rotom phone, have a sleepover, and most importantly they have that DAMN PICNIC. THEY GET TO EAT SANDWICHES TOGETHER!! WHY ISN'T THIS PART OF THE ACTUAL GAME?!?!?!

Along with several handfuls of candy, Kieran keeps an old digital camera in his bag that he uses to capture the beauty of his hometown... and also snap creepshots of Ichigo.

Art by Chimera

When things fall apart between the two, Ichigo becomes frustrated about his actions being misinterpreted. He loves Kieran! He would never wanna hurt him! Why does Kieran think he's hurting him on purpose?! It's not like Ichigo doesn't regret being a dirty liar!! Why won't Kieran just hear him out?! Ichigo gets to vent these gripes when their champion battle in Indigo Disk devolves into a screaming match on both sides.

On Kieran's end, he gets a kick out of seeing Ichigo's anxious face during Indigo Disk. God, he wishes he could get a pic of it to put on his wall. If Ichigo could so callously hurt Kieran without a second thought, then it's only fair that he gets to hurt him back. It doesn't matter if it's cruel. It's all in service of avenging himself.

Ultimately, because this is a baby game, the two make up and hug it out after the Terapagos incident. Ichigo decides the next time he sees Kieran, he's DEFINITELY going to confess his feelings to him. And then Kieran takes a break from school. Oops. Well, he at least gets another chance during Mochi Mayhem- Oh, what's that? The entire town's been possessed? M-maybe after all of that's been taken care of...? Man, maybe this isn't the time. At least they're able to battle side by side.

One goofy misunderstanding about an Applin trade later, the two FINALLY start going out and they become INSUFFERABLE. They fawn over eachother the moment they're in a room together. Kieran hogs Carmine's phone to text Ichigo when he's back in Paldea. Ichigo demolishes Kieran's fixed sleep schedule with late-night terrarium dates. Look... They're making up for lost-ish time, okay?

But of course this can't be a Kiki ship without Kiki being a lil fucked up. He doesn't mean to be fucked up, he's just... yknow. Low empathy Autistic. AND he's got Bullied Little Brother Syndrome. What do you even expect from him?

Kieran's idea of fun is trying to "catch" Ichigo by pelting him with pokeballs. His idea of fun is aiming for the liver while roleplaying as Pokemon. His idea of fun is discovering dead bodies in the wilderness and Not Reporting Them. Ichigo is understandably overwhelmed by this behaviour, but he views it in comparison to the bullying he experienced in the past. Is a gut punch all that bad when you're being showered with affection at the same time? Maybe a lil bloodshed is worth it for the hugs and kisses...

Explanation:
The mental image of Ichigo holding back Kieran's hair while he's vomming his guts out is sweet to me. :3

Explanation:
It's the intense love during a first meeting, dude!! It's the clinging to it if it even so much as flickers!! It's the idealization!! It's the DELUSION!!

Explanation:
UGH!!! IT'S INDIGO DISK KIKI!!! It's adoration, it's disgust, it's obsession, it's POSSESSIVENESS.

Explanation:
Ichigo's feelings throughout Indigo Disk. He's hurt time after time, but is that gonna stop from reaching out to Kieran? NOPE LOL. The sweets motif also suits both of their tastes.

Explanation:
An inevitable battle. DESTINED, even. But beneath the fury lies a desire to return to love.

Explanation:
Wouldn't it be so much easier for Kieran if Ichigo simply hated him? Rather than look down on him with pity? If only this one-sided game could end...

Explanation:
Friends don't lie to friends. Friends don't betray friends. How dare you.

Explanation:
CONSUMPTION AS LOVE, BABEY!!! :3

Explanation:
Through the dazzling light, there's a realization that the light is just as blinding as the dark. The two must find their way together, hand in hand.

Explanation:
A re-exmination of their relationship as one between equals. Between those who've felt like outcasts at some point. Together they find the will to keep going in oft-overlooked pleasures.

Explanation:
The pain of a long-distance relationship u_u

Explanation:
This is just Kiki deciding to send Ichigo the tickets to come see him. HE JUST WANTS TO SEE HIM AGAIN!!

Edits I Made

Edits from Others

The Teal Mask

The Indigo Disk

Mochi Mayhem