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Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)

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The first disguise could work if she wore tights instead of socks. Is there a reason she can't show her skirt when it looks like a skirt anyway? If for some reason she can't, she could always wear another skirt over it. It's not like she'd be the first Pokemon trainer to wear two pairs of pants...

Aunty Shi Ping said:
This, to me, really speaks to the human/pokemon mental distinction. The village existed, as a perfectly functional village, for a very long time, and never really changed drastically. They had the idea of a village, and stuck with that idea. Pokemon, even the ones with a lot of potential for civilisation, don't seem to pursue it, at all. The concept of developing new things might come up now and again, but it doesn't seem to have the same spread and adoption that humans do, and actually pursuing development as a full-time pursuit seems to be alien to them.
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Keep in mind that more than 80% of the history of anatomically modern humans took place before we figured out agriculture, and that humans in the western hemisphere were literally still in the stone age when Europeans arrived. The default state of humanity is near-absolute technological stagnation; you kind of need to discover innovation and have it catch on as a cultural concept before anything significant changes. It took us about 5% of our history to go from bronze to space flight.

Also, the village doesn't really have any concept of technology as something that can be developed; they've been hanging out in the woods. Astra coming back with a violin, a Pokedex, literacy, and stories of all the amazing stuff she saw could very well inspire them to pursue technology as well; Astra's reaction to all of this stuff is awestruck wonder and curiosity rather than hostility, and I don't see any reason the others wouldn't have a similar reaction. She hadn't fully internalized the idea that there was still even more out there, but it's not like a human raised in similar circumstances would be much different.

It'd be interesting to see things like Pokemon cargo cults, or ritualizing observed behaviors like putting on two pairs of pants and throwing wooden pokeballs at each other while declaring that they're going to be the very best like no-one ever was.
 
Dermonster said:
Skirts aren't usually made of still-warm leather. They also usually wont bleed when scraped.

Usually.
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Yeah, but she might not consider "what if someone touches my skirt or I get injured".

The bigger problem (since she doesn't realize they suspect something fairly truth-like) would be Brandon and May being perfectly aware that she went into the clothes shop not wearing a skirt, did not at any point buy a skirt, and left wearing a skirt.
 
Those look like wonderful outfits for when/if she is outed as a pokemon to the general public, but I think when you have a bow tied to a piece of your head that humans do not possess you can't really call it a disguise that well.
Similarly the second one shows those off too well.

This is a sad moment for me, because those are wonderful outfits, and I can only be disappointed by how they are currently non-viable for even just a trying out clothes montage.
 
Unseelie said:
Oh, I assumed that was hair.
Tights and an actual skirt then, just needs to be longer than what Pokémon characters usually wear :V
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I mean there's probably a thin layer of hair on the skin. Hide. Fur?

Uh.

Anyway, the current selection is a rather nice green dress with a blue sash and shawl/collar thing.

Still open to bribery.

E.I.G. said:
Those look like wonderful outfits for when/if she is outed as a pokemon to the general public, but I think when you have a bow tied to a piece of your head that humans do not possess you can't really call it a disguise that well.
Similarly the second one shows those off too well.

This is a sad moment for me, because those are wonderful outfits, and I can only be disappointed by how they are currently non-viable for even just a trying out clothes montage.
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I know; I was so sad when I had to look at it from a 'would this actually work' perspective and came up negative.

I can probably squeeze in a few 'inside the dressing room' lines for them but the requirements are indeed too restrictive for peanut gallery commentary.

Olivebirdy said:
You could hide the green legs with thigh-highs, and why would you need to hide the skirt? She's trying to look human, not 'not a Ralts line'. These outfits are too cute to not use!
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There's still the matter of the horns. And since this is a group shopping trip, a minor question of 'Where did you get those this store doesnt even have that' would likely arise.
 
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Putting foam in the shoes is a smart move to make them look filled, but her feet will still come straight out if she moves. She'd need boots for them to stay on.

I'm not sure if heels essentially just being stilts would be easier or harder for her (comparatively).

Now here's the thing. I can totally see her thinking she's smart and trying to pass off her skirt as being a skirt, for one day while she has to endure other shoppers/staff saying it's cute and touching it while she has to try and pretend nothings wrong.

Probably with awkward and unintentionally dark/uncomfortable conversations about being made from real/fake pokemon leather/fur.
 
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Qwertystop said:
Yeah, but she might not consider "what if someone touches my skirt or I get injured".

The bigger problem (since she doesn't realize they suspect something fairly truth-like) would be Brandon and May being perfectly aware that she went into the clothes shop not wearing a skirt, did not at any point buy a skirt, and left wearing a skirt.
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Plus the skirt never goes in the laundry.
 
E.I.G. said:
Those look like wonderful outfits for when/if she is outed as a pokemon to the general public, but I think when you have a bow tied to a piece of your head that humans do not possess you can't really call it a disguise that well.
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Could be disguising the entire horn as a hair ornament? But even if someone sells Kirlia-horn-styled hair ornaments, I doubt they sell ones that are missing the actual horn and are just a clip that fits around it.
 
Pax_Empyrean said:
Shnorper
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There's also the matter of trade secrets and not spreading the information efficiently, they do seem to have some genuine advancements in the form of the smith's techniques but that's kept to a series of individuals, better recordkeeping and better general education would be if not essential then a major help as well.
 
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The newest fashion: Kirlia chic
  • Apocrypha
    • Astra decides to use her natural skirt in lieu of buying one.

    Someone recognizes it as a Kirlia skirt.

    Astra panics.

    ... But it becomes a fashion trend.

    May, bemused, watches all the girls going around with 'Kirlia skirts' (and other pokemon themed clothes that are quickly becoming trendy).

    "Who'd thought you'd have a knack for fashion?"

    "I'm the fashionest," Astra scoffs, "nobody can fashion as good as I fashion."

    "Fashion's not a verb," says Brendan.

    "Yes it is," insist the girls.

    A random girl wearing the latest trends brush past the three, causing Astra to startle and mutter to herself that no, the humans are not all Ralts and Kirlias in disguise. In the safety of her own mind, of course.

    "You're still twitching," Brendan stil has the gall to comment.

    "And you're still repressing my culture," Astra shoots back.

    "That doesn't make sense."

    "I'll make you make sense."

    The boy stares at the green haired albino, before turning to their other companion.

    "You're a bad influence."

    "Nah, I'm almost proud."
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Pff. Man, that'd make her life a lot easier, wouldn't it?

    On the other hand, man it would be kind of weird seeing a lot of people dress just like you. Hah. Poor Astra.

    Bribe status: .5/1
     
    Pax_Empyrean said:
    Keep in mind that more than 80% of the history of anatomically modern humans took place before we figured out agriculture, and that humans in the western hemisphere were literally still in the stone age when Europeans arrived. The default state of humanity is near-absolute technological stagnation; you kind of need to discover innovation and have it catch on as a cultural concept before anything significant changes. It took us about 5% of our history to go from bronze to space flight.
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    The underlined portion needs reiterating.

    I am well aware that this perspective is foreign to a lot of people in the west, but you must also understand that a lot of societies do not want to "innovate" in the way we think of the concept, with paved roads and trains and space shuttles. They still pursue better lives for themselves, but they have a different set of expectations and ideals around what that means.

    Take the stone-age societies of the western hemisphere, cited above: they weren't lacking in technology. We think of "stone-age" as a basic level of advancement to be progressed past as quickly as possible... because we have a cultural value system that heavily emphasizes material technologies, particularly regarding metallurgy.

    Meanwhile, the Incas were building suspension bridges all over the place that European science wouldn't be able to match for another four hundred years, even with Inca bridges available for study and reverse engineering. Just technology completely irreproducible to the whole of Western science, sitting around in western-occupied territory, for half a millennia. No one looked into that.

    The Aztecs had a plumbing/sanitation system for their capital in the fifteenth century that would still be trivially putting European capitals like London to shame well into the nineteenth century. Sure, by European reckoning, they were languishing in the bronze age, but by Aztec reckoning they had toilets that flushed and Europe didn't.

    Basically what I'm saying is, ultimately what technology is for is making peoples' lives better. Its not for looking neat in a way easily preserved by the archeological record. So we don't actually know that the Kirlia village even is technologically stagnant. Certainly their quality of life seems pretty good, shadow monsters aside. If they've been consistently innovating their fishing/cooking/food-preservation/psychic/hiding-from-humans/etc techniques generation to generation, Astra wouldn't be in a position to have noticed that. If their overall institutional knowledge of climatological patterns and how to respond to them is steadily trending upwards over the centuries, Astra would have no idea.

    So like, not only is Not Innovating well within human norms anyway when talking about populations this small, but on top of that we don't even know if they're innovating or not!
     
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    Spanish Translation
  • Informational
    • So someone has randomly translated Hyphen into Spanish.

    Or at least, the first chapter, as of the time of this post.

    I'm not entierly sure how to react to this. I mean, it's awesome, but I didn't even get asked? Eh.

    Well, if you know Spanish, soon you can read Hyphen in Spanish! I guess! Translation quality not guarenteed.

    Does this even count as a bribe if it's not on a forum...?
     
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