Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)
Shadowhisker
Asylum Escapee
- Location
- Dawn of Fold Refugee Camp
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Astra needs all the hugs.
And The Ancestor needs to stop psychically projecting her psychological projections on Astra through the Doom Orb.
And The Ancestor needs to stop psychically projecting her psychological projections on Astra through the Doom Orb.
CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
Astra... trying to get a badge while this burnt out is not going to go well.
I think I see where this is going...
Whelp, that's it, she's screwed. There's tempting fate, and then there's dressing up in a transparent chemise, lounging on a chaise couch covered in Benjamins making cooing noises at fate.
Astra's really in a bad mood if she doesn't see how considerate May is being. Also, yay, May being considerate of Astra's feelings!
Okay, those shoes are ugly, I get it, but I don't think they need a reaction this operatic.
*snrk!*
Of course Brendan's worn them.
Brendan and May's bickering gives me life and waters my crops.
This time I agree with May. He used tubular.
No. Please. Go on.
Dermonster, all the credit for making Astra's voice this visibly irritated and frustrated. That's a skill and it's not an easy one.
On the one hand, they're clearly trying to be considerate about Astra's mood. On the other hand, they're, uh, kinda steamrolling her and that's probably going to bite them all later.
Astra. Take a break and get some sleep and rest, girl.
Oh boy. This... doesn't just seem like normal memory recall.
Oh, honey, no. Talk to your friend, please.
Oh no, and now PTSD flashbacks on top of everything else.
Astra. Please. Just go to sleep. Everyone will understand. A day won't make much of a difference.
Aaaaaaand there it is. It's been a long road to get here, but this trope is finally coming up.
It was inevitable. Astra has been hiding her Pokemon status from May for a long-ass time. May does seem like the kind of person who'd react badly to that revelation. And, of course, Astra just plain isn't in the right headspace for positive thoughts right now.
Fun fact, there's an entire Star Trek crossover grappling with that very question. It's very good, go read it.
But yeah, a very valid fear.
Oh, honey...
I know you're not going to, but please listen to Brendan, Astra.
Yes, he has; because you don't think of yourself like those other Pokemon; and because you're in a really bad headspace from a combination of psychic backwash and sheer exhaustion.
Oh, Brawly definitely knows more than just mundane sense would tell him. Hang on...
*checks a few things*
I guess he's just uncommonly insightful? He would be trained to read body language...
Ancestor's leaking through again. And so is Regice, from the looks of things.
Yup, saw this coming.
You're not weak, just exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Brawly's definitely regretting the necessity of this beatdown.
Astra. Rest, for God's sake! Gah!
Oh, that's not good.
Here comes his signature move, and the one that gets all the newbies.
Brawly's a good guy.
Man, I'm so curious what Brawly thinks he knows here.
Umm, I don't think it's just that, Astra.
Also, are you sure that's a good idea, doing the Pokemon equivalent of downing five Red Bulls?
Yup, here's the explosion. Brendan, May, I know you mean well, but this is what happens when you keep pestering someone who's not doing okay about how much they're not okay. Change tactics!
Sometimes I forget they're all still kids...
Yeah, that was a brutal chapter, in more ways than one. And you've blueballed all of us on the reveal. Thanks, Dermonster, and I mean that both genuinely and sarcastically.
- Location
- Alberta
Heh, puberty, sudden mood swings and irritability? I know what conclusion may would jump to.
Brendan: "Man, whats up with Astra today?"
May: 'I think she's having her first visit from the Delibird."
Astra: "The what?"
May: "You know, the shiny Gyarados, the vicious Vilepede, the substitute downstairs. Your monthly, you know?"
Astra looks back in confused horror.
May: "I'm not having this conversation with you. Brendan, you go find Steven, we're going to find a nurse Joy."
And then Astra learns that humans don't come from eggs.
- Location
- SomeWhereElse
Nah May already threw Brendan under the bus with that one way back in the beginning of this fic because she is an unstoppable gremlin with a mildly poor grasp of social norms.
- Location
- Detroit, Michigan
Last I commented on the matter I pictured the eventual reveal of Astra to her friends as something done in a controlled, private, environment with all the uncertainty, vulnerability, and trust in your friends that implies.
Now though? I'm starting to think that the reveal is one, going to be far more imminent than I had thought and two, may very well not be what I had imagined. Rather, it being in the heat of the moment of charged Bad Times Feelings that, from as of this chapter's end, has aparently been quietly simmering in the background for a while but is now on the front burner and starting to boil over (poking from The Ancestor not withstanding. Pretty sure these have still been Astras thougts/concerns and they aren't exactly unfounded).
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
Oh no. Brendan, May, maybe you can suddenly exclaim how very tired you are and entrust Astra the very important job of getting you all lodgings while just two of you deliver that letter to Steven Stone. Astra can get the job of getting you all a nice room, and then letting her day end earlier. Wouldn't that be nice?
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Not in Person
Once Known as The Nobody
- Location
- A place
That was a heavy chapter, full of uncomfortable emotions and worrying premonitions. I don't think I can make a levity-joke out of anything there.
Now picturing: Meditite in shades, doing gang-signs. I might be wildly confused about the american slang, but it's a funny mental picture nonetheless.
You know it, mon!
Now picturing: Meditite in shades, doing gang-signs. I might be wildly confused about the american slang, but it's a funny mental picture nonetheless.
Well Astra, your day could have been worse: you could have also come across a non-Ancestored member of the Raltz line and have had that existential crisis on top of everything else.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Oh I haven't replied here; let's fix that ye?
Astra's mood could be charitably described as 'verging on caustic'.
If she gets pricked a few more time's she'll fall over and burst into smoke, respawning back in the Rustboro hotel room.
The pokemon influincing them has a name, and it's Astra.
...I thought Sableye was trash? IDK I don't pay attention to competitive or anything.
She could always dress in drag and do the hula.
May has her moments. It's just too bad Astra doesn't quite have the mental capacity to notice at the moment.
Fiction imitates life. Specifically me, when I looked at Brawly's art for the first time when writing this.
It doesn't help that my discord constantly asserts that I am associated with feet, when I am most assuredly not.
Blessed be thy fields, for the bickering hath come to break thy petty bitching drought.
Thank you, I try.
They try their best, but it's not familliar territory.
No lie lasts forever. Especially one as fundamental and kinda shoddy as this one.
I think I've looked at this before.
The only thing left to understand is the mission. If she were still in the forest or on the boat, yes. If the flashbacks had triggered in the town hall, maybe. But Brawly is right there. Momentum is a terrible thing, and some lessons taught have since been forgotten.
The dissonance is insidious. But the one I speak of is maybe not so obvious...
Man's been in a lot of fights and is particualrly adept/aligned toward Fighting, real shounen 'communicate with our fists!' hours.
Coupled with Astra's psychic broadcasting incontinence, it's not inaccurate to say that he's being blasted with 'bad vibes' here.
This is actually just Astra. She's using her recent experiences and worries as fuel for her tunes.
It's never fun to go against someone so out of it. But it's Astra's mistake to make. If she hadn't been gunning for Champion he might've gone a bit earier; still winning, of course, but make it less devastating. But he's not giving any clearance to someone aiming to be his boss, especially if they think they can do it while acting like this. He gave her plenty of opportunities to drop out, he can't give her much more other than a swift knockout.
He's a true bro. Even if he's not wholly accustomed to comforting people, the basic advice is reasonable.
He's cutting off his own curiosity. He's confused about Astra's mention of 'everyone' and breaks off a question of 'why not just try again later?' because they're both irrelevent to the current situation of Astra having a breakdown. She clearly cares about losing the fight, so perhaps giving her advice on doing better coupled with health advice would be more appropriate. I have...personal experience with trying to make sure ones communication is about the other person rather than yourself or trivial surface things. Most of these experiences are failures.
Well it was either that or just collapse on the spot. She was spontaneously sending people messages without her intention! That's not great!
She's now cognizant enough to take a walk, but doing much more would be unwise.
Thankee.
If Astra was in the business of listening to good ideas she wouldn't have stepped foot in the Gym today.
And her actual business is, unfortunately, booming.
[Astra is Confused! She hurt herself in her Confusion!]
This is the line where the gym and the south half of Dewford vanish into the ocean.
Thank you everybody for the kind reviews! They give me life so that I may rise again from my crypt and lay waste to the living.
Astra's mood could be charitably described as 'verging on caustic'.
If she gets pricked a few more time's she'll fall over and burst into smoke, respawning back in the Rustboro hotel room.
The pokemon influincing them has a name, and it's Astra.
...I thought Sableye was trash? IDK I don't pay attention to competitive or anything.
She could always dress in drag and do the hula.
May has her moments. It's just too bad Astra doesn't quite have the mental capacity to notice at the moment.
Fiction imitates life. Specifically me, when I looked at Brawly's art for the first time when writing this.
It doesn't help that my discord constantly asserts that I am associated with feet, when I am most assuredly not.
Blessed be thy fields, for the bickering hath come to break thy petty bitching drought.
He's a groovy cat who utilizes only the most radical vernacular, broseph jones.
Thank you, I try.
They try their best, but it's not familliar territory.
No lie lasts forever. Especially one as fundamental and kinda shoddy as this one.
I think I've looked at this before.
The only thing left to understand is the mission. If she were still in the forest or on the boat, yes. If the flashbacks had triggered in the town hall, maybe. But Brawly is right there. Momentum is a terrible thing, and some lessons taught have since been forgotten.
The dissonance is insidious. But the one I speak of is maybe not so obvious...
Man's been in a lot of fights and is particualrly adept/aligned toward Fighting, real shounen 'communicate with our fists!' hours.
Coupled with Astra's psychic broadcasting incontinence, it's not inaccurate to say that he's being blasted with 'bad vibes' here.
This is actually just Astra. She's using her recent experiences and worries as fuel for her tunes.
It's never fun to go against someone so out of it. But it's Astra's mistake to make. If she hadn't been gunning for Champion he might've gone a bit earier; still winning, of course, but make it less devastating. But he's not giving any clearance to someone aiming to be his boss, especially if they think they can do it while acting like this. He gave her plenty of opportunities to drop out, he can't give her much more other than a swift knockout.
Double K.O.! Grovyle is definitely Astra's strongest pokemon, and shows with how he's able to still pull through even when Astra isn't making the best tactical decisions.
He's a true bro. Even if he's not wholly accustomed to comforting people, the basic advice is reasonable.
He's cutting off his own curiosity. He's confused about Astra's mention of 'everyone' and breaks off a question of 'why not just try again later?' because they're both irrelevent to the current situation of Astra having a breakdown. She clearly cares about losing the fight, so perhaps giving her advice on doing better coupled with health advice would be more appropriate. I have...personal experience with trying to make sure ones communication is about the other person rather than yourself or trivial surface things. Most of these experiences are failures.
Well it was either that or just collapse on the spot. She was spontaneously sending people messages without her intention! That's not great!
She's now cognizant enough to take a walk, but doing much more would be unwise.
You tend to try to fall back on tactics that have worked with others in the past in a new battlefield, and when something fails, you tend to try to push what previously worked even harder before trying something new. These dorks really have no idea how to handle someone self-destructing, especially because of all these unseen factors they cannot possibly account for.
Thankee.
If Astra was in the business of listening to good ideas she wouldn't have stepped foot in the Gym today.
And her actual business is, unfortunately, booming.
[Astra is Confused! She hurt herself in her Confusion!]
This is the line where the gym and the south half of Dewford vanish into the ocean.
Thank you everybody for the kind reviews! They give me life so that I may rise again from my crypt and lay waste to the living.
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I wonder what would be worse: running into a non-Ancestored Raltz-line under the control of a trainer, and thinking humans somehow dumbed down her species purposefully, or running into one in the wild, and realizing that the only reason your village is as advanced as it is is because your Ancestor somehow crossed the line into humanish thinking by being a trainer's pokemon.
- Location
- Sweden
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Emphasis mine.
Is that confirmed? I have forgotten that piece of lore in that case.
E.I.G.
Robo-Bird
- Pronouns
- It/They
I think it is mostly a solid inference right now due to how the other pokemon Astra has met so far are much more animal-like.
This is most clearly seen in the crossover side story stuff where they are understood better by a non-Astra pokemon of the more human like variety, which is another hint that something strange is happening because Astra rather clearly does not have the same innate understanding that most pokemon, even in this story, possess.
Actually that might be the bigger hint, Astra's tribe can't understand other pokemon in the way humans cannot.
- Location
- Academy City
- Pronouns
- They
It's got a great mega and a solid hidden ability, so it had a bit of time in the sun, but megas are gone now and power creep + move changes means its hidden ability isn't enough to keep it relevant anymore, it's back to being pretty garbage.
"Astra's giving off some bad vibes here."
"What? The music wasn't that bad."
"What?"
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Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Her music actually wasn't that great this time around, for probably obvious reasons.
'Not My style' was Brawly being polite.
- Location
- Earth
Nah, i'm not talking about competitive, that shit can stay in its pit of crap, i'm just saying Sableye is a cool little pokemon and the Dark/Ghost or Ghost/Dark gives it a lot of possibilities story wise and I certainly did not abuse the fact that Fighting types couldn't hurt them in Gen 3 on top of them not having a type weakness until Fairy Type, absolutely not.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sableye are very rare there and Astra is weak to them. If she hears of them she should try to avoid them
Evonix
Aspiring Lovecraft antagonist.
- Location
- Canada to 2 sigmas
The better mon with that combo is of course Spiritomb, the one made by imprisoning 108 malicious spirits in a small rock. That could be a fun addition to the team, especially with the ancestor's sphere nearby.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
There are no Spiritombs to be found in Hoenn. The only wild pokemon around are those found in the original Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald.
As a casual reminder, I literally have not played a single game past emerald.
- Location
- North Wales
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I dunno if trying to corral a Dark type as a Kirlia is a great idea. Can she even communicate with them psychically?
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
RE: Dark types, Astra is functionally mute and also terrified.
A perfect time to let out all her grievances towards humans!
And she's going to do more, of course.
That plus the little pic of *this is going to be a disaster*, I give a good chance for the reveal happening. She told her illusion was losing coherency before she got her berries, and she is still exhausted, likely it will fail out entirely at some point.
- Location
- Columbus, OH