Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)

[Dermonster]

Also I think it would make sense if this cave was closer to the point of no return than not.

Click to shrink...

I guess it could be at like, 250 or 150 maybe, but altering that isn't exactly the same as fixing a typo. It might be better to deal with it than face the problems not changing it might cause later, though...

 

[cB557]

It doesn't strike me as implausible, personally. Don't know how much work a Kadabra can get done in a day, don't know how many calories an abra needs, don't know how easy it might be to just find a horde of zubat to explode. I could definitely see abra needing very little calories, since they're small, not growing, and spend almost all their time asleep.

 

[Dermonster]

There are now only 250 Abra in the caves, down from 500. Please resuspend your disbelief.

If this is still too much, no it isn't.

Thank you for your time.

 

[E.I.G.]

There are now only 250 Abra in the caves. Please resuspend your disbelief.

Thank you for your time.

Click to shrink...

Probably for the best, I was personally a bit confused on how so many were still around if there was a starvation diet going on.

... I'm also suspecting that a number of the Abra are more independent than Echo knows, and that to a degree this colony of Abra has sort of just continued functioning as it did before the rise of the Kadabra since the fall of the intelligent civilization.
There is a real hands off implication to there being so few Kadabra even at the height of the place, and I can't help but wonder if the main downside (other than the food collapse) is that there aren't Kadabra being entertaining as much anymore.

 

[Evonix]

You know, even if no human made spoons are suitable I wonder if the smith kirla from the village would be able to make them

 

[Prof.MoreRight]

You know, even if no human made spoons are suitable I wonder if the smith kirla from the village would be able to make them

Click to shrink...

It would make sense that a psychic might have more success creating a psychic spoon than a
non-psychic,
however the humans almost certainly have a more extensive knowledge of metallurgy outside of more primarily psychic matters.

It seems to me that if the spoons are indeed silver than most likely they have specific trace impurities that aid in handling psychic energy
and/or much like different forms of iron a specific crystal arrangement that might normally be difficult to replicate.

 

[Seraph282]

It would make sense that a psychic might have more success creating a psychic spoon than a
non-psychic,
however the humans almost certainly have a more extensive knowledge of metallurgy outside of more primarily psychic matters.

It seems to me that if the spoons are indeed silver than most likely they have specific trace impurities that aid in handling psychic energy
and/or much like different forms of iron a specific crystal arrangement that might normally be difficult to replicate.

Click to shrink...

So if a human were to prepare an ingot for a Kirlia smith to turn into a spoon it might be a sufficient ethical prosthetic for a Kadabra.

 

[SpoopyGhost]

This was a painful chapter to read, but an excellent one. The confusion over the spoons, the mention of an excess of teleporting bread, and the joy of Barrage were important moments of levity, that also made the bleakness of everything else so much stronger by juxtaposition. I also enjoyed the depth of thought put into the ecosystem of the caves and the impact of the island being settled had on them. The Kadabra's efforts to reverse the tide, do damage control, and eventually to strike back were also important, affording them a sense of agency even in their broader helplessness.

The warrior with five spoons going on an ill-fated rampage also makes the previous jokes at Brendan's expense suddenly so much harsher in hindsight. While I get the impression that event happened far earlier than when he went looking, I shudder to imagine what would have happened had they crossed paths - not only to Brendan, but the potential retribution brought on the Abra settlement for harming the son of a Professor. Regardless of that, that they were forced to resort to such measures at all is a tragedy all of its own; it is a terrible thing, when conflict is at once so very avoidable and yet inevitable. And tragic that it proved so futile, reduced to the subject of idle rumors at that miserable town hall.

The glimpses at a greater culture worn away in moments like the barrage game, the steam bath, and of course the burial, were as beautiful as they were sad, and I truly hope that they can be granted a chance to restore or rebuild and surpass that society someday. May Echo not be the last Kadabra of Dewford island, and may her efforts to hold out give them the chance to flourish again someday.

Much like the violinist, I desperately hope that she may hold out until Astra's work is complete.

Also, I think my roommate is ready to skin you alive and dip you in salt at this point for blueballing him on the reveal again.

Click to shrink...

I think the reveal will happen exactly when it needs to, no later and no sooner. If that is next chapter, that is fine, but if it is not, I do not feel the need to push to rush it forward. I trust Dermonster to know when the time is right. There are still seven gyms to complete, too, so making that happen so early on seems unlikely to me. There is also the possibility for an intermediate stage of awareness, where she has told them she is a psychic, while still hiding being a Pokemon.

Besides, the culture clash and her efforts to conceal her identity are too entertaining interesting to lose by rushing it.

 

[Videogamer921]

I think the reveal will happen exactly when it needs to, no later and no sooner. If that is next chapter, that is fine, but if it is not, I do not feel the need to push to rush it forward. I trust Dermonster to know when the time is right. There are still seven gyms to complete, too, so making that happen so early on seems unlikely to me. There is also the possibility for an intermediate stage of awareness, where she has told them she is a psychic, while still hiding being a Pokemon.

Click to shrink...

I think they're talking like that because the story has been in progress over the course for nearly a decade.

Considering the slow update schedule, (which I'm not complaining about, the story is fantastic.) there could be a lingering dread that it might be a couple years, or even a decade before we get the reveal.

Or the story gets put on a permanent hiatus or cancelled before we ever grasp a hint of reaching the big moment

 

[Dermonster]

To shreds, you say?

 

[Rockcutter]

On the topic of Pokémon intelligence and continuity. Derm, is this story based on Emerald as an individual game? Or just everything Pokémon but pre gen 4? I ask because it's clear in the games and anime that legendaries sit at a higher level of awareness than your average pidgey. However in the anime, while Zapdos talks like an ancient warlord through electric shocks the games are more ambiguous. There's also the factor of true supernatural phenomena with no explicit materialist explanation. Ghosts, the existence of unique Legendaries, sympathetic connections between things like the rainbow wing summoning Ho-oh if you specifically go to the tower with it. To be more clear, these factors somewhat imply a universe with higher powers than just Pokémon types and I'm curious how this gels with your stated position on most Pokémon being closer to Neanderthals that can be trained up to caveman levels with effort.

Maybe I'm rambling incomprehensibly so I guess I just want to know how you arrived at your position world building wise.

This chapter really got me emotional enough to stop being lazy and comment.

 

[famfrit]

Considering the slow update schedule, (which I'm not complaining about, the story is fantastic.) there could be a lingering dread that it might be a couple years, or even a decade before we get the reveal.

Or the story gets put on a permanent hiatus or cancelled before we ever grasp a hint of reaching the big moment

Click to shrink...

Well at least if it goes on that long it will probably eventually win the user's choice awards.

 

[Dermonster]

I just want to know how you arrived at your position world building wise.

Click to shrink...

I wanted a world where a pokemon would need to disguise themselves as a human and go on a trainer adventure. I came up with the motive, and then realized that if there were like, literally any other pokemon capable of being level with humans, the entire premise of needing to hide falls apart because, well, listen. we all know if Astra had come clean to birch in that lab everything would have turned out pretty alright. and knowing that there are multiple other pokemon as intelligent as her coexisting with humanity already would basically lead to the same thing happening around the same time she learned about it. But that's not a story that leads where I want to go.

So, Pokemon are not by default capable of achieving communication and understanding that easily.

Legendaries are legendary. If anything could ever be described as unique existances surpassing the norm, it would be them.

...but maybe some moreso than others. And some minor ones may not be quite as unique, either.

Well at least if it goes on that long it will probably eventually win the user's choice awards.

Click to shrink...

Mountains of silver! I WILL SIT ATOP A GRADIENT THRONE OF PURITY AND TARNISH

 

[MrHobbit]

I was looking at the SB thread talking about egg moves, while these Abra might not get egg moves, but Ralts from Astra's village would, sort of. They should have egg moves from the days before they got uplifted, like Disable from Kadabra. They might get Grudge or Mean Look from Shuppet. There's several other moves too. Mystical Fire is the only egg move I noticed that the Ralts-line can get by sticking among themselves. Gardevoir can learn it from a move relearner starting in Gen 9, so who can say if the village has them or if Dermonster is even using it. If it is an egg move in the village, it'd probably be seen as a sign of prestige due to Gardevoir heritage.

I almost want to ask how exactly Pokemon inherit moves, but I understand enough about Pokemon to know not to.

I am curious though how the two villages view shiny pokemon. They've been around long enough for shinies to be known, and obviously rare. They're probably seen as omens, but omens for what? Though the Abra village would only really have the Kadabras to have cultural beliefs about shinies. (also, why is it that shiny Abra and Kadabra don't have pink or purple carapces? They had it in gen2, and the Alakazam kept that color carapace, but they didn't)

There are now only 250 Abra in the caves, down from 500. Please resuspend your disbelief.

If this is still too much, no it isn't.

Thank you for your time.

Click to shrink...

I hope I wasn't irritating you. In retrospect my focus on it seems irritating to me. Sorry if I was. I think it's a good choice, though.

 

[Dermonster]

. Mystical Fire is the only egg move I noticed that the Ralts-line can get by sticking among themselves. Gardevoir can learn it from a move relearner starting in Gen 9, so who can say if the village has them or if Dermonster is even using it. If it is an egg move in the village, it'd probably be seen as a sign of prestige due to Gardevoir heritage.

Click to shrink...

This literally didn't exist when I wrote the first 10 chapters of Hyphen, but I will remind you that at least one of the Kirlia in Astra's village could directly shape fire to make cool scenes.

 

[Norr]

A heavy chapter this time, and I adore the worldbuilding.
Hyphen remains a fic worth waiting for.

[Is mostly shit-taker,]

Click to shrink...

I actually assumed these were shii-take mushrooms at first, but those grow on dead wood. Champignons are commercially grown in cow dung in dark spaces though, so maybe something closer to that. Hilariously descriptive name all the same.

Total ecological collapse isn't fun or exciting, but it is relevant.

Click to shrink...

"Oh, the weapon didn't kill them, it killed their food."

because they've lived on a majority of poison for several decades.

Click to shrink...

I wonder if a big batch of dried pecha berries would work as a short-term fix. Just mix a bit into each batch of stew to neutralise the poison.

I never said my MS Paint chart was perfect. :<

Click to shrink...

Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough. Also, Mawile learns Sweet scent for ambush tactics and several dark-type moves which are neutral for Sableye. They make for a believable predator/prey pair.

It's not like the pokeball is sapient either!

Click to shrink...

*Has sudden vaguely horrifying thoughts about apricorns, Voltorbs and implications of pokeball manufacturing*

It wouldn't be a very good disguise if it couldn't pass at least a cursory inspection from any sensing pokemon skills or human technology now would it?

Click to shrink...

Maybe she carries a Ring Target.

Click to shrink...

I remember a fic (I think from Saphroneth?) where Ash was actually a Zorua in disguise. His mother (a Zoroark) always made sure he carried a Ring Target so psychic types wouldn't realise something was up.

 

[Dermonster]

I actually assumed these were shii-take mushrooms at first, but those grow on dead wood. Champignons are commercially grown in cow dung in dark spaces though, so maybe something closer to that. Hilariously descriptive name all the same.

Click to shrink...

She looked up to see the tunnel abruptly terminate in a completely flat wall of stone. A couple tables and benches lined the walls, covered in strange implements—some of which Astra could vaguely recognize as tools similar to the ones the berry field tenders used. She could certainly recognize a large bucket covered in foul stains; much like her villages 'compost' situation, wherever the Abra did their business, it seemed to end up here at some point. There was a whiff of it in the air, like she had gotten too close to the fields during the growing seasons. Otherwise there was a lot of...wood shavings? And nearer to the wall was a large green pack alongside a smaller wooden case with a very familiar hat perched on top.

Click to shrink...

:>

 

[Sengachi]

Oh jeez. They're running up against the metabolic cost of increased brain complexity, aren't they? Whatever was done to uplift the Abras, it's not translating into more food reliably enough to compensate for shifting conditions. And so an already not guaranteed transformation out of a neotenic phase became even more costly and they became less able to provide for it. So when times got bad, they had even fewer higher evolutions than they did before the uplift. The slow suffocating death of a species and their sapience, because they became sapient. Gods, that's tragic.

And when "times getting bad" was an entire trophic cascade and the annihilation of passed-on knowledge among the local species ... fuck.

The psychic bullet hell game is so cute and the Abras watching were very sweet though. It makes me wish we could have seen this culture in its prime.

 

[Swagner]

... I'm also suspecting that a number of the Abra are more independent than Echo knows, and that to a degree this colony of Abra has sort of just continued functioning as it did before the rise of the Kadabra since the fall of the intelligent civilization.

Click to shrink...

I kinda think that, prior to the rise of their civilization, you'd almost never find that many Abra so tightly packed together. Truly "wild" Abra could probably survive on their own in the right environment, but that environment probably isn't a cave system where most of the animals are either poisonous or made of metal; probably the only reason it worked in the first place was through a combination of basic agriculture (mushroom growing) and having Kadabra to hunt meatier prey for them. Being weird insectoid-fox-things makes it hard to directly correlate them to any real animal, but just spitballing here, maybe the ludicrously high Abra-to-Kadabra ratio is indicative of them reproducing more like insects than mammals; i.e. their behavior in the wild would basically be "lay a shitload of eggs in places with easily available food and then hope they survive to adulthood". Caring for the Abra was Echo's job, and not apparently a role instinctively taken on by the parents of the individual Abra. Maybe in the right environment (ex: Kanto), Abra are decently self-sufficient, living off of eggs stolen from nests and berries and whatnot, and The Ancestor moved them to the island to force them to learn to cooperate?

They (the ones on the island) might even be on their way (or would be if they were not rapidly going extinct) to becoming a new breed (or regional variant if you prefer) of Abra/Kadabra that's more social, more cooperative, and less territorial than their cousins elsewhere as a result of The Ancestor's tampering.

 

[Compellor]

About the amount of exposition - I'm not complaining, but I do have some thoughts. There might be a sentence here or there that I would cut, but I think I'd struggle to significantly reduce the word length without entirely reworking or sacrificing something major.

Subtract all of the exposition and the chapter boils down to: Echo and Astra play a game, Astra texts with her friends, the Abra funeral, and then saying goodbye. Those make for a pretty good chapter! I wouldn't want to remove any of them. So what about the exposition? I think you can divide the exposition into two major groups - the description of the Abra and their home, and their history.

The first group is smaller, but it clearly faces the "a picture is worth a thousand words" problem. I liked the caverns, but I would have liked them better if I was learning about them through environmental storytelling in a video game. I think many writers would tell you to cut down the more visual elements of the chapter as much as possible, even if I'd hesitate to do that myself. I do think you tried a little too hard to create a sense of wonder in every little detail about how the Abra are living, or once lived. It mostly works, I enjoyed it, but you already accomplished that to some extent last chapter. I think sometimes once a chapter has created a feeling you're safe to just dump exposition in a few short sentences instead of working to maintain that feeling.

The second group's problem is that it's a story told as history. Describing a series of historical events is fine if writing it another way would be too long or not interesting. Typically though, you want to tell a historical story as much as possible from the perspective of those who lived it, as flashback rather than exposition. Some could be from Echo's perspective, but you can get away with telling parts from the other Kadabras' perspective if they would have later told their tales to Echo. I think it would be challenging to find the best way to write the whole story of the dwindling in less than 10k words while establishing some dead characters, but I think it could be done.

 

[MrHobbit]

Being weird insectoid-fox-things makes it hard to directly correlate them to any real animal, but just spitballing here, maybe the ludicrously high Abra-to-Kadabra ratio is indicative of them reproducing more like insects than mammals; i.e. their behavior in the wild would basically be "lay a shitload of eggs in places with easily available food and then hope they survive to adulthood". Caring for the Abra was Echo's job, and not apparently a role instinctively taken on by the parents of the individual Abra. Maybe in the right environment (ex: Kanto), Abra are decently self-sufficient, living off of eggs stolen from nests and berries and whatnot, and The Ancestor moved them to the island to force them to learn to cooperate?

They (the ones on the island) might even be on their way (or would be if they were not rapidly going extinct) to becoming a new breed (or regional variant if you prefer) of Abra/Kadabra that's more social, more cooperative, and less territorial than their cousins elsewhere as a result of The Ancestor's tampering.

Click to shrink...

I agree with the idea that Abra usually don't live that densely. That'd be a large impediment to population increases like that.

But I don't think I agree with your proposed Abra reproduction scheme. I can't help but wonder if the Abra to Kadabra ratio was off because of the shepherding. These Abra were a lot more dependent on the Kadabra than the Abra found elsewhere. Abra of the Granite Cave evolve after they have become sapient, obviously Abra elsewhere don't. It's probably that these Abra had and have their needs cared for by Kadabra without needing to do it themselves. They don't have their minds stimulated as much, so they don't evolve. The chosen get more food, more intellectual stimulation, ect. So the others stagnate. Kadabras not having children of their own also means that children with a predisposition to language don't contribute that predisposition back to the broader population.

They might still be on their way to a Psychic/Poison regional variant, if they survive without the diet being fixed.

 

[Swagner]

Abra of the Granite Cave evolve after they have become sapient, obviously Abra elsewhere don't.

Click to shrink...

What makes you think that? We haven't seen Abra in any other situation yet, it might very well be that none of them are sapient until they're on the cusp of evolution. Sapience isn't necessary for survival in the wild; after all, most pokemon in this setting are only as intelligent as IRL animals, and they're clearly doing just fine. It definitely is possible, though, that the lack of natural intellectual stimulation in the caves is causing problems for their development.

 

[Dermonster]

From the dawn of their founding until the Diminishing, the Granite Cave Abra were noticibly more intelligent on average than a wild Abra would be.

This is because—in addition to having sufficient food around—there were roughly 20-30 Kadabra taking shifts on enriching whoever was awake at the time with stories, performances, games of spectacle, and otherwise constantly thinking of cool new things to do for them and each other. This didn't lead the masses of Abra into becoming Kadabra because all of this was generalized across an audience and not specifically concentrated on one individual. Also life was generally stress-free; there wasn't any urgent need to evolve like a Wild Abra would experience. If conflict found them while they were wandering around, they'd either instantly teleport back home and not go back out for a long while, or get eaten. Or caught by a human, later on.

After thirty five years of a single Kadabra barely managing to keep them fed on developmentally harmful poisonous meat and every form of stimuli either stagnant or gone...well, now Wild Abra are better off.

 

[MrHobbit]

What makes you think that? We haven't seen Abra in any other situation yet, it might very well be that none of them are sapient until they're on the cusp of evolution. Sapience isn't necessary for survival in the wild; after all, most pokemon in this setting are only as intelligent as IRL animals, and they're clearly doing just fine. It definitely is possible, though, that the lack of natural intellectual stimulation in the caves is causing problems for their development.

Click to shrink...

Dermonster already talked about the Abra, but sapience in Hyphen isn't that simple for Pokemon. Roxanne talked about it in Chapter 20 and Dermonster's commented about it. Pokemon aren't naturally sapient. It's not part of their nature. They need years dedicated effort to lift them to that point. That training benefits their offspring, but they won't be naturally sapient either. It's like an egg move, but much more marginal. They need those same years of dedicated effort. It's not like with people, who can just pick it up with a normal childhood.

Astra's village received the attention of a very dedicated and powerful Gardevoir for thousands of years. She started with the first generation, then the second generation, and so on for thousands of years. She did that until human-level intelligence was the baseline and it became self-sustaining.

I suspect there's a few things that lead to that divergence. Astra's village had access to its greatest evolution. Who knows how you get Alakazam in Hyphen. The Ancestor wasn't the only Gardevoir, merely the longest lived. That's a decent amount of advantage when it comes to gathering resources, managing the youth, ect. Astra's village was hidden better than the Granite Cave Abras and they had more food acess. The Granite Cave Kadabra also didn't seem that dedicated to uplifting their entire community. I'm sure they would have if they could, but they were only mortal. Astra's village had the single-minded determination of a spiteful godling forcing it into sapience.

From the dawn of their founding until the Diminishing, the Granite Cave Abra were noticibly more intelligent on average than a wild Abra would be.
....
After thirty five years of a single Kadabra barely managing to keep them fed on developmentally harmful poisonous meat and every form of stimuli either stagnant or gone...well, now Wild Abra are better off.

Click to shrink...

I wonder if it would have been possible for them all to get sapience by extremely miniscule marginal improvements over hundreds of millennia. They wouldn't be Abra by that time, but it's interesting to think about!

...Best case scenario all of that progress wasn't lost... just buried. Buried under a lot of rubble, but hopefully accessible if they get the food and medical care they need? It just drives home how much has been lost because of this.

 

[Half_Baked_Cat]

AN: I will post Pokenya story on this site... shortly.

Interrobang 1

In the depths outside of space and time where eldritch gods lay dead, dreaming their dead dreams, a pair of legendary beings sneeze in their sleep crash a universe.

---

"Again!" Z yelled, annoyed at the error message on display. "What is going on?"

"Looks like Palkia and Dialga wanted to add in some more into our group," J piped up, pulling up the ?????????? stat sheet that froze everything.

"Why are they so concerned about this group that they keep giving it more to work with?" M asked.

"I don't care!" Z yelled. "Just find out what they are supposed to be! F and D, get ready to install whatever module we need for them."

"Found it!" H said. He looked it over, visibly wincing. "Woo boy, is it a doozy."

"Auch," B said in agreement. "It seems to be a multilayered Marshadow. It looks like they're sapient; what do we do about that?"

"We already have a whole section of code dedicated to sapient Pokemon," C said. "We can utilize that module and build up the rest from there within the shell of a Marshadow sub-module."

"Damn Palkia and Dialga," Z muttered. "I bet those pompous bastards over in AN-1M-3 never have to deal with this crap. Well, everyone, let's get to work! I want this up and running now!"

"'AYE!'"

---

I was no longer where I was supposed to be. I was piled up against a wall with Ginger and several random pokémon in what appeared to be a hotel room.

"What the fuck?" the harsh tone of a young girl exclaimed as she scrambled off a nearby bed.

Slowly, I detangled myself from the pile, cooly meeting the furious glare of the red-clad teenager in front of me.

"Who the fuck are you?" she shouted, fists raised as if ready to personally throw hands. "What the fuck are you doing barging into our room like that?"

I gave the foul mouthed girl a glare, though my mask seemed to reduce the effectiveness of the sentiment. "Language, young lady," I said. I didn't put up with such crass language in my classroom for over a century, I wasn't going to let a young girl use such language casually here either. "My name is Tanya, and I did not barge into your room."

"Oh? And what pray tell do you fucking call that?" The girl asked, pointing to where Ginger was getting up from some other pokémon I had not seen before.

I considered the question. The transition had been rather abrupt, but I'd seen enough strangeness in my many lifetimes to make a reasonable assumption. "If I was to hazard a guess... an interdimensional transference coinciding with a rather unfortunate timing of excitement mixed with exasperation."

She stared at me, fury momentarily replaced with a baffled squint. "What?"

"Me and Ginger got transported here against our will while we were running."

"And where did you get transported from?" Another girl asked, her voice sounding...peculiar. I ignored her and her question for the moment and strode over to the window. Looking into the skyscape, a very different, very unfamiliar city greeted me.

"I would say a different world is most likely, but Pewter City specifically." I answered, still examining the buildings. Aside from the Pokecenters and Pokemarts, none of the visible signage or storefronts seemed recognizable, and I'm sure I would have remembered a city containing the two towers that dominated the skyline.

"Pewter City? You're from Kanto?" The crude girl asked.

"Yes, but I will need to make a call to see if it is the same one I was just in," I said, turning around and getting a better look at who was in the room. The angry one in red was obviously the crude one. The other one stiffened up as I looked her over. She had green hair and red eyes, and was wrapped up entirely in towels like some sort of terry cotton mummy.

Something about her was setting my senses on edge, and not just my aesthetic ones.

The girl in red glared at me again. "Well, shorty, feel free to get the hell out of our room and make your call."

"Astra, she's in the same boat we were in not long ago. The same as I still am!" Another spoke up, mixed in with the distinctive sound of a pokémon saying their own name. Looking at the one who spoke, I saw it was some sort of yellow doll looking pokémon with hakama looking legs and a massive black ponytail. A ponytail that looked like it was grinning at me.

"Oh, you also crossed dimensions?" I asked.

The doll turned towards me with wide eyes. "You can understand me?"

"Huh?" The rude girl asked, looking between me and the doll-like pokemon. "Who are you talking to?"

"Her, obviously," I said, rolling my eyes. "Maybe if you cleaned out your ears and listened more than you swore you could learn to understand the basics of a civil conversation."

"Why you little," the girl got up, looking rather angry. Hmm, she seemed to have a rather short temper.

"May! No!" The other girl said, standing up and grabbing the other girl's shoulder to stop her.

She said it, but her lips did not match the movements. Looking closer, her stiffening again under my gaze, I noticed a few other details I hadn't before. Like how I hadn't noticed her face's coloration, or lack thereof. Or that her hair was entirely in front of her face, but not blocking her eyes in a manner human hair does not grow. Or that her hands moved like she was wearing mittens.

Clever. Very clever. Layering a field to be less noticeable on top of an illusion. Which meant... she was also a pokémon. One that clearly needed help if I was able to see through her disguise within half a minute while distracted. Though, maybe it was unfair of anyone to expect them to account for my centuries of experience with zero warning.

"Might I suggest a mask?" I asked.

"You calling me ugly now?" The rude girl, May, snarled, taking another step towards me.

"Not you," I said, brushing aside the threat. "Astra, was it? Your illusion is good, but the face is a rather hard thing to get right. Using a mask would greatly decrease the complexity needed if you're affecting your entire face and not just using a little bit as a form of makeup."

"Huh? The hell are you- illusions?" May asked, turning to Astra, who was wide eyed and opened mouthed.

"Wh—I—how?" she stammered, shocked.

"Hey, hang on now-" the doll spoke up.

"The telepathy was the first clue that something was unusual about you," I answered, assuming my teaching posture. "That, combined with your mouth not syncing up with the words I was hearing made me take a closer look. I realized I hadn't taken in your appearance like I normally would, which told me you had layered on a SEP field around yourself, but those only work until someone focuses on you specifically. And once I did, I noticed how your hair was in front of your face in a way human bangs do not hang, you are far too pale even for someone who has albinism, and you move your hand as though you are wearing a mitten."

"Wait, what?" May asked, looking between the two of us. "Astra, what the hell is she talking about?"

Astra had gone several shades paler, an impressive feat considering she was already stark-white to begin with, and backed away, looking scared. The doll Pokemon just sighed and put its hands over its face.

Hmm, I seemed to have made a mistake. "You have been sharing a room with her and never noticed your friend?" I asked May, shaking my head. "What a horrible roommate you must be."

"Hey!" she yelled, looking more offended at that than my ostensible break-in. "I'm not a horrible roommate! Tell her Astra! I'm great!"

Astra declined to comment, preferring to shake like a leaf in a storm.

"Prove it," I say, grinning behind my mask.

"What? How?"

"Tell your friend that you accept her, even if she isn't human."

She squinted at me, bewildered. "What? Why would I need to do that?"

"Because you are the only human in the room."

I take off my mask and look up at the much taller girl, my face contorted into a mask of contempt.

May takes a step back in shock before turning to Astra.

Astra stares at me in utter shock before her eyes unfocus slightly. Slowly, the towels begin to drop and Astra's form is revealed as her illusion dissipates. "Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'm not human either. Can I wake up now?" she asks, sounding thoroughly out of it.

"What? You…huh!?" May grabbed her head as she tried to grapple with the reveal. "You!" she pointed at me, accusingly. "Why the fuck!? Augh, what the hell is going on here!? Screw this shit, I need some air!"

May marched over to the hotel door. I sank into the shadows and came out in front of her, between her and the door. "If you need a moment, you can go to the bathroom, but I cannot let you leave until this is discussed."

"Oh? And you are going to stop me, Pipsqueak?" May threatened, looming over me and apparently completely unphased at me rising from the floor like a horror movie monster.

I pulled upon the miasma of death that infused my very being from dying multiple times and all the deaths I had caused to form a deadly orb above my outstretched hand. A ball that wailed with the cries of the deceased.

"Yes," I say calmly. "If I must. I do not know if you understand the seriousness of the situation and your behavior so far leads me to having doubts."

I had seen many students in my time with attitudes similar to May's. Anti-establishment, let it all burn types that did not take anything seriously. That would leak secrets… similarly to what I had fumbled my way into doing.

The two of us stared down the other. May broke first, looking back at where Astra and our pokemon were staring at us before huffing and took her seat at the table where an empty pizza box sat. The doll pokémon's eyes remained similarly locked on me, an unreadable expression on its face, but it said nothing. I let the orb slowly dissipate.

"So, is someone going to explain to me what the fuck is going on?" May asked, crossing her arms.

"In a moment, yes," I acknowledged. "But what is happening is not important right now. What is important right now is making it clear that you are not allowed to tell anyone about me or Astra without our express permission first. It is not your secret to tell."

"Well, you did a wonderful job revealing her secret yourself," the doll pokémon huffed.

I felt myself flush in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to!" I said, turning to the doll. "You would think after a few decades of doing theater, including some improv work, I would be able to tell when someone is actually hiding something! But no, I just learned how to play to the back of the theater."

May coughed to get the attention back to her. "I...still don't know what the hell is going on, but I promise not to tell, or whatever."

"Really?" Astra asked in a small telepathic voice, having recovered from her dissociative break.

"Sure," she said, blankly. "Not like I care that you've been lying to me about being a pokémon this whole time or anything. Or that talking pokemon actually exist. Or that one is my best friend. No big deal at all. 's fine."

May made a peculiar, scrunched face, and then devolved into horrified realization. Her head dropped into her hands with an audible groan. "For fuck's sake, my best friend is a Pokemon. Those jackasses in school were right. Is my life a cartoon? Holy shit."

May continued to have an existential crisis by closely examining her palms. Astra stared at her, looking conflicted, before deciding to take her friend's statements at face value.

"Thank you May!" Astra practically yelled as she hugged her friend, tears rolling down her cheeks. May yelped in shock as Astra nearly knocked her off the chair, then hesitantly hugged the girl back, a complicated expression on her face.

With that out of the way, I felt a nudge as Ginger tried to get my attention.

"Odd?"

I placed a hand on the top of her head. "I'm sorry Ginger, but I'll have to give you a rain check on that treat. I don't even know if I can access my money here or if it is any good even if I can." I grabbed her ball off of my belt. "But I won't forget."

Looking back at the two friends hugging... well, Astra was still hugging; May was now trying to get out of the embrace, looking embarrassed about the whole thing. I took off my backpack and began digging in it, soon pulling out my old mask. It was rough, plain, bare wood, but it should do for now.

"Astra, here," I said, holding out the mask for the girl to take.

"Huh? What's this?" she asked, letting go of May to accept the mask.

"It is my old mask. I want you to have it since I don't need it anymore; my current one suits my purposes well enough and this one is still usable."

May looked me over, seeing what I was wearing with a raised eyebrow. "And what did you wear before that?"

I pulled out my old robe and hat and tossed them on real quick to show off the vaguely witch look I used to have. May looked between the two of us as she seemed to make more connections in her head now that she knew Astra and I were pokémon. "Astra, we are going shopping tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because your outfit fucking sucks balls. It is literally just a single roll of cloth you wrap yourself in like a damned Dusclops."

"It's what?" I ask, almost unable to believe May's statement.

The doll-like pokemon proffers a small pile of newly-cleaned black cloth on the table. Astra demonstrates by telekinetically wrapping the long, uniform bolt of uncut cloth around herself until only her hands and face are visible. She then dons a straw sunhat.

I stare at her. Sure, her face is much more obscured now, and her previous display of illusions now made more sense, but...

"You were trying to hide, right?" I check.

May and the doll burst into laughter. Astra turns pink with anger and embarrassment.

"It's not that bad!" she protests, very incorrectly. "It was the best we had!"

I pause, then lean forward intently.

"And what do you mean," I say, slowly. "by 'we'?"

Astra turns white again, and gulps.