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The difference between a Pokemon Trainer and a Pokemon-Trainer.

Hyphen is a Pokémon Fan Fiction created by Dermonster.

The plot is an AU of Pokemon Emerald, where the Ralts that would be captured by Wally dodges the Pokeball and flees instead. She then finds the discarded Pokeball and eventually decides to disguise herself and become a Pokémon Trainer, receiving the name 'Astra' as she does so.

The work can be found on Archive of Our Own (here), Royal Road (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), and SpaceBattles.com (here), though the author recommends AO3 or Sufficient Velocity for proper formatting and discussion respectively.note 

Astra co-stars in another fanfic, Backslash, a crossover between Hyphen and A Backwards Grin by Flairina. Backslash can also be found on Sufficient Velocity and AO3.


Hyphen provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Personality Change:
    • May's upbeat, determined, and food-loving personality from the games and anime is still present. But due to Norman being a selfish workaholic in this story, she's also belligerent, foul-mouthed, and both resistant to make new friends due to losing so many in the past and, simultaneously, borderline obsessed with the ones she does have.
    • In the games, Norman was busy at his Gym to the point that he rarely came home but still had a close and loving relationship with his wife and child. In this story, he has always been a selfish workaholic who didn't slow his pace for his wife or daughter, repeatedly and uncaringly uprooting the family to face the League in other regions. And when he finally retired from traveling, and they settled in Hoenn, he moved into the Petalburg Gym two towns over from his family's house. His relationship with his wife is unknown, but the one time he interacts with his daughter in this story, all he does is push the chore of helping Wally on her and then tell her to come back when she has four badges, when all she wanted was to talk to him.
  • Adaptational Relationship Change:
    • Norman, in the games, was a dedicated trainer and a loving husband and father. In this story, he's only a dedicated trainer, neglectful of his family bordering on abuse. To put it lightly, his daughter May's opinion of him is poor.
    • While Max in the anime is May's younger brother and Norman's son, here he replaces the unnamed younger child of Professor Birch, making him Brendan's younger brother.
  • Ancestral Weapon: Astra's father was a guard of their village, a master with a spear. The day before Astra leaves on her journey, she brings the rusty spearhead to the smith, who reforges it into a knife for Astra to take with her.
  • Badass Grandma: Last Echo the Kadabra proves to be a formidable force as she effortlessly teleports May and Brendan deep into the cave and nearly takes out Astra after briefly mistaking her for a human due to her disguise. Astra instinctually calls her “Grandma” for a short time due to delirium.
  • Battle Theme Music: Astra provides this on her own while in gym battles.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Astra's knife, reforged from her father's spearhead. She's had no reason to use it yet...
  • Constantly Curious: The entire adventure is started when Astra becomes fascinated with a Poké Ball. It leads to her ignoring the warnings of her village and venturing out into a nearby human settlement where she is drawn in by her curiosity.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: While Astra is staying with Last Echo the Kadabra, she is given a stew that is made with Makuhita meat with a faint aftertaste of bitterness. When Astra comments on the taste, Echo reveals that her 'usual' fare consists mostly of Zubat meat, which is explicitly poisonous and unsafe to eat. Justified as it becomes clear that Granite Cave has few options for meals she can provide the Abra, leaving her little choice but to feed them the hazardous but otherwise abundant meat.
  • Cover-Blowing Superpower: Astra's Psychic Powers, including telekinesis and telepathy, are potentially this. She avoids using most of her powers in public, only using telepathy to speak and disguising it as ventriloquism for normal conversation and musical direction for battling. Unfortunately, the ruse doesn't last: Pokémon experts like Professor Birch and Roxanne figure out her telepathy not long after meeting her, and Steven Stone sees through it the first time he hears her talk. Nobody has called her out on it yet, though, and Roxanne comes under the belief that Astra hides her abilities due to the stigma associated with Psychic Humans.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Astra's first battle against May in Petalburg: with no grasp of the disadvantage that Grass has against Fire, May's Torchic beats Astra's Treecko with just two attacks.
    • May makes the fatal mistake of picking a fight with Steven Stone, the Pokémon Champion of Hoenn, dragging Astra along as a Double Battle partner. Before either of them have gotten any badges. Steven only has to issue a single command to wipe out their entire team.
  • Curb Stomp Cushion: Astra and May's battle against Steven. Steven wipes out both of their zero-badge teams with just his Skarmory, and spends most of the battle standing back and letting Skarmory's natural abilities and experience handle the whole fight. But the two had enough tactical skill to force Steven to actually try against them, if only briefly: right when they think they've gotten the upper hand, Steven orders Skarmory to use Steel Wing, and that ends the battle.
    • Astra’s fight against Brawly ends up being a pretty bad loss for Astra, but she manages to do well enough to knock out one of Brawly’s team of three and get a few hits in on his second despite being extremely unfocused and strained both physically and mentally. Brawly even praises her attempt, but insists she take some time to rest so she’s in a better place the next time they fight.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Ancestor's orb, implied to be Shadow Gardevoirite, contains some of the Ancestor Gardevoir's memories and knowledge, as well as great and terrible power. Astra's mother used it to fight a threat to the village, killing herself and Astra's father at the same time. It leaves behind an area of cold, lifeless desert where nothing will ever grow again. The first time Astra truly tries diving into the orb's power, she's overcome by murderous hatred towards people she's been angry at and causes a massive wake of similar destruction in the forest and scarring the sky itself a putrid, bruising yellow. As soon as she comes back to her senses, she's horrified.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • Astra has shades of this; her parents pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to save the village from an Alpha Mightyena before she was born, and she hates that she never knew them.
    • The Ancestor, the Gardevoir who founded the village, faced betrayal at the hands of a human she loved, and she turned cold, bitter, and hateful for the rest of her life afterward.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: An unusually aggressive and strong Nincada unexpectedly showed submission and an eagerness to join Astra's party after she defeated him in Chapter 22.
  • The Empath: Astra, obviously. This sadly proves to be a detriment when she ends up in a room where a hate-filled argument breaks out.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Frequently.
    • Twice at the end of Chapter 18. First crosses with Dramatic Irony, wherein Astra and May dismiss Team Aqua as a potential threat. The second is invoked, as they launch into crazy conspiracy theories about the important papers that the Devon worker was carrying.
    • In Chapter 20, after Astra evolves, she's aware that growing eight inches in less than an hour is going to raise suspicions. However, she incorrectly assumes that growing eight inches in a week is more acceptable. May and Brendan pick up on the odd changes fairly quickly.
    • In Chapter 28, after her class ends, Roxanne attempts to talk to Astra about her telepathy. But due to being in a lecture hall, she decides to be circuitous for the sake of subtlety. This has the unfortunate side effect of Astra mistakenly believing that Roxanne is talking about her supposed albinism.
    • In Chapter 33, Astra hears the terms 'breakdancing' and 'boombox' for the first time, and also hears 'club' ignorant to the fact that they don't mean the weapon. She marvels at how so many things humans make are inherently violent.
    • Also in Chapter 33, while Astra is busy dissecting gossip at the town hall, May and Brendan are discussing her unnatural growth spurt. Several chapters prior, when she learned that Astra's cloak wasn't even a proper garment, just a single piece of fabric, May considered she may have been part of a cult. Now she's considering that she may be an Eldritch Abomination summoned by a cult instead, which Brendan refutes.
  • Fan Art: It's technically commissioned, but there are many illustrations of scenes in the story from Dexexe1234.
  • Fish out of Water: Astra's village's knowledge of humans comes largely from stories and occasional spy work. Astra didn't even know about timekeeping or money before she left, but she picks things up quickly. May tactlessly displays her incredulity about this multiple times in Chapter 15.
  • Forced Sleep: Last Echo the Kadabra puts Astra to sleep in Chapter 35 when she sees that the Kirlia is absolutely exhausted. By way of psychic powers, she only sleeps for two hours, but is well-rested as though she were out for eight.
  • Gender Flip: Canonically, the Ralts Wally caught is male, but Astra is female.
  • Great Offscreen War:
    • Exactly what happened in this AU is unknown, but it ties into the barely fleshed canon lore surrounding the Regis; namely, how humans sealed them away because they feared them. So far, it seems to begin with an unnamed warlord murdering Regigigas and enslaving the Regi Trio. This somehow leads into the Ancestor, the Covered in Scars Gardevoir who founded Astra's village, fleeing the human world with every member of her line in the entire region after being betrayed by the human she loved. She subsequently founds the village and sets up Psychic wards that prevent detection from the outside world—with the notable exception of Dark-type Pokemon, such as the local Poochyena. To the world at large, the Ralts-line has been considered extinct in Hoenn ever since.
    • Forty years prior to the story, there was a war between Hoenn and Kanto. In Chapter 33, an old man rants about it, blaming the destruction in Rustboro on them.
  • Harder Than Hard: Played with for Astra, as her declaration that she would become the next champion results in both Roxanne (in retrospect) and Brawly making her gym challenges more difficult to determine if she is truly worthy of becoming the next champion.
  • Hates Being Alone: May both subverts this and plays it straight: Due to her father forcing their family to move around a lot, and hence forcing May to lose all friendships she had established to that point, she's grown largely cold and callous at the concept of making more friends. Brendan and Astra are the only exceptions due to the inherent connection of their three starter Pokémon, and hence, she clings to them with a bit of desperation. An example being her getting visibly agitated when Brendan stays behind at Petalburg instead of traveling with her and Astra.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Astra receives her name only the night before she visits Professor Birch.
  • Heroic RRoD: Astra has one in Chapter 34, with all the pressure of everything that's happened since they set off for Dewford weighing on her. Despite her absolute exhaustion, she's adamant that she needs to keep going, both before and after that exhaustion leads to her losing 3-1 to Brawly.
  • I Heard That: In Chapter 18, after a Team Aqua Grunt sends out a Carvanha...onto the forest floor:
    May: ...do you think he knows there’s no water here?
    Astra: I don’t think we should tell him. He might get upset
    Grunt: (with Cross-Popping Veins) I can hear you!
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Subverted with Nurse Joys, as Astra finds out that it's more of a title and one "Joy" is actually wearing a wig.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Astra often gets understandably uncomfortable at some human's lack of consideration to a Pokémon's feelings, such as when May captures a Lotad and initially plans to leave the area without letting it say goodbye to its friends until Astra convinces her to allow it.
  • Instant Expert: Astra doesn't master the violin immediately, but she shows the expertise of a couple of months after practicing for only a couple of hours. Partially explained as Astra skipping part of the learning process by manipulating the strings with her powers rather than holding them down with her fingers—which are entirely unsuited for pressing down on the neck of the instrument like a human would.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In this story, May is foul-mouthed and aggressive on the surface, but she cares very much for the few friends she has, to the point of insisting on sharing a hotel room with Astra upon learning she was planning to sleep outside despite having only just met her.
  • Lady Swears-a-Lot: May, and how. Norman's selfishness has given her a lifetime of issues and she doesn't hold back from showing what it's done to her.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Chapter 30, May expresses relief at leaving Rustboro, mentioning that it feels like they've been there for three years. It took about that long for the arc to finish getting written in real life.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: The unnamed Team Aqua grunt that stole from Devon at the start of the game manages to outsmart Astra, May, and Brendan by provoking the Exploud patriarch of Rusturf Tunnel into fighting them while he escapes.
  • Master of Illusion: Astra uses illusions to hide her non-human features. She also temporarily makes herself appear shorter to hide the sudden growth spurt gained from her evolution.
  • Mundane Object Amazement: Due to growing up in an isolated Pokémon village in the woods Astra has a large curiosity for human culture and their creations, even getting amazed at something as mundane as ice cream and a street performer. A downside of this is that her companions often get concerned and suspicious at her startling lack of common knowledge.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: Used a bit sadly in Chapter 33, highlighting Astra's Fish Out of Water status:
    Brendan started talking about the special effects on a talking, bloodthirsty Honedge while May reminisced about the ‘bastard hunk of a main villain’.

    And Astra...was there, too.
  • Never Found the Body: The Ancestor's actual fate is unknown; all anyone knows is that she went into her house one day and vanished, leaving behind a perplexing shadowy orb of great power.
  • Nice Guy: Brendan is the first human that Astra becomes friends with and is one of the friendliest and most supportive members of the cast. This is later played with as while he’s quite friendly, both to his friends and his Pokémon, Astra, during a bad moment, remembers his interactions with Pokémon being somewhat condescending and clinical. Whether this is real or if her memories are being recontextualized in a negative light, however, is not certain.
  • No Need for Names: Most of the inhabitants of the Pokémon village think this, due to the fact that they can simply identify each other with their Psychic Powers. Once Astra gets her name, though, several of the other Ralts decide to name themselves.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The unnamed Team Aqua Grunt who stole from Devon Corporation, abducted Peeko as a hostage, and then fled into the dead-ending Rusturf Tunnel. Unfortunately, he's still a cunning criminal: outnumbered three-to-one, he manages to give the heroes the slip by letting out a loud whistle, aggravating the local Whismur and summoning their Exploud patriarch, and cementing Exploud's attention on the heroes as he flees.
  • Not So Remote: Astra and May get lost in the woods, only for Steven to show them the nearby dirt path they completely missed.
  • Out of Character Is Serious Business: While May at first harshly criticizes her for her loss against Brawly, she backs down and even insists that she should get some rest after noticing how worn out and stressed she is.
  • Parental Substitute: Since her parents died around the time she was born, Astra's grandfather raised her in their stead.
  • Party Scattering: A fierce argument between Astra and her friends results in a very protective Kadabra "helping" Astra by teleporting May and Brendan into a random part of Granite Cave. The Kadabra, having mistaken Astra for a lost Abra, then teleports them both into the Abra's home cavern.
  • Perspective Flip: Hyphen's main character was a very minor supporting character in Pokemon Emerald: the second rival's starter Pokémon.
  • Playing with Fire: One of the Kirlias in Astra's village, the smith, is a master pyromancer who uses the power for her craft as well as animating flames into storytelling. The author's notes say it's an expansion off of Will-O-Wisp.
  • Pokémon Speak: As Astra is a Ralts (later Kirlia), she can only vocalize combinations of syllables in the word 'Ralts' (later 'Kirlia'). Luckily, her telepathy lets her bypass this.
  • The Promise:
    • The driving force of the story is Astra's vow to become the Champion. Because the humans' expansion will inevitably allow them to find her village, she's aiming to become the one who makes the rules to ensure her fellow Ralts and Kirlia are protected from trainers.
    • Astra makes another one when the old violinist Trevor gives her his precious instrument, asking only that when her journey is finished, she returns to him to show him how much she's grown.
  • Properly Paranoid: Astra is scared to death of sharing her secret with anyone, rightfully worried by everything she's seen and heard that if her friends found out she was a Pokémon, they would see her as less than human and undeserving of the courtesy of one.
  • Psychic Powers: Astra's entire species is capable of this.
  • Racist Grandma: Played for Drama with an old man on Dewford Island who accuses the accidental destruction of the forest near Rustboro caused by Astra on the people of Kanto. He even starts to make a suggestion of dumping Kantonians into Mt. Chimney.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Astra hits this after her loss against Brawly and being told by him, Brendan and May that she should get some rest. The result is a screaming fit aimed at her friends as she insists on just getting the letter delivered to Steven over going to the hotel to rest.
  • Secret-Keeper: Brendan and May are the only ones in the main cast who know that Astra is actually using ventriloquism rather than her violin to command her Pokémon without appearing to speak. Of course, that's a subversion, as they don't know that she's actually using telepathy.
  • Shout-Out:
    • When Astra, Brendan, and May get sushi in Chapter 15 and Brendan orders Corphish, May's response is thus:
    May: Big meaty claws? I can dig it.
    • Near the end of Chapter 24, the trio is watching a show that appears to be a version of One Piece with an Inkling as a prominent character. May also mentions that her favorite variation is one that involves a guy with a talking snail. The author's notes say that the former is a fan fiction idea that they'll never get around to writing, so they made it a show with three seasons and a movie in this story.
    • Another One Piece reference in Chapter 32, when May hums a sea shanty based off of Binks' Sake.
    • In Chapter 33, when Astra asks whether Brendan and May can dance, the two of them launch into a dancing skit from an old vampire movie they saw. It's a clear reference to the Council of Blood encounter from World of Warcraft's Castle Nathria raid.
    • In Chapter 35, there's a Mawile who's name translates to 'Worrina', a clear reference to the author of, and titular Mawile starring in, A Backwards Grin.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Astra faces this throughout everything that she sees. Humans are capable of so much creation and growth. But they're also capable of war.
    • The cynicism is strongest in Chapter 34, where in the midst of exhaustion, her mind keeps flashing back to memories of the worst that can happen, practically poisoning her against Brendan and May with the knowledge that their friendship is built on lies and the fact that people seem to see Pokémon as less than human. Accompanying the memories is a voice implied to be the shade of the Ancestor Gardevoir quietly insisting that trusting humans will only get her hurt:
    ''Remember. And never forget. What they have done to you. ...And what they would do again. And again. ...And again.
  • Spirited Competitor: Astra is not at all fond of fights where defeat and death are synonymous, which were the only ones she knew before she left home. But from the first battle she witnesses between humans, she's loved the challenge and enjoyment of the test of strength.
  • Stepford Smiler: The receptionist at Dewford Gym. Clearly unenthusiastic about her job, Astra noticing the fake quality of her smile taints every word the receptionist says.
  • Suddenly Always Knew That: The night before Astra leaves, she touches the Ancestor's stone of power (implied to be Shadow Gardevoirite) and sees a flash of the Ancestor's memories meeting the human she would love for the first time. The next day, Astra is inexplicably capable of reading human words and familiar with certain parts of human civilization. She's unnerved when she realizes it, even if it is helpful.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: People tend to hand Astra the excuses that she needs to keep up her masquerade:
    • In Chapter 12, the Petalburg Poké Mart clerk guesses that she's albino due to her white skin and red eyes, and that's why she keeps herself out of the sun.
    • In Chapter 16, after she battles NPC trainer Lady Cindy, the latter asks if Astra had used her violin music to convey orders to her Pokémon. She adopts that excuse for every battle afterward.
  • Surfer Dude: Brawly, to general bewilderment. One sample spoken to Brendan:
    Brawly: Don't mind the sketch your lady friend was laying into ya', you’re dressed up rad, little man.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Astra and May have this reaction after May coerces Astra into a double battle against Steven Stone in Petalburg Woods, not knowing who he is. More specifically, after he sends out his Skarmory against their Torchic and Treecko.
    Astra: May?
    May: (gulping) Yeah?
    Astra: I hate you.
    May: That's fair.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening:
    • According to Astra’s grandfather, the only way a Kirlia can evolve into Gardevoir is by going through intense stress. The Ancestor had a trial wherein she put any Kirlia interested in evolving through intense trauma to induce evolution, though very few ever saw it through. Astra's parents were among those who were successful, but with the Ancestor's disappearance and Astra's parents passing, there are no Gardevoir remaining in the village.
    • Astra's Treecko, May's Torchic, and Brendan's Mudkip all evolve during the battle against the Exploud patriarch of Rusturf Tunnel after getting knocked around for a bit.
  • Tsundere: May is a Type A example, being often prickly and aggressive on the surface, but seeming to have a crush on Brendan based on her reactions when Astra asks her questions about him. It stems from having lost so many friends from moving so many times in the past, trying to shield herself from further heartbreak despite her true feelings.
  • Wingdinglish: The Kadabra in Chapter 35 uses this a bit, seemingly when she's referring to names; hers translates to Last Echo, and she melancholically refers to other individuals whose names were Depth Memory, Boulder Fist and Untold Intrigue.

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