OCTOBER EVENT PT1

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→ EVACUATION STUFF

(click to expand- aka getting people out of here)

The water level keeps rising, the storm refusing to abate even after two months of non-stop rain and circulating whispers of an even greater danger: an erupting volcano, threats of subsequent tsunamis, and Toran right there in the blast zone. There has already been one casualty. Jiro, after going missing for a week and a half, was found washed up on the beach. Probably drowned, they say in regards to his cause of death and never investigated further, not realizing that the band of tattooed fire around his neck has disappeared. While there is a very real possibility the island will become inhabitable very quickly and very soon, many townspeople are worried about leaving, with the storm swelling in response to anybody leaving the island in the past and if evacuation tips the situation over the edge... well... at this point, though, there's little other choice. Homes and other buildings get boarded up over the days counting down to the end of the month, berry trees get chopped down to construct as many boats as possible, all the Pokemon in the Daycare get returned to their balls and loaded into crates. The Pokemon Center becomes a shelter for those unable or unwilling to leave while the rest head out, the first of the boats pushing off the north shore at dawn.

With boats carrying six people each, families towards the center of the group and trainers with strong water Pokemon flanking them on all sides for protection, the evacuees steer northeast, veering out of the projected path of the volcanic activity in the northwest, with towering waves, jagged reefs, and whirlpools every several dozen feet dictating travel. Even with their own Mudkip, trainers who try to leave on their own will find it too difficult to cross the sea, with too many whirlpools for one little Mudkip to handle on their own and the storm forcing them to turn back around. It takes a group effort to carve a safe path away from the island, especially when thunder starts to rumble overhead, storm clouds so thick the sky becomes black as night.

The roar is almost deafening, encompassing and full of rage. Boats lurch to the side, caught in whirlpools that threaten to suck them under until the Mudkips in the group are able to reverse the whirlpool and calm the water, other water Pokemon pressing up against the boats to keep them upright as ten-foot waves crash down over people's heads, torrential rain unrelenting and there is no escape from the lightning that flashes across the sky. Trainers with electric Pokemon use them as lightning rods to redirect the lightning away from the others, and other Trainers direct their Pokemon as best they can to block the lightning as the ships cross the sea. Nanami's Marshtomp leads the group, clearing the path and searching desperately for any sign of land on the other side, while Minato's Yamask zips from boat to boat, using Protect to shield them from the lightning, but there is no end in sight.

In that moment, the sky turns white. There is light, there is silence, and the rain snuffs out all at once. Those who think to turn around might see Minato on his feet at the very rear of the group, two shimmering figures fading away into the sunlight behind him just as he topples backwards into the water. For everybody else, their attention is drawn by the deafening screeching that pierces the air, black clouds parting to reveal blue sky and a shining sun for the first time in two months. With the parting of the clouds and the subsequent silence, they hear a muffled boom out in the far distance, a spew of fire, and a plume of black smoke. There's your volcano, and here is the swell of the ocean that pitches the boats forward, driving them east.

→ FOR THOSE WHO ARE STAYING

(click to expand - have fun drowning)

The flash of white is noticeable even from the island, the first warning before the clouds part of their heads and the rain comes to a stop. Without the veil of rain constantly blurring their vision, the people who remain can clearly see the tsunami heading their way, waves upon waves dipping and rearing their heads as they slam into the coast and out across the island. A foot- two, ten- the water level rises too quickly for anybody to run, even the lake rising and spilling out as those in multi-story buildings try to make it to the highest floor possible. Drifloons float out and try to grab onto stragglers and drag them to safety, but they're too light and weak and all they can do is inflate themselves as much as they can and be buoys for those stranded to cling to for dear life. From the lake, the Gyarados takes advantage of the overflow and urges its Magikarp towards the north side of the island along with it— and stops in surprise when it spots Akira. Why did this human not ditch the first chance he got? This is not his home, there is nothing important for him to protect here...

The Gyarados turns to stare out at sea. And with its eyes glowing red, the wind starts to pick up, a Hurricane building and whipping the air all around the Gyarados as it faces the tsunami and roars, parting the waves to either side of the island before they can reach the shore. Two little Magikarps splash next to the Gyarados in encouragement, and for the next hour, Gyarados weathers the tsunami until the sea calms down, and the world is quiet and still once more. It looks back at Akira, at the friends who stayed behind with him, and approaches him for the first time. If he wishes, the Gyarados will allow him on its back and it will carry him and company across the sea to join his friends in the northeast; if he does not, the Gyarados and its family slips into the water and disappears.

Either way, maybe we'll meet again someday.

→ FOR THOSE WHO ARE LEAVING

(click to expand - have fun camping)

Eventually, the boats bump against the soft sand of a sunny shore. It's warm, the air strangely dry, but welcome compared to the constantly rainy Toran. Not far from the coast is a grove of wild berry trees, overgrown with fruit that a herd of Girafarig and Stantler surround, pausing in their grazing as they watch the soggy mess of evacuees drag themselves onto shore, a little Yamask flitting around from person to person trying to find her blue-haired boy. A small group of water type trainers offer to take the boats back to Toran and make a second evacuation now that they know the path and the storm has quelled- for the time being, anyways, and ask around to borrow or trade for the Mudkips who are able to temporarily reverse the whirlpools. Everybody else is encouraged to find the closest town, and call for shelter and for help.

The forest before them is thick with trees, so dense that the sun everybody's sorely missed is barely visible past the canopy, forcing the group to stay packed together as they search for a path through the forest. Nothing stops the brave or the foolish from peeling off from the group and trying to find their own way, but the children are quick to warn anybody who will listen that following flickering lights in the forest is a bad idea. There is constant rustling in the forest, swift movement out of the corner of your eyes, the feeling that somebody is watching you. It is very dark, very crowded, and like the sea, it is vast and endless. For several nights, the group is forced to camp, taking turns keeping watch and heading out at the first sign of sunlight, but here and there they come across trainers in the woods, surprised to see so many people at once but always willing to spare what little food they have and to point them towards the closest route to town.

Five days after leaving Toran, the evacuees stumble out of the forest and stand before Mango city. While the forest borders half the city, the other sides are wide open plains, fields and pastures as far as the eye can see, all full of grazing Pokemon and flocks of flying types circling the skies. Continuing north, one would find themselves facing the sea; to the east, the forest and eventually the sea once more; and to the west past the endless plains, a severe sandstorm rages that makes further progress impossible.

The city itself is much larger than Toran, with steel and concrete buildings that feel almost out of place amongst all the wilderness surrounding it on all sides. But the people are welcoming, the Pokemon Center accommodating both Pokemon and trainers with plenty of space to rest after a harrowing journey. Many families offer their own homes for refugees to stay in, while others pool together money and volunteers to head to Toran for relief measures in the aftermath, and local children take any stranger's hand to show them around the city.

The pride and joy of the city is............. the boba shop!!!! The specialty flavor for this shop is Miltank milk tea, a classic. Make sure to stop by the shop and get your card stamped with the green Butterfree, unique to this city's shop. The city also features its own contest hall and Pokemon Gym, with its gym leader specializing in Steel Pokemon; a museum filled with skeletons and fossils of ancient Pokemon; an art gallery featuring both prominent and local artists, with a special event every Wednesday where artists offer to draw portraits of visitor's Pokemon; and a bug catching contest hosted every Sunday that awards trainers for catching the largest or heaviest bug Pokemon within a two-hour window. Everybody arrived just in time to see the Vivillon migration, where all twenty different types can be seen fluttering across the sky, meeting together over this city for several weeks before scattering all across the globe before winter. Two towers pierce the sky right in the middle of the city: one a cemetery and one a radio tower, positioned right next to each other and the buildings almost seem to be humming the closer you approach their doors. There are also multiple barbeque restaurants in the city, grilling up Miltank and Bouffalant and Tauros, you're welcome, Cliff. Still, the boba shop is where several of Toran's children still insist on going, latching onto Joonghyuk and Sagi who promised them a three-tiered cake with sprinkles and a magic show and a party!!! We escaped the island. A town might be wiped out because we veered away from the volcano, and Toran is half-drowned and will take several weeks to drain and return to normal, but never mind that. Party.

It's warm, it's dry, there is always a faint static in the air and there has been no phone or radio signal for the past two months. Enjoy your respite.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Congrats on surviving September! October will be a no-plot month, so please take the chance to be good to your characters and build up that cr, but there will still be opportunities for investigation!
⬥ Minato will be presumed missing until after Ori's murdergame is over, and cannot be found at sea. The Gyarados and the Magikarp also cannot be found, but may return at a later date. Toran will dry out and return to normal towards the middle of the month, but characters can freely travel between Toran and Mango by catching a ride with one of the sailors whenever they like.
⬥ For those who wish to trade their Mudkips with one of the sailors, please comment to the questions toplevel for your rng options. Traded Pokemon tend to grow stronger quickly, but they might not always listen to their new trainer! Traded Pokemon are allowed to gain 15 levels per month rather than the usual 10.
⬥ Please comment to the appropriate toplevel on the Pokemon info page for challenging the gym or participating in the contest hall.
⬥ Please comment to the bug-catching contest toplevel by October 10 if your character would participate. We will rng three winners, one for each Sunday of the month, and reply with your prize. Characters may choose to either keep or release their bug Pokemon at the end of the contest.
⬥ As a reminder, the Halloween event log will be posted on October 15!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sagi is not at all sure how to feel about this trend of tiny kids getting dragged into this entire situation along with their fathers... but he supposes it's better than them getting dragged alone.

He kneels down when Duri approaches him, which Sigilyph takes as an invitation to finally break away from Hien and come back to share the hugs.]

I wrote a letter! I didn't know if anyone would read it or write back, but he did, so here we are.

[ Maybe if Hien explains to Sagi, he wouldn't have to think that, but he's not gonna say he's not Duri's dad right in front of him. That's gonna scar the kid for life.

Duri looks amazed though. "Wow, writing letters! Letters sure are used for a lot of stuff, huh!"

Hien lightly flicks the side of Duri's head. ]

Don't believe those rumors. That's rude.

[He manages a small and sheepish laugh. He's going to perish. He's going to perish right here where he's crouching on the ground, and this small child killed him.] They sure spread quickly. You wouldn't think cities were like that too.

[But apparently they are. The forest cryptid stuff that seems to have died down lately, the masked men, now this...

Sigilyph is still nudging him on the shoulder and emitting a high pitched whine, so he pets it behind the antenna on top of its head.]

[ "Is it because Daddy was sending letters to him?"

Hien just stares at Duri for a while before flicking his forehead. A startled yelp and a whine comes from the kid's mouth. ]

... Sorry about him. He's probably thinking about something else, but says something that sounds weird.

[ You know, kids. ]

What did I say about rumors, Duri?

[ "Rumors are bad. Always check with the person. Make the person feel better!" ]

... I did not say that.

Then what did you say?

[He's not so embarrassed he can't play along for a bit. This all comes across as the usual trials and tribulations of looking after small children to him.]

[ It sure is. Hien seems to hesitate for a second, but since Duri just kinda swerved around it and made something up, he'll most likely look like the bad person here while Duri looks like an angel. Of course he'd be. ]

I said to punch them in the face if they spread bad rumors about you.

[ Duri laughs. "You're so funny, dad."

Ha. Haha. ]

Well, only if they won't stop otherwise.

[Kids. Sagi picks up on Hien's hesitation just then, but again only interprets it as Harried Single Father Problems. He gets to his feet, dislodging his Sigilyph until it flutters back up to his shoulder.]

It must have been rough getting them and your friend through that forest in one piece, huh?

[ Hien could have easily brushed it off and nod to Sagi's question, but the first thing he ends up saying is: ]

They were in the city before I was, but it probably would have been a lot harder.

[ He doesn't want to babysit anymore.......... Duri laughs though. It sounds like he's having fun. The Nincada kid though, still stays stuck on Hien. He's never letting go. Stupid sun. ]

... I'm not really good with kids.

[ Is that something a dad should say??? ]

Oh?

[Sagi can't imagine that someone kindly like the man who drew those Pokemon for him would be that bad a parent... Okay, he could imagine it pretty easily if he wanted to, he just isn't in a poor enough mood right now. Hien must have picked up a babysitting job to make ends meet while here, or something. Well, now he feels a little bad for jumping to conclusions.]

Um, my bad. I thought... you know, he looks just like you.

[The hair, anyway. He legitimately has no comment on Hien's fashion choices.]

[ When Sagi says that, Hien briefly wondered if he actually has his mask on--okay he does. Good. Yeah, that detail hasn't escaped Hien's notice either, but that's exactly why he's protective of Duri as of right now. He honestly doesn't have to worry about his Nincada, except for the fact that... do gijinkas go back to normal? Are they like this forever? Then Hien really will have to adopt this Nincada as a human, oh my god. And that's something he feels like he can't handle right now despite having done it before.

Duri looks clueless about what they're talking about though, and despite the initial scare, he goes over to Sigilyph. He wants to hug. ]

Oh, no. It's alright.

[ And at least he's wearing normal things under the cloak!! ]

I thought some sort of family drama was going to happen, but I'm glad it's not the case. This one though, [ he points to Nincada, who's still clinging onto him ] was my pokemon though.

[Hugs! Sigilyph gleefully flutters down from Sagi's shoulder to nuzzle up to the little boy, wrapping the multicoloured fingers of its tail around his side. Its delighted screeches are only moderate in volume this time, so Sagi doesn't feel the need to calm it down yet. Besides, he's distracted by the Nincada now.]

Is that, uh, normal?

[Those Pidgey-related rumours begin to make slightly more sense if so, but he hasn't heard anything else of the sort. Also, yikes.]

No.

[ He'd like to make that clear right off the bat. ]

This is a first time for me too... I'm sure if it happened to your Sigilyph, it might make it harder on you. It's pretty sudden and I don't know if he'll change back.

[ Imagine screaming all the time. ]

[Yeeeahh, that's another thing he'd rather not imagine.]

If he just woke up like that all of a sudden, it could be one of those... games? I don't know what to call them exactly. Those tend to last a few days at most.

Games?

[ Hien has heard about this world being like a game, due to the connections with pokemon, but this odd occurrence being a game? He's not sure what could have sparked any similarities. ]

Do I have to do something for my pokemon to go back the way it was?

>[Sagi shakes his head.] No, game is the wrong word after all. I think we just wait it out. There were a couple days where I got stuck with... a ghost, a weird magnus or something else, that kept twisting everything I tried to say aloud...

[After trailing off for a moment, he shrugs. Maybe that's also a bad description. Not the point.]

I didn't do anything special, but after two days it was gone.

[ What is a magnus? A ghost? A ghost pokemon that twists Sagi's words? Hien is pensive for a moment before choosing to speak up: ]

Are these more like temporary curses?

Yeah! Curses. [He's relieved he got his point across somehow. Maybe someone with actual magic knowledge would have settled on that comparison sooner.] But small ones... for the most part. I guess suddenly having a kid is on the major side.

Oh, huh... that's new.

[ He didn't expect it. But then again... ]

I guess there are things here that I don't know about, like how Eevees are prone to being knife nuts. Guard your ankles.

Still better informed than a few of us. I think it's fine.

[Sigilyph is now wrapping its wings around Duri as well, for extra hugging power. It seems to be enjoying itself.]

[ Duri seems to like it too--probably because he likes hugs from everything. Does that say something about Hien? Maybe. The kid gives Sigilyph a squeeze hug. What a cool ancient bird thing! He wants one too and name it Sisi.

Hien smiles. It's a nice peaceful scene. This is the kind of stuff Hien wants to see more of. Though, he remembers something-- ]

How is it going with your Houndour?

Oh, yeah! I think he's -

[- forcing his way out of the Pokeball in a burst of red light before Sagi can say anything, apparently. Laevateinn the Houndour lands some distance away from Sagi, disdain written all over his doggy face.]

...He's coming around. [Sagi's smile is wry, but he's determined to be positive about it. What is he going to do, tell Hien his advice didn't do anything? That wouldn't even be true.] And you were right, he helped out a lot when we went to fight at the gym. It was pretty touch and go the whole time.

[The Houndour is at least not currently trying to set anyone on fire, but he is eyeing Hien with an air of great suspicion and a low but insistent growl. So this is the fool who sicced this overgrown chicken on him...]

[ He can tell that Sagi is at least trying, and sometimes pokemon don't change just because of a few good things here and there--people are the same. ]

Congrats on your badge.

[ Assuming Sagi won, because he thinks Sagi wouldn't tell him otherwise. If he didn't... well, that would be awkward. He does look over at the Houndour though. ]

I hope you two will be better friends.

[ More like... friends at all, but. Yeah. Hien even makes the "come here" gesture that's usually reserved for small animals after bending over a little. Come here, puppy. ]

Thanks! Fingers crossed we need less help with the next.

[Houndour is having none of Hien's beckoning. He raises his hackles and growls louder, tiny flames flickering at the corner of his muzzle. Even Sigilyph feels moved to unwrap itself from around Duri and flutter in front for the boy's protection.

Sagi looks over at the dog as well. His smile turns a little rueful, but this isn't nearly surprising enough for it to fade completely.]

And you, that's enough. You know what happens if you pull that again.

[With a noise that sounds uncannily like a canine "harrumph", the embers around Houndour's mouth die down. He's still growling, never taking his eyes off Hien's mask. Progress...?]

[ Duri blinks when Sigilyph goes in front of him to shield him from the Houndour. Despite Sigilyph's shielding, Duri takes several steps towards the Houndour after he calms down. Hien eyes the kid and... yeah, it looks like Duri has the stupid internal radar too, just like he did before his name was Hien.

"It's still a good doggy deep down."

Duri really would be the type to hold back his crying after being bitten, insisting that it's his fault instead of the Houndour's. Hien sighs. It really looks like he got his match here... can't believe he's a kid. But maybe he'll be easier to keep safe that way. ]

He sure is a tough one... Duri, please have some more self-preservation.

[ "But it's true!"

Hien is actually more surprised that a kid like him knows what that word means, considering all his other selves were stupid academically. ]

Yeah, I think so too, Duri.

[The Houndour's growling turns into an embarrassed whine as he pointedly looks away from both Sagi and Hien. He would facepalm if he had hands.]

OCTOBER EVENT PT1

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ EVACUATION STUFF

→ FOR THOSE WHO ARE STAYING

→ FOR THOSE WHO ARE LEAVING

→ MOD NOTES

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