NOVEMBER EVENT LOG

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NOVEMBER LOG

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In the aftermath of the rampage, the city of Mango starts to put itself back together, mourning losses of its citizens and Pokemon which would have been much heavier if the calamity hadn't suddenly and mysteriously stopped. The static in the air, which the citizens had gotten so used to to the point of no longer noticing it, is now gone and the silence is almost palpable, so obvious in comparison. Even the sandstorm to the west has started to die down, so that every crunch of heel on gravel can be heard as relief pours from Toran to Mango City, volunteers empathetic and eager to return the favor, however unfortunate that the opportunity had to be this soon.

The ghost Pokemon linger for a while, helping to guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife before they disperse back into the forest, while the cemetery stands still and silent save for those working on restoring the graves and fixing structural damages. Both towers remain closed to the public, the cemetery out of respect and the radio tower due to police investigation, with the staff called in for questioning but each denying knowledge of the radio signals having an adverse effect on the Pokemon. If there is anybody with that knowledge, it would be the company president, who is currently on leave elsewhere in the region and cannot be reached due to the storms and a conspicuously missing radio antenna preventing physical and electronic communication respectively. Maybe you guys will come across him later, maybe not. Maybe he got caught up in that volcano explosion you let happen. Who knows? haha!

Either way... people are welcome to remain in Mango as long as they want, and Toran seems to be fully up and running as well. Those who make the trip back to check up on how things are going will find the island to be warm and sunny, townspeople hard at work sowing the berry gardens and expanding the daycare center, where extra Pokemon will be sent to once the maximum limit of six Pokemon in a team has been met. Several missing children posters remain hung up around the daycare, but the island feels fuller, happier, with sounds of children laughing and yelling as they rush to the game corner to pool their tokens to win the new month's prize Pokemon: Swinub which know the move Rock Smash.

But for those who have decided to push forward, the only way forward is to the west, into the sandstorm towards Melona.

→ ICHI WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU

(click to expand - with all our hearts)

Even without raging sandstorms, the desert is rough travel and there is no reliable map to get from one place to another, especially with the way the wind naturally and occasionally picks up to start sandstorms, and it's so easy to get turned around by the wind and the cliffs and the way everything is sand for miles and miles and miles around. Little Gale King is eager to go home, looking around for somebody who will act as her guardian so they can travel with a guide straight to Melona. While taking a guide can be a bit expensive, groups up to six people can travel together for the same group price and they are guaranteed safe passage, provided with thick capes to keep the sand from buffeting them, goggles to help them see, and rental Numel to ride upon so they don't have to make the trek on foot.

The trip from Mango to Melona takes several hours, with occasional pit stops during which the guide pitches a large tent for everybody to rest in or to wait out a particularly heavy sandstorm before continuing on, but if they leave early enough in the day, they will eventually come across a huge stone dome in the middle of the desert, spanning several miles in diameter. Around the perimeter of the dome are several gates that can be opened from either side via hand cranks that require two people to operate, the thick stone walls of the dome protecting the desert town from the sun and the sand. At the apex of the dome is an open oculus that allows sunlight to shine down upon the town, and during the day, a constant beam of light illuminates the boba shop located at the very center of Melona. This shop's specialty flavor is Cacnea flower tea and its collectible stamp is a yellow Sandshrew! The boba shop is where the guides make a beeline to once everybody has been dropped off, the employees at the shop glad to hear the news that the sandstorm isn't as bad as it was in the recent month or two, but they also don't seem all that concerned about the outside world, nor were they aware of how bad things really were, with how isolated they are within this dome in the middle of the desert. Tsunamis? Volcanoes? Rampaging Pokemon? The citizens are pretty horrified, actually, and promise to send help to both Mango and Toran when the guides have rested up and are able to make the return journey.

In the meanwhile, Melona is a pretty quiet town, with everything quite scattered and far apart, less streets and more individual buildings with packed dirt paths connecting them. Next to the boba shop near the center of town is the Pokemon center which features a clinic space for people in lieu of an actual hospital, and flanking the Pokemon center on either side is the contest hall and psychic-type Pokemon gym, although the gym leader is currently absent and thus the gym is closed. Apparently it's not uncommon for him to wander off sometimes, but he has never been gone for weeks at a time and the people are getting worried. Is he lost? The last anybody heard, he had set out to find a mythical Pokemon rumored to be in the area, investigating a possible link to the abnormally long and harsh sandstorms that picked up recently, but for as competent a trainer as he is the storm was no joke and the town has never seen anything like it before. The same worry is echoed at the Pokemon school, which takes students of all ages to teach them more about Pokemon, their relationships with humans, and everybody's place in the world; several field trip groups had departed weeks ago but must have gotten caught in the sandstorms as well because they haven't yet returned. Gale is immediately concerned, and, asking around, learns that her little brother Jordan had gone on one of those field trips, and both their parents had gone with him as chaperones.

Hopefully good news will come in time, and the townspeople are patient, going about their daily business with a certain calm. For those who wish to earn some money, there is an abundance of odd jobs hiring both people and Pokemon, especially asking for Pokemon suited to specific tasks such as fire Pokemon to help cook and keep fires going at night for warmth and light, water Pokemon to water the fields and ground Pokemon to help till, flying Pokemon to check the dome for cracks to repair, fast Pokemon to make mail deliveries around town, hardy Pokemon to weather the sandstorms and keep a lookout for anybody approaching, for example. For those who looked at October and went "That was not a break month, what the heck," other places of interest include the museum containing many specimens of ancient Pokemon preserved in fossils and amber found right in the surrounding desert, offering rare items in exchange for more specimens, and... that's it, really. It's a quiet, sleepy town.

The days are hot and the nights are long, but when the sun goes down and the electricity is shut off overnight, the view above is spectacular. Thousands upon thousands of stars can be seen overhead, sparkling like diamonds in the pitch black of the oculus, while candle lit rock salt lamps line the street sides to provide a soft, temptingly lickable, warm glow below.

→ ICHI WRITES ALL THESE HEADERS

(click to expand - Ori headers are just like this haha)

But perhaps you're not the sort to just sit around and wait for things to happen. Perhaps you're the sort to dive headfirst into trouble despite the multiple danger warnings. Perhaps you were just foolhardy enough to have ventured into the desert from Mango without a guide, thinking that you could save a few bucks and make an adventure out of finding Melona all on your own. Those leaving Melona may be stopped by townspeople on the outskirts offering to sell them escape ropes, which will allow them to escape the ruins and appear right in front of them again if they're ever caught in a sticky situation, along with other food, water, and camping supplies. One man in particular suggests catching an Abra to teleport you right back to Melona— or if you prefer, he is also offering to trade one of his own.

Those leaving Mango are out of luck.

Either way, even if it takes days (and if you're wandering blindly, it's going to take days), you will eventually come across one of the ruins scattered throughout the desert. Hopefully you came prepared, not only for the travel, but for whatever awaits inside the ruins! The ruins look like this, aka the first thing that pops up in Google Images, but while some of the pillars still stand, most have collapsed and lay buried in the sand, presumably due to the massive sandstorm that raged the entire month prior. The sand is soft and hard to walk on, constantly shifting over uneven ground and quite a bit of digging might be required to locate hidden underground entrances or other secrets. The ancient ruins seem to be a bit unstable, with evidence of cave-ins here and there, the potential for further cave-ins the deeper inside the ruins one ventures, and with the lack of light and constantly branching halls, one could be stuck down here forever exploring the labyrinths underneath the ruins. Maybe you'll never escape. Maybe you'll live and die here, and get to do just that (:

No wild Pokemon can be found without thirty feet of any of the surface ruins. Every few hours, a slight tremor can briefly be felt underfoot, barely noticeable at the start of the month and becoming somewhat concerning as the month progresses. Everything is fine.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ It's November!! Somehow! When I'm at work and am writing dates, sometimes I autopilot 2010 and sometimes it's 2021 and ig I just want everything to be over.
⬥ Ruins investigations are currently capped at two investigations per player to allow your mods space to breathe, but is likely to be lifted as the month progresses and investigations wrap up. As a hint, it would be highly worthwhile to investigate the area and question npcs first, and in particular find the gym leader, before heading into the ruins! If you do decide to run blindly into the ruins, though, we'll have a good time (:
⬥ As a reminder, the gym leader must be located and brought back to the gym before any challenges can take place. The contest hall, on the other hand, is open from the start of the month. For both, please comment on the appropriate toplevel for submissions!
⬥ Please comment to the new Pokemon toplevel for trading with the NPC, making a note of which Pokemon you would like to trade for his Abra. As a reminder, traded Pokemon are able to gain +15 levels a month through bonus activity, and traded Abras are able to evolve into its final evolution, Alakazam.
⬥ As an alternative to the daycare in Toran, Pokemon can also be given jobs around Melona if they aren't in your main party. OOCly, players are allowed to give each of their Pokemon +5 levels (not counting towards the bonus activity level cap) one time only for this month, regardless of the number of jobs the Pokemon takes. ICly, the Pokemon will be unavailable for one week while they're at work, so please be mindful of which Pokemon are available in your threads at what time of month! Please also be aware of the badge/ribbon requirements for higher level Pokemon to continue obeying, applicable to the total number of unique badges/ribbons in the travelling group.

Comments

A

[thetyger]

[Atsushi has been acclimating himself to Melona after his return, sort of lost and fixating a little too much on his missing time. Will it happen again? The umbrella he was given by the clinic is very unnecessary, but it was somewhat like a gift, so he shouldn't discard it. That would be rude. He's collapsed it and is currently using it like a walking stick in the dirt streets. He stops suddenly, his thoughts paused, because... there's a cat? He hadn't seen any cats in this world. The tabby pattern and slightly blue hue disturb him, because it reminds him of himself; what lies within, ready to attack and kill and maim and- no. It's just a cat. It's just a cat. Still, after the hesitant meow and attempt to hide its face, Atsushi gently pokes at the cat with the umbrella.]

[scension]

Mrah!

[Sagi all but squeaks and scrambles to the side, fur standing on end. The perils of being cat-sized - the end of an umbrella starts to look like a credible weapon. Why would you do that to some random animal? That's so uncalled for. He looks up with round, pitiful eyes.

...Which means he finally gets a good look at the face above the umbrella, the one he was too distracted to properly register while people-watching a moment ago.]

Rreow?

[Atsushi??]

[thetyger]

[The cat is real, and he's not hallucinating. But he's just frightened some poor cat. Atsushi pulls the umbrella back and looks properly apologetic.]

I'm sorry.

[He crouches down, as the cat doesn't seem intent on running away.]

Are you lost?

[scension]

[It really is Atsushi. Sagi didn't think he was the type to just prod at animals for fun. Oh man, Hythlo's prayer came true...

He has a lot he wants to say, and no way of expressing it until whatever the heck this is decides to cut him a break. For a moment he weighs up his options, but eventually he just shakes his head, a decidedly un-catlike gesture.] M... Myah.

[Either Atsushi will catch on, or Sagi can go find him to talk properly once he's back in his body. There's nothing else he can do right now.]

[thetyger]

[Atsushi's only experience with actual cats, and not pictures and descriptions in books, is Mii-chan, an office assistant's pet. Haruno constantly has her precious pet up on her computer screen through a video feed. Mii-chan isn't really a cat, but Atsushi doesn't know that. Has this human-cat ever shaken his head? Plurk coin says yes. Therefore, Atsushi assumes cats are able to understand basic questions.]

You're not lost... but do you need help?

[scension]

[Well... he does, but how is he supposed to convey that in squeaky meowing noises? Should he even bother? Just like he does at other times when most people would come to a decision inside their own head, Sagi cranes his fluffy cat neck up and stares at some ambiguous point in space slightly above Atsushi's shoulder.]

Maow?

[After a moment, he bobs his head in an attempt at a nod. Nothing to lose from telling the truth, even if it doesn't get anywhere.]

M... Myaaaow.

[thetyger]

Um...

[He thinks that's a yes, but what was the cat staring at?]

I don't understand what you want, so why don't I take you to the Pokemon Center and maybe they can help you?

[scension]

[He shakes his head so emphatically he ends up just shaking, as if sprayed with water.] Mreh.

[Inside the Centre was one of the first places he looked. He's positive he couldn't have missed someone who looked like him in there. It's not that big. He doesn't expect Atsushi to pick up on any of that, though.]

[thetyger]

[No Pokemon Center. Atsushi is at a loss here.]

You need help, but not from the Center.

[You don't go to the police for cats, and Sagi is not stuck in a tree, so anything resembling a fire department is also out.]

I'm sorry, I don't think I can help you.

[He sounds dejected about it.]

[scension]

[Sagi feels a little bad now. It hadn't occurred to him that this might just be stringing Atsushi along. He does his best to briefly lean back on his hind legs and attempt a mollifying gesture, clumsily pawing at the air; it doesn't look like anything particularly meaningful.] Ma-ah.

[thetyger]

[Atsushi takes that little pawing as a dismissal. This cat has seen through him, and knows he's incapable of helping.]

I hope you find someone who can be of more use to you.

[He waves awkwardly at the cat, then realizes how pathetic that is, and runs off.]