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NOVEMBER EVENT LOG

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.

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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.

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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The psych trio (Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo) all bundle up and hug the egg(?) rock. Much hug, very love, such wow.

They love this rock very much and they can feel in their hearts or souls or whatever passes for them that the rock loves them back very very much. The rock shudders a little more and then starts to crumble beneath their arms, revealing the Pokemon inside.

Those who used to spend time at Toran's Daycare center don't recognize it as any baby Pokemon they've ever seen before. Fai, or anybody who has read up on Cosmog, doesn't recognize it as a Cosmog from picture books either. A Cosmog trapped inside a capsule maybe? It weighs 1000 kg and cannot be moved. The Pokemon looks up at the group and seems to be gauging their reactions.

What does each person in the group do or ask?

ftr Chimecho hangs silent in the air and does not chime at the Cosmoem. It looks rather shocked, still with its O: face, because this isn't the Pokemon it saw in its trainer's journal.

dokja: hugging cosmoem
fai: also hugging cosmoem
hythlo: also hugging cosmoem, but has longer reach so he hugs fai and dokja too
yjh: asks cosmoem about the ruins and that they're trying to find someone, and feeding it
hsy: getting ditto to translate because she also wants to know where the hell konoha is

Edited 2020-11-23 00:37 (UTC)

Cosmoem is hugged and Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo can feel how happy it is. I honestly don't know if Cosmoem can eat real food or if its mouth is inside and it just siphons dust out of the air, but when Joonghyuk offers it food, he can feel some of that happiness too.

Unless you have specific questions you want to ask Cosmoem, Ditto translates the following words: "met" "protect" "people" "attack" "warp" "tired" "sleep" "where" and "save"

With a little more back and forth, because words are hard and I can be kind sometimes, the group is able to determine that Cosmoem did in fact meet the gym leader here. But he was not alone, and protected Cosmoem from other people who attacked them. Cosmoem had to warp them away (hence the scattered tracks throughout the ruins) but got tired and fell asleep and don't know where they all ended up. It asks if the group is willing to be warped somewhere to save the leader and bring him back.

The group is willing to be warped somewhere to save the leader to bring him back.

However, before they go, Sooyoung wants to know if there's something they should be prepared for, because if she can afford to, she'd rather not go in absolutely blind. Does Cosmoem convey anything as a precaution or warning?

Also, Hythlo asks Cosmoem if it wants anything before he goes, so that he can make things for it. His baby.

Edited 2020-11-23 02:41 (UTC)

To answer Sooyoung, Ditto conveys for Cosmoem: "Pokemon" "attack" "knife" "stay" and "together" which basically means to expect a Pokemon battle, but also that the humans themselves are dangerous, and that they should do their best not to get separated.

To answer Hythlo, Ditto conveys for Cosmoem: "come" "back" and "safe" That's what it wants the most.

If that's everything, then a wormhole opens up in front of that center tunnel Joonghuyk had gone through, and when they step through it, they find themselves in the middle of a desert. Turning around, the portal they'd stepped through has disappeared. Uh. Figuring out a way back will be a problem for their future selves.

Chimecho does its chimey thing at Ditto to translate for the group: "find" "trainer" "or" "evil" "people"

There are potential clues around that might point towards one or the other, and one might lead to the other, depending, but which would they focus on finding?

ALSO FULL DISCLOSER if anybody recognizes the screenshots yes they're from Sun/Moon, no I have not played any of the games nor seen any of the anime and nothing about any of this is connected to anything bc I know jack shit about whatever Pokemon lore is going on over there. They are just convenient screenshots for another dimension that Cosmoem can banish people to if it doesn't want to fight.

Okay, since there's the possibility of bad humans around, the group takes some time to ready for self-defense, whether that be by weapons or pokemon preparation. They all agree to search for the gym leader first, since they think they can probably find the bad guys along with him, if they're searching for him too (or if they already did).

And so, they venture on to the desert in an attempt to find something. Sooyoung uses her Cramorant in hopes it can see far, hoping it would find something. She also has her Gabite to possibly find things in the sand by using Bulldoze and generally sweeping sand out of the way.

It's a huge expanse of nothing in the desert, no footprints to be seen besides the ones they leave in their wake, and even those are swept clear in a matter of minutes by the wind blowing across the desert, the sand getting smoothed out and leaving no useful tracks to follow. Digging around doesn't turn out anything, and the group eventually decides that any persons out here would head to the ruins in the distance for some sort of shelter, otherwise they'd keep being buffeted by the sand.

The ground becomes more rocky than sandy as they go on, the ruins of an actual city of rock and steel rather than the simple stone blocks making up the ruins in Melona's desert. Every once in a while Chimecho chimes warily, in hopes that its trainer would recognize the sound if he's nearby and will respond— but if the group tells it to be silent in case the enemy hears them instead, it will fall silent. Let me know!

Otherwise, a quick perusal of the ruins makes it seem as if the entire place is empty... There is no sound besides the faint howling of the wind blowing through the cracks of the abandoned city, no shouting voices or crunching of footsteps on the cracked earth. But they do eventually come across a building where it looks like a battle occurred in front of it, the ground and parts of the infrastructure scorched black, large gashes clawing through stone and steel scattered about, rubble on the ground surrounding impact craters rather than haphazardly as if fallen naturally over time.

Some of the rubble has been cleared away to form a path pointing towards the front door of the building. The destruction from the battle is centered in front of the building but also leads away from it. What will they do? Deciding where to go and what to do next can be a group effort, or they can divide themselves into smaller groups as before.

Joonghyuk, Fai, Hythlo will stay behind at the building to look for potential clues. Dokja and Sooyoung are going to follow the path that leads away from the building!

Joonhyuk, Fai, and Hythlo look around the front of the building and see a lot of sand! A lot of rubble. That cleared path pointing towards the front door, dragging footprints, specks of blood if they look closely. They step inside the building and find themselves in a spacious foyer. On the opposite side of the room, a figure sits slumped against the wall in the darkness.

Dokja and Sooyoung follow the path that leads away! They find that the path of destruction continues pretty far, a straight path for the most part that dodges around obstacles like somebody trying to attack another person on the run. After several hundred meters of this, the two of them spot a figure sitting slumped against a burnt dead tree. The path of destruction continues.

How will they proceed?

Fai will be approaching the figure slumped against the wall. Sooyoung will be approaching the figure next to the burnt tree with a Wobbuffet out just in case whoever this is springs up at her like a screaming insert of a horror movie.

The figure springs up at Sooyoung like an insert in a horror movie—-

by which I mean it tries, but it immediately flops over onto the ground and eats shit. It's a person. They're face down on the ground now and it looks like somebody has tied their legs together and also their hands behind their backs with rope. Sooyoung can hear the person sobbing and begging for their life. They are slightly hysterical.

Over in the building, the figure sitting against the wall seems to be another person. They keep their head low, flinching visibly when Fai approaches. From the way their hands are behind their back, he can guess that they're tied, just like the ropes binding their ankles in front of them. The person's voice is low and hoarse, slightly desperate and pleading, and they ask Fai if he would help them.

Good thing Sooyoung isn't as affected by hysterically crying people!! Anyway, she makes her Gastly use Hypnosis to make the person sleep, because it might as well be a short reprieve as she and Dokja go back to the building to regroup. Gabite carries the person along the way.

Meanwhile in the building, Hythlo tries to free the person right away, Joonghyuk and Fai stop him, but Hythlo asks what kind of help do they need? Did anyone attack them? Hatenna and Hattrem will come out to heal the person with Life Dew and Heal Pulse respectively. Joonghyuk will give them some water.

The person zzzzs on Gabite's back. They look pretty beat up! Their clothing is singed in places, dirt covers their palms and is smeared across their face aside from the tear tracks, their wrists are rubbed raw from trying to struggle against the rope, they look like they've been through some shit. It will take some time to return to the other group, so hold on tight for updates unless there is something specific they would do in the meantime.

Back at the building, this person is in a similar state of affairs, though faring slightly better after the healing (that maybe doesn't do anything because they're not a Pokemon) but the water helps and they look more refreshed. It's the thought that counts! They politely thank Joonhyuk and the Pokemon and looks a little put out at nobody untying their wrists and ankles. Please help free them??? is the help that they were asking for, they've lost all feeling in their hands with how the rope's been tied behind their back ): Have some sympathy and untie them please ):

Please let us know when Sooyoung and Dokja finally reach their destination! They're gonna try to pick up their speed a bit on the way.

Fai and Hythlo help untie the person while Joonghyuk is on guard just in case the person does anything suspicious. Because he's a paranoid mola man.

I'm so glad, you guys. Fai and Hythlo untie the person and they immediately pull a knife out of their boot and try to stab Hythlo while Joonghyuk goes O:< !!! in the background and just then Sooyoung and Dokja enter the building with their person and also go O:< !!!

What will they do?

OKAY so

1. Fai immediately puts up a magic shield between the person and Hythlo.
2. Joonghyuk immediately draws out his sword.
3. Dokja and Sooyoung just (weirded out cat emote) before she sends a Gastly to lick that person into paralysis
4. And unfortunately the Hattrem that was healing the person is bad at being startled and her reflex is to use Brutal Swing, so... I hope the person can dodge

The person is too busy trying to kill Hythlo to dodge, so the combination of the shield going up and Hattrem's murder reflex means that Hythlo lives while the person gets pummeled in the face instead, they reel backwards and smash their head against the wall and fall unconscious just as Gastly slobbers all over their face and who knows if they will ever wake up again.

The group now has two unconscious bodies lying on the ground.

What do they do......................... Chimecho is so distressed.

Despite almost getting stabbed, Hythlo tries to wake the unconscious person while looking around with his aethersight to see if there's anyone else apart from the present group. Since there must have been someone who tied them up. Gastly goes to check around the building to see if there's anyone else in the vicinity.

Joonghyuk is going to tie that person up again from arms and torso and loot them.

Meanwhile. Sooyoung tries to wake the guy they brought with them, though Gabite will still hold onto them. She gets her Ditto to ask Chimecho if it knows these two people and asks for translate.

I set down my DS when I saw this question and two seconds later I hear a dying scream and look down to see that I got ambushed by demons and 3/4ths of my party had just died

this is karma

anyways, the person is properly restrained again and takes a while to rouse. In the meantime, Joonghyuk finds nothing on them! Even the belt they're wearing which is used to clip Pokeballs to is completely empty. It looks like they've already been looted... aside from the knife that was hidden in their boot. They had no more knives hidden in their boots. Their feet are really stinky, though, which is maybe why the boots stayed on. Checking the other person Sooyoung and Dokja brought back, they also have nothing notable to loot— also no knife if somebody is brave enough to hold their breaths and remove the person's boots. The two people are wearing similar sort of clothing. Otherwise there is nothing of note, no Pokemon, no ID, nothing.

Chimecho continues to be very distressed and conveys no! It doesn't not know these people!! Cosmoem literally warned them about evil people with knives and these people must be them and its trainer chased them and fought them!!! But where is its trainer now...?

With Hythlo and Gastly checking the area (aka the building and immediate vicinity) they do not see any signs of life other than the people present in this group. They have the option of ditching these two bozos here and continuing down the same path Sooyoung and Dokja had gone on, since it continues, or they can question the two people here first. The person found in the building will have a splitting headache upon waking up and the person found outside has no fucking clue what's going on because they were put to sleep immediately, but they will probably start crying again when they wake up and see a bunch of people here.

What will they do...

Hattrem will use Aromatherapy so the other guy can stop crying. No healing otherwise though.

The questions are as follows:
- who are they
- who were they fighting
- who do they work for
- have they seen the gym leader

It probably doesn't have to be said, but that same Hattrem that just brutal swung him, Joonghyuk looking menacingly with a sword, Sooyoung with a Gabite all look at the two, expecting serious answers from them, or... well... who knows what will happen? :)

Regardless of whether they give useful answers or not, they'll knock them out in the end anyway, set apart, and resume on the destruction trail after that.

Edited 2020-11-24 06:01 (UTC)

The other person stops crying, but they still look pretty scared. They sniffle the entire time ): One of them goes "who the fuck are you?" but then shuts up when they see Joongyuk's sword. Overall, they give their names which are not important, refuse to reveal who they work for, and are the most vocal about cussing out "that fucking bastard Konoha" who has been mercilessly hunting them down one by one.

If there's nothing else the group would ask them, the interrogation ends and they're knocked out and left inside the building. Continuing on the destruction trail, they come along, one at a time and several hundred meters apart, a total of four more people in similar uniforms that have been tied up and their possessions taken. They are all in various states of distress, looking at the group fearfully or asking to be untied or one of them outright starts crying for their mother and sobs about wanting to go home. I assume the group just sort of nods and continues on their way.

At the end! of the destruction path! is one last person. They are tied up, left lying on the ground in a still smoking crater, and out of reach is a neat pile of 28 Pokeballs in a shallow hole dug into the ground to keep them from rolling away, four knives laid out in a row next to it, and also a pile of 28 very cute headbands with a little red jewel on the side. The jewels are very shiny, and flash bright red.

The person on the ground looks up at the group warily and asks if they're here to rescue him and his friends.

Dokja: depends on who you are! :) (mostly joking around)
Joonghyuk; who are these "friends" (he is not joking around with his sword out and all)
Sooyoung; (if this guy is wearing the same clothes as the others, she will just step on his face and demand to know what the hell he's been doing because a bunch of poke balls gathered like that isn't normal)

The guy sees Joonghyuk's sword and looks like he wants to say "fuck you" very much but does not. Some rescue group!! This'll teach him to get his hopes up, ugh.

But yeah he is wearing the same clothes as all the other guys and Sooyoung steps on his face and he cannot talk anymore, wow, this has been a great investigation guys

anyways, assuming Sooyoung lets off enough for him to breathe and actually reply to things, they eventually drag out of him under duress that the friends he's referring to are his teammates, but they can't get much more out of him about the team's mission or leadership or anything like that. He's just here under orders, nothing more! He and his friends were to go to the ruins to capture a certain Pokemon, but the gym leader found them first and they somehow got teleported into this crazy hellhole and the leader hunted them down and disarmed them and tied them up and he just wants to go home! He's tied up and at their mercy! You think that pile of Pokeballs was his doing?! If he could reach any of them, he'd release one of his Pokemon to get out of this mess already!

huff puff

At that moment, the space between them seems to waver a little, and then a Claydol teleports into existence with somebody sitting on top of it. He stares at the group for a moment, half sliding off the Claydol's head, and goes "Wh... what are you people doing here?" Chimecho immediately zooms off to his side and chimes happily. Hi. This is Konoha. He looks very confused and asks what's going on.

Sooyoung tells him that they're here to retrieve him because everyone's wondering where the hell the gym leader went to for weeks(?) on end, before getting pulled aside by Hythlo in which they're having a Fight and Joonghyuk attempting to break them up.

Anyway, Fai is not gonna be a part of that and briefly goes over how they got there, that that they found all those people, etc and now they're here.

NOVEMBER EVENT LOG

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ THIS IS A HEADER!

→ ICHI WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU

→ ICHI WRITES ALL THESE HEADERS

→ MOD NOTES

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