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DECEMBER LOG PT1

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→ OH THANK GOD

(click to expand - the boba shop survived!!)

Sandstorms quietly continue to blow across Melona's desert, tinged black with ash carried over from the west where the volcano still intermittently sputters and spits, its hiccups and coughs darkening the sky to the west. Occasionally, a clap of thunder can be heard even as far as Melona's dome, and a shadow can be seen within the ash clouds looming above the mountains. Whispered rumors travel throughout the region, carrying warnings that "The storm is alive," remembering the destruction wrought upon Toran and the volcanic eruption two months ago that had devastated Hami, the town to the northwest. For two months, the heat and the ash had choked the skies over the mountains of Hami, but eventually, the lava stops flowing. Eventually, the skies begin to clear. Eventually, the people of Melona become curious enough— concerned enough— aware enough that their life inside their bubble that blinded them to the plights of the world at large— to start sending small groups out to Hami to see what aid, if any, they might require. The gym leader himself wanted to head the expedition, worried about his friend and fellow gym leader in the neighboring town, but he got yelled at enough for leaving his post during the last month that he reluctantly agrees to remain at the gym. Because, apparently, challenging gyms is very very important to some people, never mind the world being in a crisis and the safety of both people and Pokemon being at stake.

Instead, the desert guides are the ones who lead the way to Hami, knowing the desert and the mountains and are able to carve the most direct path towards the town. Self-sufficient as the townspeople of Melona tend to be, they do not ask for volunteers to join them, but they do not turn down help either, whether from bleeding hearts who want to do everything they can to assist people in need, or those who just want to get to the next town for their badges and ribbons. Like the trek from Mango to Melona, travel to Hami also takes several days of camping, of riding upon Numel through the sand, of climbing mountains and scaling unstable cliffs because there is no well-worn path from the ground to the peak. And nestled in the middle of the mountains, where Hami is supposed to be...

Ash and cinders. A field of rubble. Skeletons of buildings jutting up out of the ground where they are half collapsed and half buried in the ground, flames licking what little wood and scraps of cloth remain and hungering to devoid the new souls that have stepped within their domain. Aside from the rescue team from Melona, there is not another soul in sight, no sound of everyday chatter in the distance nor husks of bodies left charred on the ground. In this town laid to ruin, a single building has been left relatively untouched by the flow of lava that had run through its streets and washed away all its people. The sign hanging above the front door, blackened at the edges, reads: "Hami Boba." Inside, a single worker in uniform can be seen slumped over the counter, who is startled so badly when the door opens that she falls off her stool and blanches as if she'd seen a ghost— which is exactly what she thought, because who else would be here in Hami after everything that had happened? The volcano had erupted two months ago, she explains, all of the sudden without warning and most of the townspeople were forced to leave. Others stayed behind, those with rock and ground Pokemon who weren't bothered by the heat, or those with water and ice Pokemon who were willing to tough it out to battle the lava and the flames in an effort to save their town. This war against nature lasted over a month, and nobody ever came to their aid... But eventually, it became clear that their greatest threat came from the sky, from the ash that fell upon the land like a woolen blanket and smothered all the air, driving the last of the resistance fighters out.

In the end, the only person left in the entire town was her. The boba shop was constructed with the nearby volcano in mind, and there is no lack of things to eat inside the shop when there was only herself to ration for, but the funny thing is... even though she was stuck indoors and was horrifyingly lonely, she could feel a cool breeze pass through the shop every once in a while, and the air remained fresh. It felt as if there were something watching over her, she explains shyly, and there must have been, because she held onto that hope all this time and her patience finally paid off. Her first customers in two months!! Would they like some boba? The store's specialty is Shuckle berry juice boba! The stamps are a little dried out, but you get a cute red Slugma stamp for visiting this shop.

→ WELCOME TO THE NEW HAMA

(click to expand - it's free to live out here)

So, there's that. There is no town, not really. No gym, no contest hall. But the Melona guides aren't satisfied with leaving it at that, so they stock up on all the Shuckle berry juice boba they can carry and continue their search for the town's residents. They offer up Abras to teleport anybody who doesn't want to continue back to Melona, and then split into small groups to spread out across the mountainside, winding around smoldering lava lakes and trudging through paths knee high in ash. Here and there, all across the mountain range, small campsites can be seen. Up on a ledge on the cliffside, a group of people can be seen foraging berries alongside some wild Mankey. Out in the open in a valley, another group of people are seen roasting meat and nuts over several wild Torkoals' backs. At the base of one of the mountains, another group of people and Machop are hard at work breaking large boulders into smaller pieces to build shelter. Rather than having relocated to a single area, the people of Hami seem to have scattered to live in the mountains, welcome enough to the Melona guides and those who accompany them but denying that they need any help or expressing any real desire to reform a central town. There is no need, after all. Everything they need to live on is provided by the land and the wild Pokemon who share not only their habitat, but where to find food and water, and keep them warm and safe through the night. The volcano still grumbles from time to time, the seas around them continue to churn with relentless whirlpools, and sandstorms rage in the east towards Melona. But right now, they're just trying to live day by day.

While there is no main town any longer, the people do come together from time to time in the valley to share resources and spread news, and once a week, they sit together under the stars and hold Pokemon Contests on a stage that is nothing more than a large, wide slab of rock. The gym leader, Tsubomi, specializes in both fire and fighting type Pokemon and honors battles wherever she is challenged. Because of the lack of a gym building, she might need to be tracked down, though she is easier to find than Konoha, often making set rounds from group to group, checking up on the townspeople spread across the mountains. Central to all the campsites are natural hot springs, and both people and wild Pokemon come here to submerge themselves in the steaming waters and rejuvenate after a long, hard day. When the first of the rescue team arrives at the hot springs, two familiar faces are seen: a girl with pink hair and a boy with blue hair. Nanami opens her eyes blearily and pats Minato on the face. He looks up at the group and goes, "Hey. What's up?"

→ AW NUTS...

(click to expand - you really should have done something about that volcano)

A couple nights into the month, a shooting star is spotted streaming across the sky and disappearing into the waters to the southwest.

The ground shakes.

In the dead of night, the sky is lit up with a spew of fire that bursts out of the volcano hundreds of meters in the air, black smoke billowing up into the air in thick clouds, the mountains hacking up ash and molten rock. Screams can be heard throughout the mountain range as lava rushes down the slopes, people trying to grab what little they have left for a second time— though many already have nothing left but their lives. Wild Pokemon flee from the mountains in herds, heading for the desert to face the sandstorms rather than being consumed by flame.

The ground shakes. It cracks.

Desert becomes beach as the sand spills into the water, the cusp between mountain and desert becoming a chasm driven deep into the water as the Hami mountains break away and start sinking into the sea.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ For the sake of timelines, the Melona guides first head for Hami on December 3, the volcano erupts on December 5, and Hami subsequently becomes its own island on December 6. Destruction and evacuation can be played out however you want, but the boba shop remains standing in the end. The building is in impeccable condition. Not even the ash sticks to it.
⬥ Please make note of the new investigation form in the toplevel below, involving investigation style.
⬥ The second event log will go up on December 15.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A little. I guess I didn't sleep great.

[The prospect of getting jumped by wild Pokemon lingers in the back of his mind, keeping his eyes open, but only just.]

Is that why you're in here, too?

It is.

[ He lets out a small sigh. ]

I've been a little stressed, and it's made it hard to sleep. I really needed something like this.

[That gets him to properly open his eyes and look over at Fai, though his concern is only mild for now.] Did something happen?

[He hopes not. It would be understandable for anyone to just generally be stressed after the last three months or so. Kidnappers on the loose, volcanoes, gods...]

[ Fai smiles a little. ]

Nothing too bad! I suppose everything that's happened has started to get to me. So many of us going missing, the disasters... It adds up, doesn't it?

And the kidnappers, and all the little things... Yeah, I feel that.

[He relaxes again. He's a bit too sleepy for it to immediately occur to him that Fai didn't encounter those kidnappers at the same time he did, or that not everyone in their travelling group except him is sharing info with each other at all times. Thinking requires him to be awake.]

[ Honestly, Fai doesn't really share info either, so he can't blame Sagi for that...

But he raises his eyebrows. ]

Kidnappers?

Oh, you didn't hear...

[Whoops. Sagi looks down at his reflection in the water, aware that saying such things offhandedly is probably the opposite of alleviating Fai's stress.]

Remember the Kings' missing son, Gale's brother? We went after his class after getting the other group home. It turned out they weren't exactly trapped, but being held by some kind of kidnapping ring.

[And now he's dampened his own mood, too. Double whoops. It's less damning than ruining someone else's, so he just slides yet further into the water as if to literally wash the frustration away. At this point, he's practically lying down.]

They... got away with one. We just missed them.

[ Damn. Fai lets out a small sigh. His mood is dampened, but it's never that great anyway so Sagi isn't ruining his night. ]

Just barely got the kid back... Were they kidnapping children for a reason?

They weren't in the mood to talk.

[He says that kind of flatly, at least as blasé about it as he was about getting set on fire.]

But there were a lot of them, and their Pokemon all wore these - headbands, with round cameras on them that looked like gemstones. [He makes a vaguely jewel-like shape with his finger and thumb. They weren't very big.] So there has to be an entire operation behind them, somewhere out there.

[ He frowns at that. ]

Hmm... there was a group of people trying to take a Pokemon when we found the gym leader in Melona. If they aren't connected, then there are at least two suspicious operations out there.

[Sagi sits up. Water drips off his wings as well as his back.] Did they leave anything behind?

[ Fai has to think back on it. ]

I don't believe so... The gym leader had them tied up and subdued.

So, no way of knowing if they're connected or not...

[Sagi contemplates how likely it is for two separate conspiracies invested in relatively high profile kidnappings to be going on at once. His gut says it doesn't seem all that likely... but it also says that brooding over it won't turn up new evidence on the spot. He decides that's enough contemplation for now and just settles back in the water.]

Well, maybe that group at least learned their lesson. Here's hoping.

[His hope is sincere. Hey, it's always possible.]

Here's to hoping indeed!

[ He sits back against the wall of the spring, briefly closing his eyes. Sagi's is sincere, but Fai's isn't. In his experience, groups like that try again. ]

Maybe they'll turn over a new leaf and start rescuing Pokemon instead. Wouldn't that be nice?

I mean, I don't think they'd learn that much just from getting tied up...

[He stifles another yawn. With thoughts of kidnappers still at the back of his mind, he's unlikely to relax enough to fully drift off now, but it's going to be a close thing.]

But it would be an improvement. One less distraction from finding those kids.

[ He laughs. ]

Hmm, you're right. I doubt they would learn. It takes a lot for people to really learn a lesson like that.

[ Fai lets out a small sigh. Sagi stifling yawns like that is making him a little sleepy. ]

But you're right. We could use less distractions so we can focus on that.

Yeah. It doesn't really matter what their "noble cause" is. Kidnapping kids for it isn't okay.

[...He should get out of this spring soon, he decides after a few more seconds of staring up at the sky. Not only is he putting a damper on Fai's relaxation time, he's not really in the mood to sit still any more. As a first step, he unfurls his wings again and, with another splash, lightly yanks himself into a more upright sitting position. His clothes are sopping wet by now, but that doesn't stop him from trying to rub the tiredness out of his eyes.]

Geez. I always want to just lie down and pass out in these things.

[ Fai hums in agreement with that. Bottom line, kidnapping kids renders any reasoning behind what they're doing useless.

He laughs a little. ]

Mm, I feel like I could fall asleep right here. It feels like all the tension has left my body.

[Despite the depressing conversation topic, really? Sagi finds that impressive in its own way.]

I can leave you to it. Or else we'll both pass out.

[Besides, he likes Fai and all, but he's never not had reservations about fully relaxing while other people around.]

[ Can't get your mood dampened if you're already depressed all the time, right? ]

Are you sure? You haven't been here for long.

[ But if Sagi wants to leave, Fai won't stop him either. ]

Sitting around is nice, but I'd rather do it at home... We have to work on that while we can, right?

[Before it gets dark, and the unfamiliar mountainside correspondingly hard to navigate. The fact that he doesn't know how to hold a conversation for long barely comes into it.

Okay, here goes. Spreading his wings, he rises gracefully from the water in an ethereal shimmer of feathers and water droplets.

And then almost immediately crashes back down into the spring, onto his knees. He wraps his exposed arms around his sodden shirt sleeves, shivering a little. Fai is almost certainly going to get splashed again.]

Ack... C-Cold.

[It's not even that cold, it's just the temperature differential. Who could have seen this coming?]

[ His wings look so cool... Fai wants to learn more about them, but he's not going to ask.

He frowns a little when Sagi crashes back down into the spring, shielding his face a little with the splash. Oh well. His hair was soaked anyway. ]

Would you like a towel? I imagine it's especially cold with your wet clothes.

Um, if there's a spare... Th-Thanks. I didn't bring one.

[It would have been a good idea to think about this before entering the spring, but his friends aren't around to shoot down his impulsive thoughts for him. He'll just... slowly stand up this time instead of yeeting himself clean out of the water. Yeah.]

You're in luck, because I brought a second towel with me!

[ He also gets out of the water so he can grab said extra towel. Thankfully, he had them far enough away that they didn't get wet the multiple times Sagi splashed the water.

Fai hands it over to Sagi since he's now standing up. ]

Here you go!

[Sagi accepts the towel with a grateful smile.] Thanks, Fai. You're so prepared.

[He promptly wraps it around himself like a makeshift cape. He'll towel off properly in a second, it's fine. He just needs to stops shivering first.]

Is that something else you learn from world-travelling, or are you just like that?

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ OH THANK GOD

→ WELCOME TO THE NEW HAMA

→ AW NUTS...

→ MOD NOTES

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