SEPTEMBER INTRO LOG

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→ 09/01 The Arrival

「 Welcome to the world of POKEMON 」

"It will come to be. And in exchange..."
You wake up with a start. Thunder rolls across the sky, steamrolling the voices and the fog out of your head and replacing them with mottled grey on white— greyer in some spots than others, and if you're one of the unlucky ones, the greyest leaks cold water right down on your face. Drip... drip... drip... the intervals in between getting shorter and shorter until

SPLOOSH!!

The entire ceiling caves in and water and soggy drywall collapses onto your head, and those of several dozen others sharing this very open, very wet room. Rain pours down from overhead through the large hole in the middle of the ceiling, but the perimeter of the room is a little drier: about a dozen cots line the walls, not enough for the number of people here and so most must pick themselves off the ground. Other than a few curtained dividers now scattered across the flooding floor, the room is otherwise bare. White, grey, and very wet.

"Uh..." The only dry people in the room stand in the doorway: a girl who pulls her hood further over her head to keep the water off her face as she steps in to help the person nearest her up, and a boy who hangs back behind her, hesitant, staring at his feet a little guiltily until he looks up and catches somebody's eye, and he too steps forward to help people onto their feet. They introduce themselves as Chiaki Nanami and Minato Arisato, explain that they've arrived here a while ago in the exact same way as everybody here, and show off the purple and grey bands around their right and left ankles respectively, as if that is proof enough. Your unconscious bodies may or may not have been investigated while you were unconscious, but every person here will find some sort of band tattooed around a part of their body, some with a single pattern and some with two, some matching somebody else's and some unique to their own.

For those who want to hang back and ask questions, Nanami and Minato stick around and do their best to answer them, otherwise, you're free to go out in the rain and get soaked and wonder why this is your life.

→ 09/01 The Surroundings

"Ichi help me think of headings. I am so bad at writing headings" - Card

It's actually not that bad, all things considering. Sure, it's raining all day nonstop, but the rain varies between pouring and sprinkling and is weirdly lukewarm, like a shower that doesn't have enough water pressure and can't get hot enough. Strange creatures called Pokemon roam about the town of Toran, many hiding from the rain and liable to attack when people unexpectedly stumble upon them trying to find shelter themselves, especially the arm-hungry bears who just want to nap under trees, but others are friendly and eager to help people sweep water out of buildings and patch up roofs.

Whether you woke up with one or stumbled across them later, you have your own strange creature too. Be friends. If you don't know anything about Pokemon, there are plenty of elementary schoolers eager to laugh at your ignorance and teach you everything you need to know about catching and training Pokemon, little four-year-old escorts around Toran to show you where to find them in the lake at the center of the island, the surrounding ocean, the patches of grass throughout the town. The ground is perpetually marshy, thick mud and tall grass slowing foot traffic and the spiderwebs of pavement connecting the other structures around town are covered with half squashed, wiggling worms(egments) that are almost unavoidable to step on unless it's during a lighter drizzle when the bird Pokemon are free to swoop down to pick the roads clean. Want to get some experience in Pokemon battling? These literal children will gladly pulverize you to the point of blacking out and take your money or whatever fun little trinkets you have in your pockets.

The building everybody arrived in turns out to be a hospital, with an adjacent building being a hospital for Pokemon- a Pokemon Center- which offers free shelter for travellers but is currently overflowing with people who are stranded on this island, even with so many visitors forced to resort to long term lodging in the town's small inn. Both the hospital and Pokemon Center stand right along the lakeside, water overflowing and nearly lapping against the front steps, which is home to an abnormally large 30-foot long Gyarados. It thrashes about in the middle of the lake and has been scaring all the other wild water Pokemon to the outskirts of the lake, blasting the nearby buildings and berry trees with torrents of water, and lashing out at anybody who tries to approach. Several fishing boats that have gotten too close have been smashed, but a few are left tied to the docks around the lake for braver trainers to use.

Large canopies have been set up over the berry gardens dotting the rest of the lakeside to keep the rain (and the occasional Gyarados hydro pump) from washing off the berries. The trees are tended to by gardeners with their grass Pokemon, and at times Minato with his Yamask covering his face, one black arm wrapped around his neck and the other lazily waving an arm to part the cloud of several hundred Combee buzzing protectively around the boy, trying to keep unfamiliar people away from the beehives as Minato makes his rounds checking up on each of the hives and picking up the fruit that has fallen or has ripened enough on the branches, offering berries to any person or Pokemon who's hungry.

Most of the buildings around town are doing well enough, despite the unending gloomy weather and too many people. The Daycare Center is particularly packed with Pokemon whose trainers are stuck outside of the island and unable to pick them up, and volunteers to help feed and care for the Pokemon are needed more than ever, especially the younger Pokemon who are fussy and upset at being away from their trainers for so long. Even the older Pokemon are a bit worried, and some of the daycare workers whisper about rumors of a pack of wild Drifloon seen around town whenever the rain calms down to a drizzle and luring little kids into the thick fog and getting them lost. There are also whispers about the hospital, hushed words about how it's haunted by the spirits of the deceased and that when a group of Murkrows gather around a patient's window, it's to mark that person with misfortune and death. Several posters of missing children are hung up around the Daycare Center, with the promise of a reward for any information or return of the children, and flyers begging for help to calm the residents at the hospital of their worries about the Murkrows or ghostly sightings.

The Game Corner arcade never knows silence with the constant flashing and chiming of the slot machines and roulette wheels, but don't be fooled with the frequent payouts seen at the machines Nanami and her Mimikyu sit at, because the odds are actually pretty low and the tokens can only be traded in for berries, common items, and Pokemon accessories. There are no windows in the Game Corner, and it is very easy to lose track of time inside— one elderly gentleman in a tophat can be seen at the same slot machine in the corner at all hours of the day, never eating or sleeping or doing anything else but mechanically pulling the lever, unresponsive to the rest of the world around him. He's going to hit the jackpot, he knows it. Just one more pull. One more pull...

The newest building in Toran is the boba shop, freshly painted in bright yellows and blues just before the storm hit and the colors remain bold against the grey sky. The "Grand Opening" sign still hangs above the front door despite opening over a month before, inviting customers inside to try their specialty: milk tea with Combee honey boba balls. Boba is half off for first-time customers, and you also get your stamp card stamped with a lavender Bulbasaur face, unique to Toran's shop. There are eight stamps total to be collected- fill up your stamp card for a special prize! But strangely enough, scattered throughout the town, people of various different ages slump against walls and on the ground, barely responsive and with empty cups of boba around them. They're ignored by the townspeople and despite the unnerving sight of these semi-vegetative citizens, lines to the shop are just as long as ever.

The shop is also currently hiring, for those who would like to fill up their days while there's nowhere to go and make a little $$$. How about it? Join Team Boba today! (:

→ 09/02 The First Meeting

"Hahahahaha" - Ichi

After giving people some time to get settled, later in the evening of the second day, Nanami, Minato, and their Pokemon go around finding people with those mysterious bands marking them as isekai'd strangers to the island, and herd them towards the boba shop to Talk. About why they're all here, about that dream, about where to go from here...

As the group waits for the last of them to arrive, with a round of boba provided courtesy of Nanami and her small Game Corner fortune, chatter around the boba shop paints the same story: a storm has been raging for over a month now, with thunder and lightning, hurricane winds, and whirlpools making travel to and from the island too hazardous, trapping visitors on the island way past their expected length of stay. There are talks of strong Pokemon trainers having headed out into the storm to try and get help from other towns, most of them quickly forced to turn back, and others— whether they were lost at sea or managed to break through— never heard from since. Storms are never this bad here, the people say, they never last this long and they don't ever seem to be... sentient... getting a lot worse earlier yesterday when so many new people were found collapsed around the island and were brought to the hospital, intermittently throughout the past month whenever a trainer tries to leave the island, and the largest reaction from the storm over a month ago when a girl with pink hair and a boy with blue hair were found in the lake and dragged half-dead to the hospital.

The island has been isolated for well over a month now with nobody having any idea what's going on outside, but the arrival of so many people at once can't be a coincidence- it must signify the time for change. When something to this scale happens, people tend to look to the gods, the Legendary Pokemon, but if they're really the cause... it'll take effort from everybody in order to break through the storm to catch the attention of the Legendaries and reach the rest of the world.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Welcome to Pokespe! All characters wake up at the hospital by the lakeside and can explore the rest of the island. Players are free to play out Pokemon battles or wild Pokemon encounters, but please let a mod know when catching a new Pokemon so we can approve or decline the capture.
⬥ On the second day, Nanami and Minato will be available to answer questions about what they've found out in the month before everybody else arrived. They will each have an NPC toplevel for those who wish to speak with them, and characters present at the meeting are free to learn about the information shared without needing to thread with an NPC.
⬥To proceed to the next area for next month's log, characters must find a way to travel across the stormy ocean filled with whirlpools and choppy waves. Make sure to mention your efforts on the permanent AC page at the end of the month!
⬥ There are several other oddities and problems around town that characters may choose to help with or investigate, which may or may not help with escaping the island or have ties to the plot as a whole. To investigate one of these areas, please comment to the questions toplevel with a link to your thread so the mods can direct you appropriately.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Thank god that there's another person here who recognizes the value of video games. In her words, those who have not played a single video game is missing, like, 90% of life, so to find a fellow gamer, she's happy. ]

[ She sets down the tray of tokens in between the machines so Itaru can take as many as he can. She doesn't mind sharing. On the other seat beside her, her Mimikyu jumps on, fully intending on playing as well. He's been picking up the art of video games since last month! He's learning from the best! ]

[ And the best Nanami is. She doesn't have the title of Super High School Level/Ultimate Gamer for no reason. When she's intensely focused on a game, she puts everything aside, even breathing, so Itaru will have a fine opponent. May the best win...! ]

[ may the best gamer win, yes. itaru's a normie through and through but when it comes to buttonmashing, he's unparalleled at it, and dodrio berry-picking isn't that hard to play when you get right down to it anyway.

which is why when the game starts, he immediately goes all out. left, right, up, left left, right -- and he does his best in keeping up the pace as it steadily speeds up. rowlet's doing his best as well, despite being new to this, and in the end that's all that matters.

but whew, is it just him or is the game corner slowly filling up with more people? because they've gotten the attention of a couple of onlookers who were only there for kicks, and the crowd starts to grow a bit. no time to give 'em any attention though; his gamer cred is counting on this little game here. ]

[ Nanami doesn't notice the crowd that is beginning to surround them. She zones out completely when she's playing so unless they start to really distract her, she won't pay them any attention. She'll just keep at it, tapping away on the buttons with no room for error. Mimikyu is having a harder time keeping up once it starts to get faster and he's making small distressing sounds when he's getting closer to failure. ]

[ In a looping effect, the crowd attracts more people which only makes it bigger and gathers more attention. Eventually, half of the Game Corner is packed with spectators, all watching the berry picking showdown of the century. They become louder and more obnoxious, cheering on any of the four players. Some of them even start to move in closer, literally coming within inches beside Itaru and Nanami's faces (along with the Pokemon) to get a closer watch. Hmm, this is starting to get very frustrating. ]

[ itaru's really into the zone as well, picking up the slack as rowlet's starting to fumble and mess up some of the buttons. but the noise is starting to get to him and the fact that he can practically feel the breaths of spectators on his neck is ticking him off, to be honest.

so excuse him as he starts yelling: ]

Can everyone just give us some SPACE--

[ and that's his downfall. his outburst made him press the wrong button, causing him to lose the game and making nanami the winner. the game center collectively loses its shit, congratulating the SHSL gamer on a job well done while clapping itaru on the back for a job well done.

ughhhhhh, he wants to crawl under a hole and die. ]

[ It is a win, but it's not one that Nanami particularly is happy with. She only won because Itaru got distracted and she could tell how frustrated he sounded when he yelled. Video games should be fun and you should be happy with them both while you're playing and when you finish. Rather than sporting a triumphant smile, she gives a pout that would put Jigglypuff to shame. ]

... he only lost because you distracted him. That wasn't nice at all.

[ She chastises the crowd that's around her, but she doesn't raise her voice. She never yells, but her face and words are enough to get the crowd closer to them to dial back on their cheers. She then turns to face Itaru again. ]

Let's play somewhere else. We can have a rematch with another game.

[ the cheers die down a little, leaving itaru feeling a bit embarrassed. he didn't mean to sound so pissed off back there; if anything he didn't want anything to get to nanami either.

but what's done and done, so he'll nod to nanami and lead her away towards... well, anywhere but there, and he stops at the fighting game section of the game corner where various fighting-type pokemon are duking it out in idle screens. ]

For the record, I didn't mean to sound like a sore loser back there [ then, a smile. ] GG, by the way.

[ She'll follow along as her Mimikyu tags close behind. She doesn't mind what kind of games that they'll play next because she finds everything fun, even those terrible half-polished games that are a mess of glitches and clipping. She has her own handhelds in her bag that they can also play with if they want to leave the Game Corner. ]

Mm, GG.

[ The pout has died down now that they're away from the crowd. Asides from the fact that they were loud and distracting, she doesn't do so well with large groups of people like that. She's still not very social and she still has to think for long periods of time before she can properly answer someone, especially if she doesn't know them very well. ]

You were really good. I haven't played with another gamer in a long time.

Haha, thanks. Been a while since I played a videogame myself, come to think of it.

[ well there's that one time where he had to parade as a teacher-assistant in one of the worlds he'd hurtled in, but he hasn't had time to thoroughly enjoy gaming when you're practically required to murder someone for prom. so when he'd chanced upon the gamer corner, he wasted no time to get in touch with his natural habitat again.

but anyway. it was nice to get to play with someone again. nanami was a strong contender too - his fingers are still cramping a little bit from all that mashing. ]

But honestly, I've been missing handhelds myself. I thought I could finally log into my mobage when I arrived here and get my logins once and for all, but of course this world doesn't have wifi. [ sighs. goodbye dailies....... ]

[ Nanami nods as if she completely understands. She doesn't often play games that require a constant internet connection, but she still dabbles in them. She wouldn't be a proper SHSL Gamer if not. ]

But even with wifi... I don't think it'd work without the servers being in this world.

[ At least if you were in another country and get around the region-lock, there is a server you can log into on the other side of the world. Here... you'd have to go through an entire universe to gain access. ]

Yeah...

[ don't he know it. man, he misses internet access more than ever. he leans back against the machines, sighing. ]

I'd take you up on a rematch on any of these things, but honestly my social battery's 'bout to run out. [ he isn't too comfortable with too much social stuff either. the electrifying air in the game corner after a huge influx of players watching their fight is making it a little hard to breath, ngl. ]

Do you maybe have something on you I can tinker with, like a handheld? Maybe this place lets us borrow one, hmm...

[ She nods in agreement. Yes, she completely understands what a social battery is like. You can't spend an entire day trying to level up a Social Link multiple times over and over again. You only get one or two chances before you're done. ]

Mmhm, I have a few.

[ She slips off her backpack and holds it in one arm while she opens it. She figures that it'd be easier to show Itaru what she has rather than listing them all. Inside, there is a supply of every Nintendo and Sony handheld released so far, along with one or two of the lesser-known brands such as the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. ]

[ itaru expected like, a switch or something, not an entire smorgasbord of vintage and contemporary handhelds. his eyes look like they're about to pop out of his eyesockets, still not believing what he's seeing here, then with shaky fingers he retrieves a PSP from her backpack.

just... give him a moment to marvel over it, looking at it at all corners and making sure this is a legit console. ]

A-And the cartridges?

[ why does he sound so choked up oh my god ]

[ blair, i cannot tell you how much i love itaru. he is the best (clenches fist) ]

Which games are you looking for? I have most of them digitally, but I have a few carts.

[ Mostly for the older gens that didn't allow for digital downloads, though she also has those ports in the newer gens. She has memory cards for days. ]

[ im so glad...... this is the cr nanami deserves ]

Er, fighting games. Need to let off some steam.

[ he's still in awe. he has a PSP back home (like, at his parents' house), but it's been so long since he played it... just gonna subtly vibrate in place here. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

SEPTEMBER INTRO LOG

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 09/01 The Arrival

→ 09/01 The Surroundings

→ 09/02 The First Meeting

→ MOD NOTES

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