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.

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[ Yeah, that's right, Facehugger is awesome like that and she preens with Efi's noise of approval. It's a good thing that Deino is smart too, being able to interpret attacks like that, but Minato's used to shouting out attack names, even if it's just in his head, so he goes on shouting like a nerd. ]

Astonish!

[ The wind hasn't died down completely, but he lets go of Efi so he can clamp both hands over her ears just as Yamask lets out an ear-piercing shout as she plows into the Ursaring, shocking it into a daze and also deafening everybody within ten feet of her probably. ]

[ Efi lets out a small, startled shriek because she wasn't prepared for that and only belated realized why Minato covered his ears. She can still stand her own ground though, while clinging onto the end of Minato's shirt. Deino is also startled, leaving him looking confused and pretty much standing there like a sitting duck. ]

Keep breathing fire!

[ Deino: hold up ]

Yeah, keep it up, guys.

[ Just throw out any and all attacks, yeah, that's how he and Yamask have been getting through the Pokemon swarms around here, and with all the other Pokemon in disarray, the wind dies down completely and Minato takes the opportunity to carry Efi over to the lakeside and starts washing off that honey.

The sugar seeps into the water and now they have water Pokemon coming up from the depths of the lake to join the fray, but at least! they're not sticky! anymore! ]

[ Deino is too busy trying to keep them at bay, but at least paralysis is working on some of them. Efi is so glad for the nonsticky-ness but she definitely wants to eat some of the honey later. Efi looks up to see what the honey attracted and she sees a Marill, Wailmer, and a Chinchou.

She remembers being told from the kids earlier something about this. Let's see... she throws a poke ball at the Wailmer because it's the biggest. ]

[ Wailmer swallows the pokeball, and starts to glow red.

We'll see what happens after Ichi reviews the catch submission too. ]

[ Despite the Wailmer swallowing the pokeball, it disappears into it. That... was a surreal sight. The pokeball sinks into the lake, but that's one less Pokemon to deal with. The others look kinda cute and... huh. They don't look hostile. Efi belatedly realizes this and looks back over to Minato. ]

Do I... get the ball...?

[ What does she do. ]

[ ...It looks like Pokeballs do not come back to you. They should. Having to retrieve your own Pokeball is pretty annoying. ]

You can't swim, right? Here, I'll hold onto you and swim with you out there, and you grab the ball.

[ He could get it himself, but no. It's her Pokeball, she should get the experience of retrieving it. ]

[ Given how things usually are, Efi's just glad that Minato is coming with her at all. She grins and nods. ]

Okay! I'll grab it quickly when I get close!

[ She seems pretty pumped up to get the pokeball and gets ready to be picked up any time. At least the water pokemon seem preoccupied with the sweet water that got mixed with honey. ]

[ They're also going to get coated in honey water, huh. There's no helping it, though. Minato wraps his arm around Efi's middle and carries her off into the lake like that, keeping one eye on that Gyarados to make sure he doesn't get too close, and the other around where the Pokeball had landed near the edge of the lake. Efi will have to do the blind reaching around groping until she finds it. ]

[ Considering how Efi doesn't know how to swim, she most likely doesn't know how to open her eyes inside the water either. That's why, as predicted, she blindly reaches out for the pokeball, trying to see if it's here or there. She eventually feels a sphere-like object and accidentally clicks the center button, which lets the Wailmer out of the ball. Hope Minato's ready to suddenly pop out of the surface with a six feet tall whale Pokemon beneath him because that's what's happening right now. ]

[ He is not ready, but that is what happens anyways- the both of them get blasted skyward, with Minato holding onto Efi the entire time, but at least they have some sort of landing? It's a crash landing straight down onto the Wailmer, Minato trying to turn so his back hits the Pokemon and Efi can knock the wind out of him in turn, that's okay, but then they bounce off the Pokemon and onto shore and ugh.

Everything is wet, sticky, and painful. But Efi is safe bc I am so determined to keep her safe. ]

[ Everything happens so fast.

When they land on the shore, Efi looks incredibly concerned over Minato. ]

Mister Minato! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!

[ Deino is getting... so tired of fighting in the background. ]

[ Hang in there, Deino...

Minato's about ready to call it a day and leave too, rolling over on the ground so he can bury his face in his arms and recompose himself a little before sitting up. He sure had a broken wrist, and it is maybe still a little broken. ]

I'm okay... What happened? I thought for sure you had caught that Pokemon...

If I throw a ball at it, I heard I could win right away...

[ That's... not wrong, in a sense. But Efi looks over to the lake, where Wailmer floats up to the surface with the same grin on its face. It sneezes, splashing water all over them. Fun. ]

Depends on—

[ Lots of factors: how much she's weakened the other Pokemon, what type of ball she uses, luck, etc. Not that it matters when Minato has to promptly shut his mouth to avoid swallowing a whole bunch of snot and water. ]

...Yeah. That's how it works. Let's get out of here first...

Hey! Don't do that!

[ Wailmer looks a bit sheepish and apologetic, but Efi returns it to the pokeball in wonder after clicking it open. That's so cool.

Meanwhile, Deino is tired of fighting, so he toddles over to Minato and Efi, scoots his head under Minato in an attempt to saddle him on his back and then to walk away from this... everything. ]

[ Is Minato the one being carried... He doesn't even consider it, seeing a little creature come up to him and he stoops to pick Deino up and hold him in his arms while he wades back to shore to head towards the Pokemon center just in case either of their Pokemon needs healing. ]

We should be okay for now. Looks like Gyarados tired itself out too, so it'll be a while before it gets really worked up again.

Are all battles like that?

[ Because that was really rough, and Efi doesn't think she's strong enough just yet to handle it all. Deino whines in Minato's hold, but doesn't squirm. ]

And can't we catch the big dragon too?

[ The Gyarados--though that's... a long stretch. Gotta dream big. ]

[ Efi gets a head shake at both those questions. Most battles are one on one, not 23409864092303 vs 1. ]

I've been trying to catch that big dragon, but that one's a lot stronger than Facehugger and I are at the moment. Lots of experienced Pokemon trainers have already tried, but they couldn't either.

[ It's out there hydro pumping everything, so it's at least level 41+, good luck all you level 5 starters. ]

[ Strategy isn't Efi's forte, so she thinks... and unsurprisingly fails to think of anything. She doesn't know much about Pokemon, and it looks like she'll have a lot to learn. ]

Facehugger...

[ She looks over at the Yamask. ]

She can't do the same thing again? The one where she brought out a bunch of dragons.

Not right now. You aren't afraid of dragons, are you, Efi?

[ Gyarados wouldn't be afraid of them either. What would it be afraid of? Maybe a Zapdos, if Minato knew what a Zapdos is. ]

I'm a dragon, so I wouldn't be afraid of one!

[ Because that totally makes sense. ]

I thought so.

[ It makes sense, sort of. With the way she looked so excited when seeing multiple Gyaradoses, he'd expected as much anyways. ]

What're you afraid of, then?

[ Efi's expression twists to something that looks like concern, because thinking about something that she's scared of makes it hard to hide her expression. ]

Losing Papa...

[ He's not sure that's something Yamask can display in an illusion, unless she becomes Efi's papa and then kills him off in front of her or something. ]

You love him a lot, huh? We'll take care of him so you don't have to worry about that. You're working on getting big and strong so you can protect him, aren't you?

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nyom - 2020-09-08 01:51 (UTC) - Expand

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compendiem - 2020-09-08 01:53 (UTC) - Expand

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