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

[He assures her he doesn't want one, thanks her for the information... and leaves the Game Corner for the Daycare Center. He hasn't been there yet, so he'll ask anyone that looks like they're in charge where to find the breeders.]

[ A woman with long green hair tied back into a ponytail is kneeling on the floor, entertaining a baby Teddiursa, when Atsushi walks in. She'll direct him over to another employee, one who looks awfully similar to the police officers around town. He's the specific breeder of those Mudkips so he's the one who should be spoken to. ]

Excuse me, sir! Are you the Mudkip breeder?

[He could have sworn he's seen this guy around before. It must be a coincidence.]

I've been thinking of uh, going into... breeding rare... types?

[Unsure of the terminology and conventions with Pokemon breeding, his statement comes out as an awkward question.]

[ The breeder turns around, actually holding a Mudkip in his arms, and nods. Yeah, he is! Dressed in a white apron and a hideous green jumpsuit, he walks on over. What kind of rare types are you looking to breed? ]

[ The Mudkip squirms in his arms and he lets it down on the ground with a chuckle. It runs off but doesn't stray far away, playing with some other Pokemon. ]

[Atsushi tries to keep an eye on the Mudkip, but he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a regular one and the special type.]

Um... something that would fetch a large amount of money.

[He'll get right to the point.]

People really want your Mudkips, willing to gamble their savings away for one.

[ He gives a few weak bashful laughs as he rubs the back of his neck. Well, it's not his intention to rob people of their entire savings. He was just trying to help out the Game Corner since they were struggling a few months ago. ]

[ He supposes if Atsushi wants to make a lot of money, he should probably look into something else because it can take a while before you breed a Pokemon with the types of moves that you want. Besides, Pokemon shouldn't be bred solely for money. They're living creatures. They deserve love and affection. He figures that if anyone is willing to pay so much money for one of his Mudkips at the Game Corner, they'd pay an equal amount of attention to their new Pokemon. ]

[He's zero for about four of his investigations here so far. He shouldn't even be trying. Now he's here talking about breeding Pokemon and it's so far from the original purpose. There has to be something more to the gambling addicts, doesn't there? Are they just gamblers? A red herring?]

That's an admirable approach to uh, prized... Mudkips.

[He stares at his shoes, and cannot think of any other questions to ask. This is a dead end, and he should have expected as much.]

I have to go! I left the stove on!

[And he's gone, running out of the Daycare Center.]

[ Bye, Atsushi. ]

[ Will he attempt the Game Corner again at a later date? Nanami will be there to help ease him into successfully solving one of his investigations... ]

[He'll venture back into the Game Corner after a hour of sitting in the rain and lamenting his failures. Perhaps unfortunately, he's going to go with a co-worker's method of investigation, essentially just straight up asking what he actually wants to know in a less than tactful way. He stands in the middle of the gaming floor and yells over the noise of the machines.]

Why are you all addicted to these games!?

[ Everyone looks up at Atsushi from their machines, but most of them don't pay him any attention as they just go back to playing their games. Just another person trying to preach about how video games cause violence or whatever, blah blah. Nanami, who is sitting closer to Atsushi, is playing as usual and is focused on her screen as she talks. ]

Is it a bad thing if people want to play?

N-no. No. Not in general...

[Atsushi sits down at the vacant game next to Nanami, because at least she's talking to him.]

You don't think everyone's going at this a little too much?

[He takes out the game coin he'd gotten earlier and looks at the Mudkip sprite like it has all the answers. At this point, he's not entirely sure what his initial investigation was about. The old man possessed by ghosts and the missing kids somehow turned into Mudkips.]

[ Since she's still in the middle of her game, there are pauses between her replies and sentences. She's nearly done so once she finishes this round, she'll focus on him. ]

Mm, maybe, but if they're happy then it's okay, isn't it? People should be allowed to do whatever they want if it's fun and it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Yes...

[He sets the coin on Nanami's game.]

You can have this. I give up.

[ Well, that sounds like a depressing reply. It's enough for Nanami to quickly get through this level and then pause the game so she can turn and properly face Atsushi. ]

What are you giving up on?

I don't know anymore.

[He cringes a tiny bit, and looks off to the left for a second before turning his attention on Nanami. Now Atsushi wishes he had the coin back so he could fiddle with it, but instead he opts for clutching the edge of his chair hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.]

[ As seemingly single-focused as Nanami is, she's surprisingly observant and good at putting things together. It's easy enough to see that Atsushi is upset and that it probably has to do with his earlier outburst. ]

Were you trying to figure out if there was something more to the people here or the Game Corner?

I was, but I can't figure any of it out!

[He's not cut out for this type of thing and he knows it. It's more obvious now without the help or direction he'd had back in his world.]

So I quit. I'm going to work at the boba shop and that will have to be enough.

[It's not enough.]

[ The game is now completely ignored as Nanami puts her entire focus on Atsushi. Even as the arcade machine starts to count down, asking if the player wants to continue, she doesn't touch the buttons. ]

That's because you're playing on the hardest difficulty as a single-player. If we do co-op two players, we can beat the level together.

[ Essentially, she's trying to say that if they team up, they could try to solve the mystery together. She reaches for the coin that Atsushi put on her machine and holds it back out to him. ]

What have you discovered so far? You had one of the Game Corner's tokens.

[That sounds like gibberish to him, but it's confusing enough for him to focus on Nanami again.]

Nothing. Drifloons are involved with the children at the beach, but everyone knew that already. I don't know anything about the ghosts yet. That coin didn't lead anywhere. People like Mudkips?

[That's all he's discovered, the value of Mudkips.]

[ She nods. ]

Do you know why they like Mudkips?

They're bred for rare abilities?

[Everything is a question now, because he can't filter out the important information, if he'd gotten any, from the rest of it.]

Mmhm. These particular Mudkips know a move called Whirlpool, something that they don't normally know.

[ Whirlpool... can you figure it out, Atsushi. ]

[... maybe.]

To... get rid of the sea monster?

[In another thread, he's suggesting they use the rocket launcher on it.]

Well... we don't have to fight them. With Whirlpool, we can just calm the waters and avoid them.

[ It'd be a lot easier to move around the Gyarados if they don't have to constantly worry about being knocked overboard and drowning. ]

Oh.

[That's anticlimactic, which he appreciates and is unused to.]

Someone needs to win the Mudkip then. You're probably well on your way.

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 09/01 The Arrival

→ 09/01 The Surroundings

→ 09/02 The First Meeting

→ MOD NOTES

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good luck, nanami

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