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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[She doesn't move, so he kneels down next to her to see if she's breathing. Satisfied Niko is alive, Jiro picks her up while the Rockruff continues to bark.]

Chill. I've got her.

[Somewhat. He holds Niko like he would a dog, arms around her waist and just sort of held against his chest. Her arms and legs dangle and her hair flows everywhere, swishing while he heads for the hospital. The Slowpoke, who Jiro has never confined in his ball, creeps down from his shoulder to chew on Niko's clothing.]

[ The dog watches Jiro like a hawk, ensuring that his trainer isn't actually being kidnapped by a creep or gets dropped on the ground. However, he sees that Slowpoke munching on Niko's clothing and immediately, Rockruff goes off on another barking spree. Hey, stop eating her robe! It's all she's got! ]

[ Does Slowpoke have his tail somewhere near the ground? Because this dog with sharp teeth is going to bite it :///// ]

[Alas, the Rockruff is out of luck unless it climbs half-way up Jiro's leg because the Slowpoke is probably six feet off the ground and its tail isn't that long. It might wiggle its tail in a mocking gesture, if it had the forethought. Jiro hasn't picked up on why the Rockruff continues to bark, so Niko's robe will get drooled on the whole way to the hospital.]

[ Yeah, fuck you, Slowpoke!!! Let's fight!!! Rockruff is absolutely going to climb half-way up Jiro's leg to bite that tail. He'll even bite Jiro himself and sink his claws in if it'll help him climb up to fuck up that Pokemon. ]

Hey! What the fuck!

[That is a vicious Rockruff, claws easily penetrating Jiro's sweatpants and piercing the skin of his leg. Niko gets shifted under one arm so Jiro can try to manhandle the Rockruff as it latches itself onto the Slowpoke's dangling tail. The Slowpoke himself doesn't notice, still making chewing motions as if Niko's robe hasn't already been removed from his mouth.]

I'm trying to save your owner here, you stupid dog!

[ It's hard to tell from this angle whether or not the Slowpoke has let go of Niko's gown, but he decides release the tail in his mouth. Being manhandled by Jiro sucks but he will remain still since Slowji has stopped eating his trainer's clothes. He does growl, however, yapping once at the Slowpoke and pointing an accusatory paw at it. I'm watching you, buddy. ]

Fuck you too, dog.

[He doesn't shift Niko again, she remains under one arm as Jiro enters the hospital, yelling before he even gets to the front desk.]

I found this girl!

[He recognizes her as one of the others who woke up in that room, but doesn't know her name.]

[ Rockruff follows closely behind, as quickly as his injured leg can take him, and immediately entering, Jiro manages to catch the attention of the entire lobby. The receptionist calls for a nurse and quickly enough, two appear to take Niko off his hands. When she wakes up back here, she's going to have a meltdown, but thanks, Jiro... I guess you saved her or something. ]

[ Her starter tries to follow along, but he's denied the opportunity to do so. No Pokemon until she can have visitors. In the meanwhile, Jiro needs to answer a series of questions, the typical intake ones such as her name, how did he find her, does he know her, what's wrong, etc. ]

[Jiro tries to keep the Rockruff with him, if it will let him. He'll stay until it can go see Niko, even if it's a vicious yappy mutt. Most of the questions go unanswered, but he tells the staff where he'd seen Niko before, where he'd found her, and that she's been completely unresponsive.]

[ The Rockruff will indeed stay with him because he has nowhere else to go. He'll remain silent unless Slowji starts to bother him then he'll go back to barking and biting, but he'll just be a sad dog in the meanwhile. ]

[ Is Jiro willing to wait nearly 36 hours for a stranger because I'm going to say that it's going to take that long. ]

[He is, but he'll be pissed about the wait time - asking the doctors every ten minutes what's taking so long. Niko's just a tiny girl. It can't be that complicated. Maybe she ate rotten berries, maybe she got bitten by a rabid Pokemon...

After two hours of that, he'll resign himself to sitting around in the lobby and reading all the magazines that are on the rack. He'll learn about Pokemon battles and show competitions and boba stamps.]

[ A nurse will fetch Jiro and the Pokemon at the 37th hour mark, saying that he can now see the girl whom he brought in earlier. She's awake but be quiet and don't overexcite her or anything. ]

[ Niko's been changed into a new gown and been properly cleaned up. Unfortunately for her, she's attached to an IV, a nasal cannula, a pulse oximetry, and whatever else they want to monitor her with. Pneumonia is serious for patients with compromised immune systems, something that the doctors were able to figure out quite quickly. She's not happy about her situation at all and while he might thank Jiro for saving her, she'd also be upset and bitter. Laying on her bed with a fever that she can't fall asleep from, it's miserable. ]

[He'd have left right away if Niko actually looked like she'd be okay, but she doesn't. Jiro doesn't know what to do in this kind of situation, so he just looms over Niko's bed.]

Hey. I found you outside...

[ Niko looks just as miserable as you'd expect a patient with a high fever in the hospital, but there's also a level of bitterness that is bubbling underneath the surface. Of course. She comes to another world yet she's still restricted to being a patient forever. She glances at Jiro once before she looks off. ]

Oh... were you the one who brought me here?

[ She doesn't sound very grateful that he did. Instead, she sounds accusatory. ]

[He picks up on that tone, and unfortunately, he's not taking it.]

Hey! I saved your ass! You could have died out there!

[Been eaten by bears or drowned in a puddle. Who knows...]

[ The Rockruff, easily forgotten by how behind he was while trailing along, starts to growl. He's going to start nipping on some ankles soon if Jiro doesn't stop yelling at Niko, but she doesn't seem really bothered at all. She just continues to keep her head turned away. ]

... and that would have been okay. I don't mind dying out there.

[ She's not scared of death. That's something that she has come to terms with years ago. She just doesn't want to die while doing nothing; not being able to explore, see new things, make friends, at least do something. She'd rather die out in the rain, being eaten by a bear or drowning in a puddle, than in a hospital bed. ]

[Jiro growls back at the Rockruff. Fight him, he will take you down, little dog. Niko's words seem hollow, and Jiro starts to wonder if she's had too many bobas.]

Who'd take care of this guy if you just up and died?

[He grabs the Rockruff by the scruff of his neck and drops him on the bed.]

[ There's a yap when Jiro picks him up, but once he's dropped on the bed, he goes quiet. Okay, fine, he'll bite your ankles after he goes up and nuzzles his snout against the side of Niko's face. It's enough for her to finally turn her head back towards the direction of Jiro and the Pokemon. ]

Oh... you waited for me?

[ There's no reply but more relieved nuzzling. She's hot and sweaty while he's still dirty from all the mud and rain outside. The nurse is definitely not going to be pleased when they come back and see how dirty the bed and patient became... ]

... it's okay. I'm sure you or someone else would have taken care of him.

[ As cute as the Rockruff is, she doesn't know the first thing about caring for pets. She knows that you have to walk them and keep them active and that's definitely something that she can't do. She would have tried to find him a home after his leg got better. ]

[That nurse can shove it... Jiro would have taken care of the Rockruff, yes, but it doesn't like him.]

Whoever brought us here, they probably didn't want you dying.

[He's terrible at this and should just leave.]

[ He's terrible, but at least Niko isn't lashing out at him so that's a plus. He's already better than Zen and most people, but he is treading on thin ice. Her tone is getting harsher around the edges. ]

If they didn't, they shouldn't have brought me here.

[ This is cruel. She finally gets to leave and appear in a new world, but she's still sick and she can't go very far without being trapped in this new hospital. It's as if the universe is mocking her. ]

Why are we even here? What is the point of this place?

I don't fucking know!

[Jiro will continue to snap back at her on reflex. He eyes the door.]

[ She looks back at Jiro when he yells yet again and this time, she spots him staring at the exit. ]

... you can go. You don't have to talk with me.

[ He doesn't have to be here if he doesn't want to be. They don't even know each other's names. ]

[He's just making it worse, so he'll leave... Get well, Niko.

]

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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