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bopbay2025-07-10 10:47 am
004 ⟡ JULY TEST DRIVE
⋆✩ test drive 04 ✩⋆
The day begins like any other.
Routines, eventful scenes, and boring errands — no matter what you were in the middle of, there's a moment where everything begins to feel wrong. A searing pain tears through your body, so intense that it feels like every nerve has been struck at once. Muscles spasm, joints scream in protest, and as you double over, you find yourself clawing or clinging at anything within your reach. As your attempts to maintain composure fail you, your bones begin to twist with an agonizing force, the pain rising in a crescendo until it becomes unbearable to even breathe. Then, as quickly as it began, everything stops.
For a single, terrifying moment, there's nothing. No sight, no sound, no touch, no taste, no smell — just the weight of nothingness swallowing you whole. The absence of sensation might even be worse than the pain, leaving you adrift in a void you can't escape. Hopelessness threatens every fiber of your existence, and try as you might to fight it, your darkest thoughts begin to surface, flooding your mind in an onslaught of suffocating feelings and ideas.
In the darkness, you hear a voice.
It's faint, a gentle flashing of something warm along the edges of your mind, like sunlight itself. It's a voice, but you can't identify who or what it comes from, how it sounds, or what it means — still, you know it's directed at you. Something tugs at your heart, a powerful ache that throbs once and ripples outwards. You can feel the aches again, like fresh sores throughout your body. You feel off, like something isn't quite right, like you're not where you should be, or who you should be. But the voice continues, whispered just beyond your understanding. The sound is warm like hope, and it wraps around you, distant yet intent, before you wake up.
i. arrivals
STRANDED ON A BEACH
It’s impossible to tell how you got here. All you have is those last moments before it felt as if your entire being was being broken down and stretched into this uncanny shape, this thing that doesn’t feel like you. Even the ground itself seems to agree. It shifts, and rumbles. Gathers into mounds, rising up and over with the sounds of dying gasps. But wait.
That isn’t normal sand. That sand is alive. That sand, gathering into shades of pink, of blue, of green, it all forms faces before your very eyes. An enemy, you may think? A monster? A threat?
“OhhhHHhHH…What has happened to us..?”
Or perhaps, someone in the same predicament as you?
“Someone…Someone get Mightyena!!”
Albeit someone who clearly knows more than you do here, on this beach that slowly regains its color.
ii. see the sunset
COPPERAJAH-TONE
With the recent successes of Bottlecap Bay, public opinion is at an all time high, which is reflected in the activities pulled together in response. Through much of the Summer season, the beach of Bottlecap Bay becomes a literal hotspot of activity. Beach activities that many will find familiar take part at all hours, with equipment set up at small stands for public use.
A volleyball net is a particularly popular feature of the beach, with a particularly spooky form of gameplay spotted in the evening hours where Ghost types reign. Multicolored buoys float out to section off a safe zone of the water for Pokemon capable of it to swim at their leisure as well, with Bottlecap’s very own Dondozo and Tatsugiri acting as lifeguard.
The most popular game by far however is sand sculpting. Tools of wood and stone can be gathered up to shape the sand into any number of shapes, and some Pokemon may even offer small rewards to those who make especially impressive ones.
Be sure not to accidentally use the sand of one of those colorful Sandygasts however.
iii. mentorship methods
BUDDY SYSTEMS
Therefore, the combination of their recent peace and the local nature of these particular arrivals has given them an easy option for guiding these lost new souls. Rather than any of the Guild leaders seeking out ideal Pokemon among their ranks, those who have arrived from other worlds themselves are tasked with a new assignment. Help their fellow interlopers!
At minimum, each Guild Leader suggests a few basics to cover, but the methods with which they do this is ultimately left up to them. A tour of the local sights? A chance to test their mettle with brand new powers? Or perhaps simply a listening ear from one who understands the strangeness of these new bodies. The world is truly their Cloyster.
ADVANCE TRAINING
⟡ TDMs are game canon and act as events for the month they are posted.
⟡ New characters can link to their top level beneath the NEWBIE DIRECTORY
⟡ All new arrivals are not assigned to any one guild. However, they may assume themselves to share rooms within any one of them during the course of the TDM.
⟡ Remember that at least one thread for your application must come from the TDM! There is no comment minimum, but we will be looking for engagement, as well as for players and characters who take the time to delve into things like character thoughts, emotions, morality, and other deep themes. Take this time to engage with the setting as you would in game!
⟡ As a reminder, reserves and applications are permanently opened. Please see their respective pages for details on processing time.
⟡ Have any questions related to the TDM? Ask here! If your question is more general for the game, please make sure to direct it to the FAQ page instead. Thank you, and happy threading!
politely restrained summer fun
Wh-what happened next? [She leans in, the fire's light dancing on her face.]
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Your Destiny will find you without you seeking it out. Those who go chasing after it may discover that it is nothing like what they imagined.
[And then she goes quiet for a few long seconds.
She might not be the best storyteller, but she's spent more nights than she'd ever try to count listening to others tell their own tales, she's told many of her own before.
And there's nothing like a moment of silence after an ominous sentence to make things a bit spookier.]
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The Nui-Rama and their greater brothers, the Nui-Kopen flew high above him, but their great wings and great claws and great stingers make them fit for the open canopy, not the dense undergrowth where Afa now walked.
The Fikou scrambled among the trees, with their many legs and their sharp mouthparts. But Afa walked on the ground, not swinging on vines that might disturb their nests. And as arrogant as Afa was, no one survives long in the jungle if they do not have the eyes to avoid a Fikou's web.
These hunters and many others Afa knew of, and paid cursory attention to any sign of them, as must all who travel beyond the bounds of their village.
But Afa was of the air and the treetops, not of the water. He only feared the swamp for the wet on his feet and did the sucking mud. He did not know that that day in the swamp lurked a hunter far more dangerous than any he expected to see.
For that day in the swamp, there was a Tarakava. [There's no reaction to the name, but Hahli was prepared for that, so she keeps going.] Tarakava, most fearsome of all who live in the shallow waters. This Tarakava was once smaller and weaker than his siblings, and had been chased from the easy, clear water of the coastline. But he had lurked for ages now in the depths of the swamps, a stalking, hungry thing, and he was not smaller and weaker than anyone now. [She's crouching now, like she's preparing to spring, and her dark eyes scan the circle of gathered pokemon like a predator.]
He lurked in the shallows, and on his great back and on his great head and on his great reaching arms the algae grew thick, disguising his form and the blue of his armor. [Hahli's gaze lingers on a Haunter sitting next to Noelle, across the fire from the Vaporeon, and the purple ghost scoots back just a little bit, with just the faintest little nod. (This is a story that works better when you have a friend hiding behind the listeners, but the Haunter is picking up on what's going to happen so that's just as good).]
And Afa did not see him.
I'm loving this story
Wh-what happened next? Was Afa okay???
hehe time for... the jumpscare
His eyes were not turned to the waters.
Then, in a patch of sunlight, he saw it. A great stone, buried in the mud of the swamp, under twisting vines and rotting leaves. And on that stone, a message was written.
He reached out and began to pull the vines away... [and Hahli reaches forward with a paw, miming the motion as her voice drops quieter and more intense.] and he began to read. So focused was he on the message, on the promise of great treasure buried beneath the stone, on a great Destiny laid on anyone who would only dig for it, that he did not see Tarakava behind him, preparing to -- spring!
[And she matches the action to the suddenly-shouted word, steam rising off her form as she launches herself through the fire to land on the other side as if she's going to attack Noelle herself, startled yelps and delighted shrieks coming from the gathered and startled Pokemon.
(thank you Haunter for backing up and clearing a spot for her to land)]
apologies if my responses are a little lackluster. noelle has loved the story
storytelling threads are always a little one-sided!
I'm glad you liked it. If I tell it again, maybe you can play the Tarakava at the end.
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yes, this is exactly what you think it is.
And he finds himself in the starting town with all the NPCs missing. He keeps hearing this laugh, but he can't find a source, and it's playing one of the main themes backwards. And there's no way to start over or leave town. So finally he figures out the only way to change the game state: he takes his character and drowns him in a little pond in town.
His character starts screaming, like he's transforming using one of his power-ups, but it just keeps going and he doesn't transform. So his character dies, and instead of starting the game over, it just goes to this black screen where this twisted version of the character is staring at the screen. The face is kind of realistic and he feels like it's staring at him.
So, um, the man finally turns off the game and tries to return it to the garage sale where he bought it from. But the old man he bought the game from is gone. It's like he moved away from home in a hurry, even though it had been a short time. One of the neighbors told him a story when he asked. In that house, there was an... accident. A boy died there by drowning. And his name was... Ben.
[She pauses, proud of herself for remembering the whole thing.]
Umm, some other stuff happened, but... it was creepier when they told it, fahaha. I stayed up all night because I was too scared to sleep.
i am so sorry noelle but also i apologize for nothing
... What is a video game?
LMAO
... Oh. Um. It's... a game you play on a TV, right? [Does she have TV???] A TV is like a screen that can display images that it receives from satellite or internet or... aah, that's not the point! Umm, gosh, you manipulate those images using a controller and it's... [She's so embarrassed. Beach, please split open into a chasm and let her fall in and never return.]
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I think we are from very different places. But that just means we all have more opportunities to learn from the other beings here.
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woe, Bionicle Geography be upon ye
Ga-Wahi is the northwestern coastal region of the island of Mata Nui, surrounding the village of Ga-Koro in Naho Bay. It is bordered by the desert of Po-Wahi to the north, the lava fields of the Tren Krom break in Ta-Wahi in the south, and inland to the foothills of the mountains. [It's a smooth, factual recitation.] As a Ga-Matoran I spent most of my time there, though in my role as Chronicler I did explore much of the rest of the island.
Le-Wahi is the Fau Swamp and the surrounding lakes and jungle, all the land south of the Mangai Volcano. Le-Koro is in the trees near Lake Kanae, far enough up in the trees that the Le-Matoran don't have to worry about getting their feet wet, or becoming Tarakava bones. [Her tone and the tilt of her head shift to amused at that last sentence, a bit less professional.]
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["Getting into every kind of trouble you can find, and then telling everybody about it" had been Jaller's comment after the announcement of Hahli's new role. And while Hahli has tried to be a less... adventurous and more cautious Chronicler than Takua was, some of it just comes with the territory.]
I did not hold it for very long before the Great Spirit's other plans for my destiny were revealed, but I enjoyed it.
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I'm sure this counts as travel, even if we didn't ask for this particular trip.
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