bopbay | 004 ⟡ JULY TEST DRIVE

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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

Beneath your body is wet, thick, sand. In the early dawn hours, one would think all color drained from the world. Eyes open to the shadows of distant buildings, with massive cliffs looming ever closely in the faint twinkling of sunlight. Water, for those particularly unlucky, laps at the body to leave a persisting chill — sinking into bones that no longer feel familiar.

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.

CASTLES OF SAND⟡ Severity of dysphoria and disorientation symptoms are entirely up to the player, as is the duration of time these symptoms last.

⟡ The Sandygasts on the beach of Bottlecap Bay are in fact residents of the town by proxy. They are at their most active during the summer, and can thus act as helpful NPCs to help player characters toward the town.

⟡ These Sandygasts are very strange in color. The colors they appear in include — Pink with lilac stones and a blue shovel; Moss green with brown stones and a black shovel; Deep red with black stones and a cyan shovel; Dark purple with white stones and a black shovel. They don’t know how their colors changed either, but they certainly remember being normal Sandygast before everyone arrived.

ii. see the sunset

COPPERAJAH-TONE

With newly arrived Pokemon settling in from the beach, the town quickly moves to adjust existing plans until they’re certain the shores are clear. It only takes a few days before they’re back on schedule however, and every Pokemon including those same arrivals will find themselves with an open invitation to the shoreline.

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.

Beach Day Breakdown⟡ During the entirety of July, beginning on the 15th, the beach is open for public summer games.

⟡ While examples listed above are available, Players are encouraged to include their own Beach traditions within reason. If you are unsure, please ask under questions.

⟡ Beach fun will happen during the day and night alike. During the day, the beach is far more active; Pokemon are livelier, and enjoy much more cheerful activities. At night, while many Ghost and Dark type Pokemon enjoy the games, there are also often small campfires where quieter traditions such as apple roasting and scary stories happen.

⟡ Alcohol may be present at the campfires of the evening. Please be sure to mark threads including alcohol with a warning, and remember that characters under the age of 21 may not partake.

iii. mentorship methods

BUDDY SYSTEMS

A whole host of new Pokemon arriving is no longer a fully unanticipated scenario for Bottlecap Bay. While the town has persistently done their best to seek a solution to so many displaced new citizens, they have also come to recognize a growing pattern in their arrival. Every other month, these new Pokemon have appeared.

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.

A MENTOR MINDSET⟡ Each of the Guild Leaders will offer to their existing members few points they consider most vital to teach to the newcomers. Mightyena focuses on making sure the new Pokemon have a place to sleep, and insists that they be taught how best to fight. Ribombee emphasizes a need to show the necessary work ethic of the community, so that an understanding of how much they need to work together is understood. Polteageist in turn, gives a list of necessary establishments to familiarize themselves with, beginning with the Clinic, Archives, and Questboard.

⟡ During much of the month, various Pokemon maintaining stores and eateries within Bottlecap Bay will be offering their own helpful advice to guides and their charges. This trivia is minor, but typically focused on what the food is like, or what the benefits of certain articles of clothing might be.

⟡ Any Pokemon who helps another newcomer will earn 50 points for their Guild! As well, newly arrived Pokemon who put up with the guidance will receive a voucher for a custom, non-magical accessory, such as a hat or scarf.

ADVANCE TRAINING

After considerable research and effort, Polteageist has once again teamed up with Dr. Denne to craft a series of ever popular escape rooms, hinting that participating in them will be very useful in the future. Joining the effort is none other than Cheri and Oran's own Ribombee and Mightyena as well, making it a truly unified project. With so much investment going into these exercises, it's no wonder that every Pokemon from another world, new and old alike, is offered the chance to try at least one when they have the chance.

THE NORTH⟡ Located just between the Canopy and the beginnings of Bottlecap Bay’s southern coastline, the lush greenery of the Northern Forest's entry has been sectioned off into a training ground. Pokemon are grouped into random pairs, and tasked with finding the end of a hand-crafted maze within this early area of woods.

⟡ While many threats within the Northern Forest are well documented, some may still come as a surprise. Wild Pokemon such as Bug and Grass Types may still be encountered, as well as mushrooms releasing rage spores.

⟡ The Forest itself is also a threat — though it seems to understand these Pokemon mean no true harm, vines and plants will move when not directly looked at, creating added navigational challenges.

⟡ Pokemon who show no signs of escaping on their own after a certain point will find themselves retrieved by a local Grafaiai or Mankey, as enlisted by Bottlecap Bay.

THE MIDDLE⟡ Located a good distance down the southern coastline of the Bay, a section of the Middle Forest's entry has been carefully sectioned for a training ground. Supervised in part by a recently recruited Bloodmoon Usaluna, Pokemon will be grouped into random pairs, and tasked with finding the end of a hand-crafted maze in this early area of woods.

⟡ Due to the presence of heavy supernatural fog, Pokemon participants are warned heavily in advance of what to expect. The fog is known to literally reach into others, creating visions and hallucinations, as well as a deep loss of identity the longer they're exposed.

⟡ The end of the maze does not lead out of the Middle Forest. Instead, Pokemon must find their way back from the uniquely marked bone pile; because of the fog, this return is far shorter than the journey in.

⟡ Pokemon who spend too long within the Middle Forest while showing no signs of successfully escaping will quickly be retrieved by Ursaluna, whose Mind's Eye grants relative immunity to the Fog's effects.

THE SOUTH⟡ Far to the south of Bottlecap Bay, beyond the farthest stretch of wooded coastline, the Southern Forest lies shrouded in darkness. While there is no longer a thick haze of fog, its unique dangers mean that numerous Ghost Pokemon have been recruited to monitor a simple challenge within the woods. Specifically, two Pokemon will be paired at random, led a short ways in, and told to find their way out.

⟡ Due to the mechanics of the Southern Forest, nothing within this 'maze' has been crafted personally. Pokemon are sufficiently disoriented by the forest's own ability to alter its surroundings when none are looking directly at them, as well as the significant time dilation that occurs here.

⟡ Local Ghosts who have entered an agreement with Bottlecap's recently recruited Spiritomb will be available as both obstacles, and guides. As obstacles, they will intentionally lead Pokemon astray by joining the team in disguise, playing on the Forest's ability to create inconsistencies in memory and experience both.

⟡ Any Pokemon who spend too long within the Southern Forest with no signs of being able to return on their own will be led home by Ghost Pokemon acting as guides. These Pokemon take care to not shapeshift into anything other than themselves.

✩ OOC NOTES.

⟡ TDM CWS: Disorientation, Dissociation (Escape Room Prompts), Body Dysmorphia, Possible Pokemon Injury

⟡ 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!

FULL NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hm...I'm sure we will have to look further into it. This is probably only a momentary peace. But until something more happens, I confess that I am not sure of what to attempt. The Lum Berries may know more!

Makes sense, maybe we're just experiencing a sudden artificial calm as a diversion, so no one really knows where to anticipate what sort of incident will occur next because they haven't a clue to the objective.

[ Easy to be more amused with the perspective, but it could just be more deflection. ]

It could certainly be. None of us really knows any more about our current situation than we did at the beginning.

Unless someone is hiding something, of course. It would be too convenient if everyone was completely ignorant of the same things.

[ She is as annoyed by her own apparent ignorance in the matter as much as she even feels irritation toward her own curiosity in continuing to speculate. ]

...if they were, I doubt it is within the Oran Berries.

[ Mightyena doesn't really strike him as a scheming sort. ]

But I do not know why anyone would hide such knowledge anyway. We are all equally at risk! [ Aren't they? ]

If it's a matter of survival, in order to reduce panic, some things may be less said aloud to keep continued cooperation among so many transformed arrivals and those already here. It sounds to me that if these leaders specifically seek stragglers out like I've heard, then they already know more and have already decided how useful or difficult you'd be, if you accept of course.

...have you not spoken to any of them yet? The guild leaders?

[ That seems strange... ]

[ Talks a big game, and yet... ah, the horrors of unrealized forest time dilation. ]

What? No, not yet... though it's been quite a hectic few days, hasn't it? I'm not too surprised.

Well, yes, but not before that? You cannot have been in the clinic this whole time, surely?

No, I was only in there for a little while... When they finally finished with me, not too long after I saw you, I finally found an unattended window I could climb out of. The fog was still outside, but I thought it would be less annoying than being cooped up.

[ It was not less annoying. Ugh. She taps the ground with one of her appendages. The thought is coming together, she doesn't like it. ]

But I suppose there must be a reason you're asking that in such a pointed way?

But that was more than a month ago!

[ The little expression on her back immediately morphs into a more distinctively angered emote. Somehow, it just had seemed easier to accept that people were able to shift gears "quickly" after disconcerting events than to confront the limits of her own recollections. Challenges to her coping mechanisms ... ]

... What do you mean, over a month ago?!

It has been quite some time! I thought you had simply gone and joined another guild!

[ He doesn't see the Lum and Cheri folks nearly as often as his fellow Orans. It would have been possible to just miss each other! ]

Really!

[ Huff. She gets it, it's not his fault exactly for just being the messenger, but good thing this form doesn't make it particularly easy to do certain things. Like picking up and throwing something, or even just kicking something, it just didn't come naturally. Mostly she keeps stamping at that spot on the ground, there. ]

I knew things weren't lining up, but that's not how it felt at all. Ugh.

Did you go into the forest? Some others have gone in there claiming that it had only been hours, when it had been days in reality.

[ He hasn't experienced that effect himself, but there's more than enough stories. ]

Not intentionally, but I had gotten so turned around at the time that I ended up back there anyway. Tch...

[ Time. Haaah. And here she's been rambling so much, saying so many obvious things... but it isn't as if she's being kept in check to do otherwise. Tap. Tap. Tap. Switch the leg. ]

Though with other dimensions, isn't it usually the other way around, that you feel like you lose more time than you really do? No wonder this is just - [ Tap tap taaap. She's fine. Saving face here. ] annoying.

...have you traveled to other dimensions before?

[ The other way around would be a bit nicer, but she talks like she has experience. ]

Oh... I have been talking too much - silly me!

[ Lightly. Now the question was out there, and she hadn't been thinking about it too much. She stops her agitated foot tapping. How to put this, then... ]

... Back then that was usually on purpose, when I could travel between certain ones. Being brought here was a little different, after all.

How fascinating! Do you think it has granted you any more insight as to how all of this works, at least?

... More? I suppose it's possible. At least, the idea of being in another world isn't too strange to me, or even the concept that we're changed to fit to this world's... species.

[ Tap, tap, tap again. Her boss might have known more, or did he really? Ugh, not thinking about - that. It was enough work keeping herself together. Luckily, she doesn't have anything... better... to do back there... ]

It seems pretty desperate, if it's able to drag us from so many places that don't seem to have any real connection. But that much is obvious, even so.

Yes, I suppose. Very powerful as well, in spite of the desperation.

[ Or maybe that's the other way around? You get it. ]

Isn't it funny, how desperate, powerful beings always need to move people around for their dirty work?

[ Maybe it's not really funny. But irony, that's a thing. ]

And yet people find it so hard to avoid being pawns, all the same.

How could we not, when there was nothing to avoid?

[ It's not like they were physically grabbed, after all. It just sort of...happened. ]

But if we are pawns, I'm not quite sure how just yet. It isn't exactly giving us an idea of what it wishes.

Oh, I'm sure it just wants us to make ourselves useful and comfortable until that time comes. Earn points, as a treat. In the meantime, enjoy your new bodies, good luck if you don't know what to do with them.

Well, whatever it wants, I suppose we'll be far more reliable if we have time to learn to walk.

[ Not to mention, fight. But everything was a challenge at first; Ingo took a little while to even handle battles effectively, and he knew what he could do. ]

If it really needs help, perhaps it is not so callous as all that. Maybe the world itself is in danger.

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