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

[Siffrin tucks themself behind the second bowl with a mumbled thank you.]

Yes, it's been fine...

[Hmm. That sounds. Very convincing? They don't seem outright upset so much as off-balance, though.]

[They shake their head and try to think of something to explain it, that's not the actual reason, which feels rather silly in retrospect. Just an odd encounter...]

It feels kind of weird to look out into the bay and see Dondozo just... there. [That is also true!]

...I suppose that is a bit strange.

[ He looks out at it for a moment. Ingo was less involved, but Emmet went along on that mission where they learned of the Pokemon Dondozo had eaten. How does he feel about it...? ]

Something similar happened in my world recently. Several powerful Pokemon were driven into frenzies. They lost control of themselves and began to attack indiscriminately. But...no one was killed, then.

[It's not like they can judge too much. Several of Siffrin's guildmates in the Cheri Berries hunt for food outright, and they're kind of uneasily not thinking too hard about the existence of any meaty snacks that can be obtained around the Bay. The town certainly seems willing to roll with accepting Dondozo and Tatsugiri in, perhaps because Pokemon preying on each other is a fact of life here.]

[But it does also feel a tad odd when... the Pokemon who landed you and your teammates in the clinic are now peacefully being lifeguards on the beach. Siffrin doesn't think they want to swim while Dondozo and Tatsugiri are around.]

Could that happen to us, too...?

[...]

Or... maybe that's what the fog's already trying to do? [Is "trying" the right word...? It makes it sound eerily deliberate.]

[ That does make it sound very deliberate. Ingo's not sure he believes it has a mind, like that, but...well, he doesn't totally disagree with the premise. ]

...when I was out there, on our worst mission, I could hear voices inside the fog. Lost Pokemon crying out for help. I felt as though I had to follow them. To help them, I thought, but...I do not believe now that I truly could have done so.

[ He still strongly feels that they were real, and in need of aid. But what could he have done? He may be a Typhlosion, but he does not actually know how to guide lost souls. ]

It was enough to make me forget where exactly I was, and our mission, until Emmet got me to a clearing with less fog.

[They don't like the sound of that, actually!! The fur along Siffrin's spine starts to spike up; they twist around to lick it back down.]

[They don't really know what to say, though, besides...]

What happened to the Pokemon in your world? The ones in frenzies?

[ Huh! Ingo's been doing his level best to resist doing things like licking himself, even though he definitely does want to sometimes! ]

They were cured! Akari did it, not I - she is here now as well, in the Oran Berries. She had to fight them to a standstill, and also make a number of offerings. That is food traditionally left for the Nobles!

[ Hm...would figuring out the favorite food of some of the Pokemon around here help? How would they do that, though? ]

[It's all Firepaw's fault. Sometimes you start off feeling awkward and avoiding not acting human, and then progress to feeling like you're going to offend your sapient cat guildmate if you act like cat things are weird. As one does!]

[Fighting them to a standstill sounds familiar... but somehow the second part is so unexpected that it calms Siffrin down? Food offerings! (Where do nobles come into it?)]

I guess I'd also be pretty frenzied if I were really hungry?

[Ha... haha...]

Well...I did not observe any frenzied Pokemon closely. The nearest to me was Lord Electrode, and his Warden is not my greatest fan. But from what I did see, I am not sure they even had the presence of mind to take care of themselves properly while it was happening.

[ So - yeah, that probably didn't help! ]

[Hmmm. It kind of seems to match up so far?]

Maybe we should start carrying extra snacks around on expeditions...? [They miss having lots of pockets. (But at least they have a hat again, thanks to Shoka!)]

[Who knows, though. It's not like being well-fed was helping their teams not struggle with the fog... or maybe it would've been worse otherwise?]

[They probably shouldn't test that.]

So, um. How about you? Have you been enjoying the festival...?

[They're just going to duck their face into their bowl. Mlem. What kind of drink is this, anyway?]

[ Hm...yes, a change in subject sounds good. ]

Very much! It reminds me of the festivals we had at home, a bit.

[ ...should he have called Hisui "home"? Siffrin knows about some of that...but, it's said. Ingo isn't taking it back. ]

And yourself?

[Somehow, in all of everything, while they found out about Emmet and Ingo being brothers, and Ingo's lost memory, and that Ingo went missing... they've never actually put together that Ingo got tossed back in time. So they don't even notice anything weird!]

[Oh. Does it remind them of festivals from home...?]

[(It's gone, it's all gone, it's always going to be gone, so they can't answer about home, but -)]

I visited a place once where they'd have a yearly festival trying to build the most impressive towers out of sand. But I think it had a religious meaning, for them...? [They haven't gotten that impression here.]

[Still! That's kind of similar!]

Ah! A god of the land, or something like that?

[ He wouldn't expect sand to be favored in that case, but then, he's not sure in which case it would be. Sand itself is not significant enough to have its own god. ]

Something like that! Or maybe the ocean?

[They don't think they ever really found out the details, or maybe they did and just forgot! Either one is entirely believable.]

Ah! My Clan's patron is the god of space, so we have different ideas of what is sacred than many. Respecting people's personal space, for example, or not wasting it with clutter.

[The ear that isn't balancing Siffrin's hat perks up curiously. That's right! Ingo mentioned space back a while ago too, didn't he? They'd completely forgotten.]

[...oh.]

That's not the kind of space I was expecting.

[Wait, maybe that's rude to say? They wince.]

You are not the first person here to say that...

[ Is it really that odd? It never came up once in Hisui! ]

I suppose the space in the night sky must be Palkia's realm just as well! But it is quite beyond us. Emmet says that people can travel there in the future...I wonder if they think of Palkia differently then? [ How curious! ]

Travel there?? Like in a ship?

[They're immediately interested! Space ships are in the territory of the fairy tales they got read as a kid, something that just hasn't been attained with Craft and might not ever be doable - or at least, not without -]

[As a kid...?]

[Their head twinges painfully.]

[. . .]

Um. If space is important to you, living in the Spire must be hard, for you and Emmet... [Not that the Canopy is any fancier, but the Oran Berry living spaces seem particularly cramped.]

[They're still assuming "Clan" applies to both of the brothers, but now they think back on Ingo's words and pause. Hang on, "in the future"...?]

I suppose so? He said that they had gotten as far as the moon, and that people could walk about on it in special suits! Humans are not adapted to that environment the way some Pokemon are said to be, I suppose.

[ Those stories are largely unconfirmed, but they also aren't that strange by Pokemon standards! ]

Hm...well, yes, it's certainly...different. The two of us have our own room now, so that is a bit better - but I have always lived beneath the sky. I like caves well enough, but they are not places for people to stay, where I am from.

[Walking on the moon... that sounds even more like fairy tale territory. Which they're now trying to avoid thinking about.]

[They autopilot through,] Yeah, it's nicer to be able to see the stars at night, right? Even if it's through a window or tent flap.

[Mmh. That's kind of returning it right back to their own definition of space, isn't it, even if it wasn't intentional? That's probably rude. Maybe they should just change the subject altogether...]

So Emmet can... see the future...?

[That sounds... actually, do they want to talk about something like this either?]

Oh! No, he is from there! I traveled backwards through time, evidently, although...neither of us actually knows how that happened.

[ It's inexplicable, almost unbelievable except for the fact that it clearly has happened somehow. ]

[Um. He looped back in time??]

Um. You looped back in time??

[Wait they blinding said that out loud. Hahaha! Uh oh!]

...I suppose so?

[ That's not how Ingo would have phrased it, "looped", but he guesses you...could say it like that? ]

[Totally normal way to say it! Nothing strange about it all!]

[...]

[Stop freaking out, Siffrin. This has nothing to do with you. (Probably. Maybe. It's kind of suspicious that there's someone else with a bad memory and weird time things here, right? Multiple people with weird time things, counting Flowey, and Shoka, and...)]

[No, no, they're pretty sure it isn't everyone. But it's still... weird.]

[...]

...it sounds like you went back a while. [To be talking about things like the future being that different.]

Nearly two hundred years!

[ They'd worked that out eventually, getting past the issue of common calendars. It sounds like Unova just reckons dates like Johto does anyway. ]

I'm sure it would have been much stranger to me if I had not lost my memories as well. But, as it stands...it just feels as though Emmet's world is quite futuristic!

004 ⟡ JULY TEST DRIVE

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