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bopbay2026-01-10 10:22 am
bayhelpers) wrote in bopbay2026-01-10 10:22 am
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007 ⟡ JANUARY TEST DRIVE
⋆✩ test drive 07 ✩⋆
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
SNOW MAN'S LAND
Where you felt the warmth of hope, there is now only a numbness - which grows colder and colder as you begin to wake. While a small few may find themselves graced with bodies appropriate to the environment, for most this field of ice and snow is the worst possible place to appear.
All is not lost for those without appropriate defenses, fortunately. A short trek through the deep and frigid snow leads one to any number of cave entrances. Some are as large as hangar doors (if of course, your world had vehicle hangars at all) - and others just small enough to squeeze into, but all of them offer at least a temporary respite from the biting chill of the wind. Once you can catch your breath and your body stops shivering long enough to observe the surroundings, it becomes clear that wherever you are is always like this. Cold. Covered in snow, with more snow still falling. Icy and foreboding, with even the trees reaching out with gnarled and bare branches which sheen with frost.
Can one even dare to hope for rescue in such a place as this? The caves at least provide shelter, but something dangerous seems to linger in the air within. One thing is certain, as stark and cold as the temperature:
Nothing here will leave you in peace.
All is not lost for those without appropriate defenses, fortunately. A short trek through the deep and frigid snow leads one to any number of cave entrances. Some are as large as hangar doors (if of course, your world had vehicle hangars at all) - and others just small enough to squeeze into, but all of them offer at least a temporary respite from the biting chill of the wind. Once you can catch your breath and your body stops shivering long enough to observe the surroundings, it becomes clear that wherever you are is always like this. Cold. Covered in snow, with more snow still falling. Icy and foreboding, with even the trees reaching out with gnarled and bare branches which sheen with frost.
Can one even dare to hope for rescue in such a place as this? The caves at least provide shelter, but something dangerous seems to linger in the air within. One thing is certain, as stark and cold as the temperature:
Nothing here will leave you in peace.
ii. COLD PAWS
WARM HEARTS
The cold does not abate once you finally receive rescue.
But it does improve a little. As Pokemon - creatures of all manner of shape and size - bring the newcomers out from the region they call ‘Icefall Lake,’ the utterly inhospitable cold surrounding them dies down to a gentler, crisper sort of freeze. Where before the sky had been shrouded most constantly in clouds spewing sheets of snow or even hail, the skies above the small settlement up ahead are clear and sunny.
That settlement? Death Blood Murder Skull Town…. or just Skull Town for short.
“It was determined by popular vote,” explains one Lurantis, and despite the clear discomfort with the cold around them she seems to be an incredibly dedicated leader. Every newcomer - and rescuer for that matter - is immediately herded to their small clinic for a check-over to determine if injuries are present. From there, Pokemon are just as quickly shown the great communal living hall, where they’ll reside until it’s a little safer to journey to Bottlecap Bay itself. The hope, Lurantis will shyly explain if approached directly, is that by the time everyone gets there the Guild Leaders will have sorted out housing.
(They won’t.)
Even just wandering the village itself displays just how dedicated this bug-like plant appears to be to her job though. The roads are constantly being worked on; paths are being pounded into place and then salted to prevent ice, while helpful rails line the few streets that exist. Other Pokemon can be seen carefully clearing snow where it’s gathered too heavily, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to stick around and help out before following the convoy back to Bottlecap itself.
If you follow back at all of course. After all, it’s quite tranquil here! Like something out of a story book.
But it does improve a little. As Pokemon - creatures of all manner of shape and size - bring the newcomers out from the region they call ‘Icefall Lake,’ the utterly inhospitable cold surrounding them dies down to a gentler, crisper sort of freeze. Where before the sky had been shrouded most constantly in clouds spewing sheets of snow or even hail, the skies above the small settlement up ahead are clear and sunny.
That settlement? Death Blood Murder Skull Town…. or just Skull Town for short.
“It was determined by popular vote,” explains one Lurantis, and despite the clear discomfort with the cold around them she seems to be an incredibly dedicated leader. Every newcomer - and rescuer for that matter - is immediately herded to their small clinic for a check-over to determine if injuries are present. From there, Pokemon are just as quickly shown the great communal living hall, where they’ll reside until it’s a little safer to journey to Bottlecap Bay itself. The hope, Lurantis will shyly explain if approached directly, is that by the time everyone gets there the Guild Leaders will have sorted out housing.
(They won’t.)
Even just wandering the village itself displays just how dedicated this bug-like plant appears to be to her job though. The roads are constantly being worked on; paths are being pounded into place and then salted to prevent ice, while helpful rails line the few streets that exist. Other Pokemon can be seen carefully clearing snow where it’s gathered too heavily, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to stick around and help out before following the convoy back to Bottlecap itself.
If you follow back at all of course. After all, it’s quite tranquil here! Like something out of a story book.
iii. KICKING AND DREAMING
SLEEP YOU OFF YOUR FEET
It’s shortly after the new arrivals have all been accounted for that the Grumpig Brothers make their announcement.
“We noticed our adopted outsiders get a lot of use out of our Pearls,” claims the more outspoken of the two, “And we’ve received a lot of new feedback as a result! So after working with some other Psychic Pokemon, we think we’ve found a way to refine them!”
Pokemon may have noticed a Hypno hanging around the workshop quite a bit, among others, and that certainly explains it. But what do they mean by…better? Grimpig and Glumpig are talking about ideas such as blocking certain mental frequencies, or even alarm transmissions so you won’t miss a call in your sleep!
Later, that last feature will stand out quite a lot.
The night starts normally. Those who intend to sleep, curl up in their nests or beds to do so. The pearls they own could be anywhere - under their pillow, in a drawer, in a sack. As long as they're somewhere nearby, it doesn't seem to matter.
Because that night, your dream isn’t necessarily…your dream. It’s not as if it doesn’t start that way; the dream is just as bizarre as any dream is. Perhaps you’re eating a giant marshmallow. Maybe you’ve gained the power to fly all around the world despite being a wee little Wurmple! Or maybe it’s even just something you remember from earlier in the day - dreams are the mind sifting through what it’s learned after all. But something shifts. Something changes, and suddenly you can feel that what you’re dreaming isn't your own.
Trouble is, you can’t just wake up.
“We noticed our adopted outsiders get a lot of use out of our Pearls,” claims the more outspoken of the two, “And we’ve received a lot of new feedback as a result! So after working with some other Psychic Pokemon, we think we’ve found a way to refine them!”
Pokemon may have noticed a Hypno hanging around the workshop quite a bit, among others, and that certainly explains it. But what do they mean by…better? Grimpig and Glumpig are talking about ideas such as blocking certain mental frequencies, or even alarm transmissions so you won’t miss a call in your sleep!
Later, that last feature will stand out quite a lot.
The night starts normally. Those who intend to sleep, curl up in their nests or beds to do so. The pearls they own could be anywhere - under their pillow, in a drawer, in a sack. As long as they're somewhere nearby, it doesn't seem to matter.
Because that night, your dream isn’t necessarily…your dream. It’s not as if it doesn’t start that way; the dream is just as bizarre as any dream is. Perhaps you’re eating a giant marshmallow. Maybe you’ve gained the power to fly all around the world despite being a wee little Wurmple! Or maybe it’s even just something you remember from earlier in the day - dreams are the mind sifting through what it’s learned after all. But something shifts. Something changes, and suddenly you can feel that what you’re dreaming isn't your own.
Trouble is, you can’t just wake up.
DREAM BLOODY MURDER
Amid all the dreams, it’s no surprise that not all of them are pleasant.
It happens to the best of us, doesn’t it? Some terrible mistake, some long buried trauma, rising back again in the form of something incomprehensible. Maybe that pitfall you almost avoided grew teeth and started eating the world around you. Maybe something you said while awake comes back to haunt your nightmares in the form of the absolute worst consequence. It’s something that shouldn’t happen. It’s something that would never happen - and maybe, just maybe, if other Pokemon couldn’t interrupt, it would be something you dread never waking from at all.
One nightmare stands out though.
One nightmare doesn’t seem relevant to anything you know. It’s a swirl of pressuring heat, and volcanic chaos. It’s rivers of violet and red melting into one, cascading impossibly upwards into waterfalls. Strange and alien beings fill the air, battling themselves as well as others - though what these creatures (Pokemon?) are?
You certainly can’t tell in the nightmare.
But what you do know is this: it is a nightmare, and it’s one that doesn’t belong to you. It’s one where your power has been unleashed in the worst way possible, and one where calamity has become unavoidable. Toxic fumes and eldritch cries surround you utterly, bathing you in their might, and when at last you can’t take it any longer...!
You wake up.
✩ OOC NOTES.
⟡ TDM CWs: Body horror/Dysmorphia, Freezing conditions, Canon-typical Pokemon violence, Unreality (within dreams), Mental influences, Apocalyptic imagery
⟡ 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.
⟡ Arrivals should all be gathered to Skull Town by January 15th ICly - though, naturally, players may tag the TDM at any time they like. The dream-share event will begin ICly on January 20th, ending after the last nightmare on the 30th.
⟡ 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!
⟡ 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.
⟡ Arrivals should all be gathered to Skull Town by January 15th ICly - though, naturally, players may tag the TDM at any time they like. The dream-share event will begin ICly on January 20th, ending after the last nightmare on the 30th.
⟡ 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!
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