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TEST DRIVE 01
⋆✩ test drive 01 ✩⋆
ECHOES IN THE STORM
( CWS: BODY HORROR AND RISK OF DROWNING )
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.
You gasp for breath, and water spills into your lungs, causing your new form to flail out. An assortment of different appendages hinder your ability to swim, if you even had one in the first place, and every sensation returns to you at once in an overwhelming sensory bang.
You are now a Pokemon. But that's hardly the thing to be focusing on right now, as you are also currently drowning in a stormy sea. If you can manage to squint through the pouring rain and the pounding waves, you might spot the beach of Bottlecap Bay, or the cliffs just north of it. An assortment of Pokemon are there, along the shores, shouting at one another.
But as another wave threatens to knock you beneath the sea for good, you recognize just how many of you are stuck out here. Lightning flashes above with an immediate boom of thunder, and something in your chest tells you they are the same as you.
Those who are able to gain a quicker grasp on their new bodies may be able to help with the rescue efforts of their fellow new arrivals. The rest of you will just have to survive.
FOR THE WEARY
( JANUARY 19TH—JANUARY 31ST )
After everyone that can be found is rescued from the stormy seas, Mightyena is quick to offer the Oran Berries base as a place of rest for all new characters while their arrival is being looked into. Pokemon are shoved into any of the room styles without regard for ranking because this is temporary Housing, but will have to share their rooms. All Oran Berry guild amenities will be available to them during this time.
After arranging that, and having each new arrival stop by the Pokeclinic for their own health, characters will be met with a very fair and kind welcome: they are free to explore Bottlecap Bay, make themselves at home, and get used to their new bodies. Dr. Denne loudly and excitedly proclaims that he will be looking into this new, strange phenomenon immediately, and every Pokemon of the city seems to be in agreement: they're afraid and wary of humans, but they're not ones to turn away someone in need. They are willing to trust these characters, and hope their trust will not be broken.
For the time being, shop keepers throughout the city will be offering things to new arrivals free of charge to help them get on their feet.
A. ⟡ SWEETS AND TREATS
One of the best things about Bottlecap Bay is the assortment of delicious food, made for Pokemon, by Pokemon! Now, this might sound intimidating at first, but not to fret — Pokemon food tastes so delicious it's almost hard to believe! Of course, each Pokemon has their own tastes, so some may prefer the sweet while others search for spicy, but rest assured, there's something for everyone.
Unfortunately, as characters are still adjusting to their new bodies, these little snacks are causing trouble around the city with a number of strange, new effects. Some characters may experience the activation of their new abilities upon eating their favorite flavor of food! Try to dodge any stray thunderbolts while you're enjoying the poffins, and beware of bubble at the malasada stand's tables! In addition to this, some new arrivals have mentioned their moods being affected, with some suddenly becoming gloomy, excited, angry, or anything in between.
B. ⟡ AN ATTEMPT AT COMFORT
Various Pokemon clothing shop owners in Bottlecap Bay have noticed that the new arrivals seem very shy about their appearances. Hiding behind walls, covering themselves... It's not like anyone minds if you go around as you are, but they have a solution! New arrivals may have one item for free! That means that they may have one item of clothing without needing to barter for it. This is a rare chance, so make sure you take advantage of it!
However, a naughty little Impidimp has hexed the clothing items, unbeknownst to shopkeepers! Though not every piece of clothing is affected, many shops were hit, and each type of clothing has a different hex to go along with it. When Pokemon put on the item in question, they may experience the following:
HEADWEAR (hats, ear accessories, etc) ⟡ Have the strong urge to overshare about themselves to others. Lying feels difficult.
NECKWEAR (scarves, necklaces, etc) ⟡ Become incredibly cold, and will only be comforted by contact with others. Cuddle time!
TOPS (shirts, hoodies, capes, etc) ⟡ Suddenly become obsessed with their new abilities, and want to battle everything that moves.
BOTTOMS (pants, skirts, leggings, etc) ⟡ Overwhelmed with the desire to make more animalistic noises based on their Pokemon. Meow!
SHOES (booties or anything on the feet) ⟡ Become incredibly clumsy, dropping things, tripping and falling all over the place.
MISC (anything that does not apply to the other categories) ⟡ Some of their thoughts will be spoken aloud on accident. Hope you weren't thinking something mean!
C. ⟡ ALL CLEANED UP
Does it feel a little awkward, sitting around and watching all the other Pokemon clean up after this storm? The guild base you're staying in is damaged and dealing with periodic leaks, the storefronts closest to the beach have suffered water damage, and the intense winds have damaged structures throughout the city. Streets are being swept and tidied from blown in debris, injured Pokemon are taking up a majority of the hospital beds, and there's an endless need for construction assistance in both stone and wood parts of structures.
Characters will not be forced or even encouraged to help out, but if they offer, their help will be gratefully accepted! Those who take part in a lot of the cleanup will certainly be remembered by those with more prominent positions in the clean up efforts, such as the guild leaders.
While you have free reign of the city, the guild leaders and Dr. Denne are hard at work looking into solutions and explanations for your sudden arrival. They promise to update you as soon as they have more information, but in the meantime... there's a whole city to explore, and a new body to do it in! Feel free to use the Locations page to come up with different prompts using available locations, if you'd like.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
( FEBRUARY 1ST—FEBRUARY 8TH )
With the large storm past and the clean up and repairs complete, all of Bottlecap Bay can now focus on the upcoming festival! Now, this is a rather small affair, lasting for only one day and night, but to the Pokemon of Bottlecap Bay, it's important. Each year, there is an expected meteor shower, and psychic Pokemon have recently received the date for this year's. Known simply as Starfall, this festival centers around wishes, the unknown, and the future!
Legend says that if you close your eyes and wish upon a falling star, there's a strong Pokemon that can make it come true. The stronger your heart, the more your wish will be heard, though there are additional small superstitions about what you should do in order to better be heard.
For the week leading up to Starfall (which falls on the night of the 9th of February), the city will be decorated in a starry theme, with food and clothing to match! The night life of the city becomes that much more active, with games that you'd expect to find at any festival being played in Pokemon form, friendly sparring battles held on the beach, and fortunes! Farigiraf Fortunes are one-time fortunes that Pokemon pull during the week leading up to the festival to show your luck for the following year. Bad fortunes should be tied on festival decorations around the city in order to dispel the ill fortune. With your new bodies, though, you may just need some help to tie those off.
Throughout the week, feel free to make up your own festival games to participate in for top levels. For the festival food, some of it may make you feel sparkly or warm, reminding you of something distant yet oh-so-close... What could it be?
SOMETHING TWISTING IN MY HEART
( BEGINNING FEBRUARY 1ST )
The city has moved on from the storm, but the truth of the matter is that you haven't. Even if you think you have, can you really say as much? After all, your body still aches at night, your mind still spins when you try to recall that voice, and that void, and you don't belong here. Beginning February 1st, characters may begin to have intermittent nightmares.
These nightmares vary from person to person, but their core is the same: your inner doubts, your worries about the future, the present, and the past all come to a head here. Nightmares cause you to lose sleep at night and lose focus during the day. The more you lose yourself to these fears and feelings, the more you begin to change, your darker traits becoming more emphasized as your ability to talk yourself through situations becomes weaker. You can't do this alone.
Nightmares will slowly increase in frequency and intensity until hallucinations begin to occur even during the daytime. Characters might believe that those around them are out to get them, or are adding to those self-doubting and criticizing feelings. Worries pile on and begin to affect you physically, leading to more body aches and pains, loss of control, and occasional rampages.
In order to break free from this worsening condition, you must share these doubts or feelings with another. Surface level admissions won't count for this. All characters who do not manage this task by the 10th of February, just after Starfall, will find themselves automatically freed from the horrible nightmares. How strange was that? It's like as soon as everyone made their wishes, that horrible feeling melted away completely.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Characters who experience nightmares but do not have them cured by another character, and instead just "time out" at the end of the event, will have plot relevance in a future event. They may experience emotional or light physical harm in the future, so feel free to handwave an NPC helping them out if you'd like to opt out of that.
NOTES.
⟡ TDMs are game canon and act as events for the month they are posted.
⟡ We will normally have a newbie directory for new characters only! However, since this is our first TDM and everyone will be new, there will be no directory.
⟡ All characters on this TDM are unassigned to any guild as of yet!
⟡ 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!
⟡ Dates listed beneath prompts are meant to be helpful guides for the more time-sensitive aspects (cleaning up from the storm, nightmares beginning, etc), but general city exploration and other ideas like that can be done at any time.
⟡ Farigiraf Fortunes will just be little omikuji fortunes with an included lucky Pokemon and lucky color. You can make up your own, but if you'd like one randomly generated for you, reply here!
⟡ Please be sure to mark for any content warnings in your threads when applicable, such as with the nightmare prompt.
⟡ 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.
⟡ We will normally have a newbie directory for new characters only! However, since this is our first TDM and everyone will be new, there will be no directory.
⟡ All characters on this TDM are unassigned to any guild as of yet!
⟡ 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!
⟡ Dates listed beneath prompts are meant to be helpful guides for the more time-sensitive aspects (cleaning up from the storm, nightmares beginning, etc), but general city exploration and other ideas like that can be done at any time.
⟡ Farigiraf Fortunes will just be little omikuji fortunes with an included lucky Pokemon and lucky color. You can make up your own, but if you'd like one randomly generated for you, reply here!
⟡ Please be sure to mark for any content warnings in your threads when applicable, such as with the nightmare prompt.
⟡ 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!
no subject
Uh... huh. If you say so. [A long pause, and then:] ... Okay, I'll bite. Where's it gonna wind up, then?
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[Said very matter-of-factly, like. Where else would it go?]
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Like... the Lifestream?
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Yes, exactly! That's another name for it. It's a cycle...thing.
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Okay, now you're just messing with me.
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Nay, I'm being truthful. Er, to what I know, at least. My friends know much more of aetherology than I.
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And... you've seen it. In real life.
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[Said so matter-of-factly that it can't be anything but sincere honesty.]
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[Lifestream real? Of course, she's aware of the existence of parallel planes and other dimensions—had to be, in her line of work—but she's... still going to need some time to start unpacking that. And it's not like she can just come out and ask this total stranger if they're from beloved fantasy anthology media franchise Final Fantasy, right?
So she tries to recover, albeit ungracefully, and rambles awkwardly on:]
Wh—whatever... Point is I'm dead. I mean... was dead for a while. Not that what I am now really feels alive either, exactly... No heartbeat or anything, as far as I can tell. But you can see me, at least, and I've definitely run into way too many alive 'mons here for me not to be. So—! That's been kind of an adjustment... is all I meant to say.
[That last part is all she meant to say... So where the hell did the rest of it come from? Oversharing much?
Considering her unmoving, drawn-on face, it's a bit difficult to tell what she's thinking, but the way her voice shrinks then might be indication enough that she's humiliated.]
And I could... use a little help with something. If you wouldn't mind, or whatever...
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[Usually people coming back from the dead doesn't really...work out so well...but considering she's not trying to eat anyone's brains or becoming a megalomaniac trying to take over the star, it's probably fine in this instance. Probably.]
I don't mind. What is it you need help with?
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... Well, Shoka guesses it's better than being called out on oversharing.]
Thanks... [She slides the gold hoop off her claw and holds it up to one of her disguise's ears, indicating the vague location she wants it: near the end of the ear's pointed length. But her hands are shaky, and her lack of confidence about where she has it positioned is fairly obvious.] Any chance you could help me get this on?
[She looks Firoza over once more. That horn looks like it might be able to punch a hole through the ear for her, but...]
Not gonna lie, somehow I was kind of expecting someone with hands... That's, y'know, kind of another new adjustment... [That plenty of people here don't even have them, she means.]
no subject
[But she brings up a forepaw...it's got lil sort of claw things...it might work, she just needs to be careful.]
I can try. And if it does not work, we can find someone else who could do it.
[Just gonna scootch over and take a closer look at everything...don't want to mess up the cute lil disguise on accident, after all...]
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[Then Firoza is moving in closer, preparing to offer some genuine help, and Shoka goes suddenly rigid and quiet. It may have been a bold move—even for her—to poke fun at the stranger while very much in Poison Sting range.]
Y—yeah. Sounds good...
[At this proximity, it's easier to understand the composition of her bizarre new form. Her real eyes are beneath the false, almost mouse-like head, peering out from holes cut in the cloth covering what must be her real body. They glance briefly upward at Firoza, then quickly away. The false head, like its ears, appears to be hollow, drooping just slightly on its stitched-up neck. It seems to have been already torn once before and sewn back into place by white thread. If Firoza does make a mistake, it at least seems that Shoka won't be injured by it.
Shoka keeps one ghostly arm out to hold the hoop in position, prepared to hand it off to Firoza.]
This ear. Near the end, if you can...
no subject
One forepaw goes to steady herself on whatever's in reach - a wall, or a nearby counter, as long as it's solid - while the other gently takes the flopped ear between the teeny claw paw things. The fabric is quite worn, but still sturdy, holding that sort of softness only something well-loved can have. Firoza would smile, if she wasn't worried being so close and changing her expression would risk her whiskers doing something stupid.]
Hm...I think it is possible to pierce the fabric itself with the earring - and it oughtn't tear or cause any issues with the seams or weave, if done precisely.
[But she backs up once she determines this, and shakes her head.]
That being said, we ought to find someone with better...precision? I don't think I could get it to work on my own. My apologies.
[And she really does sound sorry! She wants to help! But part of helping is realizing when a job is too big for you, and right now, this is just not in her scope of abilities.]
no subject
... Oh. Maybe she's just trying to keep her sharp edges away from the disguise rag? Either way, Shoka has to stifle another snort of amusement. Firoza's Pokémon form is pretty cute, actually. A little like a Carbuncle...
Once Firoza backs away, Shoka shuffles backward an inch and pulls the earring back into the hollow inside of her disguise. It's all but impossible to tell what she's thinking with most of her true form hidden, but she's more embarrassed than disappointed. All of that—asking a total stranger for help, being studied that closely, babbling way too much—and she still doesn't even have the stupid earring on. That's one for the cringe compilation.]
No big... I'll figure something out. Thanks. For—trying anyway... and confirming you can see me, obvi.
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You're very welcome - though I am sorry I couldn't be of more help. If I was just myself, it'd not be an issue...
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[It's a bit terse, but quiet—still embarrassed.]
But—there is another favor you could do for me instead. You mind telling me your name?
no subject
Firoza Istus. But, just Firoza is fine.
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What you were saying just now... About the weave and seams, or whatever. Sounded like you knew what you were doing—even if being Pokémon'd is holding you back.
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[She's playing it cool, even if that sounded like even more confirmation of where Firoza comes from. Synthesis real?!]
Either way... That explains it. I'm sort of jealous, to be honest. [Ugh—still oversharing. She fidgets a little with her claws.] It's... a cool thing to know how to do. Sewing, I mean.
no subject
[Ah-]
Well...when I'm not all thumbs, or claws, or...whatever you would call it...I could teach you? If you'd like to learn.
no subject
[That reaction was... maybe a little too excited? She begins to fidget again, this time with one of her disguise's ears, tugging on it lightly with her claws.]
I mean... It'd mean a lot to me. You'd really be helping me out, considering how flimsy this thing I have to wear is...
[Her disguise rag, she means. In reality, it's quite sturdy, as Firoza noticed earlier, strong enough to even absorb attacks from any Pokémon in battle. Shoka's just used to her clothes being even sturdier, unaffected by the countless fights she had in the UG.]
no subject
[And her smile is an earnest one at the reaction. Clothcraft is very dear to her heart, probably right up there with swordplay honestly - and there's really no need for her to pick up a sword here, from what she can tell. Sometimes you have to know what tool you need to use with the lot you're handed.]
Reinforcing your outfit shouldn't be hard at all. Especially if we can find good materials.