Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Challengers of Fate [Archive]

Noblejanobii

05-07-2017, 04:48 AM

Plot

It’s finally come out! After a long awaited release and much anticipation, the most hyped Pokemon game for years has finally been released. And you are one of the lucky people to have gotten the game, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Challengers of Fate. You rush home and put the game into the latest Nintendo Wii Headset. Your hands shake a little in excitement as you place the headset on and recline on your bed. You relax a little as the ever familiar screen of the infamous personality quiz appears on screen in front of you.

But what you don’t realize, as you step into the latest world of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, is that all around the world, people are not waking up. Hours pass and they cannot escape. There’s no logout button. As you and thousands of other players enter the square of the base town, Discovery Village, you realize with horror that you are trapped. Unlike in previous games where the highest penalty you could face was losing money and items, now your life is on the line. And the only way out is to complete the game. It seems like a simple task, but the difficulty of these dungeons is unheard of for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game. It harkens back to the days of Purity Forest in Red and Blue Rescue Team. This is no simple task by any means, you realize, but that will not stop you. You, along with many other players, are now on the ultimate quest to beat the first ever T-rated Pokemon game, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Challengers of Fate.

Rules
All PXR rules apply...
1: Please avoid bunnying (taking control of non-NPCs without permission) and godmodding
2: Let’s also avoid “invincible” characters… Yes, some characters have superpowers, no they cannot be invincible.
3: Please be active--if you’re going to be gone for an extended amount of time, try to notify someone in the RP beforehand, preferably me.
4:Be nice to everyone, if you’re going to have a fight or something take it elsewhere.
5: Keep posts PG-13 (on all fronts) and below, and limit use of profanity.
6: Any first stage pokemon may be selected. No legendaries, ultra beasts, or evolved pokemon may be chosen at the beginning. Pokemon such as Shaymin, Quilava, Guzzlord, or Tyranitar cannot be chosen because this is meant to represent a large scale MMORPG and it would be slightly unfair if not everyone started on a somewhat even playing field.
7: A slight exception to the rule above, if a pokemon has a pre-evolution classifying as a baby pokemon and has an evolution that follows, it may be selected. This means pokemon such as Pikachu, Togetic, and Chansey may be selected, but not pokemon like Lucario.
8: If you feel like you can make a case as to why you should be able to have a certain pokemon, please PM me and we can discuss. I am open to discussion to make this RP all the more successful. Please keep in mind that most final stagers and all legendaries are completely off limits, but I would be willing to negotiate some of the others if a case can be made for them.
9: Lastly, have fun!

Characters
Sloane Jackson/MadderJanobii-NobleJanobii
Brent Hudges/Madder_Hatter-NobleJanobii
Talbot Madden/OcarinaCypher-NobleJanobii (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=245870&viewfull=1#post245870)
Chris Waters/Night Fox-Neo Emolga
Natalie Pence/MoneyBunny-Neo Emolga (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246124&viewfull=1#post246124)
Henry Anderson/Interrobang‽-The Nonexistent Tazz
Jorline Anderson/Asterism⁂-The Nonexistent Tazz (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246137&viewfull=1#post246137)
Laura Kaye/stained_glass_threads-LKWayvern
Peter/(NPC)-LKWayvern (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246631&viewfull=1#post246631)
Tiffany “Tiff” Imamu/Wulfenite-Velocity
Haruka Kimura/OrchidCrowns-Velocity (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246963&viewfull=1#post246963)

Noblejanobii

05-07-2017, 05:01 AM

MadderJanobii and Madder_Hatter
Exploration Team Moonlight Madness
Spawning in Discovery Town
Affected RP'ers: None

Sloane dunked her hands into the cool sink water before splashing her face. She glanced down at her bruised arms before sighing. Pulling her brown hair back into a ponytail, she cracked her neck then nodded to herself. It was time. She had spent over twenty hours in line for this game, and she had a friend on another continent that was eager to play. It was time. Walking to her bed, Sloane slid on her Nintendo Wii Vision, then clicked the play switch. Instantly she was whisked away into a digital world of wonder. Whisking through the personality quiz, MadderJanobii spawned in Discovery Town's square. She took a moment to examine herself and her surroundings, this new body feeling oddly natural. Flicking her left hand, the menu screen popped up. MadderJanobii opened the online list and spotted who she was looking for, Madder_Hatter. He was an old online buddy of hers that had been desperate to play this with her ever since the announcement. Now, it was finally here! Clicking teleport, MadderJanobii teleported to Madder_Hatter's location inside the Arcane Keep. The zorua looked over and grinned.

"Well, well, well! We finally meet!" Madder_Hatter bowed and smirked a little. "You're shorter than I thought." MadderJanobii punched Madder_Hatter in the shoulder before motioning to the ladders. "Come on! Let's get registered!" The two hurried upstairs where Cyrus the Heliolisk awaited them. It was a simple process to get registered and it wasn't long before Team Moonlight Madness was formed. Now, what was one to do with all the basic starting currency? Customize your avatar of course! The Madders hurried up one more floor, spending what little money they had on avatar customizations before heading to their beds for saving. It was about time they take on their first mission, a simple item retrieval in the Whispy Creek. It was a five floor dungeon with the beginning quest being for exploration teams only. Rescue and Adventure teams had their own beginner quests after all. Brimming with excitement, the cyndaquil and zorua exited the guild and made their way down the path, hurrying to start their first mission.

LKWayvern

05-07-2017, 12:14 PM

stained_glass_threads and Peter
Adventurer Team Valiant League
Spawning in Discovery Town
Affected RPers: None

Before Laura even got home with her new treasure, she realized she was hyperventilating out of excitement. Her palms were sweating, her hands shaking. She quickly thrust her hand into her pocket, grabbing at her ipod's earbuds. Hopefully music would calm her down. While it was true she was very eager and impatient to get started, she wanted to at least try keeping a level head until she got the opportunity to turn it on.

When that opportunity came, she clicked off the small device and removed the earbuds, practically shoving the shiny new headset over her eyes and ears. She allowed herself to collapse onto a chair as the opening theme swelled, hands rhythmically bouncing against the armrest. She took a little time with the personality quiz, and laughed a bit when she got Cubone. She picked a partner, and quickly named both it and the team.

She spawned in Discovery Town's square, and frantically looked around, examining absolutely everything she could see and marvelling at the realistic graphics. She couldn't keep the smile off her face. There was one thing off about it, where was that squeeing sound coming from. A problem with the speakers--? Nope. No, that was probably her, now that she thought about it.

Finally she turned around to face a charmander. "Oh--OH! Um, hi! You're, uh, my partner right? Peter?" she asked. She was talking to a Pokemon. Yeah, she knew it was technically pixels and data, but good lord from her perspective it was so realistic, so very easy to get lost in the illusion, and she allowed herself to get lost wholeheartedly.

Peter gave her a confident grin, snatching at her hand and enthusiastically pumping it up and down. "Yeah! That's me! Laura, right? Nice to meet ya!"

Laura was somewhat surprised by the force of the handshake, but still couldn't stop smiling. "Nice to meet you too! So, uh, get registered and you can show me around?" She twisted her head again, looking once more upon the bustling town. "This is-- this is all so cool..."

"Sounds good to me!" Peter agreed, before pulling her off in the direction of the Arcane Keep, to register, customize, and then explore.

VeloJello

05-07-2017, 07:52 PM

OrchidCrowns.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Spawn Area.
Affected RPers: None.

Getting your hands on Challengers of Fate was supposed to be borderline impossible, but Haruka had managed it. She was incredibly thankful that she'd had the money and good sense to preorder a copy or she would have been out of luck - every store in Kyoto had been packed to the brim on the game’s launch date. Given how ridiculously good the game was supposed to be, that wasn't a surprise. Haruka felt herself grinning as she tore open the plastic encasing the game.

A chirping noise sounded near Haruka’s leg - her cellphone, reporting a message from Tiff. “you finally get your copy yet?” the message read. For Haruka, it was still pretty early in the morning, but for Tiff it would have been much later in the evening.

Haruka quickly replied, “Yes, and I am about to log in. Are you ready?”

“oooooh yeaaaaah!!! :D” came Tiff's answer. Haruka smiled. Hands trembling with excitement, Haruka slipped on her headset and quiz began.

It took a little while. Haruka wanted to answer honestly, but she also didn't want to get stuck as a Koffing or Magikarp or Yungoos or some Pokemon she hated. Pre-release information was of precious little help, so Haruka had no clue what Pokemon she might be in the game-world. When it was over, she found herself in a crowded city square. There were Pokemon everywhere - so real-looking and huge. She herself was positively tiny - a little winged Pokemon with tan, green, and white feathers, one of the shortest creatures in the crowd. She looked herself over and noticed that she had green plumage on her chest in the shape of a bow tie - she was a Rowlet!

Eager and impatient, she stood on tip-toe - tip-claw? - and began looking for the tag Wulfenite. It didn't even occur to her to pull up her menu and find Tiff that way; she was too excited -

“Boo!” someone shouted, and a pair of big blue arms grabbed Haruka from behind.

Wulfenite.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Spawn Area.
Affected RPers: None.

“you finally get your copy yet?” Tiff knew she was being a bit impatient, texting Haruka so soon, but she was dying to get started. She wanted to wait until Haruka was ready, but having a best friend on the other side of the globe had its downsides.

Almost immediately, her phone beeped in response. “Yes, and I am about to log in. Are you ready?”

“oooooh yeaaaaah!!! :D” Tiff texted back, her hands moving so fast she just about replied in gibberish.

“That your girlfriend texting you?” Tiff whirled to scowl at her sixteen-year-old sister, who was leaning in the doorway of her room. “That chick from Japan?”

Tiff rolled her eyes. “Knock it off, Jenny, she said. Jenny opened her mouth to say something, but Tiff put her headset on immediately, shutting out the obnoxious sibling banter before it could begin.

The quiz only took a few minutes. Before long, Tiff found herself standing in a big crowd, her dark skin replaced by black and blue fur and her face lengthened to a ridiculous snout. “Riolu! Awesome!” she said to no one in particular.

She pulled up the menu with a movement of her hand-paw thing, searching the online list for OrchidCrowns. The proper username was there - as was a label next to it that said [INTRODUCTION]. Tiff pouted; how long was the quiz gonna take?

While she waited, she began setting up the Sterling Spearhead adventure team, something she and Haruka had already sorted before coming here. Haruka would have to visit the Oricorio at the desk in order to sign onto the team, but everything else was done, including Tiff picking out a nice scarf and a decent save point at the Adventure Guild.

A few minutes later, [INTRODUCTION] changed to [DISCOVERY TOWN]. Tiff wasted no time, charging out of the Arcane Something Or Other and racing back to town. She quickly spotted the name “OrchidCrowns” floating above a Rowlet, who she grabbed in an enthusiastic tackle-hug.

“Eep!” Haruka squealed in surprise and flapped her wings frantically until Tiff let her go. Haruka turned, feathers ruffled, and squawked, “Hey! Who do you think you are!?”

Tiff felt her ears lowering. “Shoot, sorry, Crowns,” she said. “I got so excited to be finally meeting you in person… though I'm not sure how ‘person’ this counts as.”

Haruka appeared slightly mollified - though it was slightly hard to read bird expressions. “Apology accepted,” she said. “So I take it you got in before me?”

A proud grin appeared on Tiff’s muzzle. “Yup,” she said. “Got our team named and everything at the big building over there.” She gestured to the Keep offhandedly. “All that's left is for you to get registered to the team and then we can start!”

Getting Haruka set up was a quick process, for which Tiff was extremely grateful. The two hurried over to the Adventure Guild’s bulletin board, where several missions were listed, including an expedition to one Cartographer’s Cove that was explicitly recommended for beginner teams. Compared to the other Adventurer dungeons, the Cove wasn't terribly far off. Furthermore, rumor had it that a large collection of low-end Entercards had been found there, and the Adventure Guild would allow their teams to keep any Entercards they found - which meant that they would have Magnagate access they’d need for later missions.

“Let’s head out,” Tiff said, and Haruka nodded. “I’ve only got a few hours before I need to log off and go to sleep before my mom gets after me.”

Neo Emolga

05-07-2017, 08:33 PM

Chris Waters ("NightFox" / Fennekin) & Natale Pence (MoneyBunny / Buneary) (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246124&viewfull=1#post246124)
Exploration Team Lucky Strike
Spawning in Discovery Town
Affected RPers: N/A

Chris had been wanting this game for months, but unlike a lot of other frenzied people, he was chill about picking up his copy and not fighting other people to get in line like it was Black Friday and very limited amounts of immortality were for sale. But today was the day to get into a game that he had been reading articles about for months. He was patiently looking forward to it, but didn't mind taking his time by playing plenty of first person shooters in the meantime.

After getting the highly-coveted game placed into the Nintendo Wii Vision helmet, he decided to kick back, relax, put it on, and turn on the power. He then just allowed himself to be whisked away into wherever this little game decided to take him.

It all began with a welcoming message over a calming, swirling vortex, ushering him into this new Pokémon world, but before it could be decided, he had to go through the personality test. Chris answered question by question, all of them mostly casual and playful in nature. Some of them even made him chuckle a bit, like the "it's so hot today, what are you going to do to cool off?" and having the answers be "relax in the shade," "drink something cold," and the noteworthy "smother ice cream all over my face!" And there were plenty of others with the same kind of nature.

After reaching the end of the test, it told him, with a bit of suspense, that the Pokémon that best resembled him was... the Pokémon Fennekin! He was bit surprised, but he did get to thinking that even though it originally wasn't the Pokémon he thought he'd get, he felt cool with it. Though he couldn't help but think now that with the nature of the game... was he really going to look and feel like an actual Fennekin? What kind of experience was that going to be like? In so many other previous games, he had still role-played human characters, so how good was this game at the process of being a Pokémon?

It then prompted him to select a partner by username or by random selection. Chris didn't know anyone else personally who was currently waiting to be paired up, so he decided on a random selection. It instantly paired him with a girl who only had the username of "MoneyBunny" and she had gotten Buneary out of her personality test.

The game didn't give him too much of a chance to think about it as it all felt so surreal, taking him and his mind far, far away before everything went dark for a moment. The whole time, he couldn't help but think "how far did the devs go with this one?" He was about to find out.

...

After awakening, he opened his new eyes and he was suddenly taken back. Everything felt so incredibly real. The grass he was lying in felt like the real thing, the slight breeze in the air running through his new Fennekin fur was a sensation he had never felt before, and even all the sights of the placid Discovery Town, the grassy smells in the air, the warmth of the sun, and the sounds of nature were all around him. His breath was stolen and he wasn't even sure if it would ever come back.

"This... this shouldn't even be possible."

He got up on all fours, which to him was a completely foreign and downright wild feeling. He couldn't help but constantly feel his own fur by rubbing one of his light yellow-furred front paws on the other, and then switching. And then he felt his white-furred nose. And to top it all off, he tried wagging his furry, red-tipped fox tail. He was totally bewildered and totally taken back at how unbelievably realistic and amazing this game was. He didn't know whether to be completely excited or totally frightened out of his mind.

He tried walking... just a tiny bit. It was very strange to him to be walking on all fours now, but after just a tiny bit of stumbling to get used to this new body, he got used to it quickly and again, suddenly it felt like he had always been a Fennekin though he still had human memories. But overall, Chris was simply bewildered beyond belief and the game had just barely started. Already he was beginning to question if this was in fact still a game or something completely different entirely. Where does one draw the line now with an experience like this!?

He soon enough found his partner, "MoneyBunny" the Buneary, just barely awakening from the grass. She too seemed a bit bewildered by the nature of her new body and what it felt like, but it seemed to Chris that she wasn't even nearly as amazed at the level of immersion compared to him.

"Hey, you that 'NightFox' guy?" she asked, almost so carefree that this was almost no big deal to her.

"...Yeah," Chris replied, still soaking in all of the levels of immersion. "Don't... mind me, I just need a minute to get used to this."

"Oh, please don't tell me you're a newbie," she told him. "Because that's just going to kill it for both of us."

"No, but I usually only play Call of Duty and the like on this thing," Chris replied to her. "So the whole Pokémon fox thing is a bit new to me."

From what Chris remembered from the guides and beta tester claims, he read they had to get registered at Arcane Keep. Unfortunately, Chris hadn't been selected to be a beta tester as the number of selected players was much lower than usual and only a very select group of people got to be one. After talking it over with Natalie, they then decided to get registered and take on the team name "Lucky Strike." He wasn't surprised to see a whole slew of new players were already undergoing this very same process. He imagined maybe a few months from now, this one particular area of the town wouldn't be so bogged down with players, but for now, at the opening bell, everyone was pretty much here or on their way over.

"So you're a first person shooter gamer?" Natalie asked him in the crowd as they waited to meet up with Cyrus the Heliolisk. "I don't think that's gonna help us much. You don't use guns in this game, bro."

"Well duh, I know that," Chris replied to her. "I'm just saying when it comes to games, this ain't my first trip."

"Yeah, okay," Natalie nodded. "Well, we'll figure out how we want to play this out later. Because my god, there are a ton of players here."

It took some time before they finally met up with Cyrus. Chris was actually impressed that the game developers managed to capture Cyrus's tired fatigue due to how many players were prompting him for a team registration. For him, it made it very easy to forget it was just a game and this was all programming and graphics coming together through an illusionary virtual mental and neural experience. But, considering some of the other titles he had played on the same system, it wasn't a totally new feeling, though at least those games still had him as his normal human self... just fully thrown into battlefields and combat simulations and not as a small fire fox Pokémon.

After a few minutes of introductions, both Chris and Natalie were now registered as Lucky Strike and were free to begin their trek through the game.

The Nonexistent Tazz

05-08-2017, 12:38 AM

((don't mind me, just putting my characters a bit ahead of the curve so we can get the rather important plot detail out in the open for the players to acknowledge...))

Interrobang‽/Asterism⁂
Adventure Team Big Bang
Central Plaza, Discovery Town.
Affected RP'ers: None... Directly, anyways.
There is no Pause Button either

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

A Nincada is busy tapping away at stonework. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. A Togetic not far from him-his sister and teammate-is trying to get someone to volunteer to go to Cartographer's Cave with them, but the confidence of the new teams leaves no-one biting.

Henry-sorry, Interrobang-was almost totally convinced of the realism of the simulation around him. Almost. There was a catch to it, of course, the only real one. 'Realism' was very hard to define in a world of cartoon creatures, so he discounted that from his personal perspective. Freakish realism is easy when everything's cartoonish. How does one define that? Cartoonish realism? That's irrelevant. Point is that it was an illogical and stupid paradox to call it 'realistic.' Foxes breathe fire. A single insect can unleash deadly dust storms that can easily empower them to superhuman levels. That is not realistic at all.

No, the kicker that kept him firmly in the world of reality was that second. Quarter-second, really. Twiddling his little front leg, he couldn't help but notice it. The delay. The sensory feedback. Nintendo was good-really good, actually. Forging ahead ridiculously fast in the VR world. Henry did not quite believe it himself, really. Too fast. But even Nintendo couldn't remove the sensory delay. It was faster in single-player games, Henry knew, but even then it was still noticeable.

Earlier that day, Henry and Jorline were shaking in anticipation. That whole business with the roof really kept them from getting their birthday presents on their actual birthdays (only days apart), but oh, how dearest daddy made it up to them! He really hated waiting in gaming stores for their little time-eaters, especially with Henry nearly ready to go to college, but at the same time, this game was hotly anticipated and was on both of their wishlists, and with the birthday totally ruined, he caved. The duo played together, they opted, a brother-sister team for the ages. And thus they began, setting on the headsets and tuning out reality.

Henry basically sped through the personality quiz, then rejected the initial answer (a Turtwig) to just go for the 'OK what do you want' option. He was bombarded with choices he didn't even suspect would be choices. What lunatic would deliberately choose to be a Magikarp? He knew everyone and their mothers would pick the basic ones (or rather remain with those choices) so he opted to work his head to figure out what was the most 'optimal' pick. Or at least, the one most likely to tear the game to shreds. Make things easy. A Nincada was his choice-Evolves 'twice' giving him an NPC partner (realistically) for free, and one of the most powerful in the game at that. Mechanically, there hasn't been a Mystery Dungeon game to his knowledge (he skipped Super) that disallowed Shedinja eating Sitrus berries or HP ups to raise their maximum HP, meaning that, with time, Shedinja would tear balance a new one. At least he'd be original, if nothing else.

Meanwhile, Jorline just selected a Togetic after getting repulsed by the option to be a Grimer. Really, game? Ew.

Setup of their team scarves and name, in the introduction, was mercifully fast. The duo agreed upon it beforehand, with the limited information they had come across. They would be Team Big Bang, and their banner would be that of some typographical symbols. Jorline was an utter nut for them.

In another surprise twist, they were one of the first on. The line to register with Cadence was extremely short-the shortest of the three by a person. Jorline begged Henry to just try to learn the new mechanics before going all-in, but Henry protested that then they'd just get left with the easy stuff-and be left behind basically forever. Henry was too hardheaded to be dissuaded by Jorline's arguments, and she conceded to her older brother.

The sign ups were surprisingly fast. Their scarfs were stylish. A visit to the 'poodle' (Henry winced as Jorline said it) quickly sorted out some mimimal customization they wanted, which was basically tattoos of their typographical symbols on unobtrusive parts of their bodies. The first mission: Cartographer's Cave, 5th floor, Entercards that were vitally important to their role as Adventure Teams. Cadence explained it: "Adventure teams are meant to go out for a long while, mapping out the terrain and exploring the farthest dungeons known. The scouts and cartographers of the guild-and the most dangerous job we currently offer due to an inability to scale Dungeon strength in advance. Magnagates are critical for your success; magnagates are well-stocked in basic items in dungeons, so running loops through those dungeons can help you restock on the road."

After that, they just ran about, trying to get to know every NPC there was and what they did. They even got a free Reviver seed from that Lydie fellow at the park. Apparently it was the first-time visiting gift or some-such. In the same breath, she was warning them at how rare they were. It was apparently her tick to use a lot of adjectives. "Ludicrously, ridiculously, absurdly, maddeningly, atrociously rare! More precious than diamonds! Shops won't even buy them from you! Nor sell them. That's how rare they are! Lucky that I found any at all... And I probably won't past today," she said, almost hinting that it was a day-one event. As if they needed to be told.

And now, they were just busy waiting. They opted to wait for another group to get done with everything and ask them to join them for the first job before heading off to Cartographer's Cave... Or, were opting. Interrobang was sick of waiting.

"Jor-Asterism, this delay will only get worse as the day goes on," Interrobang said, out of the blue. "We ought to either just head over there now, ask one last person, or just log out."

Asterism raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one that was so eager-"

"Yes, but this sensory delay. Soon it'll turn into outright lag... And lagging in these games is in every way sensory hell. You saying you can't find someone?"

"Huh," Asterism said. She supposed that it was wise. Her brother would be heading off to college soon and still needed to pack. She was still too paranoid of the 'increased difficulty,' and she wasn't as experienced with Henry in these games. "Well, good, because I'm not going into one of those dungeons without some backup, so we're logging off, I guess."

"Very well. Lag'll probably get better tomorrow with the day one patch. There's always a patch," Interrobang said.

...

"...So how do we log off?"

The question was only overheard by a few, but it turned heads by the non-NPCs (and he swore that the passing Heridier took note of it as well, even, but only for a moment). Yes, yes, all this amazing level of detail and such was well and good, but a few of them just wanted to beat an insane line to the registries to make their teams and wait out any potential lag. Not even everyone had logged on, yet-the servers promised capacity to literally hundreds of millions, which would make tarversing the world rather annoying. Even a second of lag beyond the buffer was infinitely more infuriating in a Wii Vision Game.

Interrobang said nothing. He did not know.

Asterism said nothing. She did not know.

"...Uh. I don't think this was mentioned," Interrobang said. Which was odd. Very, very odd. He played these games before. The logouts were pretty explicit. Obvious, even. Nearly a flashing neon sign, to ensure people remembered the critical information of the game being a game, and there being the way out in case the bowels called. He swiped his front leg into the open air, pulling up the menu. It was filled with options, except a logout button. Very, very odd.

"Oh, he's from the beta test," Asterism said said, pointing with her stubby arms to a relatively plain-looking Oshawott, who's username ("OceanWaves") had beneath it the pleasant swagger of a Beta Tester's emblem. "Uh, hey, mister, OceanWaves!" Asterism called.

"Oh, hey! What is it?" The Oshawott replied, mission in hand, cheer in his voice.

"Err, we were just wondering, uh, how does one log off?" Asterism said.

"Oh, that's simple... Err. Should be simple," The Oshawott says, scratching his head a bit, as if he forgot something for a second. He swipes his paw.

"Should be simple," Interrobang repeated. "Yeah, we already tried that. Not in the menu."

"Uh, yeah. There's this statue...Err, of a Khangaskhan. Near the keep. Manual save and logout point, like the Save Boxes in Dream Team." OceanWaves said, looking over to it.

"...There is no statue near the guild building," Asterism said. "We were just over there not too long ago. No statues, of any kind."

"You mustn't have looked hard enough. It kind of blends into the stonework a bit, in an aclove just to the left of the entrance," OceanWaves said. "Built right into the stonework."

"Uh. I'd hate to break it to you, but there is no aclove to the left of the entrance. Or the right, for that matter," Interrobang said. "Funny, though. I recall that exact feature from, like, a picture in GameInformer, even looked there for it when we arrived. It must've gotten removed. We haven't seen statues of a Khangaskhan anywhere else, either. You sure that's how it works?"

OceanWave's face fell. Asterism's own face fell shortly thereafter. The implication, for its simplicity, was dire beyond measure. OceanWave tried to not look alarmed. "What? Uh. Urm. Odd. Urk, didn't bother looking over there myself... Maybe they moved it a bit? I'll go look for it, we'll go look for it, hang on."

A figure started running towards them. A Chimchar, her tag BurningWave. The Oshawott rushed up to greet his fellow beta tester, but she started shouting first. "Ocean, we've gotta problem! We've got a big, big, nasty problem!" She exclaimed.

"Uh, can't find the Khangaskhan Statue?" Ocean replied, suddenly leagues more worried.

"I looked high and low, even in and behind the Keep, behind shop stalls, in the park, just outside of town, at the spawn, everywhere, and then I started asking where it was to all the NPCs. The Guild didn't know at all-like, no-one at all knew what I was talking about-so I tried hitting up the Mayor, and, uh, you won't believe this."

"What?" OceanWave said it first, but he wasn't the only one. Interrobang's tapping resumed. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Try to keep calm.

"The Mayor, well, he noticed. Like, he was sure of it himself, really. Confused. Uh, both heads were confused. So he went with me, and I showed him where it should have been, and, uh, Ezekiel was very, very confused... And he asked around the guild a bit. Same responses, really, only a bit different. Ezekiel said he'd get people into looking into it ASAP, but..."

OceanWave's face was slowly contorting into pure panic. "Uh, wait, are you saying that absolutely no-one knows where it is?"

"Well, other than Ezekiew, the NPCs I asked aren't acknowledging it." BurningWave said.

"That's... That can't be good," Interrobang muttered. "Can't be." Tap tap tap tap tap.

"Uh, what about it?" Asterism asked.

"Basic safety features. Code of conduct. Friendly NPCs in a friendly town or base or whatever have to know the way to the logout point. And there's always a secondary logout point that isn't the menu, too, just in case. Seen this feature in the other two games. Safety net. At least one would personally escort you there if you were really confused," Henry said. "There is no way this feature was removed accidentally."

"Yeah, I beta-tested games for this system before... Just like that. And in the beta, too, it was like that. This is... They're not acknowledging it..." OceanWave said. "...Oh."

Interrobang registered the unsaid motion of lips that would roughly transcribe to dung, except with completely different letters.

No logging out.

"...It must be a glitch." OceanWave said. "A really unfortunate glitch. Hopefully Nintendo, Gamefreak I mean, will patch this up in an hour. Easy fix."

"Can't be. They wouldn't just remove those features in the Keep AND the statue," Interrobang said. He then realized what he said. The real implication. Either hacked or deliberately removed. Malicious, either way. Interrobang, for a brief moment, thought of the slightest chance that this might be real-REAL real-but as the sensation of tapping the ground was sensed as he raised his leg to tap again, he knew that it can't be. No, no, this was bad.

"No, no no no no, that can't be right. Nintendo-or Gamefreak, or whoever does these games-this can't be on purpose," Asterism said. "Right, just, just, right out, right?"

OceanWave started to scowl. "Burn, send word. To everyone. We've either gotta find it or find someone who can tell us what's up. An administrator. I don't think any have logged on yet, though, just looking at the online list... Urk." The Oshawott said.

And thus the two Beta Testers started running, trying to get everyone's attention on this very important matter. Just before the news spread like a wildfire-that there would be no logging out until this situation was fixed, if even that would happen, Interrobang turned his head up to Asterism. "So, I suppose we're going to be looking for a partner team now? Or just heading in?"

"At a time like this?!" Asterism shrieked.

"Aren't there Khangaskhan statues in the middle of really long dungeons?" Interrobang replied. "Perhaps they're not gone from everywhere. Plus, treasure."

Asterism regretted the length of her arms in that instant. To be able to facepalm in response to that would feel so much better.

Neo Emolga

05-12-2017, 01:42 AM

Noblejanobii

05-12-2017, 02:35 AM

((Just as a timeline FYI, my next post will most likely be the BIG REVEAL so be prepared for that!))

MadderJanobii and Madder_Hatter
Exploration Team Moonlight Madness
Spawning in Discovery Town
Affected RP'ers: None

"So our first mission... we have to venture into the dungeon called Echo Forest and retrieve Johnson the Klefki's missing gold key. Doesn't sound too tough right?" Sloane said as she and Brent traveled across the town. Madder shook his head, smiling a little. It didn't sound tough at all. But then again, first missions rarely were. Still, they were both low levels, so they needed to be careful anyway. Even something as simple as a pidgey could cost them if they did not tread carefully. "We should get another team to come with us!" Sloane suddenly announced. Brent raised his eyebrows then shrugged.

"Sure why not. It would make the dungeon crawl much easier, that's for sure." Madder lifted his paw and brought up the settings menu. He pushed a button and sent out a request for a team to accompany them through the Echo Forest mission. A few minutes later, Team Harmonic Wildfire had answered their request. The two teams decided to meet in the center of town. Sloane and Brent searched around when they noticed a Type: Null and a Litten started to walk their way.

"MadderJanobii and Madder_Hatter?" the Type: Null asked as he approached. Sloane's jaw literally hit the floor, causing the Type: Null to chuckle. "Yes, you're not seeing things. For some odd reason this is a possible result of the quiz. Why, I'm not sure, but I feel like this is the definition of OP if you ask me." He bowed a little and introduced himself, "As you may already know, I am OcarinaCypher and this is my partner Sibermask, and we are Team Harmonic Wildfire. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Brent glanced over at Sloane, the cyndaquil still a little starstruck, forcing Brent to make their introduction. Brent tipped his hat a little.

"Madder_Hatter and MadderJanobii, though you can just called us Madder and Janobii, and we're Team Moonlight Madness. I'll be candid, I was not expecting this when you answered my request. Given we're all still level 5 I am guessing you guys haven't taken on the first mission either." OcarinaCypher shook his head.

"No sir! Siber and I were just searching for someone to partner with for the first mission and your team was the first one on the list. Have you played a PMD game before? Do you know how this goes?"

"Of course!" Sloane responded quickly, puffing out her chest a little. "I've played them all! Well except the Wii Ware games and Red Rescue Team but Blue Rescue Team was my first Pokémon game! And Madder's played a bunch too! You're dealing with veterans here." Siber chuckled and pointed towards the path to the dungeons.

"Well then, it seems this is a veterans party. Shall we take leave on our adventure then?" With nods all around, the two teams linked up and started down the path to Echo Forest. It was decided that instead of splitting up into two groups, at least for the first few floors, the two teams would stick together in case they needed to play support with each other. The dungeon was seven floors in total, with the seventh floor being a clearing where the item was located. It was obvious right off that Sloane and Siber had an obvious advantage in this grass and bug infested dungeon. The cyndaquil and litten took point, burning their way through the entire dungeon. It also became pretty evident that despite being a Type: Null, given it didn't have any egg moves, Cypher did not have as much OPness as the quartet had all anticipated. It would probably become evident in the future, but for right now he was about as powerful as a magikarp with tackle. Still, the dungeon was a total breeze, the four players tearing through the six floors of dungeon crawling like the veterans they were. Dungeon strategy was practically ingrained into their DNA, so they were at the clearing in no time.

Gleaming in the center of the Echo Forest clearing was Johnson's golden key. Siber started to approach it when a scream echoed across the forest and sound wave blasted the litten back. Siber tumbled to Cypher's feet, causing the Type: Null to growl as a noibat and two whismur spawned in between the teams and the key. Of course it wouldn't be this easy. This was supposed to be the most difficult PMD game to date, why wouldn't there be a boss on the first mission. To make matters worse, Siber had already taken damage from what was most likely an Echoed Voice attack.

"Stay behind me, Siber," Cypher instructed, "Try to use Heat Wave to widdle down their health! Madder, you think you can copycat him on that?" Madder saluted, stepping back with Siber in preparation of battle as the noibat and whismur drew closer. Cypher looked at Sloane and smiled a little (not that it was really obvious). "You and I are going to take them down with Leer, Rage, and Tackle spam. Sound good?" Sloane nodded, pumping her arms a little as she bounced in excitement. It was the first boss battle! Sloane turned to her opponents and made the first move, charging in for a tackle and knocking one of the whismur back. Cypher charged at the same time, striking the other whismur. Siber released a heat wave with Madder right behind him with a copycat heat wave. It didn't take much for the whismur to be knocked out, the two only having about 30 HP. However, the noibat was a different matter. Fire attacks barely tickled it, so just tackles would have to do. The four players encircled the noibat, even at a higher level than the whismur it couldn't survive an alliance attack from all of them. The noibat began to panic as they drew closer, and that's when it happened. The noibat let out a screeching sound in panic then tackled Siber. The litten was caught off guard and thrown back. Worst of all, it was a critical hit!

"Siber!" Cypher yelled as the litten's figure disappeared. Strangely though, no game over message appeared, as was routine when the partner fainted in a dungeon. The three remaining players stared at one another in confusion, allowing the noibat to tackle Sloane as well. "Hey!" Cypher charged and slammed into the noibat, Madder jumping into the frey as well. The barrage of attacks was too much, and the noibat fainted. Sloane walked over to retrieve the key then looked at Cypher.

"Maybe he's back in Discovery Town," she offered, "it's possible because you were with us it didn't force you to start over." Cypher looked bothered for some unknown reason but nodded in response, hoping that was the answer. The three warped out of the dungeon, returning to right outside of the guild. The three looked around for Siber, but there was no sign of the litten. Where could he have gotten off to? "Maybe he's inside?" Cypher seemed to grow more worried by the minute but nodded in agreement again. The three entered the Arcane Keep and approached the stairs when Cypher froze. Sloane and Brent turned to see what the matter was when Cypher said,

"I-I... what?" Cypher was currently looking at a message box in front of him. Sloane approached slowly, moving to Cypher's side to catch a glimpse of the message box. It read:
Dear OcarinaCypher,
We regret to inform you that your partner's save data has been lost. This error can be attributed to a variety of things, including hacking attempts, back internet connection, or a corrupted handling device. You will not be penalized for this loss, however, your partner will not be allowed to sign up again for at least 24 hours in case of possible hacking risks. If they return, your partner will be allowed to rejoin your team. However, should they not, we highly advise you join another team, as you will not be able to take on an NPC or a player partner at this time due to the circumstances.
Thank you,
GM

Silence settled over the three as they took it all in. Was there a glitch in the game? Poor Siber was probably freaking out back at his house. Sloane reached over and pat Cypher. She wasn't sure what to say in comfort but she thought maybe a pat on the leg would work! Cypher glanced in her direction before saying,

"Something's wrong. Siber's my best friend. Sure we like to hack but we always play the game through in true first before we start to mess around. He swore he wouldn't try anything funny with this game too. I don't... I don't think he had any of those other issues either but he does live down the street from me. Maybe I should log out and go check on him." That was a sound idea. Maybe something had happened at Siber's place that had caused this.

"Well, if it doesn't work out, you're more than welcome to join Madder and I's team." Brent gave a nod in approval when Cypher looked his way. Cypher reached out and pat both players on their heads.

"Thank you, I appreciate it. I'd give you a hug but I'm like twice your size so headpats will have to do I suppose." Cypher raised his claw and brought up the menu, only to frown in confusion. "Hm... guys have you tried logging out since you got here?" Sloane shook her head then looked at Brent, who also shook his head. "There's no logout button on the menu," Cypher said. He lowered himself to the ground to show the cyndaquil and zorua. Sure enough there wasn't a logout option! Now that was odd.

"Maybe there's a kangeskhan rock in town!" Brent suggested, "Remember in the trailer there's supposed to be one near the park! You can logout there." Brent took off with Sloane and Cypher right behind, racing down the path from the Arcane Keep to Discovery Town. Weaving through the streets, the trio approached the park and sure enough at the entrance stood a Kangeskhan statue, but the chatter from the folks standing near it was disheartening as reality came crashing in.

"Why won't this work! It won't let me interact with it at all!"

"There's not one anywhere in the guild! Didn't the screenshots show one?"

"The beta testers said all of these allowed logout functionality!"

"Has anyone contacted a GM?"

This was not good. This was not good at all.

LKWayvern

05-12-2017, 08:22 PM

stained_glass_threads and Peter
Discovery Town, Central Plaza
Affected RPers:

Laura squinted, scrutinizing the Adventurer Team Job Request Board. Her options were limited, true, but she still didn't want to screw up her first mission. To her knowledge it wouldn't have adverse effects, just losing her nonexistent money stash and a few items she didn't currently possess(so basically, nothing really), but it still seemed embarrassing to her. She wasn't the best of competitive battlers, her usual strategy in tougher dungeons is trying again and again and again as her level increased bit by bit until she finally was strong enough to brute force her way through the dungeon.

She finally picked out a request, turning to Peter and smiling at him as she handed it to him so he could check it out as well. "How 'bout this one? Get to the end of Static Savannah, and fight the boss there. Gives me a pretty good advantage, so it should be a breeze!"

Peter nodded. "Sounds good, you ready?"

Laura nodded, and the two headed towards the path to the Mystery Dungeons, only for the cubone to pause when she heard concerned muttering from other players. Curiosity pricked at her, and she checked the usernames and team name of a nearby worried team as she approached them: Team Sharpwind, composed of Strikestorm the scyther, and Charcold the torchic.

"Eh, hi there," Laura spoke up as the two looked at her. "I'm stained_glass_threads, but if you want you can call me Glass-- is there something I missed?"

Charcold seemed to be calmer and more composed than his partner, and therefore spoke up. "There seems to have been a-- a bug in the system, or something. Not many people noticed it at first, but," he thought for a second on how to phrase what he wanted to say, before slowly and deliberately speaking "No one seems to be able how to log off."

Laura blinked.

"That's simple! Check the Khangaskhan Rock outside the Keep to Save and log off," Peter said, automatically.

Charcold squinted at Peter, before identifying the charmander as an NPC and sighing. "Many people have tried that. No one's seen it. And before you ask, the menu's not working either."

Laura blinked, starting to feel her heart in her ears. No log out. That meant no way off. That meant, that meant--

She dropped her bone, placing her hands over her forehead and shutting her eyes. No. No meltdowns, no panic attacks. She couldn't do that here, she couldn't do that couldn't couldn't--

She flinched away when she felt someone touch her, only so see Charcold had tried putting his stubby wing on her in an attempt to calm him down. She flashed him a strained smile. "I'm fine," she muttered. "I-- um... Is there, uh... Did they tell someone? I mean... What does that even mean, can't log out? Can't I just-- just take off my headset? Can't I just turn off the game? I--i can stand t-taking the quiz again, not like anyone here's made a lot of progress! Right? J-just a game, even if they did!"

Laura noticed Strikestorm was close to tears. That made her feel a bit better, oddly enough. She wasn't the only one close to flipping out.

Charcold sighed. "You're new to this, aren't you?"

"I'm not a noob! I've played all the PMD games before this one," Laura said.

"No. Sorry if I came off sounding... Uh-- I meant new to this technology. It's not that simple. In order to turn the power off, you need to log out, which brings you to the game selection and power switches. And just taking the headset off... Well, you can't really move your body around in games, because if you do you might accidentally fall down a flight of stairs while trying to move your character, and end up in a lawsuit with Nintendo. So that's out of question."

Laura closed her eyes. Breathe in through your nose, hold, out through your mouth. For sixteen beats.

"...They're going to fix this, right? They've got to notice, they've... they've got to, they've got to--"

She cut herself off. Breathe. In, hold, out.

"It's hard not to notice people not waking up," Charcold assured her.

"I... In the meantime... I guess we've got a lot to distract ourselves with..." Laura muttered. Distracting herself always helped improve her mood, and she had a whole new game to get lost in.

"They'll figure it out," the torchic assured her.

Laura nodded. She turned to Peter, opening her eyes. "...Um. Could we... just wait ten minutes before that mission? We can try exploring the town again..." she said.

Peter frowned. "I-- if you're nervous... I was excited about my first mission on a real adventurer team, but if you're not feeling up to it yet that's fine too!" A cocky grin returned to his face. "I've waited until now, I can definitely wait a little longer! Come on!"

VeloJello

05-13-2017, 12:37 AM

Wulfenite and OrchidCrowns.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Training Grounds.
Affected RPers: None.

Combat was really, really strange in Challengers of Fate.

Tiff and Haruka had both played on the Wii Vision, but this was… almost frighteningly realistic. When a Kabuto sliced open Tiff’s arm with one of its little claws, it hurt like crazy. When Haruka dazzled a Wingull with Confuse Ray, she actually got the mental sensation of using some sort of psychic power. When the two stopped to catch their breath, there was a real sense of tiredness, exactly what one would expect from an hour’s worth of fighting and walking through harsh terrain.

“I hope you don’t mind if I cram in some extra hours after you’ve logged off,” Haruka said, brushing some debris of one wing. “I don’t want to get too many levels away from you, but…” She smiled, an expression that looked pretty odd on a bird beak. “I wanna try flying.”

Tiff’s smile looked no less bizarre than Haruka’s, considering that she was showing off a mouthful of sharp teeth. “You bet,” Tiff said. “I’ll admit, rushing straight into our first mission might not have been the world’s smartest move, since we’re not really used to the whole… being Pokemon thing.” She laughed, “It all sounds so silly when I say it out loud.”

Haruka nodded, “Well, I mean, I have wings and you have a tail. So it feels kinda silly, too.” She tilted her head. “Say, how’s that scratch you got?”

“Not too bad,” said Tiff, shrugging. “It doesn’t feel great, but it’s not that deep and it’s not bleeding anymore. What about you? That Slowpoke’s psychic… thing couldn’t have felt good.”

“I’m fine,” Haruka said. She tried to shrug, but it wasn’t really possible with the bone structure of her bird shoulders. “It kinda gave me a headache? But I’ll survive.”

“Good, good.” There was a pause, then Tiff stood up and stretched. “You good to get going again? I think we’re coming up on the boss.”

As it turned out, they had been practically on top of the boss. There was a small stash of Entercards at the end of the cave, but in front of them stood a Wartortle that didn’t seem too pleased by the idea of the Sterling Spearhead getting their hands on any of them. It growled, then lunged for Tiff.

Detect was the sort of move that Tiff laughed at in mainline Pokemon games, but in PMD games it had been ludicrously overpowered. Here, it was balanced between the two extremes - her awareness was heightened, allowing her to slip out of the way of the Wartortle’s Aqua Jet, but she knew for a fact that it wouldn’t let her dodge everything. “Haruka! Can you confuse it before we attack it?”

“Y’got it!” Haruka answered. The Pokemon moves were surprisingly easy to use; all she really had to do was think about the move and then she knew what she had to do. She focused her mind and flapped her wings toward the Wartortle; out of the feathers shot a cluster of bright lights that dazzled the Wartortle. It turned toward Haruka, looking angry, and lunged. The sight of the enormous turtle moving towards her at ludicrous speed paralyzed Haruka with fear; she let out a shout of pain as the Tackle attack landed.

Anger surged through Tiff, and she rushed toward the Wartortle, hitting it faster than should have been possible. It moved to counterattack, but between Tiff’s reflexes and the Wartortle’s impeded movements, the Riolu easily dodged the attack. She tried to follow up by tripping the Wartortle, but this time its attack made its mark, giving Tiff a nasty scratch across the chest. It let out a shriek a split second later as Haruka unleashed a Leafage attack. Before it could get out of Haruka’s way, Tiff attacked again, kicking the Wartortle in the back and knocking it onto its stomach. Haruka kept the Leafage up until the Wartortle stopped moving.

“It’s fainted,” Tiff said, relieved. She walked over to the Entercard stash and picked one up. She tried to take another - there were plenty of the things - but it gave her a slight shock when she touched it. She tried again with a different Entercard with the same result. “I think we can only get one of these apiece,” said Tiff. Haruka nodded and walked over, taking one in her beak.

Getting back to town was a lot simpler than getting into the dungeon. The two of them were out before long - and when they got back, the square was in a panic.

“What’s going on?” Tiff asked, trying to be heard over all of the shouting voices. A Poochyena happened to hear her and turned. Tiff and Haruka started. The Poochyena, Hologrammar, looked terrified. There were tears in their eyes.

“The game is broken,” the Poochyena said, “we can’t log out.”

Neo Emolga

05-13-2017, 01:58 AM

Chris Waters ("NightFox" / Fennekin) & Natalie Pence (MoneyBunny / Buneary) (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246124&viewfull=1#post246124)
Exploration Team Lucky Strike
Exploration Team Dojo
Affected RPers: N/A

Initially, Natalie wasn't keen on the idea for training before starting anything, but Chris knew the way to conquer most video games with little risk was to grind, only now it had a much more authentic feel. Unlike video games of the past, fatigue was very real. There was no being able to fight, jump, run, and attack endlessly without the need for breaks. But before engaging on any missions, Chris wanted to know and hone all the powers and attacks of his Fennekin form before heading out. Not to mention the dojo was barely in use at the moment and there was plenty of free space.

"Good lord, okay, this was more of a workout than I thought," Natalie remarked, having been doing Buneary aerobics for over an hour. "I'm pretty freakin' sure I've mastered Pound attack for the sixty-seventh time over."

"You wanted to focus more on bounty hunter missions, right?" Chris asked, smirking a bit. "Well, we gotta make sure we can beat the stuffing out of them first."

"Well, the dojo is nice..." Natalie remarked, wiping the sweat from her brow with her paw. "But seriously though, dude. I saw an entry-level mission for just beating up and bringing in a delinquent Rattata. That can't possibly be that hard."

"I'm sure it's not," Chris replied, testing out another Ember attack on a nearby stone column target. "But let's face it, it seems lame. I say it's better to work out, get pumped, and take on something a little more interesting than bagging some random rat in the middle of nowhere."

Natalie nodded, though she felt going on entry-level missions here and there wouldn't be such a bad idea after having spent a long time in the dojo working out and grinding away. And then there was the other matter.

"Besides, we need to wait until a GM gets back to Naomi regarding the log out thing," Chris told her, figuring they might as well keep at it. "If we leave town and she tries to find us, well, that'll suck."

"Eh, yeah, fine," Natalie agreed with a shrug. "It's been almost an hour though. I swear, these GMs are slow."

"Probably just bogged down with a bunch of beginning game bugs that need to be worked out," Chris replied, practicing some more exercises. "Heck, they sure didn't spend too much time beta-testing. Usually those tests go on for at least two weeks before they pack up."

Still, Chris couldn't help but wonder and he hadn't seen Naomi for a while. Did she get a response, find a way to log off, and just forgot to tell them? He figured he'd give it another hour, but after that, he felt it wouldn't be smart to just keep waiting for someone who might have totally forgotten about the whole plan to let them know about the log out feature of the game. They would he would have been surprised if Naomi did that. She didn't seem like the kind that would. Or maybe she just didn't know they were in the dojo at the moment, but Chris figured the guild wasn't all that big and she'd find them sooner or later.

After taking a rest for about ten minutes, Naomi had located Chris and Natalie. It seemed she had been running all over the place and was relieved to finally find them.

"Hey!" Chris greeted her. "Welcome back! Did those GMs get back to you?"

"They never did," Naomi let out a hard sigh, beginning to look worried. "There's also a lot of people gathered out in the town square. Everyone's having the same issue and they're beginning to panic. They said we should have been able to log out of the game via the Khangaskhan Rock but it doesn't do anything."

"Did a beta tester confirm that?" Chris asked her, really wondering what the issue was. "If that's the case, that's a pretty big bug. They should have it fixed up soon enough, I imagine."

"Yeah, I hope so..." Naomi muttered. "My partner, my friend Carla who got Flabébé as her Pokémon, is really freaking out over it. Usually she's not like this..."

In a way, doing something besides thinking about the crisis was helping Chris and Natalie to forget about the issue, but the more and more it went unresolved, the more it started to concern them deep inside. Usually newly launched games would have definitely had a feature liked this worked out, and it didn't make sense that the feature worked fine in the beta, but then not work during the actual live game?

"I'll try talking to her," Chris said back to Naomi. "I'm guessing she's at the square?"

"Yes," Naomi nodded, looking a bit anxious. "It's not a pretty scene..."

Despite the warning, Chris and Natalie decided to head out and get an idea of what was really going on. And to hopefully cheer Carla up.

The Nonexistent Tazz

05-13-2017, 06:24 AM

Interrobang‽/Asterism⁂
Adventure Team Big Bang
Central Plaza, Discovery Town.
Affected RP'ers: N/A

The news was out. Logging out was, at the most optimistic take, glitched out. Or hacked out. A bit of chaos ensured at the panic, which drew the attention of various NPCs (others were clearly not programmed to handle these situations), but thankfully this wasn't going to devolve into a full-on riot, from what Asterism could see.

Facts emerged fast regarding the situation. Disregarding the fact that no-one could log off... First, there were no GMs online, period. None. Zero. It became apparent that you can see them at all times... On the offline list. Not one was active, and quick confirmation by those who had been on, waiting for others, proved that they never were on since the release, which was extremely suspect. Administrators and like figures were always, always there for the launch to deal with the host of errors that were likely in these kinds of games. (Interrobang had another, unrelated question: Why "Game Masters" and not Administrators? For that matter, why had he not heard of them ever referred to as Game Masters, only as 'GMs?' Was he to take that to mean something else? Like, what? GodModder? Nah, that was silly.)

The second fact was compounding the issue of not being able to log off further. In short, any fainting would not cause a respawn back at Discovery Town. For that matter, it appeared that fainting Partners did not in fact harm the mission. NPC partners were affected as much as PC partners. Leaders were a different case; if they fainted, the Partners would be booted out, but the Partners would properly respawn back in Discovery Village. Anyone who did faint were booted offline-and their partner would receive a message that their save data had been totally lost, due to either hacking, bad reception, or error with the Wii Vision. Those with coding savvy ruled out bad reception universally; this happened with people who visibly had maximum reception. Which meant that either the Wii Vision was literally unequipped to handle people as Pokemon-which was impossible as the game had been succesfully beta-tested-or that they had been hacked. Or that there was one hell of a glitch. Thankfully, there seemed to be an exception: fainting in the Training Dojo did not penalize at all, and properly worked as intended.

What this meant was fiercely debated in the panic; the fact that it was restricted to full missions and not the dojo implied that someone had done this very deliberately to trigger, right? Then the counterarguments came in that it was only due to a bug in the mission failed screens that should have triggered, and that the leader being KO'd was only slightly less buggy. But then, why such a specific bug? And thus it went with no real answers. When they weren't just silly. A few were running around, absolutely convinced that this meant that godmodders who had gained the power to warp reality had intentionally trapped everyone here and were going to repetetively kill them to rage eternally, or were shouting about Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, Overlord, that sort of thing. There was one question left unanswered: What about those who had been forcibly booted offline? Some people were rushing to dungeons to KO themselves in the hopes of escaping; others were convinced whatever glitch was causing this was not worth the effort to do so, or worse, had some unintended side effect, and firmly stayed put in Discovery Village.

In the midst of all of this, Interrobang and Asterism were in the dojo, training.

"Why are we even doing this?" Asterism asked, mildly exasperated. "We should be trying to get dad's attention so he can just take these things off of us!"

"If we can't log off, we might as well at least do something productive until its fixed," Interrobang responded, more to the dummy in front of him than his sister, firing off another Silver Wind. The odd gray wind (Interrobang had no clue what it was) merrily swirled around the whole room, and the dummies flailed about, indicating they had been hit. Thank goodness-that was the attack he understood how to do the least. It wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. Interrobang turned back to his sister and continued, "Also, you clearly didn't see the user's manual. If it was ripped off of your head right now, well, uh. I forgot what would happen but it's a big safety hazard and a really dangerous one. If you want to log off, just go in a dungeon and KO yourself."

"I can't go into a dungeon without you!" Asterism said. "In any case, I have a bad feeling about that method of getting out."

"Me too," Interrobang said. "Plus, it's just a hassle to go through character creation again."

"Ugh. Still, though, maybe we just haven't looked hard enough? It's bound to be around here somewhere, I mean," Asterism said, thinking about the situation. "...I mean... Uh, hey, He-Interrobang. I just thought of something."

"What?" Interrobang asked.

"You said it was a Khangaskhan Rock that allows you to save and log off, right?" Asterism replied.

"Yes. But they're not here," Interrobang said.

"Uh, but weren't there Khangaskhan Rocks in the middle of some of the dungeons?"

Interrobang blinked. "Yes... I'm doubting they'll be there, though," Interrobang said. "Uh, you think that they'll be there? I don't."

"Why wouldn't they be? I bet that whatever this is, it may not extend to those midpoints," Asterism said. "We could log off at those midpoints."

"I don't think so. Whoever did this had intimate knowledge of the game-and someone did do this. Otherwise the entire aclove wouldn't be gone, they'd just remove the rocks. The aclove being gone can't be just a glitch. I'm still sure that Gamefreak... Uh," Interrobang paused. "Wait. Did Gamefreak make this game?" He asked, mostly to himself.

"...Uh... Actually. No, no they didn't. I noticed the Nintendo slogan and such, but I think that someone else made the game itself," Asterism said. "I can't remember who, though... Didn't get mentioned in, like, uh, whatever those thingies are in the opening. The ones with the company names on them," she said.

"Odd. Uh, so who did?"

The two remained silent for a second. Interrobang's brow furrows to the best of an insect's ability. How could he forget something that important and obvious? Most gaming companies wouldn't let themselves go unrecognized, right?

The two's train of thought was interrupted by an unexpected occurance. "Excuse me? You two team Big Bang?" The two turned their heads, and there was a Mantyke, looking rather confused. Their voice was high-pitched and feminine enough to grate ears, and they clutched an envelope between their head antennae. "Uh, so, uh, I have no clue why, but someone came in-and they looked, like, uh. They looked... No, they didn't look really bad, actually, if anything they looked and acted really out of there. but they felt just outright, uh, terrifying. I couldn't tell you why, though, it just felt really bad in the room when they came in. But they were asking for you, had a job," The Manatyke said. "Oh, uh, sorry. I'm Mary. Uh, yeah, I've been told the voice is annoying, sorry, just the natural pitch."

"A... That can't be right." Interrobang said. It was a feature that occasionally Pokemon take notice of you and ask for a job personally. Interrobang knew this. However, both common sense and gameplay mechanics did not make mention that this was possible. Was the bug testing in this game really that shoddy? "Uh, so who sent it to us?"

"Oh, right! Yeah, they, uh, uh, uhhh... Um. Uh. Err. This can't be good. Uh, maybe that's why... Ack, sorry. Uh, I don't get why myself, I was looking right at him. Or her. Them? Err, I was looking right at them, and I know they were really 'out of there,' but like, uh, I can't remember. Like, uh, they left really quick and all so no-one else really saw them? Really, really weird, actually. Uh, point is, I can't remember, and I don't get why, I'm so sorry, but I kind of recall what they said?"

"So, they basically appeared out of nowhere, gave you that, and left?" Asterism asked.

"Uh, yeah, basically. OH! I think I kind of recall what they said. Yeah. Uh. They said... 'I need you to deliver this, to, to, to, to the team. That team. Interrobang Interrobang and Asterism Asterism, yes, they're the members, team Big bang, that's the team. Yes, that's the team I need this delivered to, rightaway, thank you. Oh, uh, it's not too urgent, too. Tell 'em that they can get themselves sorted as a team and such, but I need 'em to do this. Only 'em, too. Big one. Important. Don't want 'em messin' up, too important to mess up. Thanks.' And then they were just, uh, kind of gone. I'm not afraid of ghosts, or anything, but if that was a ghost type going all 'I'm going to prank you so hard' mode that was really just creepy," Mary said.

Interrobang just had to wonder why the hell they said their names twice. AI quirks? Maybe they just pronounced the names that way? Regardless, this seemed highly suspect.

"...It's not like we're doing anything else at the moment... Sure, why not, we'll take it," Interrobang said, reaching out for the letter.

"Are you really sure?" Asterism asked.

"They said it wasn't urgent, right? We can just wait until we're strong enough to take it on in case we can't just do it immediately. Worth seeing what it is, at least," Interrobang said.

"Given everything else, this all seems just way too off for it to be anything good," Asterism said.

"It's not like it'll be packed with Anthrax, Jor-Asterism," Interrobang said.

"Jor?" Mary asked.

"Uh, sorry. Yeah, we'll at least see what the job is, but if they just left, uh, will they know if we have to cancel it?" Interrobang asked.

"I don't think they would know, actually... That would be really mean, though, to just cancel it. I'm not sure if he'd ever know," Mary responded. "But that's up to you-the way this went down, it all seems really weird to me too. And there's already a lot of hubbub over something about statues at the town square already... Ugh. Today is just really odd," Mary said, mostly to herself. "Oh, uh, sorry, here," Mary said, relinquishing the envelope to let Interrobang take it... By biting down on it ever-so-gently. "Uh, hope training goes well," she added as she floated up the stairwell, as if swimming through the air.

Interrobang looked at the envelope. This looked to be the envelope of someone extraordinarily wealthy, right down to a red wax seal. The seal itself was hard to decipher. It looked like a tree of some kind, with some flourishes off to the sides. He was briefly reminded of the box art of Super Mystery Dungeon, but it was confirmed that the story of Challengers of Fate took place in another world, separate from that one. Nevertheless, it wasn't any artwork he had previously seen for the game. Interrobang then turned around, to see Asterism eyeing it up.

"Uh, so, you have hands, and I kind of don't have hands," Interrobang said.

"I don't have much in the way of limbs either," Asterism said.

"You're bipedal. I'm not bipedal," Interrobang said.

"You can just, you know, use your feet?" Asterism said.

"And drop this on the floor? It's so... Intricate," Interrobang said.

"Oh, fine. I'll see what I can do," Asterism said, grabbing the letter. "... Oh," she added as the wax seal fell easily to her... Finger? Jeez, it was so small even Asterism didn't see it, but it was there. Interrobang just looked at her in response. "Oh, don't give me that," Asterism said.

"So, open it!" Interrobang said. He had to admit-all this weirdness had gotten him very excited.

Asterism delicately folded up the flap and reached in for the letter...

((I'll continue this after the big announcement.))

Neo Emolga

05-14-2017, 04:08 PM

Chris Waters ("NightFox" / Fennekin) & Natalie Pence (MoneyBunny / Buneary) (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246124&viewfull=1#post246124)
Exploration Team Lucky Strike
Discovery Town Center
Affected RPers: N/A

When Chris and Natalie followed Naomi to find Carla, they noticed she wasn't the only one. Usually, the town square was bustling, felt welcoming, friendly, and warm, and seemed like a good meeting place for players and NPCs to gather and relax before heading out to do their daily tasks. But now, it was like the whole world was coming to an end.

Some players were frustrated, others were angry, and a few were even in tears. The reactions of the NPCs were made to be dynamic and responsive toward current game situations. It was expected that events, both hosted by the GMs and those hosted by players, would have appropriate NPC reactions to make the characters feel as believable as possible.

There was speculation that getting KOed in a random dungeon was one way to log out, but there was no sign of anyone logging back in after that. At the moment, everything was a sea of "what ifs" and "why isn't someone doing something about this?" Chris just tried to remain calm and not jump to conclusions.

Eventually, they did find Carla, who was looking down and glum upon the flower she was resting on. Her username was "MagicGirl777," but Chris felt it would be more personal to refer to her by her actual name.

"Carla..." Naomi told her, trying to help her feel at ease. "I brought some friends."

"Hey Carla, name's Chris," he told her, trying to speak to her in a calm and reassuring voice.

"Hi..." Carla muttered, trying to be polite but still feeling glum. "I guess you're trapped like the rest of us."

"Hey, no matter what happens, we'll be okay, right?" Chris told her. "This is just temporary."

Still, Carla wasn't so convinced. The other problem was everything that was surrounding her kept furthering her negative and pessimistic beliefs. Other players were angry and furious while others were panicking. It was really beginning to seem like more players were getting very discontent than the ones that were still enjoying the game.

"Come on, let's bail out of this hellhole," Natalie told Carla, giving everyone else around her a Bunerary evil eye. "These people are salty over something that's not such a big damn deal and will probably be fixed soon enough. I swear, I bet 99% of these over-entitled tools probably haven't coded anything in their entire life. I've tried that crap, it's hard."

"I guess," Carla muttered, still taking glances at the other discontented players in the central square. "I'm just... I was so excited for this game and this has... really put a damper on it."

"Psh, I know what the deal is," Natalie replied to the Flabébé. "When you program and plan out a game this big, you get tunnel vision. There's probably enough content in this game to play it for decades. The devs were thinking so far in advance that they lost sight of the basics. 'Oh holy crap, we programmed in 500+ mystery dungeons, insanely good NPC AI, with an endless number of possible missions using the most complex algorithms known to man, but crap, we totally misplaced the coding for logging out. Carla, this crap happens. Especially with new releases. I was there when Shadow Battalion just came out and the freaking servers couldn't bloody handle all of the connections at once so players were randomly dying in the middle of matches because they got disconnected. And most of the time, within a day, they'll get everything patched up. Heck, sometimes they even give everyone nice items as an apology."

Carla's spirits were lifted a bit and it seemed to her like everything Natalie was making sense. The game's content was massive, dynamic, and ever-changing. The NPCs were incredibly lifelike, the experience of being a Pokémon felt so incredibly real, and so many attentions to details like the way the wind blew, the way things like temperature, scents, and weather were affected by the game were enough to realize that yes, it was very possible and natural that maybe not every nook and cranny was explored to make sure every bug and flaw had been ironed out.

"So relax," Natalie told Carla. "Enjoy the game, because we all busted our butts trying to get it. It's fun if you ignore all the salt and moaning from all these people. You could join us on our first bounty hunt mission if you'd like."

"That'd be nice," Carla replied, looking a bit more optimistic. "I... think stepping away from this for a while might help."

"Cool, you pick out the mission then," Natalie offered. "Get your mind off this crap."

While Carla selected what mission she wanted to do, Chris just looked around, seeing how things were developing. The situation wasn't getting any better, but he definitely felt Natalie had the right idea. The sooner Carla was taken out of this cloud of discontent, the better off she'd be.

LKWayvern

05-14-2017, 05:18 PM

stained_glass_threads and Peter
Adventurer Team Valiant League
Discovery Town Dojo
Affected RPers: n/a

In the end, Laura and Peter did not explore the town again. However, Team Sharpwind invited Valiant League to do some sparring at the Dojo. Laura agreed, as though she was familiar with battle mechanics in previous Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, this was still her first time in a virtual reality game like Challengers of Fate.

Since Charcold and Strikestorm both lacked functioning hands, Laura and Peter found and dragged out some practice dummies.

It was apparently Strikestorm's first time playing a Mystery Dungeon game to begin with, so Charcold allowed Peter to explain how to use moves to the player characters.

"There's two ways most people use," Peter spoke. "You can bring up the move menu and select a move from there to do it automatically, or you can execute the move manually by simply attacking! Some moves, like Tackle and Bite, are easier to perform manually than others, and of course you can only do a Default Attack manually, but with enough practice you can probably do any move without needing to select it on the menu!"

Laura thought a few moments, before opening up her move menu to check her moveset. Unfortunately, cubones did not start off with the most impressive or powerful of attacks to choose from. The moves she could learn naturally at level five were restricted to Growl and Tail Whip, neither of which actually did damage. The only offensive move she had access to at the moment was Double Kick.

She pressed the orange holographic option for Double Kick, and then selected the dummy to the extreme right as her target. Suddenly she found herself in motion, similar to those times when adrenaline take over and you find yourself doing something without consciously deciding to do it.

She dashed to the dummy, waiting until she was within striking range to suddenly lash out with her right leg. She did a funny little hop, landing on her right leg again while her other leg swung out to let another strike hit home.

She noticed she was breathing a bit heavily. She moved back towards her teammate and new acquaintances.

"That was..." Laura realized that for the first time since she had met him, Strikestorm was talking. "Not really as cool as I'd thought it'd be but-- I mean I guess it'll be cooler when you level up and stuff! What was that like!?"

"Weird," Laura said. "Like I wasn't in control of myself... But I didn't really think of it at the time. I wasn't worried or anything-- which is a good thing, I guess!"

"I wanna try next!" Strikestorm said, smiling. The logout-glitch was momentarily forgotten, it seemed.

Glowing options appeared in front of him in a variety of colors, yet they didn't seem to illuminate anything else around them. Laura saw that there was a single orange option and three white. Strikestorm poked one of the white options with his scythe, and selected a foe.

Faster than Laura could even blink, the scyther rocketed towards one of the dummies, slamming into it and back in the space of a few seconds.

"Was that Quick Attack?" Laura asked.

Strikestorm nodded. "It was-- woo, that was so fast I feel kinda dizzy now!"

Laura decided that Strikestorm's voice sounded younger than both hers and Charcold's.

Speaking of the torchic, he turned to observe the dummies. "My turn now? I don't think I need to go automatic for this..."

He trotted up to one of the dummies, and quickly dragged one of his clawed feet across its torso in a Scratch attack.

"Yeah, thought so. Scratch is really easy to do manually," Charcold affirmed.

"My turn now!" Peter said, grinning confidently.

Laura's eyes lit up as she had an idea. "No, Peter, wait a second!"

The charmander paused, looking at her. "Yes?"

Laura remembered a rather specific way to control NPCs in prior Mystery Dungeon games. She summoned her menu, selecting Team and viewing Peter's moveset.

As she suspected, visible to her were checkboxes next to each move on Peter's moveset. A sly grin appeared on her face, as she decided on the first move she would watch Peter use. She quickly disabled his ability to use Growl, and then Scratch.

"Okay, now attack," Laura commanded.

Peter tilted his head, apparently examining the options available to him, before that confident smirk returned. He puffed up his chest, and then opened his mouth as a plume of violet flame streamed from his mouth to his target. The Dragon Pulse was small, not as impressive as an experienced adventurer's attack, but out of all the moves demonstrated so far it was probably the coolest.

Strikestorm was visibly impressed.

Charcold sighed, an amused smirk present in his eyes. "Of course they give the charmanders Dragon Pulse."

Laura couldn't keep the massive smile off her face. Technically Peter had been the one performing the move-- however he was an NPC, she was his leader, and she had made the selection about which move-- to her that was close enough to her doing the move herself.

She looked around. "So... keep training or spar or...?"

Charcold took a look at his partner. "...Well. I suppose we've still got some more time to kill until the glitch gets fixed, and a couple extra levels will never hurt. They'll probably send everyone a message when it gets patched."

Laura nodded. "Okay. Good. Yeah, a couple more levels do sound nice..." She fingered the bone in her hands. "I'd like to learn a move that lets me use this-- and maybe get a few more damaging options outside Double Kick."

VeloJello

05-21-2017, 01:32 AM

Wulfenite and OrchidCrowns.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Training Grounds.
Affected RPers: None.

“Easy, now, Hologrammar,” said a voice, and a Chikorita pushed up next to the Poochyena in a quadrupedal simulation of a hug. “Take some deep breaths… in for four, hold for seven, out for eight. Keep going. It’s alright.”

The Chikorita turned toward Haruka and Tiff with a strained-looking smile. “Call me Sgt_Blueskies,” she said, “or, y’know, just Sky for short. This is my friend Hologrammar, and -” she paused, staring at Tiff with horror in her big red eyes. “Jesus, what happened to your chest? It looks like someone came at you with a hacksaw.”

Tiff blinked and looked down at herself. The black fur over her sternum was slick and matted with blood, and the gash it was from was easy to see. It hadn’t hurt very much before, when Tiff had been focused on finishing off the Wartortle boss, getting an Entercard, and coming back to town, but looking at it made her stomach roil, and she felt the cut start to throb.

“I got scratched,” she said. Her voice sounded small.

Hologrammar sniffled and wiped at his eyes with the back of his paws. “Did you guys go into a dungeon already or something?”

When Tiff didn’t respond immediately, Haruka was quick to take over as the spokeswoman of the Sterling Spearhead. “We did,” she said. “We did the Adventure Team starter mission; I don’t know if it rotates or what, but unless something’s changed, the boss is a jerk Wartortle.”

Both Sky and Hologrammar nodded. “We’re a Rescue team,” Sky said, “but it’s good to know how harsh the bosses are for the first mission.”

Hologrammar tilted his head. “Wait, did you see any Kangaskhan Rocks in your dungeon?” he asked. Excitement and hope built up in his voice as he spoke, piling higher with each word. “This one’s not working at all, but the ones in the dungeon might be different! The glitch might be on just this one, isn’t that right?”

There was a brief pause as Haruka tried to figure out what to say, “There weren’t any in Cartographer’s Cove,” she said, “or if there were, I didn’t see them.”

“Me neither,” said Tiff, her voice still a bit flat. “Do you guys know how and where I can get some healing? My HUD says that I’m in the red for hit points, and the cut doesn’t exactly feel great, either.”

Sky and Hologrammar looked like they would’ve facepalmed if they could. “Right, yeah, of course,” said Hologrammar. “Rumor had it that logging out and then back in would heal you so long as you’re still in Discovery Town, but that’s not… not possible right now, yeah. But there’s an Audino who can restore your hit points quickly. We actually just came from her hut after some levelgrinding. Come on, we can show you the way.”

Tiff started to say, “We can find it ourselves,” but Haruka elbowed her - or tried to, at least. It ended up being a light brush of downy feathers on Tiff’s side, but it got the point - ‘Tiff, please shut up’ - across well enough. “Sure,” Tiff said. “Thanks.”

It was a short walk. One of the few silver linings to this whole logout glitch was that the shops were pretty much empty. No one had shopping in mind right then; they wanted to yell at beta testers and admins, train to distract themselves from their worries, or search for other ways to log out. A big Audino, or possibly an Audino who just looked big to a bunch of one-to-two-foot-high Pokemon, greeted them with a warm smile.

“My oh my,” she said, looking at Tiff, “that looks quite painful. And OrchidCrowns, you could stand for some healing, too. Stand still, dearies.” She then put her palms together and, with a quick flick of her wrists, sent white and pink light dancing through the room. Tiff was prepared for the healing to sting, like disinfectant in a cut, but much to her surprise all she felt was an itching and a pleasant tingling sensation. Soon, the pain and the cut were gone, though the blood sticking to her fur was still there.

“Thanks, miss Audino,” Tiff said.

“Please, call me Mella.” The Audino smiled. “Feel free to come back any time you’re hurt, and I’ll be happy to help.”

“Wait!” Hologrammar blurted. “Do you know anything about the logout issue?” Before Mella could answer, Hologrammar kept going. “No one can log out right now, and none of the players who’ve been knocked out have been able to log back in! We tried to log out at the Kangaskhan Rock in the village square, but nothing’s working! Please, can you tell us anything?”

Mella frowned. “I’d heard,” she said carefully, “that users can’t log out right now. But I’m just a healer; I don’t know how any of that sort of thing works. I’m afraid I’m as much in the dark as the rest of you.”

“Oh.” For someone who had only been a Poochyena for a few hours, Hologrammar made a pretty good sad puppy - complete with droopy tail, head, and ears. “Ok. Thanks.”

Forced smiles were apparently in style right then, because Mella donned one quickly. “Don’t worry, dears,” she said to the group. “Someone will get it sorted, I’m sure. And in the meantime, you can all make the best of this! There’s other beginner dungeons, the park, the training grounds… Lots to see and do!”

Tiff groaned. “My parents are gonna kill me for being on for this long, but yeah. Make the best of it.” She turned so that Sky, Hologrammar, and Haruka were all in her field of vision. “Do you guys want to go and train? I… kind of want to get stronger before I try any more dungeons.”

“Level grinding is good, especially with new friends,” Sky said. “You okay with that, Holo?”

Holo nodded. “You guys seem okay, and it’ll be good to take my mind off things.”

“I’m down,” said Haruka. “Can you guys please show us the training grounds? We… pretty much just rushed into the first dungeon, so we’re a little lost in the navigation department.”

Sky’s brows creased in concentration, and then one of the thorns around her neck morphed into a vine, which she pointed to an area closer to the center of town, but not quite within the square itself. “Hey, that actually worked!” she said, opening her eyes. “This feels so weird. Follow me, you guys!”

“I don’t think you need to worry about being in trouble,” Hologrammar said to Tiff. “My parents were pretty strict about me only playing for a few hours, but considering that we can’t not play right now, I’m sure they’ll understand.” The Poochyena sighed. “This has gotta be the worse launch date in the history of gaming,” he said. “Once the devs actually get around to adding a logout feature, Challengers of Fate is gonna tank harder than Atari’s E.T. The Extraterrestrial.”

Morzone

05-22-2017, 03:30 PM

Richard ("Majorkorth"/rhyhorn), Alex ("CrimsonAlucard"/magby), Joshua ("thekunz"/Elekid)
Team Firestorm
Outside the guild entrance
Affected RP'ers: N/A

"I hate this stupid thing already" Richard stated, breaking the several minutes of silence that had accompanied the trio on their walk. The three of them had spent the last half hour attempting to access the log-out option in attempt to disprove the rumors that everyone now logged in was trapped within the game. Having eventually given up on the endeavor, something that resulted in much lowered morale, the three agreed there was noting to do except head to the guild and register the team. Something they would have done anyway even if they weren't trapped.

"Yeah, it sucks doesn't it? Who knew this was actually SAO in disguise." Alex replied, looking up at the large, multi-story guild building the were approaching.

"Not that, I mean, that suck too, but I mean this body. It's terrible, I feel like a rock with legs."

Josh noted that, as a rhyhorn, Ricky actually was a rock with legs. He decided against saying it however. He wasn't in a talkative mood anyway. The choce ended up pointless though, as Alex obliged to state it anyway.

"Well, technically you are a rock with legs." he said, shadowing his usual self.

Ricky wasn't amused and as such gave alex an annoyed look. "its so slow, I can hardly move. Turning is even more impossible. How did these things even survive if all their good at is going straight?"

"Well I guess you'll have to deal with it, o leader Major Korth."

"What, did you think I was going to use my actual name? its still better than 'Dracula' backward"

While Ricky and Alex busied themselves with mocking each other's usernames, Josh looked away surveying the landscape in his own thoughts. The road was surrounded by training grounds. As such there was a good number of players practicing as they passed. He was surprised at how energetic they were. Maybe they hadn't heard the rumors yet. Well, the NPCs didn't care, that was for sure.

He couldn't help but worry about what would happen. What happens when you faint? Do you still respawn? Do you get logged out? Some people had said it was possible, but no one was willing to try it unless.. well in case something else happened. Josh rubbed his eyes. It felt weird not to have any glasses. Maybe it would be better to be like Ricky and Alex and think about more trivial things for now.

As they arrived at the guild they fell again into silence, looking up at the impressive building. Pushing the door open with his snout, Ricky entered first, the other two following behind him. The entrance hall looked impressive, but alex seemed much more interested in the sign-up desks.

"To the adventure team desk!" he proclaimed, attempting to lead the way.

"We were going to make a rescue team..." Josh interjected quietly. The other two looked at him, a little surprised he'd been so quick to stop alex. "What... I already told you guys I'm not joining anything other than a rescue team. Especially not now we're.. you know."

"Oh yeah... Sorry josh." Alex said, his face falling slightly with the reminder of the log-out glitch.

The three turned instead to a desk manned by a dewott. They had agreed beforehand that Ricky would be the leader, since Alex was a little too trigger happy and Josh to reserved. And in a moment, and a few forms, their rescue team was formed. Each of them ordered a piece of clothing with their described symbol on it and were told it would be ready later. Additionally they now had a bag and guild badges. Each smiled as the put on their badges and Josh slung their bag over his shoulder. Despite everything, the familiarity was good.

Gef

05-29-2017, 12:21 PM

> 4:35:20 PM GMT: Player dianayu1 has logged in

It was an out-of-body experience; it was looking across the lawn at night, spotting a pair of glinting pupils upon a tangled frame of lean, leggy musculature, then being able to say, "That's me."

She stared in again. There was an improportionate whimsicality to the largeness of her eyes, to the sakura pink of her yellow-banded coat. Her ears flopped in the manner of a mutt at a store window; Pokémon really were unapologetically adorable, weren't they? Though Dia could move negligibly and the water's surface would turn to compliment something else. The pond had an exaggerated elastic quality, deliberate in its means of tweaking and tousling her image against a canvas of accentuating, clear water, forever rippling to the will of program code. The Deerling realized her legs were monumental in length.

"This is insane," she murmured, and ought to have remained at the poolside, ogling. Truthfully, she was conflicted. There was a pit of some auspicious feeling deep in her chest, one which she'd learnt to ignore. About it fruited a warm solace, a cold incredulity, a modesty prompted by the newness of it all, and a sort of culminated emotional feeling at seeing herself as a sprightly fawn brimming with health on four powerful legs. Dia found herself spilling tears into the void that was the "beginner's pond". "This is insane." She wondered if this was who she was always meant to be.

No responsibilities, no non-instinctual pressures; all false, of course, for she was a Deerling and not a real deer. The surface of presumed reality was supposedly not sacred as her peripheral vision filled with a gaudy orange glow: a flashing pop-up window offering a subtle hint to continue north towards the bustle and commotion—the actual game.

Dia felt vulnerable, torn from her reflection, but an objective was an easy motive for mobilization, as well as a reminder that she would achieve nothing otherwise before staggering, catching her two front legs together, and plummeting to the ground. For a while, she lay stunned as if she hadn't gotten up at all. Walking had come too naturally to her. With the realization she had no need to practice, Dia now had a more complex question upon her regarding how to reorient herself without digits. She supposed it was the first step in training.

! OBJECTIVE MET: PASSED FIRST POST-TRANSFORMATION TEST WITH FLYING COLORS!
NEXT: JUSTIFY SIXTY-DOLLAR PURCHASE.

Alone, it was difficult to fall for the illusion—you could sniff out the fingerprints of hardworking developers on vague breeds of shrubbery, trees with bulks of green ousting separate leaves. The town was a mass of individuals, however; if the vast majority were artificial intelligence, from Dia's perspective, it was impossible to tell. Discovery Town was a revel for the senses, a boast for both how bloated and how beautiful and, truly, how stimulating this technology could be. In a simple circle of cobblestone pavement and dirt road, enclosed by stock wooden shacks with strings of flags roping each rooftop together, the visual appeal came from the people around you—the Pokémon with convoluted gamertags popping up in all directions, giving context. NPC#2254 ushered furry brown little ones into an open cottage unhurriedly with a sweep of her broad tail, her flabby front arms clutched rodent-like to her chest; NPC#5568 pinned paper to bulletin board with a betraying elegance considering the broadness of their spiked hands, their overall magnificent size in-turn contrasting the tininess of their green-and-yellow wings; and a smaller pair hugging the side of a fruit stand as the crowd inundated around them yodeled over all the commotion, their tags identifying a squat, grey-capped reptilian fellow—EPIKBEAST—and billowing, blue sheet ghost—JAYNITEZ—as many chose to pointedly look past them, the former spouting, "Would you newbs stop calling 'Game Freak' the main developers? Chunsoft makes the mystery Dungeon spin-offs! Do some frickin' research!"

Dia found herself laughing to no one as she paced into the heart of the plaza. There was so much she didn't understand, and yet it was easier to feel unconditionally happy in the midst of company. All their voices were amplified, yelling over and around one another, but each response, if she chose to follow it, was distinct. The sun shone in an immaculate sky, the clouds were vaguely present in light tendrils, and the world of 'Challengers' had the scent of rainfall past. A light wind tussled grass bordering the square. Dia found her muzzle pointed skywards, tears lingering in the corners of her giant eyes. She lingered in the sensation of springtime and stepped absentmindedly in a puddle.

There was a second consequence to falling to fancy in the middle of a tumescence town square; the Deerling found cause for her and a few anonymous others to scatter as two figures carpeted in black fur hobbled expeditiously on stout legs. One bellowed "MOVE!" and the warning came moments before Dia found herself dazed in the midst of tumult. There was some standstill following the sudden disruption, all the same; some accusatory glances followed them, cast by those with the enigmatic "NPC" labels, as if it were against the figures' natures to act with such haste. Others, wide-eyed, took to trailing after, as if doing so suggested hope of reaching some revelation.

"What's the trouble?" It never marred to ask, but her call was disregarded. Some rotund figure launched itself over her and the miscellaneous group departed. The shock of being ascended left her gaping in their stead momentarily but Dia did stagger into eventual motion, weaving worriedly through the crowd. She stepped into another puddle on accident and cringed.

Discussion became inevitable to overhear and unfeasible to ignore in the thick of the crowd, the subject concerning some catastrophic change of fate—the Deerling wished she were exaggerating, for there was nothing less welcoming than damnation, but the air of conversation was permeated with fear. There was a darkness in most Pokémon's expressions. Within a circle of elaborate gamertags, they talked over one another about "warning signs" and "neurology" and "whatever will happen when we're gone".

"If we can't get out through normal means, we'll have to use force."

"We're gonna ****ing die, guys. We're gonna ****ing rot and die."

"There are kids here..."

Something cracked—it must have been Dia's voice, as all surrounding audibility ceased, obscured, and she took the opportunity to enter a hurried gallop. When she closed her eyes, it was easier not to think, not to consider the instinctual ease of speed and the chaotic exchange she was leaving behind. Everything vanished into the void. Fortuitously, she did not collide with a civilian.

! OBJECTIVE MET: BEGAN TO DOUBT SIXTY-DOLLAR PURCHASE!
NEXT: FIND A DISTRACTION.

When Dia awoke, she felt number than she thought she deserved.

When Dia opened her eyes, she registered the cause of her instantaneous arrest in the form of something sturdy, yet plush, with evident stitch marks maintaining its clover-yellow stature, both inanimate and of her height. She hurt from being struck but humbly retreated, inspecting the sack-like construct—"Training Dummy" rang the identifying tag above its head—and immediately it slouched on its side, to Dia's surprise. With its gnawed ears dangling and ink blotches for eyes scanning the skyline, its assaulter identified the orange, bubbled-in "cheeks" and the signature lightning shape of its wooden tail, exclaiming aloud, "That's cute, it's kind of like Pikachu."

An irregular battle cry it unexpectedly proved to be. A sudden sheer materialization sent Dia stumbling backwards, a thin screen of translucent blue that immediately expanded by thrice its size in an explosion of brilliance. The omnipresent vocalization of "BATTLE SET" was accented with a ring of thrown-up dust of which the Deerling had little time to shield her orifices and it was therefore fortunate, if not off-putting, for it to move through phantasmally like a proper trick of the eyes.

Dia thus found herself circled with a ring of blue-tinged screens, all screaming combat options at her, as if she were the new recruit on a science-fiction starship just heaved into the cockpit. "What? Did I start a fight? How? Do I need to press something? I don't really have fingers!"

In her bewilderment, there was no mercy; a flashing "command box" read out "FLINCH" and the Deerling experienced an ominous, spirit-felling fear as the turn to administer damage was turned over to her opponent. Taking advantage of her inexperience, the Pikachu dummy indulged in collecting itself, lifting its head slowly—Dia swore she was sweating; her throat clenched and she began a quiet, persistent prayer—, before finally letting it fall again to its right instead.

Dia decided it would be absurd for a dummy to zombify itself without warning. With the menus still encircling her, she rushed at one in an attempt to activate it with her head. Instead, the command box insisted "TACKLE" and she caught herself halfway from her opponent in the stance of a vehement stag.

"MISS," said the command box.

The dummy's head fell to its left.

An irritated Dia, acknowledging the menus encompassing her again though also her inability to touch them, took a deep breath, cracked her neck, and plunged into the Pikachu with her shoulder, carrying it with her in a demolition into the dirt.

As she slowly rose to her hooves, a horizontal meter hovering above the fallen manikin presented a slow drainage of color, its full green contents gradually dropping to a goldenrod as it halved and, finally, leaving mere red remains. The dummy refrained from being readjusted and the screens finally seemed satisfied so Dia, casting an uncomfortable glance in her wake, took to following the delineated path.

! OBTAINED FIRST SOLO BATTLE VICTORY AGAINST A FAMILIAR FACE!
A LITTLE MUCH?

Her rapid departure from Discovery Square had taken the Deerling to a higher altitude. The same path leading through stretches of meadow grass dotted with other cloth dummies, weights, ropes, and more mélange was ascending a hill. She was already approximate enough to be in its shadow, a luxuriously-sized building ruling at its peak, with a beautiful wooden exterior portraying some semblance of culture, though whatever "culture" she would be incapable of identifying by name. The land about it became less scattered with casual training and fitness gear, more with reverent statues. Dia stopped at one: an ape of stonework whose head torched, the warmth of the computerized fire beating down in a sparking, smoking spray. The ape's arms were raised, its eyes glaring down with the intensity of its crown of flame, and yet it seemed almost meditative in its position above her. She felt at peace initially, then a feeling of sincere discomfort she could compare only to a light sunburning drove at her pelt. Itching, she turned to pacing up the road.

If she cared to pay attention, the tagline to her north would spell out her present location; it would only appear at her consent as not to overwhelm her peripheral. Dia decided, nonetheless, that it was the mystery of the magnificent manor that kept her plodding forward.

In all earnest, the girl had wanted to log out minutes ago. It was an experimental decision to have bothered at registering in the face of obstinate error messages; it was undeniable there was something wrong with this game in the first place. There were so many ways the mayhem in Discovery Town could be interpreted, none of which proposed an optimistic provoker, all of which she morally disassociated from video games in the first place. It was beyond Dia's comprehension, the act of artificially invoking anxiety, to the extent she could not chock such an act up to some malevolent masochism or general deprivation; it was simply and utterly absurd to her. She did not ever want to stimulate holding a gun to anything's head, no matter if alien, no matter if living dead, no matter if it threatened the world, her family, herself. She could never be a soldier because she would let everyone down. She could be a icon, a children's toy, a Charmander, a Mew, or an Eevee; it was easy to be something so digestible, right? Dia enjoyed being Deerling—it seemed natural, although it was blatant the game had simply spurred her brain to feel this way—but, for as genuine as the escapism was, she knew it could not last her, for she needed not to vacate life itself but the isolation that prevented her for stomaching it.

The wind had accelerated in pace and strength, whistling through the bustles of yellowing grass and tossing bronze bells in the distance. Above the open door was a sign with painted footprints she would have ordinarily disregarded as decoration, a subtle proclamation of the lack of humanity within this virtual world, but forced upon her perception was a translation for this "language"; she was being welcomed to The Keep of Arcane Power. The mansion's entrance lay forever open, stone steps spilling past a gaping maw and into the parched earth. If Dia pivoted her ears, she could discern the slight evidence of conversation; it died quickly, leaving the swelling of the wind, the ring of bells. "I really am alone."

The journey died into an inquiry, then: Do I continue onward? Do I turn back? She could like this, she really could. She sincerely wanted to meet whoever lay within the keep, but she was demotivated, now. She needed obligation, and so she envisioned a slight, black-haired boy with wire-framed glasses pouting up at her in the comfort of their home. "You 'weren't feeling it'? That's so lame. You fall out of everything, Diana." And thus she adventured onward.

! OBJECTIVE MET: GUILTED YOURSELF INTO PLAYING LONGER!
NEXT: CURB YOUR INSECURITY?

http://www.pokestadium.com/sprites/xy/deerling.gif
Gamertag: dianayu1
Recent Activity: Approaching 'The Keep'
Of Closest Proximity:

Team Firestorm — Majorkorth / CrimsonAlucard / thekunz

Stats:
LV5 — (1/15)
Ability: Serene Grace
Moves: Tackle, Growl, Camouflage, Synthesis
Activity Log:

Registered as MEMBER of Team [ERROR].
Adjusted to self and setting.
Wandered into a fight against an incorrigible training dummy; emerged victorious.
Set on course for the guild.

Noblejanobii

06-03-2017, 01:35 AM

((LET IT BEGIN!! LET IT BEGIN!!))

MadderJanobii, Madder_Hatter, and OcarinaCypher
Exploration Team Moonlight Madness
Teleporting into Discovery Town Square
Affected RP'ers: Neo Emolga Gef The Nonexistent Tazz Morzone LKWayvern Velocity

A loud bell tolled throughout Discovery Town. Many players raised their heads to the sound before suddenly being warped to the square in the center of the town. Cypher was the first to warp, the panic easily readable in his eyes as his body started to disappear. Shouts rose up from other players as they were suddenly whisked away from the Kangeskhan rock. A stampede started to form as the remaining players attempted to flee, only to be snatched up as well. With Cypher already gone, Sloane and Brent attempted to flee as well, sprinting as best they could. Brent, however, had a much better graph on his character's movements, and leaving Sloane behind. The little cyndaquil tried her best to keep up, only to find herself suddenly get pushed down as a pancham forced its way through the crowd. Sloane tumbled to the ground and immediately covered her head as best she could as paws, hooves, claws, and other appendages beat down around her. Most pokemon managed to avoid her until a ponyta came rushing through and slammed straight into Sloane. She was sent flying, landing into a nearby pond. Sloane immediately began to flail around as terror set in. Swim! SWIM!! But she couldn't! It was odd but she didn't know how to swim, at least not in this body! It was as if the game's programming was suppressing her ability to! Sloane's lungs screeched for air and she couldn't take it anymore, her cyndaquil instincts taking over and forcing her to breathe. Water rushed in and she began to cough, only worsening the situation. She was drowning. As the realization set in, Sloane felt her vision closing in and darkness swelling around her. In all the ways Sloane had imagined dying, drowning in a video game had never been something she had considered. Slowly, she stopped flailing, sinking until she hit the bottom of the pond. However, just as she had given up, light erupted around her and her body began to disappear. Was she dying? Is that what those lights meant? She was consumed by them quickly, receiving her answer as she plopped down on the ground in the center square next to Cypher. Sloane sputtered and coughed, soaking wet and feeling nauseous.

"Janobii!" Cypher cried, patting her back as she coughed up a puddle of water. "Doctor! Doctor! Does anyone here know any healing moves? Please! My friend's hurt!" A cherubi pushed her way through the crowd and rushed over to Sloane.

"I know heal pulse! I received it as my egg move!" she cried as she touched her smaller cherry to Sloane's head. She closed her eyes and a pink aura covered both she and Sloane. As the move's healing effects transferred to Sloane, her breathing slowly evened out, and she visibly relaxed. Sloane looked at the cherubi and nodded her thanks. The cherubi smiled and stepped back, allowing Sloane some room.

“Janobii, are you feeling better?” Sloane looked up at Cypher, the concern swimming in his eyes. The cyndaquil smiled back up at him and nodded her head.

“Yeah, Cypher, I’m fine, I think,” she responded quietly, shaking herself off a little to get rid of the water clinging to her fur. Brent pushed himself through the crowd, dashing over to Sloane.

“Thank the lord, you're okay! I lost sight of you and then got swept away! I didn't know what to do until I heard Cypher yelling. What happened?”

“I… was drowning. I got knocked into a pond and couldn't swim. It was… abnormal. Like I know how to swim but my body doesn't, so I couldn't. If I hadn’t been teleported, I'd surely have drowned.”

Silence settled on the crowd around Sloane. That wasn't something anyone had seemed to anticipate. And with a variety of users having log off and respawn issues, there was no telling what would have happened had she not been saved. Cypher looked as if he was going to pose another question when a loud booming voice echoed throughout the square.

“Welcome Challengers of Fate!” A bright light shown above the square. Above the bell tower stood none other than Arceus itself. “I am Arceus, and I have to bestow upon you great news! Each and every one of you has been selected-” Suddenly, Arceus's figure began to change. The golds in the color palette shifted to blacks and the greens to crimson. Arceus's rings twisted, growing larger and becoming thorny in appearance, almost demonic-like. "T̷̡̛̫̝̲͎̍ͦ͋ͭͮ̽̇̍ͦ͡o̴̢͉̯̙̻̳̥̞ͣ̈̉̐́͟ͅ ̧̤͍͎̮̜͎̬̭͕̍̿͐̋̊͌ͯ̎́̚͟ͅDͯͭͯ̐ͪ̃̂̄̑̆͑̿ͣ̍ͭͧ̊҉̯̜̳̮͜I͐̿ͣ ̵̷̛̯̙̮̮͚̗̹̲͙͇̬ͪ̐̏̓̒̀͘ͅḚ̜͈͖̮̻͕͉̭̖̄͂̆̌̇̅͜͠!̌̔ͫ̑͂̏ͧ̎ ̥̙̫͔͎̍͒̋ͪ͋̃͛̀ͩ͜͢͞͞͝" A dark aura began to cloud over the city, turning the beautiful blue sky into scarlet red. The buildings now seemed more damaged and crumbling, and all the ponds wreaked of boiling blood. The once picturesque city was now dressed like the entryway to hell. "I thank you all for signing up, but I regret to inform you that the game you have signed up for is not what you thought it was. Our staff has been contacted numerous times with complaints about the lack of a log out button and respawn issues. The fact simply is, they were never programmed." A murmur rippled across the crowd as Pokémon began to discuss what this meant. "So I advise you not faint in dungeon anymore. Why? Simple. You die." Cypher shifted uncomfortably, the news hitting dead on with his worries about Siber. "To minimize cheating, I decided that you would only be given one life, no save, no redo, one chance to win it all. And if you faint in dungeon? It's game over, simple as that. But then, couldn't you just sign up and rejoin your old team? Oh don't worry, I thought of that too. And how did I solve that? Simple really, it's game over in real life too." Several gasps erupted through the crowd. Sloane felt the blood drain from her face, unable to react, stunned to silence. That meant that Siber was… no! That couldn't be! "Yes yes! You die in real life as well! It was quite fun programming the system to administer the deaths too. Now you might be wondering, how on earth do you escape? Is there any possible way to do so? Why I'm glad you asked! But this answer won't be so simple. All you have to do is beat the game! But as the toughest Pokémon Mystery Dungeon yet, it won't be easy. I wish you luck, bad luck that is!" The arceus let out a wicked laugh before lightning struck him and he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Still, even with the threat gone, dread filled the air around them, suffocating many.

Sloane felt panic start to well up in her. She couldn't go home? Siber was dead! What do they do? What do they do? She started to hyperventilate when Brent tapped her back. The zorua looked at she and Cypher then said,

"Let's head back to the Keep. We'll register Cypher with us then grab as many missions as we can. Easy ones, but plentiful ones, that way we can level up quickly and maybe get a head start on this madness." Cypher and Sloane nodded in reply, and Cypher bent down to the two saying,

"Climb on my back, I'll get us there quicker if I carry you." Sloane didn't argue, climbing into the Type: Null's back with Brent close behind. Cypher began to force his way through the crowd, thankfully close to the edge and able to emerge on the side of the square closest to the Keep. Once he was out, Cypher began to pick up the pace, sprinting towards the guild before panic could ensue.

LKWayvern

06-03-2017, 11:44 AM

stained_glass_threads and Peter
Teleporting into Discovering Town Square
Affected RPers:

Laura was of the opinion that crowds were literal hell on earth. It was very difficult for her to tune out the background conversations that inevitably took place in them, and she found people touching her in areas she couldn't see, like her back, to be very distracting and uncomfortable.

The fact that the background chatter now was panicked screams, and that some smaller Pokemon were quite literally being trampled really didn't improve this instance.

Needless to say, Laura really didn't take the stampede overwell.

"Calm down! This isn't helping!" she tried to shout at the panicking crowd. Her words were drowned out too easily for all to hear her though. "Calm down calm down calm down c-calm! Down! Calm! Down!" She felt herself begin to hyperventilate. She wasn't totally sure if she was yelling at the crowd or herself now.

"Hey, Glass! It's okay, let's get out--"

Charcold was there. She couldn't see Strikestorm or Peter though. The torchic tried shoving her away from the midst of the crowd, but her mind registered the touch as yet another reason to panic. She shrieked and flinched away, before realizing what the other player had been trying to accomplish. She quickly tried to scramble away from the crowd, only to find her hands had begun to glow. "Wh-wh-- I-- Make it stop!" she whined.

She spawned in the center square, and quickly wrapped her arms around her chest and her bone spear, glancing about frantically for her friends. She saw both Strikestorm and Peter having a desperate conversation nearby and made her way over to them as quickly as she could.

"They've noticed the logout bug, I'm certain. And this is just the typical way of gathering everyone online for an announcement. This is standard protocol," Peter was trying to reassure the scyther. The charmander then noticed Laura. "Laura! You're back here!"

Laura leaned onto Peter's shoulder, forcing her breathing to slow. Concerned and confused murmurs still spread through the crowd, but they weren't screaming and weren't running. It was calmer. She should be calmer.

"L-- Glass, did you see Charcold?" Strikestorm asked her. Laura slowly nodded, before the aforementioned torchic spawned next to Strikestorm. The scyther noticed him immediately, and enveloped him in a hug, being careful that his scythes didn't injure his partner. "You're okay! I'm okay!"

Charcold simply let out a sigh of relief, relaxing significantly.

When a loud booming voice echoed through the square, the two teams snapped to attention.

As she heard Arceus' announcement, Laura lost control of her breathing again, beginning to subconsciously back up. She accidentally collided with a rhyhorn, spinning around and gasping. "I-i'm sorry--"

The rhyhorn gave her a nasty glare, but she could tell he was very stressed by this announcement as well. She tried to turn back around.

Upon receiving the news that death in a dungeon led to death in reality, Laura totally lost it. "NO! NO! THAT'S NOT HOW IT WOR--" she felt someone shove her aside, moving her away from the midst of the crowd.

Even so, as she moved she kept hysterically murmuring "That's not how it works, that's not how it works, that's not how it works, you faint you faint you faint you faint you faint you faint don't die don't die don't die faint faint faint faint faint..."

She spun to face those who had dragged her out of the crowd. Peter was staring at her, concern evident in his eyes. A few feet away, Strikestorm was hugging Charcold again and openly crying. Charcold seemed extremely worried, but was holding it together far more easily.

Laura grabbed Peter. "That's not how it works it's not supposed to be like this there's saves there's saves and reloads! There's reviver seeds! Reviver seeds! It's not supposed to be like this! I don't understand I don't understand why would he do this it doesn't make sense why would he do this why would he do this why would he do this it doesn't make sense what's the point I don't understand I don't understand-- WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" She thumped her tail on the ground and stopped her feet, trying to dispel her nervous energy.

"Laura. Laura calm down," Peter instructed her.

"No no no I can't! It's not that simple! I'm going to die! I'm going to die here with NPCs and strangers! I can't do this without saves! I-- I never got through a PMD game without dying a lot! Never, never! I-- i need-- I need heaps of reviver seeds and I need--"

"Laura, please be quiet!" Peter said, raising his voice.

Laura bit down on her tongue, nodding slightly. She could feel hot tears.

"You. Are going. To get through this," Peter told her. "We are going to get through this. We're a team. And I'm not going to see my leader die. We are going to regroup at the Keep. You are going to calm down. We are going to level up. And we are going to get so strong this whole game will be a piece of cake!"

Laura nodded slightly again. She didn't think she could talk right now without losing it again.

VeloJello

06-04-2017, 12:46 AM

Wulfenite and OrchidCrowns.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Square.
Affected RPers: People who happen to notice an irate screaming Rowlet flying overhead.

“Hang on a sec,” Tiff said as the group ambled down to the training grounds. Light was shining above the bell tower in town square, and enveloped in it was someone who appeared to be Arceus.

Hologrammar saw it, too. “That’s it, that's our way out!” he said confidently. “Must be one of the devs’ avatars. Come on!” He took off like a shot, and the rest of the group rushed to follow.

However, as they neared the bell tower, things changed. Arceus’s speech twisted and distorted; the town changed from idyllic to something out of a bloody nightmare; and the Original One wasn’t a mod, but instead he was proclaiming that anyone who fainted in the game would - would -

“No!” Haruka screamed, making a shocking amount of noise for her tiny body. She jumped awkwardly, clumsily, falling down and landing on Hologrammar, who let out a scream of surprise and fear. Haruka was undeterred; she stood up again and jumped, this time extending her wings and flapping as hard as she could. It was a quiet sound, even to Tiff’s sensitive ears. “No, no, no!” Haruka continued, barely managing to stay afloat with her frantic wingbeats.

“Hey, we all need to remain calm -” Sky began, but before she could continue, Haruka took off higher into the air with a few powerful flaps.

“Haruka!” Tiff howled after her friend, then stopped, clamping her paws over her mouth. She turned to Sky and Hologrammar, glaring furiously, “You two never heard that.”

For a few seconds, neither of them replied. Hologrammar didn’t seem like he was able to at this point. Sky gave Tiff a look. “Her real name, right? I won’t say anything.”

Tiff nodded, tense, and turned back in the direction Haruka had flown. She was going surprisingly fast for someone who had only had wings for a matter of hours. Moreover, she was clearly furious, flying toward the bell tower that “Arceus” had appeared on. Tiff hesitated for a moment, then began pushing through the crowd, trying to stay below the furious Rowlett. “No!” Haruka was still shouting. “This is not happening! I refuse!” She couldn’t reach the top of the bell tower, but she was trying for all she was worth, letting loose a screaming tirade of frustration. “I know someone can hear me!” she shrieked. “Whoever’s in charge of this thing, stop it! Now!”

As long as Tiff had known Haruka, she’d never seen her this angry. Frankly, it was kind of impressive - Tiff could barely even muster up the emotional energy to feel surprise just then. She was about to try to beckon Haruka down, but before she could, she got a pair of alerts on her HUD.

[Friendship request from Sgt_Blueskies (Team Rebound). Accept/Decline?]

[Partnership request from Team Rebound (Sgt_Blueskies: Chikorita, Hologrammar: Poochyena). Accept/Decline?]

The brief flicker of hope Tiff had felt died when she saw that they were just friend requests, not messages from the devs announcing that their awful prank was over. She accepted both, though - it would be good to have friends here, if they really were stuck.

Were they stuck? Someone in real life was bound to notice that something was wrong, come up with a fix. It would take time, but it would be better than… she glanced down at her chest where the gash had been and pressed a paw to it, shaken by how close she’d come to death - actual, honest-to-God death - without even knowing it.

Because Tiff hadn’t bothered to close her HUD, she saw Sgt_Blueskies’s whisper pretty much immediately. <Holo having panic attack; helping him. Meet later? Can team w you/help you out.>

Deep breaths, Tiff told herself, and typed a response. <Unsure. OrchidCrowns is up there screaming at devs, don’t know how she’ll feel when she finally comes down. Will keep you posted.> After a moment, she added, <She’ll probably agree though. Would be good to have more friends.>

There was no response, but Tiff didn’t really want one right then. Sky and Holo seemed nice enough, but Haruka was her first priority. She looked up at the bell tower, where Haruka had perched on a decorative rafter. “Whoever you are,” Haruka was screaming, “I’m gonna track you down and I’m gonna have your eyes for this!”

The bottom dropped out of Tiff’s stomach. Somehow, Haruka’s rage made this feel more real, more solid. For the time being, they were stuck - and any mistake could prove fatal. People, real people who had just wanted to pay a stupid Pokemon game, were going to die.

Tiff managed to find a park bench to collapse on as she watched Haruka spitting obscenities at empty air, waiting for her friend to tire herself out so that they could…

… Well. She would think of something. Hopefully.

Neo Emolga

06-04-2017, 04:10 AM

Chris Waters ("NightFox" / Fennekin) & Natalie Pence (MoneyBunny / Buneary) (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?13738-Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Challengers-of-Fate&p=246124&viewfull=1#post246124)
Exploration Team Lucky Strike
Discovery Town Center
Affected RPers: N/A

In the aftermath of the terrible news, Chris was convinced the best choice for everyone was to get out of Discovery Town Square. Trying to figure out how much had completely gone wrong and make up a plan just had to wait.

"IS THIS SOME KIND OF $*#&%ING JOKE!?" Natalie screamed.

But her scream of anger and frustration was simply one among thousands of horrified players that had to voice their shock and anguish over the trap they had stumbled into. The deathly trap. It left Carla in so much dismay and depression that she was coughing, wailing, and was on the verge of vomiting over it.

As if by instinct, Chris used his Fennekin fox paws and even his mouth to just yank Carla, Naomi, and Natalie away from the scene of chaos and near-rioting. He wouldn't have been surprised if in fact a player riot had erupted because of this, but he tried not to think about it. He wasn't even thinking about his plans to try and find a way to deal with this situation. He just wanted everyone to be safe. For now, he dragged all three of them into a vacant alleyway that was away from all the panicked players.

"We're going to die!" Carla wailed in agonized horror, cursing her Flabébé form. "I knew it! I knew-"

"WOULD YOU KNOCK IT OFF!?" Chris shouted at her angrily. "Let's play a game! It's called stop panicking, get your head on straight, take a deep breath, count to ten, and let's just relax and talk this out peacefully and quietly. CAN WE DO THAT BECAUSE HOLY CRAP, I REALLY WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME SO BADLY RIGHT NOW? SERIOUSLY, CAN-"

"Okay, god almighty, I hear you," Natalie spat as she interrupted him. "You know, I think it's understandable she and everyone else is upset as hell about this. I can tell it's pissing you off, also, that's for sure. I sure as $&#% didn't think Pokémon Mystery Dungeon would suddenly decide to have a crossover with SILENT HILL.""

"God dammit, he's right though," Naomi looked down worriedly, realizing she was going to be stuck as a Petilil far longer than she could imagine.

They stopped and just looked around them. Discovery Town truly did look more like Silent Hill's Otherworld rather than the cheerful, colorful world it had once been. The walls were ravaged with scratches and blood and anything that had been made of wood was now bloodied and splintered while the metal had become twisted and rusted. Meanwhile, the skies were just a toxic, filthy soup of angry-colored reds, browns, grays and blacks.

"I can't do this," Carla muttered. "I can't do this."

"Yes, you can, now come on," Chris urged her. "The more you freak out, the more you make whoever is behind this ecstatic."

"Man, #%@# the asshat who set this up," Natalie spat. "Pricks like that deserve to contract and suffer through months of stage 4 terminal cancer before just dying in a fire anyway. Anyway, Chris is right, let's just focus on beating this stupid game. And the best way to do that is just grind like hell and play through this very conservatively."

Chris breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a very big step in trying to solve the problem they were currently in, but it was at least the first and that was important.

"Thank you, that's how we get through this hell," Chris replied. "Although... look at this place. Do we even still have a Exploration Guild or did that get taken over by whatever this Silent Hill-inspired hellhole is?"

"Hell if I know, I barely even give half a damn," Natalie muttered.

"You know, you sure talk nasty for a Buneary," Naomi looked at her strangely. "I mean, it's just... well, different."

But Natalie just shrugged and looked away. Meanwhile, for Chris, it was tricky to try and figure out exactly what would be the best way of going about this, but for the moment, he couldn't really think of a plan. If someone was willing to cause this much pain and death over a game, he doubted just "beating the game" was going to put an end to the terror. He felt the terrorist that had planned this most likely had some other kind of motive, but until Chris figured that out, it was only speculation. It just seemed unlikely that whoever was behind this whole trap would be perfectly okay with letting everyone go home after beating the game... if it was even possible. For all they knew, the final boss could be a hideously overpowered Acreus raid-style monster that wasn't even beatable.

"We need to learn more about whoever is behind this," Chris told the rest of the group. "They've got to have some reason for willing to go through this much trouble and kill this many players. Ransom from our parents, trying to cover up a specific assassination on a VIP who is logged into this right now, or they're getting some other kind of leverage from the government out of us being hostages."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty likely," Natalie nodded. "This isn't some kind of rite of passage crap where they're just trying to test our mettle. Half of these people will be dead in a week. They're probably using this to rush whatever their demands are from someone who isn't logged into this hellhole right now. And the more players keep dying, the more it will force someone on the outside to have to comply and negotiate."

Reluctantly, Naomi nodded in agreement. She really didn't like the sound of it, but she knew she was with players who were smart, thought things out, and didn't run and rush into something dangerous. They would make sure they were prepared and would have each other's back. And even Carla understood this as well.

"Whoever is doing this will get what's coming to them," Carla told the others in a dark voice. "Whoever this... coward, child-killer is. When the cops... or the military find them, they'll be dead. So dead. I'm just... hurt I'm not going to be there to watch it. I want to see him get gunned down like the dog he is and just watch his horrified face as the blood leaves his body and the life slips out of his eyes."

"Okay, moving on," Naomi told her. "I swear, you get freaky when you get angry."

The Nonexistent Tazz

06-05-2017, 02:10 AM

Interrobang‽/Asterism⁂
Adventure Team Big Bang
Keep 1st Floor, Discovery Town.
Affected RP'ers: N/A? (if you count the guild stepping in here, then everyone I guess, but I'm not sure.)

A lot happened at once. Before they could open the letter, they were randomly teleported to the town square by Pokemon God, who then proved to actually be the exact opposite of Pokemon God by announcing that no-one could log off and no-one could leave and morphing the town into a post-apocalyptic setting. Then he left.

Everyone took this as the sign that this was the time to start panicking, or almost everyone. Even the NPCs were panicking, almost just as hard-Interrobang saw some serious fear as they struggled to comprehend why the hell Pokemon God suddenly wanted everyone dead, or what he actually just said which seemed to defy every ounce of internal logic they had, as well as how everything suddenly took a dive into the ruinous apocalypse. And it was a dive, because it wasn't staying that way; the sky was clearing back to blue slow and steady, and for the most part damages were actually pretty superficial. The Keep wasn't even touched, and the blood pools were reverting back to plain water. Anyone paying attention would realize that the whole change was just for show, intimidation, proof of the sincerity of the power of the developer, or 'developer,' as Interrobang thought of him (and doubtless more). But it was the threat of death and never being able to go home again-or worse, the implicit threat that everyone would die regardless, due to being vegetative state they were in-that had everyone utterly terrified. There was no way to weasel around that much. That Arceus proved that if they wanted them dead, they were pretty much dead, without killing a soul.

To be frank, Interrobang's total level of being intimidated by the scenery change was near to zero. The lazy moron didn't even change the Keep at all, it was just a show, and really, the best way to win then was to make sure only the most experienced forged ahead and then everyone could copy their example-even the plot he was copying had workarounds. He was panicking, of course, but it was internal. Not voiced, but nevertheless expressed. Expressed mostly by slapping his sister for shouting along with the crowd, and then making expressive demands to leave. He couldn't handle shouting. He couldn't handle serious loud noises. Loud noises, he hated loud noises, it was too loud, too loud! Asterism complied, knowing his brother's peeves, some sisterly concern overwhelming her fear-and barely. Tears were in her eyes-actual tears! It was too much. Asterism moved Interrobang to the Keep, the Guild, mostly for quiet, mostly to comprehend what was going on.

They barely crossed the threshold of the Keep before the Guild Pokemon came down upon them, demanding answers. In fact, the Guild Pokemon-the Guildmasters. Pyroli looked a cross between enraged and concerned. "What happened out there, Big Bang?"

"Something in town," Asterism said, trying to keep a vestige of calm with tears in her eyes. "Something teleported us there, the town got kind of messed up, and-"

"Everyone's being threatened with death by something pretending to be Arceus, or actually Arceus," Interrobang said. "It looked like Arceus, at least."

"... Is it odd that I was hoping you'd say I was actually having hallucinations then? The implications of that statement are infinitely worse. Does this have to do with all the questions about logging out everyone has been getting? I have no clue what you're going on about-"

"Pyroli," Raiju interrupted. "Let's not dig into this. We'll ask in time. We need them to calm down everyone, first, before this breaks out into a riot."

The other two nodded, and Pyroli turned to Cadence. "Cadence, today has been rough, but I'll need you to keep everyone calm and quell any arguments. This is a special circumstance. We need everyone calm and to get all the facts sorted out. Legends vowing death upon our guild members is... I... Augh, I've had nightmares about that kind of thing before but never in my life-"

"Pyroli," Raiju said. "Focus."

"Right," Pyroli said, rushing outside.

"OK, Big Bang... Today has been one of the worst in my life. I can barely count how many teams we just registered in this place and now-if you're to be believed, and honestly you're very believable, we are now being targeted by random divine wrath. This is a lot to swallow... Did he say anything else?"

"It's very metaphysical but there's one way to get out, if it's not just some dumb trap. I don't know where it is, other than I know that no-one can reach it unless they do something significantly long and complicated to get at it, probably consisting of things that wouldn't look like the right steps if I would have to describe it to you," Interrobang said. "It would probably give someone an existential crisis. I just want to be away from the noise."

"... I'll take your word for it, hun," Cadence said, looking incredulous but sympathetic. "I'll call up Karmen, we'll probably need something delicious to at least ease the pain... In the meanwhile, uh, can you try to calm everyone down out there?"

"Interrobang does really badly with loud noises," Asterism said. "He'll probably freak out if he's made to stay there."

"Gotcha, hun. I'll see about getting the other guild members in to calm everyone down, fast. Once we've gotten some calm restored and fix everything up, we can sort out the going-ons and the plan of action for everyone. And that will include you. This is a threat to the whole town..."

The Guild was suddenly hustle and bustle as quite a few teams-NPC teams-poured out in mass. The response-Interrobang nor Asterism quite believed how they were acting. Their disbelief, their empathy, their movement to calm a riot... They weren't sure if it was perfectly real, but it felt real.

Interrobang tapped his foot against the ground. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Half second of delay. Proof that it was not real. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. It wasn't real, none of it, not a single bit.

Not a single bit was real except the death.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Can you stop tapping?" Asterism said, trying to keep her mild irritance from spiraling into screaming.

"It keeps me calm," Interrobang said. "... We were going to look at the job, weren't we?" Interrobang added, as an afterthought.

"Why are we even considering a job at a time like this?" Asterism asked, now a bit exasperated.

"We don't have to accept, just look-oh. That is... Oooohohoh." Interrobang said, suddenly almost forgetting the risk of death.

"...You've got to be kidding me," Asterism said, who wasn't suddenly forgetting.

"...Oh. OK, job is straightforwards. Retrieval of a missing item down in B35 of a dungeon called the 'Relic Abyss.' Our client remains anonymous. Our mission reward is also anonymous... B35... IF that's the bottom floor that's pretty far down, and if it isn't we are really going to have our work cut out for us, if we go for it," Interrobang said. "This job is... A long ways off. We also don't know where this is..."

"Interrobang, there's more important things to be thinking about-"

"Yes, Asterism, there are. Not like we could go into this dungeon anyways... But... Hrm. We don't have anything else to do then, and from what we heard, the Guild isn't going to take this lying down... They'll probably just put things on high alert and let us do jobs as normal... Which means, in context, that we could just, you know. Further this along," Interrobang said.

"We don't live in a vaccum. Pokemon is a big thing. Nintendo isn't going to let this slide. They're going to get enough tech people to bust us out of here," Asterism said.

"Jor-Asterism, let's put it this way-"

"No, none of your weird shenanigans! It's stupid to risk your life for a trinket! We're just going to stay put and-"

"Jorline-"

"-not so much as even think about listening to that psycho's demands-"

"Jorline! If he isn't pleased, do you think he may want to 'encourage' people?" Interrobang said, grumpy.

Asterism fluttered her wings nervously, but then, she sighed. "... That's horrible... We shouldn't be in this situation at all... Seriously, not worth the-"

"Now where's your sense of adventure?" Interrobang said. That caught attention, and while Interrobang wasn't a social animal or such, he knew it would get stares if she was seriously reconsidering all of this.

Certainly, such fearless explorers and adventurers wouldn't fear something like death, would they? For the NPCs... It was a part of life. They didn't get respawns. Asterism would have protested but just looked around at the keep, its last, slowest members trudging forwards-and most likely the 'newest' NPCs by that, who gave her an odd look.

Asterism sighed. "... That is a low blow," she said.

"Look, not saying we can't play safe and all. That's smart. What's dumb is thinking that if we don't at least make an effort to get ourselves out of this cage-play along-then he may start getting really angry at us, so we might as well at least put our necks out a little bit. For everyone else. Plus, think of it this way; it would be fun to play the hero, and if we could figure a way to get everyone out..."

"...Interrobang, you have your head in the clouds there and I know it. But I guess we don't really have a choice in the matter... Uuugh. Fine. Fine! I'll go along. But first, we're going to see what the Guild does about this.

"I suppose. They won't let us saunter off at a time like this," Interrobang said.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"You're just going to keep doing that forever aren't you." Asterism said, stifling dissapointment, irritation, fear, and a great deal of things.

Interrobang rolled his eyes in response.