Post by Raven on Feb 20, 2017 2:34:14 GMT
Owing to certain time-sensitive tasks within the game (mostly Clay's Fire Branch stuff), I felt it might be a good idea to start keeping track of what day it is and what has happened in the past so far. A lot has happened already, and it hasn't even been an in-game week yet!
Day 0
Four special "Adventurers", all from different walks of life, arrive in Saffron City to attend the Adventurer's Guild Anniversary Event and sign up to join. Introductions happen all around, with Clay, Divini Monteblanc, Tiki, and Sano Malakyth forming a loose team. The group meets Genevieve, the "face" of the Adventurer's Guild and the woman in charge of the Normal Branch, who encourages them to think carefully about which of the available Elemental Branches they wish to join as newly-christened Members of the Guild. While deciding, Tiki inadvertently bumps into Ashandra, Leader of the Fire Branch, and her Typhlosion, Pyro. Thankfully, Tiki is not reduced to a cute pile of ashes by the pair, with Ashandra stating that Tiki is "not worth our time".
Sano meets some notable figures as well, and what figures they were! Nalkeya of the Poison Branch turns out to be a bit of a prankster, as her notes taped to the walls indicated that newbies should follow the arrows to her room. Once there, Sano is horrified to find out that not only is his Branch Leader naked, she is actually having sex! After being thoroughly embarrassed, Sano is properly introduced to both Nalkeya and her lover, Aubrianna (Leader of the Bug Branch). Wandering the halls discussing the lack of protective measures for a group that works closely with deadly poisons and other toxic substances with Aloe the Oddish, Sano comes across what seems to be some sort of hidden room tucked away in a corner. Before he can properly satisfy his curiosity, he nearly gets run down by Nalkeya's Meganium, which seems to have been instructed to guard the area (though was noticeably absent until he actually went to look closely at the area). Despite his best attempts to talk it down, it scratches him with a quick flurry of razor-sharp leaves. Leaves that turned out to have been coated in (or secreting) a paralytic toxin that renders his whole body numb. Five minutes later, the illustrious Branch Leader swings by and happens to find him tucked away in a corner by Meganium, earning him the nickname "Plant Food".
Clay's day turns out to be super exciting, as he ends up trying to join the Fire Branch. Apparently, they don't pull any punches around here, as Clay first has to make it through a sweltering hallway heated by a turtle Pokemon. Thankfully his ability to communicate with Pokemon allows him to convince it to at least turn its heat vents away from the hallway. He barely has opened the door into the main part of the hall when he has to dive to the ground to avoid having his face burnt clean off, and then roll out of the way or become roadkill as a prospective Branch Member flees Lady Ashandra's fiery wrath. Capitalizing on what would seem to have been an ill-prepared (and now possibly frightened) prospective Member, Ashandra calls Clay out as he stands in the doorway, challenging his willingness to commit to this Branch. Naturally, being raised by a troop of Infernape from a young age, he has no shortage of bravado. He happily (and perhaps foolishly) boasts that he can, in fact, withstand the trials and tribulations of the Fire Branch. She calls his bluff, and even somehow pegs him as "raised by monkeys". Perhaps it was the mention of "trees" and a "troop"? Who knows. The official entry trial appears to be a Pokemon Battle between all the Members and Prospectives. Clay gets saddled with a match against "Firestarter" Ashley, a red-haired girl who claims to have been a member of the Branch for at least a year already. With her two rare Pokemon (Blaze the Magby and Smoke the Cyndaquil), she gives Clay and his Pokemon a run for their money, though Sandy the Mudkip proves victorious in the end due to a significant type advantage. Horrified she lost to a complete newbie, Ashley runs away, and Clay catches Ashandra glaring at her back out of the corner of his eye.
In spite of this initial success, the trials aren't over yet. Ashandra locks the group of people in the room, which was already significantly hotter than before they all went for healing, and then starts growing hotter still. The challenge is to "survive" as Lady Ashandra put it. At first Clay thinks maybe it's a psychological test, to see who panics when the doors get locked. That theory is quickly disproven and thrown right out the window as people begin to drop from the extreme (and still rising!) heat. Even Clay passes out about halfway through, though he comes to quickly enough with Sandy's help, and even selflessly begins helping out the other newbies by spraying them down as well. The end result is that only 1/4 of those who were in the room when Clay first entered (including Clay himself) actually manage to gain entrance into the Fire Branch. The rest are forced to leave (or carried out, if they were still unconscious), with Ashandra telling them not to return as they don't have the stamina necessary to keep up. She only begrudgingly allows Clay to remain in the Branch, and then more as a curiosity than anything else.
To cap off the day, Tiki makes a bunch of friends and starts a party in the Normal Branch's mess hall. What a great start to an adventuring career, right?
Day 1
The party is plagued by a horrifically realistic nightmare about the apparent destruction of Celadon Castle Town, and the death of the Queen. They all meet up again at breakfast and, after discussing it, realize that they appear to have been the only ones affected by said nightmare. A strange turn of events, to be sure, but even that won't be enough to keep Tiki down! No sirree! Her unbridled optimism brings everyone back to reality, cheering them up (even the sullen Divini Monteblanc!). With breakfast over, and initial training completed, Tiki rushes off to collect some Quests to look into. The others inevitably do the same, and they meet back up to discuss their findings shortly thereafter. Divini, the lazy psychic, manages to find a quick job from the Psychic Branch concerning investigating a "disturbance" in the Lavender Samp to the east of Saffron. Sano and Tiki have generic "go find a new Pokemon to show off" missions, and Clay (with some help from another Fire Member) learns about a task to get a new Fire-Type Pokemon to present for inspection by Lady Ashandra, with rarer or more powerful Pokemon supposedly earning more "points" or something like that. With quests collected, the party decides to make their way to Lavender Swamp first thing, hoping to knock out a bunch of quests at once and rack up some battle experience for themselves and their Pokemon friends. This decision nearly proves deadly.
Once in Lavender Swamp, it doesn't take long to stumble across some "ghost lights" that somebody had mentioned along the way, which turn out to be little floating candle Pokemon. After some discussion, and some difficulties with staying awake in their presence, Clay defeats and captures one of them, figuring them to be at least part Fire-Type. He also managed to get vague directions towards a "strange place" in the swamp. Along the way, both Clay and Tiki get a quick nap in, thanks to a sneaky Psychic-Type Pokemon called Drowzee. This was, of course, only *after* the group had to fight off a horde of living swamp sludge called Grimer. At some point along the way, however, Divini vanished! Nobody knows when, how, or why she did. Just one moment she was floating along quietly at the back of the group, and the next she was gone. With no signs of where she could have gotten to, the now-smaller party finally reaches the "strange area" that the UFCs (unidentified floaty candles) mentioned. There they are nearly scared right back out of the swamp Scooby-Doo style by an eerie voice emanating from a small cave. After recollecting their wits (which had been scared out of most of them), the party advances slightly, discovering the source of the noise is a floating, blood-red sword with a single, spooky blue eye near its hilt-guard. Thinking it may be a Pokemon, Clay tries to talk to it. When he approaches, he is cut deeply by the sword, which turns out to not only be alive (definitely a Pokemon!) but wielded by a strange girl who attacks with spectral energy (the same as that used by Pokemon bearing the Ghost Type). After a pitched battle begings to turn south for the would-be adventurers, a strange girl in white swoops in to save them all, with her murderball of fluff, Shinpuru, and her own impressive defenses, the girl (who introduces herself as Rei) helps them to clinch victory with no real losses.
After the toughest battle of their careers (and it's still only the first day!), the group patches themselves up and discusses what to do with the now-unconscious girl and her "spirits'. After some debate, all end up agreeing that they should bring her back to the Guild with them, as surely she'd be an endless source of curiosity for researchers, and perhaps Lady Genevieve (being the most approachable of all the Branch Leaders) can shed some light on the situation, or at least better assist this "Ghost Girl" in some way. Alas, they barely have made it out of the swamp when she comes to and begins to struggle for freedom alongside of her living ghost sword (which did not seem to have a sheath of any kind, like most blades). This of course sparks another debate about what to do with her. Should they just knock her out again everytime she moves, or should they release her now and try talking to her again? Eventually it's decided they should try for option #2, and for awhile it even seems like it may be working. This doesn't last long however (of course it doesn't! why would it?!), as a mysterious woman seemingly materializes out of nowhere, thanking the party for "assisting" her, and claiming that she will now be taking custody of the mysterious ghost girl (as well as all her possessions/Pokemon by extension). Frightened, the girl desperately tries to fight the newcomer off as the party stands by helplessly; too battered from their own encounter with the girl to intervene fast enough. Before they know it, the strange, scythe-wielding woman creates an orb of pure blackness and blasts the girl back into unconsciousness, sending her through an inky, black portal that she conjures in the ground. Before departing, she hands each of the young adventurers a promissory note, worth three thousand golden crowns, for their "help". She then departs through the same portal that she sent the girl through, vanishing without a trace, as if she'd never even been there. At a loss for what to do next, the party opts to finish the journey back to the Guild Hall and get some rest and healing for themselves and their partners.
Dance Party at the Normal Branch!
Day 2
Clay, Sano, and Tiki are all stricken by a second nightmare, this one showing a massive battle in the central square of Celadon Castle Town where a legion of Knights stand against an unending tide of faceless foes. As the Knights begin to fall one by one, the view then switches to one of the Throne Room once again. This time, there is somebody sitting in the throne. An unknown woman looses a sinister laugh that would shake even the fiercest of Knights in their boots. Morning routines are performed, and Team CAT (Clay sAno Tiki) meets up with Rei (who had spent the night in Normal Branch with Tiki) for breakfast. After some discussion about their latest nightmare, everyone splits up again, going their separate ways to turn in quests and get some answers about the mysterious, seemingly Guild-affiliated woman from the night before. Sano "Plant Food" Malakyth is able to get a very detailed answer from Branch Leader Nalkeya after turning in the quest to acquire a new Poison-Type Pokemon. The woman turns out to be named "D'Mara", Head of the newly-formed Dark Branch. Seems that she's someone fairly important from the Capitol, but nobody trusts her as far as they can throw her (which is pretty far for some people), and the equally-new Steel Branch, headed by one "Lady Sorra" (a literal Knight of Kanto), has been tasked with keeping a close eye on her and those under her. With this new information in hand, Sano (as well as the others, it seems) decide *not* to accept D'Mara's payment, despite how useful such a large amount of money could prove. Tiki heard a similar story of D'Mara from Genevieve, but with the added benefit of learning about the "free" (which just means not affiliated with the Crown) bank that takes care of the Guild's fincances.
With the heavy stuff out of the way, everyone spreads out once more to do their own thing. Rei opts to join the Steel Branch (alas before hearing about their main duty from Sano), where she meets Sorra and her Squire, Maya "Dragonfang". After being instructed to duel Maya to test her skills, Rei ends up with an arrow through the shoulder and a half-day in the infirmary. Later on, she meets a new Pokemon friend or two.
Clay, on the other hand, discovers that while his new candle qualifies as a Fire-Type for the purpose of completing the quest, Ashandra is less than impressed by it, declaring it worthless. He also discovered that, astonishingly, Ashley's Cyndaquil had evolved already, and was looking more like Ashandra's giant bear-looking thing. This lead him to the suspicion that they may be part of the same "species". Regardless of that, he heads out to get some more exploring/training done. Clay ends up wandering onto somebody's farm just north of the city, and gets into a friendly battle after Farmer Jessup apologizes for mistaking him for a crop thief. He learns that yellow duck things are tougher than they look, complete with strange abilities that make things glow and float through the air (or get headaches). After winning by the skin of his teeth, he is treated to a nice lunch with Farmer Jessup and his wife in place of prize money for the fight. Hooray, free food! Unfortunately, the rest of his day doesn't go quite as well. Clay heads down to Route 4, to the south of Saffron, hoping to run into something neat; and boy does he. He ends up finding a lone, orange-furred dog Pokemon that rips all of his Pokemon apart with a combination of powerful bites and even more powerful bites along with wasting several of his apricorn balls before finally being caught.
Tiki met a weird guy named "Bob Z. Beel", who likes to hang out at the local gambling house and commands a slew of obscure Poison-Type Pokemon (including one that's part spirit/ghost!). With her constant switch tactics (and use of more than 3 pokemon), she manages to not only win the fight, but win his side bet as well, earning a huge sum of money.
Sano spends most of his day trying (and mostly failing) to capture a Wild Eevee. He also nabbed a bird called Taillow.
Day 3
No nightmares this time. Yaaay! More of the same stuff though. Not nearly as exciting as the first two days. Just some random battles and captures.
Notable events:
Rei captures a Shelmet!
Clay tracks down a Wild Pikachu (with shocking results!), and after a battle against 3 of the pesky, electric rodents, manages to flee the scene with his hide intact.
Clay meets some weird girl who asks him to help her test the strength of her "constructs", one of which is (surprise!) another spirit (Golett), and the other is just some weird, pink and blue blocky thing that shoots nasty waves of multi-colored energy (Porygon).
Sano meets a teacher.
Team Reiki opts to try and tackle that B-rank mission about "bad Pokemon" that are attacking humans on Route 2 near Cerulean Cape Town. They manage to learn from Genevieve that poachers are suspected of being the ones that riled up the Wilds. The girls end up finding the Wilds in question, a small pack of cat-ferret Pokemon. They fight 3 waves of them before the leader appears (during the 3rd wave). They surive the fight (if only just) and attempt to communicate their original intent to the Pokemon. The effort proves futile, however, as neither side really understands the other (and they don't trust humans or human-owned Pokemon in the first place).
Day 4
Everyone does their own thing again, but all group up at the end of the day to try and talk to the cat-ferrets again.
Sano meets Bob Z. Beel (where he "cheats" by using more than 3 Pokemon).
Talks with the Zangoose seemed to go okay. Trouble is, they're too proud to accept help, even from 'nice-ish' humans. The would-be adventurers need to prove themselves by taking out a group of poachers that comes around every winter. Only after that will the Zangoose allow them to help with the main group of poachers. Maybe.
Day 5
Refreshed and ready for a new set of adventures as they wait for the first group of poachers to turn up, the party gets the idea to see if they can't glean some information from the residents of Cerulean Cape Town about these poachers. Before heading out, they decide to try asking around in the other Elemental Branches of the Guild to acquire quests that may need doing in the area. Sano and Rei find the entrance to the Ground Branch, which turned out to require a bit of puzzle-solving to get inside. Luckily it wasn't too difficult. Just about being observant. Inside, they met the Branch Leader, who gave them two quests. One to collect dirt samples from very specific locations, and another to stop the expansion of the tunnel through Mt. Moon*.
Tiki and Clay find the Water Branch, where they make a brand new friend! Unfortunately, despite being the daughter of the Branch Leader, she has no quests for them to undertake in the Cerulean area.
A hop, skip and a jump later, and the party reaches Cerulean Cape Town! Once there, they split up to go take care of stuff, with Sano on his own searching for the soil samples, and the rest of the group headed over to try and talk to whoever is in charge of the tunnel operation. The man in charge turns out to be quite stubborn, and tries to get the kids to leave him alone after they continuously pester him. Finally wearing him down, they at least get him to listen to their story about the plight of the native Pokemon inside Mt. Moon. Naturally, he dismisses their story as fiction; only to be bullied into submission by the obnoxious children who won't leave him alone. He agrees to have his people stop working for the rest of the day, giving the party time to seek out the mysterious Guardian.
Inside the Mountain, the party comes across an odd crack in the wall that leads into a narrow tunnel. Following this, they eventually come across the Guardian's Chamber. A brief conversation later, and they learn the Guardian is prepared to escalate the tremors into full-on human-killing if the party can't resolve the issue within a week. Thankfully, it barely takes an hour to accomplish. The young-ish mayor seems quite happy to oblige the Guardian's request to stop using the noisy, advanced equipment. She also seems to be flirty with Clay, who has no idea how to react.
Meanwhile, Sano spends the majority of the day scouring the Forest for the location written on his "list of places to collect dirt". For whatever reason, the Ground Branch Leader wanted soil from the "Heart of the Forest", which was a long ways away. On the way out, Sano comes across a group of people with special recording equipment who were tasked with doing a story piece on the Forest. They didn't seem to have much to work with on that, and Sano was unfortunately unable to help in that regard. He was, however, able to get a battle with them, which they hoped would go over better than a boring story piece.
After the successful interaction with Mayor Kalani of Cerulean, Team Cleiki celebrates by going to the beach (which Tiki wanted all along)! After some fun in the water (which even got Team Mom involved!), everyone goes off in search of some Wild Pokemon and maybe a Trainer Battle or two. Some Wilds were caught, and trainers fought. Rei fought and was barely defeated by a Battle Girl named Cindy and her fighting type Pokemon. After recovering at the local Healer's House, Rei headed off to the woods to find one last trainer battle... only to be ambushed by what she believes to be one of the Poachers the Zangoose tribe mentioned. After a long, hard battle, Rei finally proves victorious. She staggers back to town and breaks down in Tiki's arms. #Reikishipping
* - He never said to stop it completely, just stop them using fancy machinery that disturbs the local Guardian.
Day 6
After Rei's encounter with the presumed Poacher, the group decides that dealing with this needs to be their next order of business. They head off into the woods blindly, tromping around every which way. After spending several hours wandering aimlessly, Rei suddenly remembers a strange set of directions that a Murkrow she encountered the previous day mentioned: "Three miles west. First marker. From there, 10 miles south. Second marker." Suggesting that perhaps the directions were in relation to the nearby Mt. Moon, the group tries to follow the instructions, which end up leading them nowhere fast. It's unclear if they were false instructions, outdated, or perhaps not even related to their current mission. Regardless, the group sits around for awhile to rest up from their constant hiking through the forest. During this time, Clay is struck with inspiration: Maybe local Pokemon would know if there are other humans in the forest.
Following through on this idea, Clay comes across a lone "zappy mouse", which (after reassuring it that he means no harm) informs him that occasionally it has seen humans pass through this area, but only in one direction, and very sporadically. It also admits to not paying much attention to them since they avoided its home. Thanking the zappy mouse, Clay goes in search of a bird pokemon for a second opinion. He accidentally startles a pidgey, and after calming it down, learns that there are, in fact, several 'clearings' in the forest that humans may or may not take up residence within, but they're all pretty far off. Returning to the group to inform them of this, Clay is out of ideas. Meanwhile, a frustrated Rei recommends to Sano that they give up. Or at least, he thought she did. He saw her nearby, but she didn't even seem to be looking at him when he heard her voice. He disregards this as fatigue getting to him and making him hear things. He instead suggests that they try using flying Pokemon of their own to scout the terrain, causing the group to wonder why none of them thought of that earlier.
A short-ish scouting trip later, the party's Birds confirm that there are clearings a ways away from their current position. With no other information currently available, the group decides to head back to town briefly to ask Mayor Kalani if she knows anything. Alas, she had not even heard of this until they brought it up. She trusts them to handle it since they are already on the job. No need to cause a panic by informing the town that there are potentially hostile humans living in the nearby forest. Returning to the woods, the group heads for the nearest of the clearings their Birds spotted earlier. Within the clearing, there is a single, man-made perch with a familiar-looking Murkrow sitting atop it. It caws mockingly at the group while Rei greets it cheerfully.
After a lengthy debate, the group managed to learn from the Murkrow that the poachers are far better established than previously thought. They are not only well-equipped, but also had the foresight to set up false camps to mislead people. After enduring further ridicule from the Murkrow, Rei ends up bribing it to join their ranks. She names it "Kopi", which it naturally turns into "Krow pi", and proceeds to annoy Rei with for most of the remainder of the night.
Day 7
After resting up in Cerulean, the group heads back into the forest to try and gather more information on the poachers' true whereabouts. Sano decides that they need additional support and begins to make his way back to the Adventurer's Guild in Saffron. At some point, they come across what seems like a recently-used campsite. Investigating further prompts an encounter with a Growlithe, likely belonging to whomever set up this camp. While it distracts them by acting intimidating, a skilled thief-ninja (ninja-thief?) sneaks up behind the party and absconds with their bags and Apricorn Ball belts. Its purpose served, the Growlithe takes off running. By the time the party realizes their stuff is missing, the thief already has a few minutes head start, which proved to be more than enough. The followed the thief's trail for several minutes before it somehow split into 3 separate paths. Having sprinted ahead of the group, Clay is the first to find this. He quickly selects a path to follow and leaves a mark on a nearby tree so the girls know which way he went. When Rei and Tiki arrive shortly after, Rei makes the command decision to not split the party further (partially due to a distraught Tiki) and takes Tiki along a different path.
At this point, Clay temporarily loses the trail he's following, only to discover it ends not much further on once he rediscovers it. Having reached the end of the path first, he returns to the 3-way split to try the third path. Rei and Tiki found their path also ended suddenly. By the time they had returned to the split, Clay suddenly ends up coming in from behind them. After some trial and error (and Rei's occult instincts), they realize that this thief is no ordinary thief, and has access to moderately powerful illusion magic that was used to create some sort of weird looping effect on the terrain of the 3rd path. Naturally, this leads Rei and Clay to believe that it must be the correct path. Why else would this thief have gone to so much trouble to disguise it to slow them down? Unfortunately, they end up wasting nearly an hour trying various things to 'break' the illusion. It is Tiki who finally suggests that maybe the path they've been following the entire time is a red herring, a false lead to distract and confuse them until they give up in frustration. Quickly high-tailing it back to the campsite where they lost their pokemon, they find it still empty, and many false trails laid by the Growlithe to confuse them even further. Naturally, this turn of events upsets poor Tiki further still.
It takes nearly half the day before they finally make some progress, coming across some strange forest-dwelling woman after Clay inadvertently sets off one of her hunting traps. After a brief discussion, the strange woman walks off and returns with their surprised thief in tow. She dumps the thief into their midst and waits for them to finish their business. The end result is Tiki's magical screaming nearly KO-ing Rei and Kopi outright, and the Thief's Growlithe and Koffing coming quite close to finishing the rest of the party off. When all of them get poisoned by the Koffing's Poison Gas attack, the stranger reluctantly gives them all a Pecha Berry to cure it and shoos them on their way after ensuring they have their possessions back.
After a quick regroup, the team split up again to try again to find information on these mysterious poachers. Rei finds and defeats a Sailor, Tiki is defeated after a tough fight with a very rude man and his mysterious gray/black Dog Pokemon and still-in-egg Bird, and Clay loses handily to a young girl and her Nidoran (F) and Pidgey. Waking up nearly an hour later, Tiki limps back to town for healing. When everyone meets back up again, Rei brings up Sano's suggestion again, and recommends they return to the Guild, as they seem to be both outnumbered and outclassed by these poachers that they can't even seem to find.
Upon returning to the Guild, the group informs Lady Genevieve of their findings concerning the mission 'find out why these Pokemon are attacking humans along the road'. They were thoroughly chastised by the concerned Normal Branch Head, and made to promise not to stick their noses into this 'poacher' business any further, for their own safety. The group sells some of the rare items their Pokemon friends discovered for extra cash to help alleviate apricorn ball/healing expenses. Tiki then heads south to try and find a Ponyta to serve as her mount, similar to Rei's Skiddo, Raido. She doesn't find any Ponyta, but does come across a herd of other horse-Pokemon, Blitzle and Zebstrika. Not really interested in them, she merely observes for a little while before moving on. This is when things take on an interesting twist. As she approaches a watering hole to rest up for a bit (and in hopes that the local Ponyta herd will drop by), Tiki spots the strangest thing: A large, cat/dog-like Pokemon with what looked like a grey cloud on its back. Before she could even fully register what she saw, it took off, clearing the large lake in a single, mighty leap. Naturally, Tiki immediately rushes home at full-tilt to tell all her friends about it, with no concern for her own safety in all the excitement. She collapses and passes out upon returning to the Guild (a feat of endurance in itself), but makes a full recovery after just a couple hours of rest; after which she gushes to Rei about the weird, mysterious creature/Pokemon she saw.
Day 0
Four special "Adventurers", all from different walks of life, arrive in Saffron City to attend the Adventurer's Guild Anniversary Event and sign up to join. Introductions happen all around, with Clay, Divini Monteblanc, Tiki, and Sano Malakyth forming a loose team. The group meets Genevieve, the "face" of the Adventurer's Guild and the woman in charge of the Normal Branch, who encourages them to think carefully about which of the available Elemental Branches they wish to join as newly-christened Members of the Guild. While deciding, Tiki inadvertently bumps into Ashandra, Leader of the Fire Branch, and her Typhlosion, Pyro. Thankfully, Tiki is not reduced to a cute pile of ashes by the pair, with Ashandra stating that Tiki is "not worth our time".
Sano meets some notable figures as well, and what figures they were! Nalkeya of the Poison Branch turns out to be a bit of a prankster, as her notes taped to the walls indicated that newbies should follow the arrows to her room. Once there, Sano is horrified to find out that not only is his Branch Leader naked, she is actually having sex! After being thoroughly embarrassed, Sano is properly introduced to both Nalkeya and her lover, Aubrianna (Leader of the Bug Branch). Wandering the halls discussing the lack of protective measures for a group that works closely with deadly poisons and other toxic substances with Aloe the Oddish, Sano comes across what seems to be some sort of hidden room tucked away in a corner. Before he can properly satisfy his curiosity, he nearly gets run down by Nalkeya's Meganium, which seems to have been instructed to guard the area (though was noticeably absent until he actually went to look closely at the area). Despite his best attempts to talk it down, it scratches him with a quick flurry of razor-sharp leaves. Leaves that turned out to have been coated in (or secreting) a paralytic toxin that renders his whole body numb. Five minutes later, the illustrious Branch Leader swings by and happens to find him tucked away in a corner by Meganium, earning him the nickname "Plant Food".
Clay's day turns out to be super exciting, as he ends up trying to join the Fire Branch. Apparently, they don't pull any punches around here, as Clay first has to make it through a sweltering hallway heated by a turtle Pokemon. Thankfully his ability to communicate with Pokemon allows him to convince it to at least turn its heat vents away from the hallway. He barely has opened the door into the main part of the hall when he has to dive to the ground to avoid having his face burnt clean off, and then roll out of the way or become roadkill as a prospective Branch Member flees Lady Ashandra's fiery wrath. Capitalizing on what would seem to have been an ill-prepared (and now possibly frightened) prospective Member, Ashandra calls Clay out as he stands in the doorway, challenging his willingness to commit to this Branch. Naturally, being raised by a troop of Infernape from a young age, he has no shortage of bravado. He happily (and perhaps foolishly) boasts that he can, in fact, withstand the trials and tribulations of the Fire Branch. She calls his bluff, and even somehow pegs him as "raised by monkeys". Perhaps it was the mention of "trees" and a "troop"? Who knows. The official entry trial appears to be a Pokemon Battle between all the Members and Prospectives. Clay gets saddled with a match against "Firestarter" Ashley, a red-haired girl who claims to have been a member of the Branch for at least a year already. With her two rare Pokemon (Blaze the Magby and Smoke the Cyndaquil), she gives Clay and his Pokemon a run for their money, though Sandy the Mudkip proves victorious in the end due to a significant type advantage. Horrified she lost to a complete newbie, Ashley runs away, and Clay catches Ashandra glaring at her back out of the corner of his eye.
In spite of this initial success, the trials aren't over yet. Ashandra locks the group of people in the room, which was already significantly hotter than before they all went for healing, and then starts growing hotter still. The challenge is to "survive" as Lady Ashandra put it. At first Clay thinks maybe it's a psychological test, to see who panics when the doors get locked. That theory is quickly disproven and thrown right out the window as people begin to drop from the extreme (and still rising!) heat. Even Clay passes out about halfway through, though he comes to quickly enough with Sandy's help, and even selflessly begins helping out the other newbies by spraying them down as well. The end result is that only 1/4 of those who were in the room when Clay first entered (including Clay himself) actually manage to gain entrance into the Fire Branch. The rest are forced to leave (or carried out, if they were still unconscious), with Ashandra telling them not to return as they don't have the stamina necessary to keep up. She only begrudgingly allows Clay to remain in the Branch, and then more as a curiosity than anything else.
To cap off the day, Tiki makes a bunch of friends and starts a party in the Normal Branch's mess hall. What a great start to an adventuring career, right?
Day 1
The party is plagued by a horrifically realistic nightmare about the apparent destruction of Celadon Castle Town, and the death of the Queen. They all meet up again at breakfast and, after discussing it, realize that they appear to have been the only ones affected by said nightmare. A strange turn of events, to be sure, but even that won't be enough to keep Tiki down! No sirree! Her unbridled optimism brings everyone back to reality, cheering them up (even the sullen Divini Monteblanc!). With breakfast over, and initial training completed, Tiki rushes off to collect some Quests to look into. The others inevitably do the same, and they meet back up to discuss their findings shortly thereafter. Divini, the lazy psychic, manages to find a quick job from the Psychic Branch concerning investigating a "disturbance" in the Lavender Samp to the east of Saffron. Sano and Tiki have generic "go find a new Pokemon to show off" missions, and Clay (with some help from another Fire Member) learns about a task to get a new Fire-Type Pokemon to present for inspection by Lady Ashandra, with rarer or more powerful Pokemon supposedly earning more "points" or something like that. With quests collected, the party decides to make their way to Lavender Swamp first thing, hoping to knock out a bunch of quests at once and rack up some battle experience for themselves and their Pokemon friends. This decision nearly proves deadly.
Once in Lavender Swamp, it doesn't take long to stumble across some "ghost lights" that somebody had mentioned along the way, which turn out to be little floating candle Pokemon. After some discussion, and some difficulties with staying awake in their presence, Clay defeats and captures one of them, figuring them to be at least part Fire-Type. He also managed to get vague directions towards a "strange place" in the swamp. Along the way, both Clay and Tiki get a quick nap in, thanks to a sneaky Psychic-Type Pokemon called Drowzee. This was, of course, only *after* the group had to fight off a horde of living swamp sludge called Grimer. At some point along the way, however, Divini vanished! Nobody knows when, how, or why she did. Just one moment she was floating along quietly at the back of the group, and the next she was gone. With no signs of where she could have gotten to, the now-smaller party finally reaches the "strange area" that the UFCs (unidentified floaty candles) mentioned. There they are nearly scared right back out of the swamp Scooby-Doo style by an eerie voice emanating from a small cave. After recollecting their wits (which had been scared out of most of them), the party advances slightly, discovering the source of the noise is a floating, blood-red sword with a single, spooky blue eye near its hilt-guard. Thinking it may be a Pokemon, Clay tries to talk to it. When he approaches, he is cut deeply by the sword, which turns out to not only be alive (definitely a Pokemon!) but wielded by a strange girl who attacks with spectral energy (the same as that used by Pokemon bearing the Ghost Type). After a pitched battle begings to turn south for the would-be adventurers, a strange girl in white swoops in to save them all, with her murderball of fluff, Shinpuru, and her own impressive defenses, the girl (who introduces herself as Rei) helps them to clinch victory with no real losses.
After the toughest battle of their careers (and it's still only the first day!), the group patches themselves up and discusses what to do with the now-unconscious girl and her "spirits'. After some debate, all end up agreeing that they should bring her back to the Guild with them, as surely she'd be an endless source of curiosity for researchers, and perhaps Lady Genevieve (being the most approachable of all the Branch Leaders) can shed some light on the situation, or at least better assist this "Ghost Girl" in some way. Alas, they barely have made it out of the swamp when she comes to and begins to struggle for freedom alongside of her living ghost sword (which did not seem to have a sheath of any kind, like most blades). This of course sparks another debate about what to do with her. Should they just knock her out again everytime she moves, or should they release her now and try talking to her again? Eventually it's decided they should try for option #2, and for awhile it even seems like it may be working. This doesn't last long however (of course it doesn't! why would it?!), as a mysterious woman seemingly materializes out of nowhere, thanking the party for "assisting" her, and claiming that she will now be taking custody of the mysterious ghost girl (as well as all her possessions/Pokemon by extension). Frightened, the girl desperately tries to fight the newcomer off as the party stands by helplessly; too battered from their own encounter with the girl to intervene fast enough. Before they know it, the strange, scythe-wielding woman creates an orb of pure blackness and blasts the girl back into unconsciousness, sending her through an inky, black portal that she conjures in the ground. Before departing, she hands each of the young adventurers a promissory note, worth three thousand golden crowns, for their "help". She then departs through the same portal that she sent the girl through, vanishing without a trace, as if she'd never even been there. At a loss for what to do next, the party opts to finish the journey back to the Guild Hall and get some rest and healing for themselves and their partners.
Dance Party at the Normal Branch!
Day 2
Clay, Sano, and Tiki are all stricken by a second nightmare, this one showing a massive battle in the central square of Celadon Castle Town where a legion of Knights stand against an unending tide of faceless foes. As the Knights begin to fall one by one, the view then switches to one of the Throne Room once again. This time, there is somebody sitting in the throne. An unknown woman looses a sinister laugh that would shake even the fiercest of Knights in their boots. Morning routines are performed, and Team CAT (Clay sAno Tiki) meets up with Rei (who had spent the night in Normal Branch with Tiki) for breakfast. After some discussion about their latest nightmare, everyone splits up again, going their separate ways to turn in quests and get some answers about the mysterious, seemingly Guild-affiliated woman from the night before. Sano "Plant Food" Malakyth is able to get a very detailed answer from Branch Leader Nalkeya after turning in the quest to acquire a new Poison-Type Pokemon. The woman turns out to be named "D'Mara", Head of the newly-formed Dark Branch. Seems that she's someone fairly important from the Capitol, but nobody trusts her as far as they can throw her (which is pretty far for some people), and the equally-new Steel Branch, headed by one "Lady Sorra" (a literal Knight of Kanto), has been tasked with keeping a close eye on her and those under her. With this new information in hand, Sano (as well as the others, it seems) decide *not* to accept D'Mara's payment, despite how useful such a large amount of money could prove. Tiki heard a similar story of D'Mara from Genevieve, but with the added benefit of learning about the "free" (which just means not affiliated with the Crown) bank that takes care of the Guild's fincances.
With the heavy stuff out of the way, everyone spreads out once more to do their own thing. Rei opts to join the Steel Branch (alas before hearing about their main duty from Sano), where she meets Sorra and her Squire, Maya "Dragonfang". After being instructed to duel Maya to test her skills, Rei ends up with an arrow through the shoulder and a half-day in the infirmary. Later on, she meets a new Pokemon friend or two.
Clay, on the other hand, discovers that while his new candle qualifies as a Fire-Type for the purpose of completing the quest, Ashandra is less than impressed by it, declaring it worthless. He also discovered that, astonishingly, Ashley's Cyndaquil had evolved already, and was looking more like Ashandra's giant bear-looking thing. This lead him to the suspicion that they may be part of the same "species". Regardless of that, he heads out to get some more exploring/training done. Clay ends up wandering onto somebody's farm just north of the city, and gets into a friendly battle after Farmer Jessup apologizes for mistaking him for a crop thief. He learns that yellow duck things are tougher than they look, complete with strange abilities that make things glow and float through the air (or get headaches). After winning by the skin of his teeth, he is treated to a nice lunch with Farmer Jessup and his wife in place of prize money for the fight. Hooray, free food! Unfortunately, the rest of his day doesn't go quite as well. Clay heads down to Route 4, to the south of Saffron, hoping to run into something neat; and boy does he. He ends up finding a lone, orange-furred dog Pokemon that rips all of his Pokemon apart with a combination of powerful bites and even more powerful bites along with wasting several of his apricorn balls before finally being caught.
Tiki met a weird guy named "Bob Z. Beel", who likes to hang out at the local gambling house and commands a slew of obscure Poison-Type Pokemon (including one that's part spirit/ghost!). With her constant switch tactics (and use of more than 3 pokemon), she manages to not only win the fight, but win his side bet as well, earning a huge sum of money.
Sano spends most of his day trying (and mostly failing) to capture a Wild Eevee. He also nabbed a bird called Taillow.
Day 3
No nightmares this time. Yaaay! More of the same stuff though. Not nearly as exciting as the first two days. Just some random battles and captures.
Notable events:
Rei captures a Shelmet!
Clay tracks down a Wild Pikachu (with shocking results!), and after a battle against 3 of the pesky, electric rodents, manages to flee the scene with his hide intact.
Clay meets some weird girl who asks him to help her test the strength of her "constructs", one of which is (surprise!) another spirit (Golett), and the other is just some weird, pink and blue blocky thing that shoots nasty waves of multi-colored energy (Porygon).
Sano meets a teacher.
Team Reiki opts to try and tackle that B-rank mission about "bad Pokemon" that are attacking humans on Route 2 near Cerulean Cape Town. They manage to learn from Genevieve that poachers are suspected of being the ones that riled up the Wilds. The girls end up finding the Wilds in question, a small pack of cat-ferret Pokemon. They fight 3 waves of them before the leader appears (during the 3rd wave). They surive the fight (if only just) and attempt to communicate their original intent to the Pokemon. The effort proves futile, however, as neither side really understands the other (and they don't trust humans or human-owned Pokemon in the first place).
Day 4
Everyone does their own thing again, but all group up at the end of the day to try and talk to the cat-ferrets again.
Sano meets Bob Z. Beel (where he "cheats" by using more than 3 Pokemon).
Talks with the Zangoose seemed to go okay. Trouble is, they're too proud to accept help, even from 'nice-ish' humans. The would-be adventurers need to prove themselves by taking out a group of poachers that comes around every winter. Only after that will the Zangoose allow them to help with the main group of poachers. Maybe.
Day 5
Refreshed and ready for a new set of adventures as they wait for the first group of poachers to turn up, the party gets the idea to see if they can't glean some information from the residents of Cerulean Cape Town about these poachers. Before heading out, they decide to try asking around in the other Elemental Branches of the Guild to acquire quests that may need doing in the area. Sano and Rei find the entrance to the Ground Branch, which turned out to require a bit of puzzle-solving to get inside. Luckily it wasn't too difficult. Just about being observant. Inside, they met the Branch Leader, who gave them two quests. One to collect dirt samples from very specific locations, and another to stop the expansion of the tunnel through Mt. Moon*.
Tiki and Clay find the Water Branch, where they make a brand new friend! Unfortunately, despite being the daughter of the Branch Leader, she has no quests for them to undertake in the Cerulean area.
A hop, skip and a jump later, and the party reaches Cerulean Cape Town! Once there, they split up to go take care of stuff, with Sano on his own searching for the soil samples, and the rest of the group headed over to try and talk to whoever is in charge of the tunnel operation. The man in charge turns out to be quite stubborn, and tries to get the kids to leave him alone after they continuously pester him. Finally wearing him down, they at least get him to listen to their story about the plight of the native Pokemon inside Mt. Moon. Naturally, he dismisses their story as fiction; only to be bullied into submission by the obnoxious children who won't leave him alone. He agrees to have his people stop working for the rest of the day, giving the party time to seek out the mysterious Guardian.
Inside the Mountain, the party comes across an odd crack in the wall that leads into a narrow tunnel. Following this, they eventually come across the Guardian's Chamber. A brief conversation later, and they learn the Guardian is prepared to escalate the tremors into full-on human-killing if the party can't resolve the issue within a week. Thankfully, it barely takes an hour to accomplish. The young-ish mayor seems quite happy to oblige the Guardian's request to stop using the noisy, advanced equipment. She also seems to be flirty with Clay, who has no idea how to react.
Meanwhile, Sano spends the majority of the day scouring the Forest for the location written on his "list of places to collect dirt". For whatever reason, the Ground Branch Leader wanted soil from the "Heart of the Forest", which was a long ways away. On the way out, Sano comes across a group of people with special recording equipment who were tasked with doing a story piece on the Forest. They didn't seem to have much to work with on that, and Sano was unfortunately unable to help in that regard. He was, however, able to get a battle with them, which they hoped would go over better than a boring story piece.
After the successful interaction with Mayor Kalani of Cerulean, Team Cleiki celebrates by going to the beach (which Tiki wanted all along)! After some fun in the water (which even got Team Mom involved!), everyone goes off in search of some Wild Pokemon and maybe a Trainer Battle or two. Some Wilds were caught, and trainers fought. Rei fought and was barely defeated by a Battle Girl named Cindy and her fighting type Pokemon. After recovering at the local Healer's House, Rei headed off to the woods to find one last trainer battle... only to be ambushed by what she believes to be one of the Poachers the Zangoose tribe mentioned. After a long, hard battle, Rei finally proves victorious. She staggers back to town and breaks down in Tiki's arms. #Reikishipping
* - He never said to stop it completely, just stop them using fancy machinery that disturbs the local Guardian.
Day 6
After Rei's encounter with the presumed Poacher, the group decides that dealing with this needs to be their next order of business. They head off into the woods blindly, tromping around every which way. After spending several hours wandering aimlessly, Rei suddenly remembers a strange set of directions that a Murkrow she encountered the previous day mentioned: "Three miles west. First marker. From there, 10 miles south. Second marker." Suggesting that perhaps the directions were in relation to the nearby Mt. Moon, the group tries to follow the instructions, which end up leading them nowhere fast. It's unclear if they were false instructions, outdated, or perhaps not even related to their current mission. Regardless, the group sits around for awhile to rest up from their constant hiking through the forest. During this time, Clay is struck with inspiration: Maybe local Pokemon would know if there are other humans in the forest.
Following through on this idea, Clay comes across a lone "zappy mouse", which (after reassuring it that he means no harm) informs him that occasionally it has seen humans pass through this area, but only in one direction, and very sporadically. It also admits to not paying much attention to them since they avoided its home. Thanking the zappy mouse, Clay goes in search of a bird pokemon for a second opinion. He accidentally startles a pidgey, and after calming it down, learns that there are, in fact, several 'clearings' in the forest that humans may or may not take up residence within, but they're all pretty far off. Returning to the group to inform them of this, Clay is out of ideas. Meanwhile, a frustrated Rei recommends to Sano that they give up. Or at least, he thought she did. He saw her nearby, but she didn't even seem to be looking at him when he heard her voice. He disregards this as fatigue getting to him and making him hear things. He instead suggests that they try using flying Pokemon of their own to scout the terrain, causing the group to wonder why none of them thought of that earlier.
A short-ish scouting trip later, the party's Birds confirm that there are clearings a ways away from their current position. With no other information currently available, the group decides to head back to town briefly to ask Mayor Kalani if she knows anything. Alas, she had not even heard of this until they brought it up. She trusts them to handle it since they are already on the job. No need to cause a panic by informing the town that there are potentially hostile humans living in the nearby forest. Returning to the woods, the group heads for the nearest of the clearings their Birds spotted earlier. Within the clearing, there is a single, man-made perch with a familiar-looking Murkrow sitting atop it. It caws mockingly at the group while Rei greets it cheerfully.
After a lengthy debate, the group managed to learn from the Murkrow that the poachers are far better established than previously thought. They are not only well-equipped, but also had the foresight to set up false camps to mislead people. After enduring further ridicule from the Murkrow, Rei ends up bribing it to join their ranks. She names it "Kopi", which it naturally turns into "Krow pi", and proceeds to annoy Rei with for most of the remainder of the night.
Day 7
After resting up in Cerulean, the group heads back into the forest to try and gather more information on the poachers' true whereabouts. Sano decides that they need additional support and begins to make his way back to the Adventurer's Guild in Saffron. At some point, they come across what seems like a recently-used campsite. Investigating further prompts an encounter with a Growlithe, likely belonging to whomever set up this camp. While it distracts them by acting intimidating, a skilled thief-ninja (ninja-thief?) sneaks up behind the party and absconds with their bags and Apricorn Ball belts. Its purpose served, the Growlithe takes off running. By the time the party realizes their stuff is missing, the thief already has a few minutes head start, which proved to be more than enough. The followed the thief's trail for several minutes before it somehow split into 3 separate paths. Having sprinted ahead of the group, Clay is the first to find this. He quickly selects a path to follow and leaves a mark on a nearby tree so the girls know which way he went. When Rei and Tiki arrive shortly after, Rei makes the command decision to not split the party further (partially due to a distraught Tiki) and takes Tiki along a different path.
At this point, Clay temporarily loses the trail he's following, only to discover it ends not much further on once he rediscovers it. Having reached the end of the path first, he returns to the 3-way split to try the third path. Rei and Tiki found their path also ended suddenly. By the time they had returned to the split, Clay suddenly ends up coming in from behind them. After some trial and error (and Rei's occult instincts), they realize that this thief is no ordinary thief, and has access to moderately powerful illusion magic that was used to create some sort of weird looping effect on the terrain of the 3rd path. Naturally, this leads Rei and Clay to believe that it must be the correct path. Why else would this thief have gone to so much trouble to disguise it to slow them down? Unfortunately, they end up wasting nearly an hour trying various things to 'break' the illusion. It is Tiki who finally suggests that maybe the path they've been following the entire time is a red herring, a false lead to distract and confuse them until they give up in frustration. Quickly high-tailing it back to the campsite where they lost their pokemon, they find it still empty, and many false trails laid by the Growlithe to confuse them even further. Naturally, this turn of events upsets poor Tiki further still.
It takes nearly half the day before they finally make some progress, coming across some strange forest-dwelling woman after Clay inadvertently sets off one of her hunting traps. After a brief discussion, the strange woman walks off and returns with their surprised thief in tow. She dumps the thief into their midst and waits for them to finish their business. The end result is Tiki's magical screaming nearly KO-ing Rei and Kopi outright, and the Thief's Growlithe and Koffing coming quite close to finishing the rest of the party off. When all of them get poisoned by the Koffing's Poison Gas attack, the stranger reluctantly gives them all a Pecha Berry to cure it and shoos them on their way after ensuring they have their possessions back.
After a quick regroup, the team split up again to try again to find information on these mysterious poachers. Rei finds and defeats a Sailor, Tiki is defeated after a tough fight with a very rude man and his mysterious gray/black Dog Pokemon and still-in-egg Bird, and Clay loses handily to a young girl and her Nidoran (F) and Pidgey. Waking up nearly an hour later, Tiki limps back to town for healing. When everyone meets back up again, Rei brings up Sano's suggestion again, and recommends they return to the Guild, as they seem to be both outnumbered and outclassed by these poachers that they can't even seem to find.
Upon returning to the Guild, the group informs Lady Genevieve of their findings concerning the mission 'find out why these Pokemon are attacking humans along the road'. They were thoroughly chastised by the concerned Normal Branch Head, and made to promise not to stick their noses into this 'poacher' business any further, for their own safety. The group sells some of the rare items their Pokemon friends discovered for extra cash to help alleviate apricorn ball/healing expenses. Tiki then heads south to try and find a Ponyta to serve as her mount, similar to Rei's Skiddo, Raido. She doesn't find any Ponyta, but does come across a herd of other horse-Pokemon, Blitzle and Zebstrika. Not really interested in them, she merely observes for a little while before moving on. This is when things take on an interesting twist. As she approaches a watering hole to rest up for a bit (and in hopes that the local Ponyta herd will drop by), Tiki spots the strangest thing: A large, cat/dog-like Pokemon with what looked like a grey cloud on its back. Before she could even fully register what she saw, it took off, clearing the large lake in a single, mighty leap. Naturally, Tiki immediately rushes home at full-tilt to tell all her friends about it, with no concern for her own safety in all the excitement. She collapses and passes out upon returning to the Guild (a feat of endurance in itself), but makes a full recovery after just a couple hours of rest; after which she gushes to Rei about the weird, mysterious creature/Pokemon she saw.
