APRIL 2026 EVENT LOG

[bayhelpers]

⋆✩ SPRING INTO ACTION ✩⋆

Not a single flake remains from winter’s chill. Wherever the land can give purchase to new roots, flowers are beginning to bud and bloom. Leaves are filling in the depleted forest canopy, and with these refreshing signs of warmer days, spirits should be as high as the clouds themselves.

Should be is the key word here. Lingering troubles from February still loom, making it difficult for the motivation and excitement from the Starfall Festival to keep from gradually draining away. Surely not everything is dire, right?

i. PROMISES TO KEEP

FLOWER GIFT(S)

It’s a shame that those researchers from the Lum guild are still unaccounted for. The primary guilds of Bottlecap are in an absolute tizzy over the matter, with all of the higher ranking guild leaders spotted picking up slack where their exhausted superiors find themselves slipping. But while the Bay is a hive of frantic worry, things couldn’t be more different in the settlement of Death Blood Murder Skull Town - in fact, everyone who helped Lurantis with preparing Skull Town for the ludicrous winter they experienced will be called via grumpearl to drop in…

Apparently, she has a gift for them.

It’s doubtful that only those due to receive gifts are showing up of course. Perhaps Lurantis even counted on that, as when Pokemon begin to arrive she has far more than just cute presents in store. Spring season doesn’t mean everyone gets to slack off, and while things aren’t quite as pressing as when the town was first settled they still have plenty to do! Even gift recipients could find themselves recruited for one task or another, but this time they’re not getting anything spectacular.

…though they won’t be leaving without some kind of repayment, courtesy of the small bounty those of the town have been making for themselves. It’s clear that over the course of the half year they’ve had, Skull Town has formed itself into a system determined to stand on their own zero-to-six legs. Where once the only major constructed buildings to be seen were the communal dwelling house, clinic, and mail shack, they’ve since expanded into additional large structures! A windmill works constantly to grind the grain now being cultivated in the many flat fields naturally present. A bridge now spans the stream that cuts through the area, leading to a cleared out training field for Pokemon to spar in. For those who haven’t taken the time to visit since before winter, it’s probably quite the shock!

PLANT-IFUL WORK

⟡ Back at the start of Winter, Lurantis promised a personal reward to those who came to her aid in preparing Skull Town in response to the worrying signs of a particularly brutal winter. Now that spring is here, she’s been able to properly grow what she needs to do for just that - but these aren’t merely plants. Lurantis’ gift is personally crafted pressed flower paper, with the added bonus of small floral soaps. The paper is sturdy enough to use for crafting, not just writing, and can be made into lasting objects like paper lanterns. Each set is one of a kind, and has clearly been customized according to each recipient!

⟡ A similar gift has been prepared for those who assisted with the avalanche!

⟡ More Pokemon from the local regions have come to settle into the buildings at Skull Town, apparently interested in the relative security it brings. In exchange, aside from participating in maintaining the town, they're also willing to demonstrate personal talents; otherworldly Pokemon can take the opportunity to get a good idea of what "trade" here typically looks like! While it's not uncommon for longer-term residents of the Bay to pick up interests and skills that don't necessarily "align" with their species, given the access to a wider variety of equipment and resources, those recently from the wild rely more on personal abilities. Grass types can find tutors for more readily growing certain plants, and fire types could even learn how to hone their flames for better tempered metal!

⟡ Among the various tasks that are necessary to Skull Town at the moment, there’s something for everyone to do; the farm fields need to be prepared for planting, and the buildings need to be inspected for any weather damage in need of repair. The same can be said for the roads of course, but the biggest focus will be out in those fields - Lurantis wants them to be neat and organized!

⟡ With all of this happening, one might wonder what ever happened to Ribombee’s plan for the forest burn-off. Hadn’t everyone been talking about how vital that was to keep fire risks down? Lurantis explains that despite Ribombee gathering the necessary Pokemon and resources, the woods have proven alarmingly resistant to the usual methods. One would hope this means that the wood's fire resistance will hold as summer approaches of course, but the Cheris are looking just a little more anxious and stressed as time goes on through the month - to say nothing of poor Ribombee himself!

ii. SIGNS OF THE TIMES

ROLLING UP FROM THE SOUTH

Every year, Pokemon of certain species engage in migration. Where others get sleepy, or tuck in for a long hibernation, these Pokemon prefer to just get out of town until the weather is more comfortable.

The region of Bottlecap Bay is not part of the common migration routes, but it's also not out of the way enough to find migrating Pokemon remarkable. Locals and otherworlders alike would have spotted the occasional Swanna flying south last year, or a Seel out in the bay making their round trip of the seas, but it previously would only spark as much notice as a rainy day in spring.

This year is different.

This year, the Pokemon are everywhere. It begins at first with the birds: Flying Pokemon of all kinds shed their feathers as they pass overhead, and it’s the first warning that anyone in Skull Town has before there are suddenly Pokemon canvasing the ground just as much as the feathers themselves. The rooftops, fields, river - anywhere that they can fit, they’re flooding in and fast.

To the Pokemon’s defense, they don’t intend to stay; typically when they land here through the spring they file out in a reasonable order, so much so that it’s easy to forget the field acts as a landing pad for any migrations at all! But the recent weather phenomena really messed up their timing and flight paths…and unfortunately that also means not all of them can immediately head for their usual waters.

The main town at Bottlecap Bay isn’t immune to these sudden swarms either; while less of a hot spot for Flying types on their seasonal loop, there are the occasional Water types passing through…and whatever it was which created such hassle for the air has done the same to the seas! One by one, soon to become ten by ten, Spheal and Seel begin to gather at the beaches alongside Pokemon like Carracosta seeking a place for a seasonal nest. The crowded conditions are creating quite the stir down there, and it’s soon clear that without intervention, some fights are going to be breaking out!

MIGRA-TATED CONFUSION

⟡ Pokemon migration is common, and player characters present for some time can have noticed it in the past - but as the native Pokemon who have lived here for years can confirm, it’s never been this crowded! As noted, it seems the weather this past winter really messed them all up.

⟡ The various Pokemon who took part in the migration will confirm this theory if asked; the pinniped Pokemon of the seas remark that due to the extended cold, the currents have shifted into something so unfamiliar and treacherous that they simply had to change routes en-masse to stay safe. Meanwhile, the flying travelers comment that there was ‘bad wind’ farther south. What ‘bad wind’ means is anyone’s guess though.

⟡ While the Pokemon don’t need housing, they certainly need space! Local Carracosta are more than irritated about this encroachment on their usual nesting sites (that’s a private process you know!), and requests to help settle disputes soon begin to flood the Quest Board. Once they are appeased however, Pokemon are in for a potential treat as they hear stories about just what the world is like in the central seas…or even what the seas are like at all, if one is a Pokemon ill suited to that domain.

SPOILS OF LABOR

While the aquatic journeyers have little to offer material-wise - anything they can fish up can be retrieved by locals just as easily - the veritable cloud of feathers from the flocks near Skull Town are a more tangible side effect of this recent invasion.

Well. More tangible than the Pokemon themselves, of course!

While none of the Swanna have been dropping anything like the skill feathers one might have occasionally found in the nearby woods, their feathers are an incredibly downy and soft material - pillows and bedding stuffed with these are something of a luxury, making their shed feathers a hot commodity!

More Pokemon than just Swanna came flying in from the sky however, and it’s largely these feathers that characters will likely be finding. A feather is a feather though, which means that there’s use in anything from stuffing to decoration to even tool creation on the table…and Lurantis is not one to look a gift Horsea in the mouth! (How would that even work!)

As soon as the various birds have been settled - either in their trek off to their actual destinations, or temporarily in beds at the communal building - the town sets to work. A call to gather as many feathers as possible is made, and stations to help clean and prepare said feathers for crafting are quick to follow. It’s more complicated than just washing them in water; these feathers have to be cleaned multiple times, dried, and even steamed before they’re appropriate for use!

Well, unless you just plan on making a necklace or something of course. Then you can have at it.

FEATHER IN YOUR CAP

⟡ All of the feathers available in this event are mundane - that is, they can’t be used to boost anyone’s stats or skills in the slightest! That said, these feathers come not only from Pokemon like Swanna, but also others such as Farfetch’d, Unfezant, Bombirdier, and even Talonflame!

⟡ As varied as Pokemon are, so too are the things that can be crafted with their feathers. The obvious examples involve using the down in bedding and pillows, but feathers can also be used for certain resistant accessories - nothing that would help in a fight, but perhaps with enough feathers you can have a nice rain cloak…or even a cloak that helps you stay cool in the summer heat!

⟡ Players are free to come up with any number of ways to craft feathers into fun accessories and knick-nacks. The majority of the collected feathers will be used toward Skull Town’s own supply, but player characters are welcome to keep and use enough to make themselves one item each! (Or several quill pens.)

iii. DISTANT DISASTER

OUT OF SIGHT…

For the Pokemon aware of but not participating in the plan to rescue the missing Lum researchers, the first sign of something going wrong is an uproar at the Archives. It may take some time to get more information, though, with everyone busy handling... whatever it is that happened. Unless, perhaps, you're in grumpearl contact with one of the teams that was going on the expedition?

Depending on who someone tries to reach out to, you'll either get no response at all... or you'll be informed that the first group of Pokemon teams that was teleported out has vanished. To somewhere unknown, that is! They haven't shown up where Chimecho was waiting for them! Needless to say, there won't be any more teleporting going on today.

Polteageist was already supervising at the Archives, but the other guild leaders are rapidly summoned. For once even the usually even-tempered Mightyena seems very agitated, but she and Ribombee take turns keeping each other on track. For their part, Polteageist steadfastly defends their teleportation specialists to the other two guild leaders, but behind the scenes their questioning is very thorough and intense. A retrieval for a single team of Pokemon should absolutely not be shaping up into a rescue mission for multiple teams of Pokemon at once!

The guild leaders pull together to form a plan, though. Once the teleportation specialists report back apologetically that they're working on tracking where each team could have ended up, the remaining expedition teams are reassigned to retrieve the missing ones - on foot, this time.

For the moment, Polteageist refuses to accept any additional teams; after all, the ones that signed up were the ones prepared to go into unknown terrain, and that seems to be what's going to happen regardless! But that doesn't mean there's no way for others to help. Pokemon loitering near the Archives may be roped into retrieving supplies and otherwise readying the remaining expedition teams. It seems as though the expeditionaries are expected to be gone for multiple days this time, once they do set out...

Or perhaps you could just keep the remaining expedition teams company? Some of them may be a bit rattled, or winding themselves up anxiously over having to wait to head out.

...ON OUR MINDS

⟡ Attempting to contact missing teams over the grumpearls will get no response. Or - hang on, sometimes, a single word or burst of emotion seems to get through? Is that really from your missing friends, though? And are they getting anything like that from your attempts at contact too? There's nothing to do but keep trying…

⟡ Once the remaining expedition teams set out, contact with them also gets spotty, and eventually ceases in the same way.

⟡ While they're too busy beforehand, after the last expedition teams set out the Lum teleportation specialists can be questioned on what went wrong! When asked, Raichu shamefacedly confesses that while they tested teleportation with a wide variety of Pokemon species and types, they didn't realize that there might be something different about the otherworlders, who they've mostly come to think of as just like any other Pokemon. And with how busy the otherworlders are, so many of them constantly running all over on various quests, they never happened to test with one!

⟡ That's his current theory, anyway… it's either that or their testing sample size of Pokemon was still too small.

✩ OOC NOTES.

⟡ CWS: Mentions of extreme weather, missing persons.

⟡ While all Light Quests must be submitted by the 25th of the month, Players may submit their own Player Quests at any time before that point! (Though we recommend saving Player Quests for the next month if it is after the 20th.)

⟡ Have any questions related to the event? Ask them here! If your question is more general for the game, please make sure to direct it to the FAQ page instead. Thank you, and happy threading!

FULL NAVIGATION

Comments

[digitalprincess]

"Oh I feel that when I talk to Jeremie. My most treasured moments are when he is able to talk to me after school."

That was what Dolly meant right? Because that was certainly the highlight of Aelita's days. She'd patrol the sectors, program then wait for a twelve year old boy to tell her about his day.

[autumnrainrunaway]

Okay that's a start, Aelita had a crush beforehand on someone named Jeremie. Dolly figured maybe Aelita was homeschooled, it would explain the not knowing what personal interests are. Still though...

"Jeremie sounds like a very lovely person to hang out with. Tell you what though, how would you feel about visiting the clubs we have here? They're a lot of fun to try out and meet others living here at the Bay."

[digitalprincess]

Jeremie has obtained praise, this pleases the Aelita. Who was just giving a little smile.

Then tilting her head. She did want to meet more people and try things.

"What are the clubs?"

Wasn't Ulrich in one for sports? And Odd for film? What kind was Dolly talking about?

[autumnrainrunaway]

Oh right, homeschooled kids wouldn't have clubs, would they? Dolly thinks carefully on how to list the clubs.

"Well there's the crafting club where you get to make things, gardening where you grow plants, there's music club, stargazing club is wonderful, cooking club is popular for those needing to make food, sports club, and then there's the mystery club that's a lot of fun."

Dolly sure hoped she covered all the available clubs in the Bay at the moment. Thanks Togetic for all the clubs that have arrived for the Bay.

..Everyone is still awaiting for the gaming club though..

[digitalprincess]

At every club, her ears twitched. Head tilting as she took in the little description and some of those did catch her interest.

Though she did blink and start to lose track towards the end. This was a lot of new information and things to look at.

"Um... Plants sound nice and stars. I like looking at them."

They new. None of these things existed on Lyoko, but there were fake trees and a fake sky. There was something about seeing the actual things.

[autumnrainrunaway]

It was progress, Dolly was willing to take what she was given there.

"If you want, do you want a tour of the other clubs here and give them a try? I think that'll be a lot of fun and you get to learn a little bit more about yourself."

Yep, getting this jellybean into the Mystery Club is a strong possibility as...mysteries really are nice and so totally not a bias on Dolly's end.

"Mystery Club is also a good first place to start though, you get to meet more folks around the Bay that way too."

[digitalprincess]

Aelita was just going to smile.

"Oh, I want to try as many things as I can while I'm here. It's just... there's a lot." She wanted to help out around the guilds, living being maintenance, learning new things. There was so many new things to learn.

"Um, what is mystery club? The name is a bit vague."

[autumnrainrunaway]

Dolly considers this for a moment, thinking carefully how to explain what the Mystery Club is. It was something Dolly hadn't done before, normally mystery was a pretty straightforward thing. Maybe it sounded similar to mystery flavor where you don't know what kind of club you get until you enter?

That had to be it...right? RIGHT?

"Have you ever wondered how things worked or why something happened but you don't have an answer for? Mystery club is sort've like that where we solve mysteries around the Bay like 'Who's been eating all the pies at the bakeries?' or 'who stole the Miss Scarlett figurine?' for example."

[digitalprincess]

That description was, hmmm.

"There's a lot of things I don't know." So it did sound like a club she'd like. But she tilted her head.

"Aren't those quests?" She's wasn't opposed to doing more odd jobs, she was just confused.

[autumnrainrunaway]

"True, the world, especially this one, is a very mysterious place."

Dolly pauses to think for a moment as Aelita was very right on that one. Okay, time to give Aelita a spooky true mystery of sorts, she's bound to encounter it sooner or later.

"Yes they are quests, but there are weird things that have happened during certain quests that have us for the most part stumped. They're odd as we're sent off to find the same Pokemon over and over again, but in different locations and that quest giver often doesn't remember us finding the missing Pokemon in the first place."

[digitalprincess]

It really was. Every day Aelita gained even more admiration for Jeremie and his work in trying to bring her to it. Along with another feeling she wasn't sure how to describe.

As for the mystery. Aelita was just staring. She didn't have eyebrows but if she did, one would be raised.

"That sounds like a prank..."

[autumnrainrunaway]

"I would've thought the same too, but, I had two quests previously where they were the exact same thing. What's even creepier is that there's this mental voice that calls out to anyone involved on the quest."

Dolly pauses in consideration and figured it's worth mentioning. "I'm not sure if you've met him yet, but there's Akechi that's been keeping track of the weird quests you can ask him about."

If memory served...Akechi did have that conspiracy board in the cave. A part of Dolly wonders if the conspiracy board will make an appearance at the Mystery Club meeting.

[digitalprincess]

"Is that creepy? I thought it was normal..." If she wasn't in a tower, she couldn't see Jeremie when they spoke. He'd just be an omnipresent voice from the sky.

Was that one of those things she shouldn't mention? Maybe. But she nodded. "I know him, he's very helpful."

She was smiling. Look, Akechi seemed nice.

CW for hunting mentions

[autumnrainrunaway]

"Well, the voice is a bit creepy as it's broadcasted into our heads rather than being outside." Yep, totally normal and not too concerning response there.

Dolly is figuring maybe horrifying, omnipresent voices were just a fact of life for Aelita...the multiverse be wild sometimes. Upside, Aelita knows who Akechi is, Dolly smiles at that. "He really is, Akechi is a pretty helpful and nice person too. I think if you ask him nicely, Akechi can show you his board relating to the mysteries of those quests."

Yep, Akechi is definitely a nice bird that doesn't have a conspiracy board going on...thank goodness Aelita wasn't around for the great 'is hunting ethical' incident over on the Grumpearl..

[digitalprincess]

Oh, so it was like the time her and Jeremie's minds had been merged together. Either way, Aelita was unfazed. She just nodded.

"Yes. He explained a few things when I arrived here. Like the wind." Yup. "It sounds like things happen a lot here."

[autumnrainrunaway]

....Honey, you got no wind where you're from? Dolly was stumped for a bit before thinking Aelita might be from under the sea...maybe? There were Merfolk in Doriene, maybe Aelita is from a homeschooled mermaid situation? Dolly was grasping at mental straws at the moment.

"That it does...what other forms of weather do you know about?"

[digitalprincess]

"Um... There's sandstorms and snow. My friends have told me about rain too."

Jeremie had mentioned a few things about the real world's weather. Namely cause she'd caught him after he'd gotten soaked. Or she'd seen lighting flash against the walls as they spoke.

And both she and Xana could control the weather on Lyoko. Even if it wasn't as detailed as the real world's weather.

[autumnrainrunaway]

That threw the homeschooled mermaid hypothesis out the window.

"That sounds pretty treacherous, may I ask, which world did you come from beforehand? I know one of them had a living train..."

Dolly remembered the dreamshare she had with Aegiomon back in January...wait...was Aelita a Digimon? ...That would answer so many questions right away...

[digitalprincess]

Well, Lyoko had a name. But the rest of the world, wasn't it just called Earth? Was that what she meant by a name.

"Um. Earth?"

[autumnrainrunaway]

.......

................

"Earth has wind though...You're not a Digimon?"

Dolly was definitely and throughly stumped now as to how to grasp this.

[digitalprincess]

"Oh Hatenna mentioned those." And from their description, they'd sounded very similar to Aelita in some ways. To the point that Aelita pauses and thinks a bit more before she answered.

"I've never been outside. But my friends tell me a lot about it."

Technically not a lie.

[autumnrainrunaway]

"Oh Hatenna, I remember her. I worked with her on a quest a few months back."

Okay...maybe Aelita and Digimon are distant cousins? It matches a bit with what Dolly understood from Guilmon earlier. Maybe she should ask since Guilmon did say Takato made him...

"May I ask, did your friends create you? I'm sorry if that's an intrusive question."

[digitalprincess]

This is one of those moments where it was deeply tragic that Dedenne didn't have eyebrows. Cause she was staring. She was staring so hard.

"No. We're the same age..." Probably. Maybe. Given how long the factory had been abandoned Aelita was probably older but... Eh..

[autumnrainrunaway]

....Okay so not created by a group of children like Guilmon was. That one concern taken care of. The truest of tragedy though, Dolly couldn't see the eyebrows in action. Though that is a rather concerning amount of staring is going on!

"Okay, well that's one concern out of the way. Next one, were you not human beforehand? I wasn't human either before this too."

[digitalprincess]

Welp. Clearly, Aelita had messed up somewhere. So she took a breath.

"What were you? Were you a police officer?"

Dodging the question!