APRIL 2025 EVENT LOG

[bayhelpers]

⋆✩ SPRING FLING ✩⋆

The sun rises, and a gentle breeze blows. A day like any other arrives in Bottlecap Bay, and for many of the pokemon that so recently arrived it is a now familiar process. Members of the various guilds flock to the Quest Board, in search of tasks to better provide for the town. Others, maintaining businesses of their own within the small settlement, start to open their doors for another day of work.

There is something different about this day however, and it is a difference that defines the next number of them. There is never truly a dull moment here after all, and it’s time to get involved.

---

DONATION DRIVE

As spring fully settles into the bay, the clinic begins to advertise for additional activities on the Quest Board. A call for donors is made- but donors of what? Pokemon arriving in response to the request will find that answer to mean “anything and everything that can be given” - along with potential medical samples to help with further research into the mysterious illness, there are a great many things that can be made from shed feathers, brushed-out undercoat or trimmed horns and claws.

Or even sweat, alarming as that may seem.

Those willing will be given small interviews in which they determine what to donate, and after the process (however involved), be given a small boxed treat as compensation. And of course, they’ll record the contributions with their guild leaders too!

⟡ WHAT NOW?

Donated materials can be used for a great many things, and throughout the later half of April local businesses will be happily showing their relevant crafts off. Pokemon are invited to try their hand at sewing satchels made using Spinarak threads, spinning yarn from Stufful fur, or stuffing pillows with Ducklett down- and perhaps if they donated anything themselves, they can even make something of their own.

Literally.

---

NO “I” IN TEAM

With the need to re-evaluate the results of recent expeditions through the surrounding forest before making the move to branch out further, the leaders of the three guilds have come together with some training exercises to better pass the time. Rather than sit and wait between tasks determined by the quest board, the last weeks of April see various events hosted through the city with one goal in mind:

Team Building.

A. ⟡ SHOW-AND-TELL

As part of an effort to encourage understanding and community, the Guilds each host various meet-and-greets in their personal buildings- or in the case of the Lum Guild, the public Archives. It’s a chance for pokemon to show each other where they sleep and eat, to share a little of their lives with their fellows from other guilds.

There are also more awkward sharing activities- tossing a ball in a circle and giving a fact about oneself. Tying each other limb to limb and performing races. Or even gift exchanges with the donor crafts! Nothing says community like a present from the heart.

B. ⟡ STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT

As an extra step from simply showing what each guild room looks like, sleepovers will be encouraged through the remaining month as well. Perhaps it’s time for a repeat of the great Oran Sleep-Pile- or maybe a sequel hosting can be held in the Canopy with the Cheri Berries.

It’s a little trickier with members of the Lum Guild, with each one having their own apartment of sorts, but just ask! Surely a few friends can pile together in their Lum buddy’s house.

C. ⟡ THE GREAT ESCAPE

Polteageist is thrilled with the success of the ‘escape rooms’ from March. As such, the existing courses and challenges have been since repurposed in order to encourage pokemon to work together, improving on the initial project. Once again working in pairs, dangerous (but not lethal!) challenges await those who wish to sign up for them. As with before, there are three different rooms to choose from, and experienced rescue Pokemon will be on call the entire time. Anyone who takes longer than the allotted time will be rescued.

⟡ Ocean room. Two Pokemon are put to sleep and wake up in a small cave beneath the water, with pockets of oxygen for those who need them. Upon waking, they must work together to escape the labyrinth of caves beneath the water and make it back to Bottlecap Bay. Some obstacles along the way may include: a maze-like cave system with misleading routes, paths with less or no sunlight, strange plants that may inflict status effects, agitated or disoriented wild Pokemon, and varying water temperatures/underwater geysers. It has an hour time limit, so good luck!

⟡ Forest room. Two Pokemon are put to sleep and wake up in the center of a dense forest, with tree cover blocking most sunlight. Upon waking, they must work together to find their directions, navigate through thick brush and forest, and make it back to Bottlecap Bay. Some obstacles along the way may include: the fog, collapsed floors into cave systems, sudden steep drops, aggressive Pokemon and plants, vines, thorns, poisons and toxins. It has a two hour time limit, so good luck!

⟡ Cave room. Two Pokemon are put to sleep and wake up far beneath the city, in one of the many tunnels belonging to the mines. Upon waking, they must work together to reorient themselves and find a way out to Bottlecap Bay. Some obstacles along the way may include: unstable sections of mines leading to collapses, a vast assortment of tunnel directions leading to disorientation, extreme temperatures, lava pits, and lessening oxygen levels. It has an hour time limit, so good luck!

---

OOC NOTES.

⟡ CWS: body horror, medical imagery

⟡ Though dates specified cover only the last two weeks of April, players may assume continued donation drives and crafting projects to be available through the start of May, though less frequent.

⟡ We of the Bottlecap Bay Help Team would like to extend a sincere thank-you to everyone for their patience during the transition of tasks concerning the upkeep of the game. Current events have been taking a significant toll on many, but we are hoping to finalize Exploration Quest responses within the next few days. Thank you again, and happy threading!

FULL NAVIGATION

Comments

[offtracks]

[From the way Ingo turns to listen, it's clear that he never really got this full explanation before.]

Ah! That does seem very sensible!

[hard to say if everything about the actual train operations made sense to him though]

[arceusstansme]

[Akari takes note of that head turn, so she decides right then and there- Ingo, she will be your memory wing-woman.]

Really? You two must have been working there for, like, 50 years. Why did you two start it? Were they just invented and you thought they were cool?

[outbounds]

[




hold on a moment. ]

... how old do you think we are, exactly.

[offtracks]

[Ingo.......has nothing to offer here, actually, he would also like to know how old they are!]

[arceusstansme]

Calaba has gray hair and a hunch is 99. So because you two move faster, 72.

[Did she mean it, was she joking? Hard to tell!]

[outbounds]

Haha! Wow. If you were being serious, that would be very concerning.

[ because that's what that is, right, ha ha jokes. ]

Knock about 40 years off and then you'll be approaching the correct station.

[offtracks]

So we are 32?

[Ingo's also taking that particular estimate as a joke, but he knows that a lot of people do also genuinely think he's older than 32! He himself has never really known, though he hasn't worried much about it; out of everything he's missing, his precise age seemed a little trivial.]

[arceusstansme]

Oh wow, 32. Who would have thought, guess you're just an old soul, Ingo.

[she shrugs.]

So when did you start working with trains?

[She says as if she knows what they are (she doesn't)]

[outbounds]

[ he is going to answer it anyway because we sure are rolling with this conversational track now, why not. ]

18, when we started working part time as Depot Agents while working on our degrees.

Also. 33 actually, approaching 34. [ he said about, not exactly 40 years!! ] Ingo ... should be that plus nineteen minutes.

[offtracks]

Eighteen is rather old to only just be learning one's trade!

[Yeah so we're from the 1800s now and we might have some weird ideas about how normal child labor is???]

[arceusstansme]

It is. Wow, were you two like, trust fund babies or something?

[Again, the weird way her own memory was wiped falling into the past. Don't know a train, abilities or her details, but knows her Switch, her phone and what trust funds are.]

[outbounds]

Why do you even know what those are.

[ did those exist in the past. the past where 18 is apparently way too old to be starting a job (but 10 is too young???). probably? maybe? they were definitely not called that. and probably did not exist in Hisui. ]

But nope. Far from it. We grew up in Anville. Neither of you know what that means so I will have to explain. It is a small and sleepy town in the middle of nowhere. You aren't even allowed to fly to it on Pokémon, it is that small. It is also far away from any other settlements or routes and surrounded by dense forests.

The main thing there—the only thing, really—is the rail yard. And because you cannot fly to and from it, people come and go by train. So we were pretty much surrounded by trains growing up. The people who lived there—also, generally had a job relating to them, one way or other.

Still doesn't mean we were allowed to work on them until we were eighteen, though.

[ he says that kind of like 'yeah, he wishes too.' but you know, child labor, and also for some reason people are just a little bit leery of a teenager anywhere near a position where they could operate heavy machinery and or be responsible for a bunch of other people's lives on the regular, who'd have thought. ]

[offtracks]

Ah, so I have always lived out in the wild, more or less...

[What he is picturing is absolutely not Anville Town. It's just the six tents in the Pearl settlement plopped into the woods somewhere.]

[arceusstansme]

[To Emmet:]

Not a clue, my memory loss I think was a grab bag for Arceus to make things exciting for me.

[Then she listens to Emmet's explanation. She also imagines six tents in the woods somewhere. But a ship yard nearby.]

[outbounds]

[ He isn't psychic, but even so: ]

Also nope, because I said we lived in Nimbasa. And Nimbasa is about as big city as you can get. Think it was like third or fourth in the world or something like that? After Lumiose in Kalos and Wyndon in Galar, maybe Mesagoza in Paldea. But that was an old census. Might have, probably has changed since then.

[ beat. this would be easier over the Grumpearls, he is talking so much. ]

Whatever you are imagining right now, make it bigger and busier. Doesn't matter what you're thinking of. It's busier. Nimbasa has a lot of people living in it and also it gets lots of tourists. So also add in sort of the general air of a festival or celebration, especially at night.

[offtracks]

Oh...goodness. That sounds very busy indeed!

[That sounds like SO MUCH. And they just lived like that all the time? Ingo does wish he lived near more people, sometimes, and he's enjoyed being so surrounded by others here. But could he really handle it being festival night, every single night?]

[arceusstansme]

Sounds busy.

[She said running ahead a little once she sees what she suspects is the cafe.]

[outbounds]

That is what I said, yes.

[ And oh, there she goes. The cafe isn't going anywhere, but sure, grab them a seat. Or head to the counter, either or. ]

She is always like that?

[offtracks]

Oh, yes. Even before she started with all that god business.

[He'll continue along at the exact same pace, used to this and not really worried about it!]

[outbounds]

Dialga and Palkia again, one of the others, or are we jumping straight to Arceus now.

[ Well, he did wonder what counted as a complete Pokedex for Hisui. If Ingo's not hurrying along after her then Emmet's fine keeping this speed too. ]

[offtracks]

Well, those and Giratina!

[Arceus - probably eventually!]

[outbounds]

She is going for a verrrrry complete Pokedex.

[ Most people are lucky if they see one? ]

[offtracks]

Yes, she is very serious about that! It's evidently part of the reason she came to Hisui at all, or something like that!

[He's a little unclear on the whole...divine mission thing? Though to be fair, Akari herself does not seem to have gotten a clear explanation.]

[outbounds]

Huh. Does that mean it includes anything that might ever be found there, like migratory Pokémon? Or just the native ones?

[ Also, what the Heck, Arceus. ]

[offtracks]

Migratory ones as well! She has been recording the species that come through the space-time rifts, and those are certainly not native! Even if they are not exactly traditionally migratory...

[Well, they'll meet up with Akari in a second here, she can probably talk more about it.]