OOC Plot Discussion [Sep 2020]

[scension]

Hi friends! Since this game is shaping up to be about the players slowly solving the plot mysteries as well as the characters, and because things have been kind of rapidfire up till now, a couple of us figured that a post to collect our OOC thoughts on the various current mysteries might be useful. This is a post! Please use it for whatever you like - suggesting your own theories, suggesting stuff that your own character might not pursue for whatever reason but other characters might, a place to plot next steps if you prefer it to plurk or discord, it really doesn't matter /o/

Potentially relevant links:
- September mod investigations/questions where we've been getting/pursuing most of the clues
- most recent IC meeting log
- current IC common knowledge cheat sheet courtesy of Haki
- bonus activity submission page including the plot clues given as rewards
(tell me to link something else here and i'll do it)

I have put in some toplevels just for organisational purposes but feel free to make your own or go without!

Comments

MISSING KIDS

[scension]

[scension]

OKAY my current thoughts are:
- the hospital is sus af and holding the kids hostage for boba flavour testing Reasons Unclear, suggesting a human culprit unrelated to the storm and that arena of goings-on
- the beach buryings are a method of getting kids into poor enough condition to reasonably go to the hospital without obvious connection to a human
- possibly they are kept under false names if the parents aren't informed, since nameplates on the doors came up? possibly not?
- the spookings at the hospital then keep them in poor enough condition to stay there if they seem to be recovering
- since the drifloons seem to be wild (akira caught one) they may be manipulating them somehow? is that where the honey comes in??

i think that all of the evidence for this except the names thing and akira catching one has come up icly at one or the other meeting so far so if any of this seems useful for characters who are not fucking banned from the hospital, go ahead and take it /o/

[compendiem]

The locations page isn't typically used for investigations but ANYWAYS, this might be a good thread to take a look at for the Drifloon and missing kids.

[thetyger]

An overview of my missing kids investigations, because there were three...

- Atsushi and Efi found a hand sticking out of the sand at the beach. It was a four-year-old girl, still alive, who was then taken to the hospital. She woke up a week later, and they went to talk to her about the Drifloons; info here

- Townspeople and parents have said the kids go missing from the beach, and there were mentions of the Game Corner and the hospital. Atsushi and Sagi got no information at the Game Corner, but Drifloons sneak into the hospital in gift baskets to kids who are getting discharged, and scare them and make them sick again. The nurses note that the gift baskets show up during the day and the Drifloons wait until night to come out of them; info here

- Atsushi and Theo went to talk to the father of a missing boy (six-year-old Skyler). Skyler spent a lot of his time at the Game Corner with friends. He can't swim, so he supposedly stays away from the beach. They then talked to Skyler's friend Casey who lived down the street, who says Skyler did go to the beach at least once. More info from Casey here

Theories:
Someone is deliberately trying to get the children to the hospital, and if they can figure out where the gift baskets came from, there might be a lead as to who. Probably no connection to any other mysteries?

[compendiem]

intro log
- "Some of the daycare workers whisper about rumors of a pack of wild Drifloon seen around town whenever the rain calms down to a drizzle and luring little kids into the thick fog and getting them lost."
- "There are also whispers about the hospital, hushed words about how it's haunted by the spirits of the deceased and that when a group of Murkrows gather around a patient's window, it's to mark that person with misfortune and death."
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=58861#cmt58861
- The targets are all children. All the ones who have gone missing are also all children.
- The old man at the Game Corner endlessly played the slots as if possessed. But he's dead now, and so is that lead.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=72173#cmt72173
- The old folklore about Drifloon dragging children to the afterlife is commonly known by everybody living on the island.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=72685#cmt72685
- The girl who got buried in the sand was alone when she found the Drifloon at the beach. It was raining and too dark to see clearly, and she remembers a blue/purple light, wind, and a voice, but not getting buried in the sand.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=544493#cmt544493
- Skyler, a 6-year-old boy who went missing, is friends with three other children: the aforementioned girl who went missing and got buried, another girl who went missing at around the same time (no further details obtained), and a boy who did not go missing.
- The boy who did not go missing is Casey, a 5-year-old with a Lotad. He denies knowing what happened to Skyler, but admits he, Skyler, and Lotad has snuck out to the beach before to teach Skyler how to swim.
- Skyler does not have his own Pokemon (not counting the family Persian) and has yet been unsuccessfully at catching one.
- (thread incomplete? idk if you guys wanted to ask anything else or that's the end of the investigation)
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=974573#cmt974573
- No more bodies are found buried in the beaches. It can be inferred that this isn't the Drifloon's typical MO
https://teamboba.dreamwidth.org/1911.html?thread=87927#cmt87927
- According to Akira's Drifloon, the Drifloon collectively have been taking kids, the kids are not dead, and ??? about the kids being on the beach. When asked where the kids are, the Drifloon leads Akira to the hospital and circles the perimeter.

more drifloon info

[thetyger]

A plot clue, that Atsushi will not make any sense of, but will tell people about. Are Drifloons the ghosts of dead kids just playing in the sand? Who knows?

[authoriser]

re: murkrows at the hospital
assuming the murkrows aren't being lying tricksters, it looks like they're just being branded as the next unlucky black cats when all they want to do is play with the kids at the hospital.

they also appear to be a standalone case rather than being connected with the drifloons, because heck if they know what the balloons are doing.

[scension]

re the purple light: how useful it is at this point im not sure but sagi "sees" it outside the hospital twice in a drifloon encounter and goes on to see it again when baby yjh tries to lure a drifloon out so it sure is A Thing. what kind of thing? i don't know!!

[scension]

THERE REALLY WERE FUCKIN GASTLYS

GYARADOS

[scension]

[compendiem]

For clarification since there was some confusion in the most recent meeting: there is only one Gyarados, it lives in the lake at the center of the island, and there are no whirlpools in the lake. There are whirlpools in the ocean, along with severe thunderstorms, that are currently preventing people from leaving.

Re: GYARADOS

[infiltrationtools]

Akira's ongoing 'conversation' with the Gyarados may shed some light on things. I'm not gonna summarize it just now because a. it's not done and b. I don't feel well today, but here you go \o/

[regression]

- Gyarados prefers persim berries
- it's protecting 2 magikarp, one red and one gold (shiny)
- it appeared a month ago
- most likely dropped off by a trainer because it's difficult for magikarp to level up in the wild

laughs i don't have anything else, but if they can't calm the storm, the island will flood then they would prob need to evacuate everyone to go to the next island with them. gyarados' problem (people) would be solved, though i don't know how well the magikarps will fare in stormy waters.

[compendiem]

https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=207085#cmt207085
- The Gyarados is covered in both recent and old injuries and scars, but does not seem to be badly wounded.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=391405#cmt391405
- The Gyarados likes Persim berries, but does not care for boba. Sometimes it will bring berries down under the water.
- Those who have shown it kindness and feed it are allowed as close as 50 feet but no closer.
https://teamboba.dreamwidth.org/3149.html?thread=83789#cmt83789
- The Magikarp have been seen playing around with an Azuril. Gyarados allows this, but doesn't go out of its way to protect it like it does the Magikarp.
- Gyarados can understand human speech.
- (more to come? more to come as Gira and I continue threading)

NORTHWESTERN BEACH

[scension]

[thaumewturge]

So I've got a log up with Akechi and Fai for this, but Rhel found out about some weird black sand on the beach. I'm wondering if it's magnetic, but Rhel won't think to check that sort of thing.

Also concerned it's bone but

[compendiem]

https://teamboba.dreamwidth.org/3149.html?thread=51277#cmt51277 /
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/536.html?thread=795928#cmt795928
- The tide gets higher every day. The water level seems to be slightly higher on the northwest side.
- The northwest beach is largely deserted compared to the rest of the beaches around the island.
https://teamboba.dreamwidth.org/3149.html?thread=84557#cmt84557
- At the northwest beach, the sand is rougher and in some places appear almost black, best seen at low tide.
- The black sand does not feel Weird or Odd, the Pokemon do not react to it in any way, but it feels heavier than sand from other parts of the beach.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/893.html?thread=923261#cmt923261
- The rain doesn't sweep from one side of the island to the other, but rather, rain clouds seem permanently in place overhead and it just rains harder or lighter. The difference in the beaches is possibly due to the waves, or the island sinking.

BOBA

[scension]

it's still minato's fault somehow im telling you

[thetyger]

Atsushi went to get honey from Minato and some things were discussed. The Combees are losing their homes due to the rain and they don't make as much honey as they used to. He also has been eavesdropping at work and gathered some information from the boba shop employees:

- No one working there has gotten sick from drinking the free end-of-shift boba, nor the orders that were wrong and not taken by customers
- They worry the honey supply will not match boba demand, and they've been using powdered berries to fill in the gaps with the dwindling berry supply as well
- Some employees do experiments with mixing berry juices for new boba ideas and use Combee honey as sweetner sometimes, one employee's usual taste testers have been getting a little sick lately
- Sometimes they go to the farm to get the honey, and sometimes Minato brings them jars of it himself

Theories:
It might be possible that the boba shop is getting honey from a second, and maybe illegal or sketchy, source since they're low on Combee honey.

[compendiem]

https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=176877#cmt176877
- Boba shop employees get free boba at the end of their shift and any orders that were messed up. Nobody's gotten sick... yet.
- Considering that they're actively hiring new employees, perhaps the turnover is pretty high.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=262637#cmt262637
- The secret menu incorporates various berries from the garden around the lake.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/536.html?thread=913944#cmt913944
- Minato denies contaminated honey, as both he and other Pokemon have been eating it without ill effect
- All the honey comes from the Combee hives in the berry garden surrounding the lake.
https://pokespe.dreamwidth.org/493.html?thread=5869#cmt5869
- Maybe humans shouldn't eat the berries

[authoriser]

re: boba zombies

tldr doctors think it's so normal that they apparently don't care much about the people on the streets just being dead-like from sugar crash because boba drinks are full of bounsweet sweat (100000x sweetness), berries, and combee honey.

WORLD LORE

[scension]

[scension]

i feel like at minimum a zapdos is involved with the storm around the island in addition to or instead of the lugia+kyogre suggestions at the 2nd meeting, because minato+sagi got attacked by lightning specifically and zapdos is associated with ocean currents here :|a lugia isn't out of the running due to the "causes storms" thing either but there doesn't seem to be external evidence for kyogre atm

the info on the legendary birds is all in kids' books at the library and daycare, so it may be reasonable for other characters to stumble upon? meanwhile the parts about the strange typhoon weather and attack itself could use a character to get the info out of sagi if relevant to anything, he's not... eloquent... but has nothing to hide ;;

MISC. THINGS OF POSSIBLE NOTE

[thetyger]

Re: MISC. THINGS OF POSSIBLE NOTE

[thetyger]

Things that don't really fit anywhere because they're random theories:

- Minato mentioned to Atsushi that it feels like the island has gotten more people in the month that he's been there. Maybe Dittos are taking the place of the boba zombies in their real lives.

- The Mudkip breeder works at the Daycare Center, but insists he didn't want to get rich off selling them and was just trying to help out the Game Corner. Maybe the Game Corner owners have something to do with the weather, so people will keep playing to get Mudkips.

MYSTERY SOLUTION SUBMISSIONS

[teamboba]

Please comment to the appropriate toplevel and a mod will confirm or deny whether the solution is correct. Not all questions need to be answered! They are meant to be guides.

MISSING KIDS

[teamboba]

- What sort of people do the Drifloon target?
- Are kids being kidnapped individually or as a group?
- When do the kids get kidnapped?
- What do the Drifloon want?
- What do the Murkrow want?
- How are the kids being kidnapped from outside the hospital?
- Where are the missing kids?