• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Forum moderator applications are now open! Click here for details.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

[Pokémon] A Smell of Petroleum Pervades Throughout

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> East. Go east. Definitely east.
> There could be something to loot in the east, go east


It's been a while since you did anything suicidal, so you figure it's about time to go and investigate the terrifying sound coming from your right. You walk through a little field towards the edge of one of the tiny cliffs, look over the edge, and see—

—the Eldritch Cyndaquil standing between the trees that flank the path out of New Bark, head thrown back, the last of its howl dying on what pass for its lips.

You realise with a growing sense of your own stupidity that while the path back to New Bark Town is to your south, the cliffs to the east also lead back to it. Damn it, the Narrator was just abusing the text-based format to screw with your expectations again.

You no longer hold out any hope of looting anything to the east.

> Go loot the gate house before continuing on to Cherrygrove
> Head to cherrygrove as fast as your wounded leg can carry you.

Beating a hasty retreat, you duck briefly into the gatehouse but find very little other than the guard's spare hat.

Othodox found one Squat Green hat! Othodox put the Squat Green Hat in the Questionable Headgear Pocket.

After that, you hurry on to Cherrygrove, stopping only to pluck a Green Apricorn from the tree near the route's end. Huh. So it was an Apricorn tree.

Othodox found one Green Apricorn! Othodox put the Green Apricorn in the Apricorn Box.

Apart from the brief interruption by the Cyndaquil, your journey is as silent and uneventful as ever. You pass through the Cherrygrove gatehouse, and enter Cherrygrove City.

To the north is a Pokémon Centre, a Pokémon Mart and the path to Route 30.

To the south is a house.

To the west are two more houses, and beyond them the ocean.

To the east is the gatehouse leading to Route 29.

There is a signpost here.

There are beauteous flowers here.
 

Adin Terim

Absolutely Insane
64
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Jul 17, 2021
Take a little time to relax, go smell the flowers. Then go loot the Pokemon Center and see if you can access Bill's PC
 
38
Posts
11
Years
YOu know who we hven't visited in a while? Mr. Pokemon. So, after withdrawing your pokemon, head to go see him.
 

Khawill

<3
1,567
Posts
11
Years
You seem down, definitely go roll in the flowers to boost your moral. Also you need to be limber just in case you get attacked, do some squats
 
10,174
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen yesterday
Check the Pokemon Center to see if you can access your Pokemon, then loot the houses. Maybe you can find a new pair of Running Shoes...?

OOC: I'm glad Orthodox can handle complex text commands.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> You seem down, definitely go roll in the flowers to boost your moral. Also you need to be limber just in case you get attacked, do some squats
> Take a little time to relax, go smell the flowers. Then go loot the Pokemon Center and see if you can access Bill's PC

FLOWERS OHMAHGERD FLOWERZ

The sight of so much beauty after the horror of New Bark drives you mildly insane for a few minutes. When you come to your senses, you are lying (minus most of your clothing) in one of the Cherrygrove flowerbeds, flowers woven into your hair and a deeply contented smile on your face.

Much refreshed and slightly embarrassed, you put your clothes back on and get up. You leave the flowers on your head, though. The bright colours and the soft scents it emanates are a decent morale-booster.

Othodox found one Flowery Wreath! Othodox put the Flowery Wreath on his head.

So energetic do you now feel that you engage in a few squats, which a stabbing pain in your foot swiftly informs you is a bad idea. This reminder of the holes in your foot is somewhat disheartening, but a quick sniff of the fragrant perfumes of the Flowery Wreath soon puts paid to that.

Feeling happy once more, you wander into the Pokémon Centre – which is, unsurprisingly, deserted – and sit down before the PC. You boot it up, access Bill's PC and wait for the Boxes to load.

At last, you think. At last, I've got a break.

Then the Boxes load, and you stare in horror.

Your team is gone.

In fact, most of the Pokémon you've collected are gone. In their place are strange, blocky lumps of data that don't make any sense – their names random collocations of letters and numbers, their movesets picked according to no logic you've ever heard of. Grey squares criss-crossed with blue and pink lines, orbs of static with peculiar red faces – it all seems to be gone.

The unthinkable must have happened.

The Box Network, the most heavily-protected computer system in the entire world, has crashed.

There are entire islands dedicated to making this thing run, you know. There are people the world over – Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, even the freaking Sevii Islands – working eighteen hours a day to keep the system running and free from corruption and hackers.

Then it hits you: they've all disappeared. It stands to reason; everyone else has. Everyone who was keeping the Box Network running has disappeared, and without them...

The whole damn thing has crashed.

You stare at the screen for a while. Gone. They're gone. Nearly seventy levels, eight Gym Leaders, four Elites and half the Championship battle together, and now...

Gone. All of them.

Maybe forever.

Chompy. Teddy. Morbo. Bertram. Voltz. Bugsy.

Gone.

It's some time before you're able to carry on; you're not sure how long, exactly, but the digital clock on the PC screen tells you it's now 2.43. You wipe away the tears, offer a brief and clumsy prayer to the Players, those strange and capricious gods, to ask that your friends go on to a better place, and take another look at the PC screen.

The blocks of bad data don't seem to be interactable – you can't even click on them; the cursor just judders and slows whenever it goes near them. You leave them alone and keep scrolling.

Box 1, nothing. Box 2, nothing. Box 3, nothing. Box 4, noth— something.

It looks like an Egg, but not like any you've seen before. The surface is a dark, smoky grey, shot through with ash-coloured swirls that crawl across its surface like sluggish clouds. You squint, and can just about make out the faint shaking that shows it's viable.

You try to click on it, and to your surprise you can.

Its name is 'Bad Egg'.

A slow smile of incredulity creeps across your face.

You've heard of these. When the Players meddle in the affairs of mortals, they often create these: eggs belonging to no known species, which are capable of hatching into any known species of Pokémon – and occasionally other things, rumoured creatures that stalk the cracks in reality. Did the Players hear your prayer and take pity on you? Or did the scrambling of the Box Network somehow generate one at random?

You aren't certain, but you are certain you're taking that Egg before the broken Box destroys it.

Othodox received one B4d 3gg!

Holding the Bad Egg up to the light, you see that it warps reality around it; it reaches deep into the underlying code of the universe and twists it, twisting the fabric of space and time with every pulse of its unseen occupant's heart. With this thing in your hands, you feel 133t.

You frown. Maybe you shouldn't be waving it around too much. You don't want your h4nd5 w4Rp1ng.

The baD eG9 was sent to a Poké Ball.

A search through the rest of the Boxes turns up precisely nothing, but you don't mind so much now. You own a freaking Bad Egg. That's more luck than you've ever seen in one go in your entire life.

Othodox will periodically check the status of the b4D EgG without being asked.

> YOu know who we hven't visited in a while? Mr. Pokemon. So, after withdrawing your pokemon, head to go see him.

You don't feel comfortable leaving Cherrygrove unlooted, but you resolve to go investigate his house when you next pass by. Elm always said he used to collect weird stuff. Maybe some of it will be useful now.

> Check the Pokemon Center to see if you can access your Pokemon, then loot the houses. Maybe you can find a new pair of Running Shoes...?

Feeling jauntier, you take a deep sniff of your Flowery Wreath and head out into town. First up is the Guide Gent's house, since he usually has a stockpile of items to hand out to new Trainers; inside, you find a cupboard filled with hundreds and hundreds of shoeboxes, each of which contains a brand-new pair of Running Shoes.

You consider taking some, but it's not like you can't run without them, and you're really beginning to enjoy the feeling of cotton fluff beneath your feet. In fact, if you can find another stuffed animal, you'd seriously consider replacing your other shoe.

The voices in your head may be starting to get to you.

The next house, a carbon-copy of the Guide Gent's and every other house in Johto, contains nothing living, but you obtain a sizeable haul of random crap. Huzzah!

Othodox found some Lithium Batteries! Othodox put the Lithium Batteries in the Electrical Goods Pocket.

Othodox found one Stylish Dress! Othodox put the Stylish Dress in the Eveningwear Pocket.

Othodox found one Stale Baguette! Othodox put the Stale Baguette in the Baked Comestibles Pocket.

Othodox found one Boxed Wine! Othodox put the Boxed Wine in the Booze Pocket.

Othodox found some Machine Pistol Magazines! Othodox put the Machine Pistol Magazines in the Ammo Pocket.

Othodox found one Beauteous Ring! Othodox put the Beauteous Ring in the Jewellery Pocket.

Try as you might (and try you do; it would be very, very useful), you can't find the gun that goes with those bullets. Perhaps it's somewhere else.

As you step out onto the streets of Cherrygrove, you hear something scream on Route 29. It's not human, thankfully; you'd hazard a guess at a Sentret or Furret, although it sounds far too loud to come from such a small animal. You shiver and move on, heading for the westernmost house, the one on the beach.

A plume of sickly smoke is rising from Route 29.

It looks like someone's already been through here: the table and chairs are smashed and piled up against the windows, and the stuffing has been torn out of the sofas and strewn across the floor. The paintings lie scattered and torn on the ripped-up carpet, and a puddle of water is growing around the broken sink.

Perhaps you could find something if you searched through the junk, but you're a little alarmed at the savage nature of the redecoration here. It looks like the work of some kind of animal – and every animal you've met today has been huge, mutant and intent on murdering you.
 
38
Posts
11
Years
Run around in a circle until the egg hatches.Don't want to be unprotected in the wilderness
 

Ragnia

Hello
97
Posts
13
Years
Run around in a circle until the egg hatches.Don't want to be unprotected in the wilderness
How about we walk,don't want to lose anymore precious blood or stamina, around in a circle until either the egg hatches or you hear signs of an unhappy animal.
 

Khawill

<3
1,567
Posts
11
Years
After walking in circles, put on the dress and drink all the boxed wine. If anyone is alive and looking for survivors, they are more likely to trust a drunk guy in a dress! (The narrator had to mention the dress for a reason, maybe it is magic as well?)
 
Last edited:

Adin Terim

Absolutely Insane
64
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Jul 17, 2021
You should probably go down route 30 so you can loot Mr Pokemon's house and that berry guy's house. Look for berries along the way. Maybe you can climb over the ledges to avoid the grass.
 
9
Posts
11
Years
  • UK
  • Seen Jun 25, 2014
Cleaning the place up a bit would be nice. Someone has put a lot of effort into making that house a home and they'd be pretty mad to return to it in this state. That's if they're not poke-food.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Cleaning the place up a bit would be nice. Someone has put a lot of effort into making that house a home and they'd be pretty mad to return to it in this state. That's if they're not poke-food.

This is possibly the kindest voice in your head you've heard today. The others have suggested acts of looting, violence and general postapocalyptic mayhem; this one, however, strikes you as more of a conscience than a malign symptom of schizophrenia.

You make an attempt to tidy up the place, sweeping the stuffing fragments into one pile and the fragments of wood and steel into another. The paintings you tape together with some more of your Gaffer Tape, and stick back onto the walls. There isn't much you can do about the puddle by the sink, but you cut up the Squat Green Hat, squish it into a plug and stuff it into the pipe to stop the flow.

You take a few steps back and survey your handiwork. It's not quite home, but it's definitely not a wrecked hovel any more, either. It's then that you notice the little piece of black plastic protruding from under one of the sofas.

Othodox found one Powerless Tablet Computer! Othodox put the Powerless Tablet Computer in the Electrical Goods Pocket.

It looks like it needs charging up, but you can't find a charger anywhere.

>Run around in a circle until the egg hatches.Don't want to be unprotected in the wilderness
> How about we walk,don't want to lose anymore precious blood or stamina, around in a circle until either the egg hatches or you hear signs of an unhappy animal.


You go outside and run around for a while, but it doesn't appear to have much effect on the Bad Egg. Given how prevalent scripted events seem to be nowadays, you suspect it's probably going to hatch fortuitously at some critical point in the future, and that nothing you do is going to change that.

>After walking in circles, put on the dress and drink all the boxed wine. If anyone is alive and looking for survivors, they are more likely to trust a drunk guy in a dress! (The narrator had to mention the dress for a reason, maybe it is magic as well?)

This is the single best idea you have had all day.

You take off your clothes, stuff them into your Bag and slide into the Stylish Dress instead. As you suspected, it's a perfect fit.

You feel extremely pretty, and after the whole three-litre box of wine, you feel even prettier. You are also having some difficulty standing, and in fact doing anything other than vomiting copiously into the surf.

Not onto your dress, though. That's far too nice to spoil.

As you straighten up, wiping your mouth on the remnants of the Squat Green Hat, you notice that the smoke over Route 29 is much, much closer.

It looks like Cyndaquil's hunger is driving it closer still.

You are feeling unpleasantly sober again.

> You should probably go down route 30 so you can loot Mr Pokemon's house and that berry guy's house. Look for berries along the way. Maybe you can climb over the ledges to avoid the grass.

You decide wisely that now is the time to leave town, and, Dangerous Makeshift Knife in hand, you walk out to the north, heading onto Route 30. There is a ledge in front of you, and the slope that circumvents it is covered in tall grass. For a moment, you contemplate climbing the ledge to avoid the grass, but realise that there are two problems with this. One, it's slightly too high and there are no handholds; two, any climbing will assuredly ruin your Stylish Dress, and that cannot be allowed.

You're becoming more and more comfortable in this thing, actually. Why on earth haven't you tried this before? You've been missing out for years.

As on Route 29, nothing comes for you in the long grass, and you wonder if anything's even left. Have the Pokémon all vanished? You suppose you could check with the Pokédex's Radar Mode, but you're hesitant about using that without the approval of the voices in your head.

Once you reach the top of the grass, the path forks around a lone house. There was a ledge on the left, you remember, but it looks like there was some kind of massive fight at the top, and a tree has fallen from above to provide a way up.

To the left is a fallen tree leading to the continued path.

To the right is a patch of long grass leading north between trees and a pond.

In the centre is a fruit-bearing tree and a Lonesome House.
 
38
Posts
11
Years
Hide in the pond. i'd like to see thatbeast catchwater on fire! There might even be a pokemon in there to use as a meatshield against the beast.
 

Ragnia

Hello
97
Posts
13
Years
Save your gam-I mean life, yeah that's it...life. If something bad happens and you end up dead, you need a place to start back up from, right?
 

Adin Terim

Absolutely Insane
64
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Jul 17, 2021
Check out the fruit-bearing tree and go loot the Lonesome House
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Hide in the pond. i'd like to see thatbeast catchwater on fire! There might even be a pokemon in there to use as a meatshield against the beast.

You look at the pond. It looks wet in there, and if you hide in it you too will probably become wet. This will be neither comfortable nor good for your Stylish Dress (to say nothing of your Flowery Wreath), and unless there's actually something around for you to hide from, you'd rather not go that far.

> Collect exactly 67 rocks to throw at the cyndaquil just in case. (No more, no less)

You try, you really do, but you can only find twelve.

Othodox found some Rocks! Othodox put the Rocks in the Items of Geological Interest Pocket.

> Save your gam-I mean life, yeah that's it...life. If something bad happens and you end up dead, you need a place to start back up from, right?

Error: code 92, invalid command. For further assistance, including a list of some common commands, type /help.

> Check out the fruit-bearing tree and go loot the Lonesome House

The tree contains one Berry, which confuses you because you thought they'd gone extinct and been replaced with Apricorn trees. Putting this comparatively trivial issue to one side, you enter the Lonesome House and are only mildly surprised to find it completely empty. Not just of people, mind – that wouldn't be surprising at all – but of everything else, too. It has four walls and a floor, and that's it: every single article of furniture, decoration and miscellaneous rubbish has been meticulously removed.

Someone has been here before, and they were either a God of Looting or certifiably insane.
 
Back
Top