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The Chronicles of Utropica Island

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Dieter

Dieter

Dieter
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EDIT
To keep things somewhat more orderly I think it might be a good idea to create a posting order.
  • Dieter
  • Magmarashi
  • Glitch
  • Schaadenfreude
Also, remember to give people something to work with when you reply! A one-line every once in a while is no problem, but try to make your reply at least one solid paragraph.
Also, as we can't wait for a reply forever, you'll have roughly 48 hours to reply or notify me if you can't. This roleplay doesn't have to move at the speed of light, but we don't want it to die out either, do we?
I won't be too strict about the posting order, cause I want things to keep flowing as well, but try to mostly stick to it please.
After some delay (sorry, things should go smoothly now) we can finally start on the roleplay.

To keep things neat and tidy, OOC chat can be done on the sign-up board (http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f425/chronicles-utropica-island-128838/)
You'll also find the rules and descriptions there for easy reference

I had some time to kill at one point and made a map of Utropica Island, mostly for fun, but yeah.

IslandMap.png



Between Hoenn and Johto lies an island, named Utropica Island. You've probably never heard of it though, as humans rarely set foot on here. It once featured not only forests and lakes, but also mountainous regions and even a sleeping volcano, making it the perfect habitat for many different Pokémon. As such, it became a paradise for all kinds of Pokémon.

But it couldn't last.

A meteor from space crashed into the ocean, near the island. As a result, the island's sleeping volcano was activated, destroying all that could not escape this disaster.

After these terrible events, the island was completely deserted, barren of all life.
No trees and plant life to provide shade and food and the water that was left was toxic, undrinkable.

Months passed and nothing changed. The months slowly became years, but the island was still a wasteland.

And now, almost twenty years later, the situation is still the same, which is considered odd. An ecosystem like this should restore itself as time passes. But there hasn't been any progress. Something must be...different.

This got to the attention of professor L. Tilia, who set out to discover the island's secret. To accomplish this she formed a team of professionals who will investigate the island and simultaneously will try to restore the island to its former state.

Now the team is on its way to Utropica Island, travelling in the marvelous S.S. Paradise and will arrive shortly.

---
​
"...and I wish I could accompany you, but my duties here don't allow me to leave. I wish you luck and strength in your mission!" the professor concluded.

A tall, young man sitting nearest to the videophone was the first to move. He shoved back his chair from the long table standing in the middle of the meeting room, stood up and faced the screen of the videophone.
"Thank you for your words of encouragement professor. I will take over from here now."
His voice had a gruff undertone, his speech was eloquent.
The professor appeared to say something more, but the words were lost as the connection was broken and the screen turned blank.

Skyler turned around to face the team -his team- again. He stretched himself to his rather imposing full heigh, cleared his throat and said: "According to the captain we will arrive at the island in roughly half an hour. That is why I want to go through the schedule one more time."

He paused briefly to look at the team in front of him, one by one. The twins, sitting opposite of each other at the end of the table, Joe on the left, Josh on the right. Next to Josh were the females on the team, Chris, the cell biologist, Fae who supervised the Pokémon breeding project and Aoife, who was the assistant of professor Talia. On the left side were Jaron, the experienced traveller and Neil, their plant ecologist. And of course he himself, who'd been sitting next to Neil and would supervise the project as a whole. All carefully selected by the professor and together a hopefully competent team.

"As soon as we've laid anchor, two team will set out for some exploration of the island. So far we only have satellite photos of the island, which give a good impression of the island's lay-out and terrain, but closer inspection is required."
He pressed a button on the side of the videophone, which doubled as a computer and the screen came back to life. Another push of a button and a map of Utropica Island appeared.
"There are two locations we will visit today. The first team, which will consist of me, Jaron and Aoife, will go to the largest lake of the island for a closer look. I don't expect we will be able to change it's current condition today, but hopefully we will be able to change that soon. The second team is formed by Neil and Joe. They will go to the area south-west of the lake and see what it's like there. When the two of you-" he was directly addressing Neil and Joe now, "return, I want a report on the current situation and what you think can be changed about it."
He gestured to the south-west portion of the map, which was a dry dark brown.
"This leaves Josh, Chris and Fae. They will stay on the ship to monitor the Pokémon and eggs and other such things. If that's clear, I want to move on to the next subject."

As he spoke, he took a step back from the screen and walked ove to a cupboard in the corner of the room. He opened it with a small key, took a box out of it, closed the cupboard behind him and walked back to the table.
"To be able to keep in touch with each other during the mission, the professor has provided us with special headsets. They're hands-free, incredibly sturdy, wireless and low on energy use."
Skyler took out one of the devices, which looked like a simple, small, blue-ish headset. He fumbled a little with it, fastened it behind his ear and pressed a small button on the side.
"Simply tell it who to contact on the team and it will call that person. The switch to run it on and off is on the side."
As he began handing out the little devices, he added:"They're pre-programmed, each one specifically for one team member, so you can't trade them with others."

He handed the last one to Aoife, placed the box under the table and leaned against the back wall.
"If any of you've got questions, now would be the time to ask them!"​
 
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Joe leaned forwards in his char, resting his elbows unprofessionally on the table before him. His black bangs fell to cover his eyes for a moment, but he flicked them away before speaking. “Do we know whether the meteor that crashed around here is radioactive?” His inquisitive, turquoise eyes met the matching set in front of him, and both boys grinned at each other. “It could be leaking out toxins, and that might be the cause of the island’s full-ecological shutdown.”

Josh nodded. “Not to mention the inhospitable environment for Pokemon.” he said, his voice slightly rougher than his brother’s. Josh raised a hand and started fidling with his headset nonchalantly. “It’d be like living in a toxic waste dump.”
 
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"Well," Aoife interjected, praying she wouldn't stutter or scream, "Most objects have some radioactive material. We use that to date meteorites and rocks from outer space. E-even the air has some radioactive elements in it. It would be unlikely for a meteor that fell there to be so radioactive that it posed a threat to the Pokémon. I s-suspect something else, personally." She silently cursed herself, and she slouched over, her face red. Aoife hoped they wouldn't get the wrong idea about her. Her fingers automatically started snapping in rhythm.
 

"We'll find out whether there's radioactivity when we get there," Neil commented, glancing at the twins. "There are any number of things that could be to blame." He paused, as if thinking, and then looked back up at Skyler. "Do we have any meteorological readings on the island and its environment? Usually, primary succession relies on wind to carry airborne plant pollen or seeds to the location, so if there's been strange weather patterns, that could be part of the problem. Also, bird pokemon often carry seeds in their feces from eating berries, and drop them when they excrete. There should be at least something here if there's any air-traffic from flying pokemon." He paused again to think. "If this really is a volcanic island, the soil should be more than rich enough to support plant life. Fresh water would be an issue, but if we can -" he shook his head. "That's for when we get to the island. Don't mind my rambling."

Chris leaned back in her chair, popping her knuckles idly. She kept herself silent and merely looked around, studying the team she would be working with. The Ranger who would be leading them at least had enough sense to split them into initial teams that suited their specialties. He seemed like a no-nonsense sort of guy - someone she could work with, at least. The twins - why the hell were there teenagers on this ship - Chris would have to wait and see whether or not they would be able to do anything. The twitchy woman Chris wasn't too sure about either. She seemed really nervous. The other dude... he sounded like he knew what he was doing, but he also seemed spacy. All in all, not a team she would call qualified. Oh joy.

"There's no point making conjectures now, when we know jack shit about the state of the island. Let's save the hypothesizing for when we have something to work with and can make realistic guesses. For all we know now it could be that aliens have nuked the island and claimed it in the name of Mars!" She threw her hands up dramatically with a sour look.

Neil chuckled and leaned on to the table to look at Chris. "In that case, I hope I'm the first one to find their little Martian flag on the top of the volcano. I wonder if they'll look like Marvin from the Looney Tunes?" He only grinned at the evil glare he was receiving from Chris.
​
 
"It's almost like... Carthage," Aoife rambled, "Even though the 'salt sown into the ground' story is a myth, I'll use it it my explanation. What if something in the soil there reacted to the meteorite and removed the soil of all life-producing nutrients. Or, on the other hand, this could simply be a Pokémon problem. What if a previously-undocumented Pokémon was awakened or brought to Utropica by the meteorite? It would explain why nothing has come back; all of them are too afraid. This hypothesized Pokémon could mean certain death to the others if they returned. Enraged by the impact of the meteor, it might have become hostile," She felt a tiny flutter of pride in her heart. What a nice little theory. No stutters, either, "Of course, it's just an idea. I'll have to refine it before it should be seriously considered."
 
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“We’ll be able to get a much more likely hypothesis once we start investigating.” said Joe, leaning back into his chair again and reclining it slightly. He continued speaking, addressing the ceiling. “Only when we set foot on Utropica will we be able to devise any logical thesis. Is the bottom of the lake lined with debris, getting in the way of the natural limestone filters? Will there be any sign of a new, undiscovered Pokemon living there, and if so, what has it been living on? Theorising is good, but we can’t be accurate unless we have any fact to base our hypotheses.” Joe closed his eyes and began humming.

Josh leaned forwards, now, and flicked the hair out of his eyes the same way Joe had previously. He dropped a hand to the table, pointing downwards. “Think I’m gonna go check on the inmates.” he said. “Make sure they’re not overly stressed.” He stood up, but then turned back to look at Skyler and Aoife. “The big guys are still sedated, right? To keep them from attacking each other and breaking out of their confines?”
 
As the others theorized as to why the island had gone into an ecological shut down, Skyler gazed at a point in the distance, crossed his arms and eventually started tapping the fingers of his right hand on his left elbow. When Joe suggested he would check on the Pokémon below deck, he gave the guy a short nod and turned to Neil to answer his question. His word were lost however when Fae, the girl next to that twitchy assistant of the professor, interrupted.

Fae, who'd been silent while the others were discussing matters, now interjected.
"Oh! I'll go with you then, I should go watch the eggs again. I think there's one that might hatch any time, so I should keep an eye on it."
She stood up, nearly knocking over her chair in her haste, muttered an 'Oops' and practically bounced to the door.

Skyler shot her a narrow glance, which she didn't seem to notice. Ignoring any further disturbance caused by the girl, he turned to Neil again.
"As I was trying to say, there are barely any to no meteorological readings on the island and its environment. For whatever reason, science and government alike quickly lost interest in the island, so not many records exist on the subject. After the eruption however, some readings have been done and besides the unusual explosive eruption, there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary."

Now addressing the group as a whole again, he continued. "We do know however that bird Pokémon avoid the island, going out of their way not to pass it, even if their migration route would directly lead them across the island. And before the eruption, it used to be a popular rest stop for a variety of flocks. After the eruption however, not a single bird Pokémon has been spotted near the island. At least not in the past three months, according to the professors studies."

The clear sound of a bell interrupted him.
"That must be the captain, informing us we're about to anchor. You can all go to prepare now."
 
Josh nodded and exited the room, making his way down to the lower levels of the vessel. He paused at a door to enter a numeric code into the apparatus on the handle, which beeped and opened with a click, granting him access.

He casually began his rounds, passing cage after metallic cage full of small Pokemon, filling up the food supplies and cleaning out dirt and excrement. Most of them had gotten used to him, by now, but a few were still skittish around him. Which wasn’t a problem, really; Joe was the one who dealt with a majority of social and mental issues. He was just here to patch them up if they got hurt.

--

Back upstairs, Joe turned to Neil in the process of putting his backpack on. "Do you have a Pokemon you can ride? It'll get us there a lot quicker."
 
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OOC: Sorry for that. My sister's iPod ran out of battery before I could finish, and now the post got messed up. Just ignore this, please :/
 
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Sprawled out in the chair, arms crossed and legs on a coffee table before him, Jaron grinned. Finally. They'd be at the island soon. Anxiety and excitement, with a slight touch of adrenaline, pulsed through him as he eagerly and impatiently listened to Skyler. The Luxray sitting upright next to him seemed just as eager as its Trainer. Its tail flicked back and forth, its ears twitched occasionally, and its red and yellow eyes restlessly wandered the room.

Jaron's eyebrows furrowed at all the 'science-y' talk of radiation, bird Pokemon migrations and meteors. He was never really into that, to be quite honest. "Ehh, I'm sure we'll be fine," he said confidently as he fiddled with his earpiece. Once it was securely fixed, he grinned his usual grin once more. "Besid--"
He cut himself off as a bell clearly rang, signaling the ship's landing, and he giddily leaped up from his chair to grab the knapsack that had been hanging on the back of it. Jaron cast a quick, satisfied glance at Aoife and Skyler as he slipped the bag over his shoulders; these would be his teammates who he'd be exploring the lake with today.

"Y'ready?" He murmured to Kovu, scratching the lion Pokemon's ears affectionately. Its fur was bristled, and it looked up at Jaron with what could be considered the equivalent to a smirk of sorts. Jaron chuckled.

((ooc;; Yikes, sorry for not being here. x_______x This post is a bit... okay, maybe really awkward due to me playing catch up, so I apologize for that! ;______; ))
​
 

Both Chris and Neil frowned when they heard that there was little information. Chris twirled the headset in her hand, vulpine features creased pensively. "That bothers me. With this island defying every natural process, why wouldn't they gather as many data as they could?"

Neil shrugged as he stood. "There's no telling what cats and politicians will do. I don't bother myself with it."

Chris snorted at the comment. She remained seated, though, and waited for the field teams to disperse and unclutter the room before she got up.

As Neil was pulling his bag around his shoulders, he tilted his head to acknowledge that he was listening to Joe's question. "Yeah, I've got transportation. I presume you do as well?" he responded, patting his pocket where his three pokeballs were nestled. Alba was big enough to carry his weight, and agile enough to navigate the rocky volcanic terrain without twisting an ankle. He didn't want to overburden the young sawsbuck with more than she could carry, though, so he wouldn't ask her to carry Joe as well. He gestured for Joe to lead the way out the door with one hand, while affixing the headset to his ear with the other.

Once enough people had left the room to open it up a bit, Chris unfolded herself from her chair and stood. She was in no hurry, since she would be staying in the ship for the foreseeable future. After a good stretch, she tucked the headset into her pocket and wandered off in the direction of the hatchery. She wasn't eager to deal with the two youngsters she'd be working with; hopefully, they wouldn't live up to her expectations of them, and actually know their shit. Chris could deal with a grating personality more easily if the person was at least competent.

"All right, what's the status on these eggs? Anything look weird or are we all good?" she asked as she entered the hatchery, hands shoved idly into pockets. She didn't expect to see anything out of the ordinary until samples from the island came in.
​
 
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“Yeah, I do.” Joe replied, leading the way through the ship. “I’ll be using my Metagross, Daigo. I’m thinking we ride in a general path towards the South-West, and then split up if we need to. We don’t know what to expect, after all.”
 
Skyler was the last to leave the meeting room. Half of the team was still standing in the tiny hallway discussing matters, but he walked past them, gesturing Jaron to follow him. When he entered the deck, he halted, whistled sharply and waited.

Mere seconds later, something small and white zoomed past, circled three times around Skyler's head and stopped. The ranger grinned, seemingly for the first time this travel.
"Out raiding the kitchen again?" he asked, playfully pushing the Togetic.
"We got work to do, so no time to play around, okey?"

Now with his partner Pokémon in tow, he made his way to the end of the deck.
Two Jeeps were parked there, hidden under a large piece of canvas. After removing the canvas, he fished the key out of his pocket, jumped in, started the car and finally bothered to look if Jaron had followed him.
"You ready to go?"

Fae hummed as she made her round. Several large, water filled tanks were lined on the side of the room, each tank containing eggs of a different water type. In the middle of the room a container was placed, half filled with soil. Grass type eggs were kept here, several solar lamps stationed above them. A long the walls of the room were countless shelves, all lined with eggs of different Pokémon.

As she was checking on the egg she expected to hatch soon, someone else entered the hatchery. Startled, she nearly dropped the egg, but managed to keep it in her grasp. She turned around, then smiled as she recognised the woman who was leisurely making her entrance.
"Oh, hello Chris."

Fae placed the egg back in the grass container, remarking: "It will be a couple more days before that one hatches" -she gestured to the egg she'd just put away- "and it's one of the eggs closest to hatching. Nothing really out of the ordinary. And granny gave me a notebook full of instructions, just in case. Though really, she's told me those things a thousand times already."

She glanced at the older woman, head slightly tilted, before she spoke again.
"So...You're from Sinnoh? Isn't it, like, always cold there?"
 
Aoife ran away from the noise they all were making; this chit-chat pained her ears when so much more was at stake. She hummed a frantic melody and snapped her fingers in time. Once she reached her cabin she began packing for the trip. Just a few miscellaneous things, like Potions, Ethers, bandages, swabs to test rocks and soil, Petri dishes, etc. What would generally be in a lab assistant's possession.

Aoife crossed the room to her Pokémon's sleeping area. The trip had bored all of them so much that now much of their time was spent sleeping, except for Minuita, a Honchkrow. She, on the other hand, could still fly about outside the ship and get exercise, but Bakphoon, Arachne and Adelaide were all either tight bundles of nerves or lazy couch-potatoes on this trip. The floor creaked and Bakphoon open one eye curiously, then went back to sleep.

"COME ON GUYS, GET UP!!!" Aoife yelled in a chipper voice. Bakphoon immediately got up, yawned, and released a small shot of fire from it's mouth. Aoife winched when it singed the ceiling. Arachne scuttled across the floor and climbed onto Aoife's shoulder, while Adelaide stretched her petals and looked a Aoife with an intense gaze. "Come on guys, the ship here! Bakky, Addy, Arachne, let's go find Minny." Aoife giggled. Nicknames for nicknames. What a novelty.

"Allons-y, guys!" Aoife ran off towards the door and into the hallway.
 
Jaron nodded and followed Skyler outside onto the deck, Kovu trailing close behind them. Suddenly, Kovu let out a sharp, low growl as a flash of white seemingly appeared out of nowhere at Skyler's whistle. Huh, he thought with a chuckle. a Togetic!

"Whats its name?" Jaron asked Skyler, watching the little white Pokemon with admiration. Kovu, on the other hand, didn't seem particularly fascinated. It growled once more before letting out a short huff before turning around. Jaron rolled his eyes and affectionately nudged it with his foot. "Oh, you hush."

At Skyler's question, he looked up and held up a cheesy thumbs up. "Ready whenever you are." he confirmed. "Oh, quick question if you don't mind. Out of curiosity, do you know if we coming back here tonight or spending the night on the island?"​
 

"That sounds like an acceptable alternative, but I'd rather see what's out there before making any specific plans," Neil responded as they came out onto the deck. "I'm used to wandering through forests, not wastelands, so you'll have to give me a moment to adjust," he added, looking out across the tiny little pier at the island. "Shit." He had never seen a place so void of green, or any life, and it gave him chills as he looked at it for the first time. He knew his pokemon would be miserable on the island before plant life was successfully sewn. Then again, if birds avoided the place, there was no telling how their tame pokemon would respond.

The other field team's conversation drew his attention, and Neil finally looked over to notice the two Jeeps. "We might not need our pokemon yet," Neil commented to Joe.

He trotted up to the second Jeep, paused, and knocked on the first one to get Skyler's attention. "Hey, where are the keys to this one?" Now that he thought about it, the terrain might be noxious in some way, and he really didn't want to inflict that on any of his pokemon if there was an alternative like driving. Four-wheel-drive was just as good as four hooves, after all.


In the Hatchery, Chris snorted in mild amusement at Fae's question. "In the north it is, but in the south it's pretty balmy." She plunked down onto a stool. "Where are you from again?" Showed how much attention Chris paid when they had all stood up and introduced themselves.
​
 
"Really? I always heard Sinnoh was a cold, frozen place. Mustn't be right then..." Fae contemplated. When Chris asked her where she was from, she smiled. Someone else who'd not been paying very much attention during introductions. She'd really tried to, but for some reason her mind would always drift of at the mention of things that sounded interesting.

Facing one of the port holes in the hatchery, she said: "I'm from the Sevii Islands, all the way to the south. I've lived there nearly my whole life and I love it. The weather's always beautiful, I get to get to the beach nearly every day and though there don't live too many people, there come a lot of tourists, so it's never boring."

Letting on hand rest on the wheel, Skyler fumbled in his pocket for the keys of the other Jeep.
"Here they are!" he called out to Neil, tossing the keys. "Just don't wreck it!" he couldn't help adding. The guy seemed more then competent in his job, but he was also kinda...goofy.

"As to whether we stay on the island or not, depends on what we encounter." Skyler said, turning to Jaron. "I don't plan on staying, we're just going to check out the lake, gather any info we can find and see if we can do anything. If there's something unexpected, we might stay, I've prepared for that already."

The Togetic that had been floating around Skyler's head now moved to the Luxray, chirping excitedly, not bothered in the least by it's gruffy attitude.
 
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After fifteen minutes of searching, Aoife found Minuita perched on the railing of the top deck. Aoife resisted the urge to look into the water. She'd always been a hydrophobe, and the water around here wasn't helping. Presumably from the meteor, there weren't any Pokémon to be found in the seas near the island. The ocean was dead around here, and it made Aoife want to scream and hide even more than regular water would. The whole thing was... eerie.

After that it was an easy matter to find the Jeeps they would explore the island with; they were just on the other side of the deck. Aoife noticed two other people there, just talking. Neil and... Skylar? Yeah, that was right.

"Um. Hi guys," she said nervously to the pair and their Pokémon, "Are we ready to go yet? W-where's everybody else?" She clenched her fists to fend off her anxious finder-snapping.
 

Neil nodded his thanks, then turned to unlock the Jeep's driver door. Once he had shoved himself into the driver's seat, he leaned over to unlock the passenger door so that Joe could get in.

Hearing another voice, Neil leaned out of the Jeep and looked at Aoife. "Everybody else has their own jobs to do," he called to her, then waved beckoningly. "You're with that group, so come on. We're ready to go as soon as you are." He wondered why she had her whole team out of their pokeballs, but he pushed that thought aside. He had better things to think about.

Key in the ignition, Neil twisted it to start the engine. He looked to Skyler, waiting for the Ranger to move his vehicle so Neil could disembark his.


Chris wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Ugh, tourists. There always were plenty of those in Hearthome and Veilstone. I never did go there much - I spent most of my time around Eterna. Dinky little small-town place." She snorted nostalgically, then heaved herself upright.

"I can't just sit around doing nothing. What the hell is there for us to do?" she grumbled aloud, frowning. She was impatient for the field teams to bring back samples for her to analyze.
​
​
 
Jaron nodded, obviously relieved. He usually didn't have a problem with staying outside but... he cast a long, slow glance towards the barren island. Nobody had the faintest idea of what exactly was going on with this place. "Sounds good to me," he said, pleased as he edged a bit closer to the Jeep he'd be on.

Kovu snorted a bit at the Togetic, but a faint glimmer of amusement was present in its gaze as it watched the little white Pokemon zoom around back and forth.​
 
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