[Event] PMD RP Story Mode

Yep, you read that correctly! I’m writing a new story to post on Archive of Our Own, but it’s not being written the, uh...conventional way. No, instead, I’m enlisting help from all of you to participate in and help shape this story! Let’s start off with a little background info here about just what this story is or who it might be about. So, here’s an excerpt from the beginning to give you a nice little peek at Radar the Murkrow;

TempGuardian wrote:

How many stories have there been in the world? A thousand? A million? It’s probably a number completely incomprehensible to the mind itself. So many fairytales and real facts and whatever else all jumbling around inside of heads just spilling out into the form of stories, it’s an unlimited amount because everyone, no matter who they are, comes up with stories. The entire world is full of them. Tales of action and adventure, mystery and intrigue, finding that special someone, we all tell stories. Even if they’re just to ourselves as fantasies, that’s still creating and telling a story. Of course, a lot of stories start out the same ways, have the same kind of plot to them, because no one knows how to change up what we've already thought of. Now, this story doesn’t do that, and it's not a best seller by any means, but I think it’s a—relatively—nice one.

It starts with a young boy, about the age of 6. This kid didn’t have the best life in the world. As in, he lived with his brother—who was an outlaw—in a place filled to the brim with Outlaws. This place, filled with Outlaws with no law at all, was called Grima Outpost, a hellish wasteland that's decayed over time from the town it once was. Now, it was where criminals went to escape the police, to do whatever they wanted...so long as they could put up with the thick smog and unruly residents that lived within the Outpost, which was only merely just a campsite with rickety, poorly kept buildings. It's gotten better over time, but...not by a lot. Radar, a Murkrow, grew up here, living in a world devoid of law. His mind was nothing short of impressionable at this young age, which didn’t help. Radar suffered there. His older brother, Hiro, would abuse him to no end, to the point where Radar just stopped remembering his past. Repressing it. It's hella terrible to talk about, that's what he'd say if anyone ever did ask.

It all changed when Radar turned ten, however, as his brother had a job for him. He was going to take jewels from a cave, something Radar would always remember. Now, it wasn’t because it was a huge accomplishment for the child, no. It went so terribly wrong since the moment he set foot in the cave. What happened? Well, for one, Radar wasn’t expecting a large and powerful dragon known as a Gabite to be there. It wasn’t long before Radar was attacked, just barely surviving and dodging the blows that were thrown his way. Dragon Types are quite powerful, don’t forget this fact. Now, Radar's mind was impressionable, it still is, but what was the one thing watching his older brother taught him? Lie if he needed to. Radar feigned innocence—even though he himself was guilty of jumping at the chance to commit a crime to prove himself to his brother—and said that older Pokémon made him do it.

“They're big and mean and scary!” Oh, did he ever cry. It wasn’t from the big scary Pokémon who would hunt him for doing this, but the big scary Pokémon in front of him. It only made his little fib more believable, however. The Gabite let him go free, saying he'd hold off the ‘big, mean, scary Pokémon’ for Radar if they came this way. He couldn’t believe it worked! Maybe lying wasn’t such a bad way to get out of things... “Go find your parents, little one.” The Gabite ordered, which would be more of a problem than one might think. The reason why Radar lived with his brother is because...well...

His parents left.

Now, it wasn’t the abandonment kind of left, no. I mean, Hiro said that, but he was probably lying! No, what happened was Radar's parents disappeared. They left him, and—now with the added confirmation of what the Gabite told him—he knew he needed to find them. Hiro took him away from his parents, they were probably wondering where he's been for the past four-ish years...

And so, Radar searched for them.

He’s been searching for his parents for a year now, having not found them and instead having found himself in Grassveil Town as he takes a short little break from wandering around the world. The story will follow his journey of finding his parents, and—over the course of doing so—realizes he’s made quite a strong connection with a Pokémon he just met; a girl not even a full year older than him that has schizophrenia, something that Radar shares with her. One Pokémon can change your life, and Radar learns this when the two form an unlikely team to help Radar find his parents. The story will focus on and center around their growing bond, trust playing a main role.

But that’s pretty much about all of the story that’s been planned, which is where you guys come in. Your characters can interact with him! I’m sure that, by now, some of you may have noticed threads with the tag [CATALYST] attached to it. Well, here we get into the event. Catalyst is the name of one of three “Acts,” and those three Acts make up the story I post to Archive of Our Own. The three Acts are;

• Act I ~ Catalyst [Started 8.5.2019]
  
• Act II ~ Answers [Start date TBA]
  
• Act III ~ Desolation [Start date TBA]
  

Now, these three Acts will span over the course of multiple threads, all with the title of the Act as a tag. Like; [CATALYST], [ANSWERS], or [DESOLATION]. Well, these threads will usually always have the [OPEN] tag as well. You can join in on these threads and interact with Radar, helping to shape him into who he will be in the future. Radar will be watching your characters decisions, their choices, what they say or do in certain situations...Radar will learn from your characters. He’ll learn whether that was a useful thing someone did in a certain situation, or if it backfired horribly he’d know not to make that same mistake in that certain situation.

Radar’s watching everything your character does even if he doesn’t know it.

I call this a Story Mode of sorts because it’s a set story you can participate in or join, the story of the PMD game you’re playing here so to speak. A structured event of which you can join, where—admittedly, you won’t get any rewards for your hard work except levels and anyitems you acquire from rolls—you can have fun. Get to know your fellow RPer, make friends, both in character and out of character! This event is just as much an event as the war between Legendary Pokemon is, or as the Halloween event is, and I feel it deserves to be treated as such. Sure, you don’t get any fancy, hard to find items, but for 20 Poké a post and the amount of pages that’ll be completed...I think that character advancement in itself is a reward, don’t you think?

Okay, so, I don’t have really complicated mechanics set up, and I’m not gonna do really flowery, long paragraph writing for this. This’ll just be simple, quick, a straight-to-the-point bullet list with explanations. Think of this as a set of game instructions of sorts.

• Step 1: Look for an Event Thread. I will be posting Event Threads in different locations, all with the name of the Act as the tag. You’ll probably wanna look for one that says open.
  
• Step 2: RP in said Event Thread. When you find that Event Thread...feel free to join. There’s nothing stopping you if the thread says [OPEN], and I’m sure all participating members would love to have you!
  
• Step 3: Have fun. After all, this is an event. It’s a game for you all, to play and to help develop your characters. Come on in and do whatever you want, just enjoy yourselves.
  
• Step 4: Read the story on Ao3 [OPTIONAL]. All the threads of the Acts will be brought together to make a story on Archive of Our Own. You will be listed as a co-creator in the notes and will be given all proper credit for your character and the fact that you RPed them. The story will be uploaded to Archive of Our Own, so you must be okay with your character being presented there in a fanfiction story of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
  

Code:

[b]User Name:[/b] (You put your name here, silly.)
[b]Character Name:[/b] (Name of your character.)
[b]Link to Your Character Records:[/b] (Link to your character records.)
[b]Anything Else You Think I Should Know:[/b] (I don’t know, consider this your “other” section like on the character bio. You can leave this blank, fill it out, whatever you want.)

• Blade (Act I ~ Catalyst)
  
• Scypho (Act I ~ Catalyst)
  
• PowarTheTorterra
  
• PrimordialPrim (Act I ~ Catalyst)
  
• Lumin (Act I ~ Catalyst)
  
• Shield (Act I ~ Catalyst)
  

• Why is the Catalyst thread locked?
  Well, it's simple, really. Halloween. I won't say who, but someone ran out of thread slots and wanted to participate in the Halloween event. I let them lock the thread so they would be able to participate in it, and now I'm just waiting. If you're looking for a way to participate in Catalyst, however, there is a thread in Spooky Scary Forests which is open. Radar is no longer a part of it, but the events happening will be directly referenced and a part of the Catalyst timeline.
  
• When would Catalyst be starting again?
  At the very latest, early January. It's until the Halloween event ends, or until the thread that caused Catalyst to be locked has ended. So, I can't give a definitive answer, but it will be soon.