A Volt From The Blue

The perfect storm, in all senses of the phrase, starts slowly. Though thunder begins to roll on Saturday evening, and the sky is already dripping with rain, the weather isn't anything unusually bad at first. There are distant flashes in the clouds, but no dramatic lightning strikes reaching toward the ground, and the rain is still light enough that holding your bag or jacket over your head will do in a pinch. Duckletts splash in puddles, people pull out umbrellas, and everyone gets on with their day.

This all changes overnight. The storm intensifies, until the air is practically buzzing with static, and... as everyone begins waking up on Sunday morning, they'll find that there's a preponderance of Electric Pokemon in the streets and the wilds, apparently drawn out by the storm. It dwarfs even the swarms of Electric Pokemon that appeared earlier in the month, and the variety is (pardon the pun) truly shocking - Mareep, Electrike, and Blitzle race through the streets, Tynamo and Stunfisk splash across flooded Routes, Voltorbs spin madly down roads, and the ever-popular Pikachus peek out of every other bush. They're all very trigger-happy, too, quick to start battles or even outright attack passerby if sufficiently startled!

The worst is yet to come, though...

The Walking Diode

It starts happening partway through Sunday, though it may take a bit longer for people to catch on. A Trainer ends up in a Pokemon Center after they and their Prinplup get well and properly zapped by an Electivire. After everyone is looked over, they clap the attending Nurse Joy on the shoulder in thanks over the counter, zapping her with residual static, and then wander out the door. All the while, they act oddly insistent about meeting everyone with a proper handshake and exuberant greeting.

Nurse Joy, back behind the counter, is... well, every Nurse Joy always finds Pokemon health important! That's the reason they've all become nurses! But as the day goes on, she grows more and more intense about questioning trainers about how they're feeding and training their Pokemon, and whether they're carrying enough Antidotes on them for every eventuality, and whether they're pushing their Pokemon too hard if they had to come in for healing. If someone doesn't answer her, her smile begins to twitch. And meanwhile, though her hands are as gentle with Pokemon as always, she can't seem to stop shocking them with static the first time she touches one.

Similar scenes play out all over Johto and Kanto. Bug Catchers chase other Trainers down, exclaiming facts about Bug Pokemon and practically throwing their Weedles at people. Cyclists and Roller Skaters pedal and skate furiously, uncaring of nearly mowing people down. Bodybuilders and Dojo Students passionately challenge people they think are out of shape. Ruin and Hex Maniacs... well, okay, they've always been kind of intense.

The weirdest thing is this: if you mention out loud that you've miraculously avoided being cornered by an Electric Pokemon during this mass outbreak, a number of people nearby will instantly turn their heads toward you, their eyes slightly glazed...

Current Trends

The storm continues. But toward the end of the week, the problem is clearly widespread enough and serious enough that the Elite Four are forced to intervene. They - and various Elite Four staff and Gym Leaders - appear in towns over Kanto and Johto, bringing with them crack teams of Ground Pokemon! (Aurora League members: your mailboxes and Gears may be receiving requests to also assist!)

The work is made chaotic and strenuous by members of the task force also getting struck by lightning and starting to act strange - though, sometimes, their odd behavior is actually helpful when it makes them take their job even more seriously and with greater energy. Regardless, after a big push on Saturday, nearly all the Electric Pokemon are driven back out to the wilds and away from public Routes. A week after the affliction began, people affected drift back to their senses, shaking off their strange compulsions and left very confused by how they were acting.

(Okay, except those Hex and Ruin Maniacs.)

Though the rain continues, the beginning of the following week is calm. In the last days of March, Lance makes a brief appearance on the news, announcing very "regretfully" that he and the rest of the Elite Four were planning to organize this year's Prom again... but now they're going to be too busy cleaning up after this mess and making sure all the Electric Pokemon have returned to their appropriate habitats. Riegfried and Soy have kindly offered to take the event off his hands, and so Prom will still be taking place - but it's going to be delayed. They need time to prepare a proper shindig, after all! Keep an eye out for it sometime in summer instead.

OOC NOTES

• Any Electric Pokemon available in Victory Road normally are swarming, and can show up whether or not you're in their usual availability location.
• Trainers who are zapped - either by an Electric attack, a static shock by someone else affected, or even an outright lightning strike - will start feeling compelled to focus on one specific thought that's important to them, and act accordingly to enforce or exemplify it. The longer they're affected, the worse this compulsion gets!
• This focus can be very broad or very narrow! For example, "Honesty is important," "Trainers should treat their Pokemon well," and "I hate it when people chew with their mouths open." are all possible focuses. A character who is focused on honesty may feel compelled to only tell the truth during this event... and also, to grow hostile if they believe they're encountering dishonesty!
• In addition, characters who are affected will feel compelled to share their affliction with others somehow - whether zapping them with a static shock or leading them into a situation where they'll otherwise be hit with lightning.
• Characters who follow their compulsions will feel energized (and thus more able to continue)! Character who resist will find themselves becoming listless and exhausted.
• Pokemon can also be affected.
• Everyone affected will find themselves recovering as the storm begins to die down on the following weekend, though the rain will continue for several more days.
• Please consider the most recent CR MEME if you’d like to make more specific plans!