Move Your Body, Every, Every Body

[lyingheart]

Starting Monday, January 21st, players can elect for their character(s) to participate in a Body Swapping Plot!

For information on the how, what, why, and to plot in the OOC instead of elsewhere, please read below the cut! This plot closes at the end of Sunday, January 27th.


One particularly mischievous Rotom got it into their head to perform a prank online, but soon found themselves overwhelmed and fragmented across a subnetwork, ending up in each Player Character’s PokeGear. Now this Rotom is trying to collect itself back together again, but the process is anything but smooth, and the week it takes to become whole involves quite a few changes in perspective for the PCs.

Sometimes literally.

Get ready to experience the world from a whole different body, Pokemon Trainers, and see if you can’t find your way back!

How will our characters know what’s going on?

Other than potentially waking up in someone else’s body? On the morning of the 21st, all characters will receive a text on their PokeGear.

Hellozzt! We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand-by.

There’s also a timer following the message, which is counting down days until Sunday, the 27th.

How does this the body swapping work? Are we changing physical locations?

The short answer: people’s physical bodies aren’t swapping, but their consciousnesses are swapping into new physical bodies. It’ll look something like this: a character experiences a minor shock from their PokeGear, followed by a period of disorientation. Some characters may even pass out. Once the disorientation passes, or the character wakes up, they’ll find they’re no longer in their own body—they’re physically someone else, located where that person was at the time of the shock!

The longer answer: every character’s PokeGear will glow sometime in the early, early morning hours on the 21st, as their PokeGear receives a fragment of Rotom’s consciousness. Starting from when they wake up on the 21st onward until the 27th, any character using a Rotom-infected PokeGear has the potential to swap their consciousness into the body of another character using a Rotom-infected PokeGear.

The swap will be initiated when the Rotom-fragment releases a minor electrical shock, attempting to dispel enough energy to force itself across the internet to smack into the other Rotom-fragment and combine. They just happen to be dragging along the consciousness of the PokeGear user when they do!

Does that mean my character’s getting shocked before the body-swap happens?

Yes! This can either leave them disoriented as the body-swap happens, or they can pass out as a side effect of the body-swap.

Do I have to participate in this plot?

Not at all! Your character can simply observe the madness, or proceed utterly unaware it’s going on.

How many times can my character swap bodies before this plot ends?

Each individual character can body-swap up to three times. There’s no time limit to how long a body-swap happens, only a time limit to the plot itself. By the end of the 27th, anyone not in their proper body will experience another shock from the PokeGear they have, and shortly thereafter find themselves back in their actual body.

Can characters attempt to switch back on their own? If so, will it work?

Yes, they can make this attempt! And yes, sometimes it will work, but there isn’t any consistent explanation for why. (The actual explanation is sometimes the Rotom-fragments will switch again, other times they won’t.)

For some mysterious reason, if two characters who have been body swapped are in the same physical location and perform a silly dance before joining hands with their PokeGear on them... they’re more likely to switch back. But not without an equally unexplained burst of light.

What limits will there be on characters actions taken when in a body that is not their own?

The limitations should always be agreed on OOCly between players. ICly, the Rotom-fragments can make creative use of the PokeGear to help keep PCs in line (according to OOC decisions).

By the end of the night on Sunday the 27th, anyone not in their proper body will experience another shock from the PokeGear they have and shortly thereafter find themselves back in their actual body. Each PokeGear will also receive a message from the now whole Rotom:

Hellozzt! I hope you enjoyed your walk in someone else’s shoes for a while, and welcome back to yourself! Nothing beats being totally you, right? Rotom, out!

Please comment to this post with experiences you'd like your character to have (being swol? tiny? mistaken for a gym trainer?) and/or to volunteer your character for a body swap! Plot with each other and see what shenanigans you can come up with and enjoy!