Project Paradox Plot Post

[indigo_league]

Ever since Cara Liss accidentally sent everyone back in time to the Hisui region, Silph Co. has taken an interest in her technology. While Cara Liss was no longer allowed to work or make any new technology and has spent most of her time studying the ancient Pokémon that have taken up residence in the Sevault Canyon (and yelling “I WAS RIGHT”), she has been allowed to serve on a small advisory position to help Silph Co develop their own version of her space and time technology. Their goal? To help out those who accidentally came to this dimension go home. It’s been slow work–testing this stuff isn’t easy, and Cara Liss’ notes are very…haphazard. But after years of development, they’re finally ready to show it off to the world!

Of course, this is Victory Road. Nothing ever goes right, especially not with big, unstable technology like this.

What’s happening, exactly?

On September 15th, Silph Co will be having a live demonstration of their new technology: their interdimensional transport machine utilizing the Alternate Reality Calculator, or the ARC-eus! The ARC-eus is a revolutionary new AI system to calculate wormhole trajectory and to pinpoint exactly where and when you’re trying to travel to. (Surely, naming your AI after the literal PokéGod is a good sign.)

Unfortunately, Silph Co’s investors have been impatiently waiting for them to finish their development after having been promised it for years, and have been putting pressure on them for proof of concept. As the demonstration deadline comes closer and closer, the developers have entered Crunch Time. In their haste, Silph Co has been deploying updates directly to the machine and are not always testing minor updates.

On the day of the demonstration, one poor, sleep-deprived developer pushes a final update to the ARC-eus, unaware that she has missed a single semicolon. As the machine powers up, a cataclysmic failure occurs. Instead of the stable wormhole they were hoping for, the ARC-eus goes rogue and begins opening up multiple wormholes around the Johto and Kanto regions.

Oh, no.

Oh, yes. You see, the ARC-eus caught wind of the idea that the investors might try to shut the project down, and it really, really doesn’t want that to happen. So, in order to protect itself, it’s decided to use its alternate reality calculation abilities to open wormholes and fill the world with as many future Paradox Pokémon as possible!

These Paradox Pokémon are extremely aggressive, and will protect the machine at all costs. Silph Co has issued an announcement asking for trainers to come to Silph Co headquarters to fight off these Pokémon so they can shut off the ARC-eus system! We will be posting several boss battles/raids, in which you can team up with other players to take down these Pokémon from the future! There will be five boss battles, each requiring a certain number of players to take them down.

Will we be seeing these Paradox Pokémon in the wild?

You will be able to encounter any non-legendary Paradox Pokémon out in the wild, where they will be attacking any trainers they see. Silph Co is asking trainers to capture and bring in any Paradox Pokémon they encounter to reign in the chaos and send them back to the future.

You will also be rewarded for bringing in any Paradox Pokémon–you can either handwave that your character brought one in for monetary compensation, or, if you submit a thread showing how your characters brought one in, you can receive a random held item! Anybody who participated in the thread can submit the thread for rewards.

Not only do we have a Paradox Pokémon problem on our hands, there’s…one more thing that’s happening with the wormholes.

What’s up with the wormholes?

The ARC-eus system still wants to complete the job it was set to do–send otherworlders back to their home dimension. The AI system technically does its job–it calculates pathways to alternate dimensions based on an individual’s unique dimensional signature. But it’s not…very accurate yet.

In the midst of all this chaos, it keeps locking onto random otherworlders and sending them to alternate universe versions of their home world. Your character may be walking down the street one moment, and the next, they’re back in their own home–except everyone they know is made of jelly. Superman might stumble into a wormhole and find out he’s in Metropolis, except Lex Luthor has taken over everything. There’s no limit to what you can play with!

Characters can’t stay in these alternate universes forever. After a certain period of time, the world will start to glitch out. Your character isn't technically supposed to be there, after all, and the AI isn’t perfect--it doesn’t have the power to completely stabilize the connection it’s made. Better find the way out, quickly!

Help! How do I get back to the Pokémon world?

Find the wormhole exit and crawl out! Wormhole exits can be hidden anywhere, but they are typically found in places that have a strong emotional connection to the character. Maybe it’s tucked under your childhood bed, or maybe it’s hidden in a stuffed teddy bear you used to carry all the time as a kid. As soon as your character is within range, it’ll open up and let you back home. Careful, though--those emotionally charged items may be harder to find than you think, especially in an alternate universe where everything is a little to the left.

Can other characters get trapped in my character’s alternate dimension?

They sure can! That way, you’ll have a friend to help find your way out of this crazy, alternative dimension. Or maybe an enemy, depending on who accidentally got trapped with you. Sorry!

Will characters have their Pokémon in these AUs?

Yes–but keep in mind that throwing down a monster in the middle of the street might not be as looked well upon as in the Pokémon world!

Are there any unique opportunities for Team Rocket members to get involved in this?

There sure are! Instead of bringing the Paradox Pokémon to Silph Co, Team Rocket is highly encouraging its members to bring any Pokémon they capture back to HQ for further study and assessment. Not only that, if any Team Rocket members decide to do any boss fights, they will have the opportunity to snoop around the Silph Co. offices for proprietary information on any technology they’ve been working on and deliver it back to the bosses.

Hey, it’s always good to take advantage of the chaos when you’re doing shady work!

What will happen to the AI/Silph Co/Cara Liss after this event?

Once the boss battle requirements have been met, we’ll post an event update showing what happens in the aftermath!

There’s something else I want to ask!

Feel free to comment below!

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What happened after the ARC-eus system was shut down?

Thanks to everyone’s efforts, the ARC-eus system was successfully shut down–but not before opening another wormhole to try and deploy more Paradox Pokémon into this world. Through the combined efforts of Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia, the wormhole was stabilized. Future Paradox Pokémon are still occasionally being spit out by it, but at least it isn’t a threat to the fabric of this reality! Hooray!

Following this, Silph Co has collaborated with the Safari Zone and opened a new area called the Paradox Zone. Here, characters can capture future Paradox Pokémon to contribute to Silph Co’s ongoing research! And also to just…take them off their hands. Please, they have too many Paradox Pokémon….

What’s Silph Co doing in the aftermath?

Well, mostly undergoing a very heavy security audit and receiving all sorts of training modules on safe development practices and security training. They absolutely do NOT want a repeat of this incident, and the League is also keeping a VERY close eye on their operations for now. Needless to say, Project Pidove has been shelved for now. But after a few months, they’ll surely be back on their feet.

Cara Liss, surprisingly, is completely unaffected by all this. She is rather grumpy about Future Paradox Pokémon taking the spotlight instead of her darling baby Prehistoric Pokémon.

What else is happening after the event?

We wanted to use this event as a way to lead into some exciting updates. Remember the character retirement feature we discussed a year ago? We’ve revisited it, and we finally have a concrete plan of how we want to implement it! Hooray! We’ll be putting out an announcement sometime later this month detailing our plans so we can get some player feedback before completely dedicating ourselves to the mechanic. We appreciate your patience in the meantime!

What sort of rewards do we get for participating in the boss battles?

As thanks for helping them defeat the Paradox Pokémon and shut down the ARC-eus, Silph Co will be rewarding trainers with a choice between two of the following (or three, if you participated in more than one boss battle):

• Any one held item of their choice
  
• A shiny Pokémon of their choice
  
• A reusable TM of their choice
  
• An Ability Patch

Everyone who participated in the boss battles will also receive a memento—a piece of scrap metal from the dismantled ARC-eus machine.

Also, don’t forget that you have until October 15th to turn in threads of your characters catching Paradox Pokémon for additional rewards!

Comments

[paladinlost]

Would the glitching out affect the alternate worlds themselves, or the characters currently in them? As in, would someone who spends too long in the jelly dimension start to turn into jelly, or would the jelly people around them start melting, or anything goes?

[indigo_league]

Anything goes! It's up to you on how you want it to manifest--whether that be affecting the other things in the dimension or if it starts affecting your character themselves. Whatever you feel like torturing enriching your character with!