The Geographic Society

Founded by a group of naturalists and archaeologists in the 19th Century, the Geographic Society is an organization dedicated to promoting an appreciation of science, culture, and education. Known for their visually stunning nature documentaries, their vividly illustrated long-running science magazine, and their broad demographic appeal, the Geographic Society is a pop cultural icon responsible for an appreciation of the natural sciences to many young people, many of who would eventually become Pokemon trainers themselves.

The Geographic Society's flagship publication is its magazine. First published in 1911, the Geographic Society Digest, known officially as Geographic Society Magazine in its centenary issue on May 2011, brought the iconic yellow vertical octagon logo to the public consciousness, featuring stories of adventure, beautiful illustrations, and spectacular photography. It also produced a broad set of documentaries, the Geographic Society Specials, which capitalized on the growing popularity of television and made the society a household name in edutainment. It also has a news magazine, the Geographer Weekly.

The television division has also diversified into costume dramas, survival-based reality programs, and documentaries hosted by famous actors. The specials themselves became longer than many blockbuster films, becoming artistically ambitious serials on Television. Despite this shift toward entertainment and its purportedly sensationalized titles, the society still retains the gravitas of an esteemed scientific publication.

Administration

The Society's Main Office is in Castelia City, Unova, where it was first convened. It has offices in major cities in several regions across the globe.

Although governed by a board of trustees, the Geographic Society is helmed by the editorial board, a group that comprises scientists, journalists, cinematographers, and academics. The television distribution rights of the Geographic Society are co-owned by the Vulpix Media Group and the Clavis Corporation, which act as producers for many of the Society's programs.

The Geographic Society also maintains close ties with several academic and scientific research organizations, including PEFE. Its relationship between the latter is complicated; PEFE often issues publication vetoes, citing the need for rigor, which has caused some conflict between it and the Geographic Society Editorial board. Likewise, the editorial board is often accused of being excessively intrusive in its demands. Nonetheless, the two respect one another as scientific institutions. Relations between them are expected to improve with the announcement of the Society's most recent special, the ambitious seventen-part series The Pokemon Trainer, which is being made with some PEFE input.

Notable individuals

Many famous names in science and art have been associated with the Society's publications. Pokemon professors, including Kanto's Samuel Oak, are often sought as advisors for television programs. Todd Snapp, the award-winning photographer, is also a Geographic Society Alumnus; some of his most iconic photos appeared in the magazine's covers. Actor Brad Van Darn is one of the many celebrity narrators in its programs.

The documentary division is presently helmed by Senior Editor Hank Habakkuk Harvey, an Unovan investigative journalist who also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Geographic Society Weekly. Other notable names include Gavin Albright, an up-and-coming documentary filmmaker and urban photography wunderkind Thomas Andrew Petersen, both graduates of the Todd Snapp Photography Program.

Edited by MasterJayAM on Oct 14th 2018 at 3:36:39 AM

New Concept: Lumiose Warp Store

Basically... it's an anomalous "store" that looks abandoned from the outside with a miniature rift inside it that causes anyone that enters to be transported to any number of potential locations (from a door/doorway, of course), including places like the Ersatz Alliance, a building in one of the other regions, or just straight-up rifting you back outside from the same doorway. The location is purely random, with no way to manipulate it to get a certain result, so there's no way for anyone to reliably use it for anything other than experimenting, but if multiple people/Pokemon enter at the same time, they'll all get taken to roughly the same location. Once the Entralink arc is done, it will end up returning to a normal storefront, with nothing of interest inside. It can't take you to places that don't have a door of some kind and once it's been used a few times (about 3-4 groups worth) trying to enter will just result in it kicking you back out no matter what until it's been left alone for a couple hours.

Not gonna lie, kinda nervous about submitting a new idea like this...

This is a fantastic idea and a fantastic way for me to introduce the Blown Mind Ultra Warehouse

sounds interesting! i will admit it interests me for personal "i can port over a character i wasn't intending to" reasons but even besides that i think it sounds fun

(TW: suicide mention)

Hello, everyone. There's something I need to say on someone's behalf.

Some of you have had encounters with Uill in which he threatened to commit suicide. You're likely (and understandably) upset by that, and this post does not in any way aim to diminish your emotions. I've talked with Uill, and he wants to say this:

He is deeply sorry for threatening to commit suicide. He does not intend to commit suicide; in his words, "I don't have even 1% of the guts to actually do it". He did not intend to hurt or terrorize anybody. The reason for this behavior is not because he hates you, but because he is under severe mental distress and needs help. Having done this, however, he fears he has made all of you lose patience and regard him with contempt.

Once again, this is not a guilt trip, and this is not a plea for forgiveness. This is just to say that he meant no harm, and that he will not harm himself.

Both the Geographic Society and Lumiose Warp Store sound good.

Dogs: All right. Tell Uill I wish him luck.

(tw: further suicide mentions)

So I'm aware I'm technically under a ban right now, and that the sight of me is probably making some of you shudder... but there's something I feel the need to add to Dogs' message above.

The suicide threats were probably interpreted by those who received them as attempts to hurt them, and I absolutely understand that you'd think that. However, they weren't. They were a warped attempt to beg for affection from the targets. A primary feature of my anxiety attacks is an all-consuming belief that those close to me secretly hate my guts and want me to suffer. The suicide threats, from my warped, self-loathing perspective in the throes of mental illness, were a test of sorts - a trial to see whether, if I threatened the ultimate form of self-harm and blamed them for it, they'd exhibit any signs of guilt. It was an incredibly fucked-up way to think, and I acknowledge that and don't blame the targets if they loathe me now. Trust me, I hate myself too, for not being able to control these goddamn outbursts no matter how hard I try and restrain myself.

I'm sorry. It probably seems empty, but I am. You don't need to forgive me, but at the very least I don't want you to go through life thinking I don't have a new contender for the moment in my life I feel the most guilt for.

So Tangent and I have been discussing a idea a lot but to put in short, coming soon, Stlyus goes To Angela.

We'll be running a professional circuit type deal in the Region of Angela, Tangent and I have been discussing the finer details about it. We'll be using Pokemon Shuffle Locations and the battle rules are as follows.

• Triple Battle Format
• 4 mons per Team
• Elite 6 and 6 Gym Leaders

And this is where you my fellow WAAPTers come in, Tangent and I need volunteers to run the Elite 6 and the Gym Leaders. Just let us know if you are interested in running a Gym or a Elite and give us a idea of the character and team they'll be using.

I'd be up for a Gym-leader.

Let me think of a type, team, and design, of course.

(I'm thinking either Dark, Ghost, or Flying).

So guess I just made this:

Name: The Bolt! [Civilian name TBD]

Age: Mid-30s

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Latino/Han Chinese

Appearance: A somewhat muscular, somewhat pudgy guy who wears a domino mask and slicks his black hair back. Wears an electric blue costume with several prominent lightning bolt designs.

Ties To an organization: Superhero and Silbern City/Museum Gym Leader

Region of Origin: Angela

Backstory: Grew up attached to the super aesthetic, eventually became one. After a while of superheroics, he was asked to lead the Silbern City Gym, which he ended up doing in costume. Likes to keep his secret identity separate from his public life.

Team:

Note: They all wear domino masks on duty as well.

Name: Lighthouse

Species: Ampharos

Gender: Female

Personality: Grew up as The Bolt's starter, ended up joining him on his superhero antics, wanting to guide people to doing what's right

Name: Golden Surfer

Species: Alolan Raichu

Gender: Male

Personality: Laid back member of the team, kind of a sweet tooth

Name: Skitter

Species: Galvantula

Gender: Female

Personality: Keeps To herself a lot of the time, has some technical knowledge, helped The Bolt be able to shoot Electro Webs with a gadget

Name: Yeller

Species: Pom-Pom Oricorio

Gender: Neutrois

Personality: The newest member, ended up joining after The Bolt went public as one of his fans. Ended up finding out his identity but also ended up joining the team, so it worked out. Excitable And always cheering people on.

Edited by CorvusAtrox on Aug 2nd 2018 at 10:38:53 AM

Now I am here, also! You know, it's always funny when you're on a thread with thousands of posts to go back to the very first page and see people saying 'why do we need this thread?' or 'what a stupid thread idea'.

Yeah, it's still hilarious seeing that when I need to go to the first page of the discussion thread.

A couple of days ago in chat, I mentioned that I had the idea for a media arc based off of the 2011 game Bastion rattling around in the back of my head. I decided I'd put a brief pitch here to gauge interest and see if it has enough meat on its bones to be viable (assuming I remain in a position to actually run an arc in the first place). So, here it is!

How would it work?

Once, there was a city of mons within PMD-A known as Caeldonia, founded by pioneers from across the Boundless Sea. Its inhabitants, known as Caels, were mostly Fighting-type Pokemon, and their greatest achievement - discovering how to gather energy from the Time Gears within its borders - led to boundless prosperity for their adoptive city. The Caels built a grand empire using technology never before seen by any mon... until the Calamity.

The exact cause and nature of the Calamity is still unknown. All that can be said for sure is that it scattered Caeldonia's Time Gears, causing time to stop flowing through the city and leaving its inhabitants frozen where they stood. Since then, the city has been overrun by feral mons, and only a handful of Caels escaped thanks to their proximity to the one remaining place in Caeldonia where time continued to pass - the Bastion.

Basically, I'd be taking the same basic premise of Bastion but using Time Gears in place of Cores. I don't plan on copying the plot exactly, though - all the characters from the game will still be around, but their roles might be slightly altered.

Okay... but how does this affect our characters in any way?

Well, you know that hole in the sky that Mobius opened which keeps opening up even more multidimensional rifts? A Mankey from Caeldonia emerged from one of them, hoping to find someone capable of reversing the Calamity. Only problem is, this particular Faller can't remember the nature of the Calamity, or even his name - he only knows where the Bastion is, and that it's the key to somehow restoring Caeldonia to its former glory.

Basically, this Mankey would be the Kid, accompanied by an adventuring party of 3-5 player characters. But while the Kid is the player character of Bastion and has a backstory of his own, he's not really the protagonist, and I wouldn't want him to play that role in this arc either. Instead, he's mainly there to lead the PCs through the rift to the Bastion, and task them with returning the Time Gears so that they can restore the flow of time to the land. Of course, things are rarely as simple as that...

On a less dense note...

Since I'm making a concerted push for there to be more supervillains to oppose the efforts of both superheroes and J-Teamers, and figured Whiptail's criminal escapades would be more fun if she had someone to quip to, I decided to come up with a second, birb-themed supervillain. Here they are for your perusal.

• Name: Aeroraptor
• Age: Early 20s (presumably)
• Gender: Male
• Ethnicity: Ambiguous
• Appearance: It's hard to say what Aeroraptor looks like, given that he's particularly careful not to be seen without his costume. It resembles a sentai ranger's suit designed to look like a Skarmory, only with the primary colours flipped, so his armour is dark grey with silver and red accents. He also sports a short crimson cape on his shoulder that, despite his best efforts, he can never get to billow quite as dramatically as he'd like.
• Organisational Ties: Whiptail's Gang
• Region of Origin: Unova
• Backstory: Aeroraptor is dramatic, hammy, and for all his attempts at seriousness, seems to be unironically devoted to the "costumed supervillain" schtick. Less interested in financial gain and more in seeking out glory and a good fight, his alliance with Whiptail and her accomplices is more one of convenience than anything. He's still a relative newcomer to the scene, and thus far his exploits have been more attention-seeking than any attempt at grand infamy.

Aeroraptor's Pokemon

• Species: Staraptor
• Nickname: Dynaman
• Gender: Male
• Ability: Intimidate
• Biography: Being Aeroraptor's starter, Dynaman is just as dedicated to the costumed crusader schtick as his trainer, only he seems to genuinely believe that he's the hero rather than the villain. How he manages to keep this up is anyone's guess, but he's still fiercely devoted to Aeroraptor.

• Species: Honchcrow
• Nickname: Neowarrior
• Gender: Female
• Ability: Insomnia
• Biography: Neowarrior is more motivated by greed and self-interest than any grand belief in her trainer's schemes. She sticks around more out of a combination of boredom, apathy, and a curious desire to see what he'll do next.

• Species: Braviary
• Nickname: Turboranger
• Gender: Male
• Ability: Sheer Force
• Biography: Cool, mysterious, competent - these are three words that have never been used to describe Turboranger. He tries, bless his heart, and packs a surprising punch, but he can't make a dramatic entrance to save his life.

• Species: Talonflame
• Nickname: Burnjet
• Gender: Male
• Ability: Flame Body
• Biography: Burnjet just wants to be hugged. Anything that makes physical contact with him tends to catch fire. The combination of these two traits has left him more than a little neurotic.

• Species: Swablu
• Nickname: Darkmask
• Gender: Female
• Ability: Natural Cure
• Biography: The newest member of Aeroraptor's team, Darkmask wants to try and be as cool and intimidating as her trainer. All that's getting in her way is her stutter, her lack of confidence, and the fact that she's an adorable little ball of cotton candy.

Edited by Herbert40k on Aug 5th 2018 at 12:54:51 PM

I might have Ann get involved with the Bastion miniarc if it goes through.

If given a chance, I'd like to get Kala involved with this as well, if at all possible. As nice as wandering is, it can only be done so much before a direction must be taken, after all.

I had been thinking about doing a Bastion miniarc myself, so.

Yeah, count me in.

I am definitely interested in throwing SOMEONE at the Bastion arc, and Aeoraptor looks great

So I linked it in the chat, but I might as well do so here too — I went ahead and made TVT-compatible images for every Z-Move as of USUM! So if you want to use one of these in your post, all you have to do is copy and paste the link et voila. Although I do recommend including [[center:]] tags for them as well ;P

What it looks like in action:

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Aug 7th 2018 at 10:27:52 AM

Okay Bitters that is awesome

Also

Whiptail's Wicked Ways

Just in case people want to know what's going on, I figured I ought to post the details of Whiptail's next heist here. My plan is for her to attempt to steal the Sapphire of the Sunken Kingdom, the second in a set of three gems that venerate the Weather Trio but that don't actually have any magical properties themselves. The sapphire is in the hands of a private collector who runs a Game Corner in Lumiose, so there is a casino open to the public on the lower floors while the collection is kept locked away upstairs.

Whiptail's plan is for Aeroraptor to storm in and create a distraction on the casino floor, allowing her to pilfer the sapphire from upstairs while no-one's watching. However, by this point Shun and JD have learnt what she's after and are staking the place out - but they won't be expecting the chaos on the lower floor. So, if anyone wants their PCs to get caught up in the heist because they happened to be in the wrong Game Corner at the wrong time, just let Silence or I know, and we'll try to give you a heads up when it's happening!

Edited by Herbert40k on Aug 16th 2018 at 1:45:10 PM

throws Jessica and maybe Isbrand at this

I already said I'd throw Jetta at this in the chat, just re-stating that here for the record.

THERE I DID IT

Name: Benedetta Ardizzone

Age: Mid-30s

Ethnicity: [Italian-American]

Region of Origin: Angela

Organizational Ties: Angelan Mafia, [Downtown Los Angeles] Gym Leader

Appearance: Tanned, with medium black hair pulled back in a ponytail and a fit body. Her outfit consists of nice suits with trenchcoats and fedoras.

Background: Born into the world of crime, Benedetta was raised as the daughter of a Mafia boss. Always fascinated with Flying-types, she became a Gym Leader in addition to a Mafia member at 16. Upon the death of her father, Benedetta became the new Mafia boss.

Personality: Benedetta's the kind of person who's always five steps ahead of everyone else. She's intelligent and polite, but don't mistake that for genunine kindness. Piss her off and you will find yourself on the wrong end of a [Colt M1911].

Name: Salvatore

Species: Honchkrow

Ability: Moxie

Gender: Male

Bio: Benedetta's starter (as a Mafia boss she is contractually obligated to have a Honchkrow). Calm, collected, and calculating.

Name: Maria

Species: Staraptor

Ability: Intimidate

Gender: Female

Bio: Maria's the polar opposite of Salvatore - angry, ruthless, and savage.

Name: Capone

Species: Braviary

Ability: Keen Eye

Gender: Male

Bio: A cool individual who loves attention and base pleasures, like fine food and drink.

Name: Vito

Species: Charizard

Ability: Blaze

Gender: Male

Bio: Benedetta's ace. He has a similar personality as her, being smart, polite - affably so - and going absolutely ballistic in combat.

Edited by SwiftSeraph on Aug 12th 2018 at 10:44:27 AM

HAVE SOME STUFF

Commissions and All That

First off, Sylvestra Macraul got quite the number of illustrations from Art Fight, and I've compiled them all here. But that's not all! We also got her descendant and namesake Sylvestre Macraul◊ from JG, as well as this lady◊ and this Umbreon◊! More on them later in this post.

Additionally have two commissions of Rod◊ and Laura◊ by Herbert's brother, Sane Killer!

Thoughts on all of these?

On a related note to these...

Character Bios

I said I wouldn't introduce any more human characters until after this arc.

...I lied.

Name: Iris Aelfric

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Appearance: messy brown hair tied in a ponytail, brown eyes, red shirts, basically this◊.

Organizational Ties: Angelan gym leader

Region: Angela

Bio: Looks like a Fire Monotyper, acts like a Fire Monotyper, dresses and decorates like a Fire monotyper... Is a Water monotyper? Yep, Iris is a gym leader for which opposites attract, not to mention she likes to keep people on their toes. She's even got watery Aura powers, including the ability to morph into "liquid" Aura. Despite her status as Gym leader Iris is independent-minded and kinda wants to explore beyond Angela a little...

Pokemon:

[PENDING] (Starter)

Species: Vaporeon

Gender: Female

Ability: Water Absorb

Bio: [PENDING]

[PENDING]

Species: Dewgong

Gender: Male

Ability: Hydration

Bio: [PENDING]

[PENDING]

Species: Bruxish

Gender: Female

Ability: Dazzling

Bio: [PENDING]

Chuchu

Species: Panpour

Gender: Male

Ability: Torrent

Bio: [PENDING]

[REST OF TEAM PENDING]

Name: Sylvestre Macraul

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Appearance: scraggly short brown hair, cheap trilby, glasses, basically this◊.

Organizational Ties: Art collector

Region: Kalos and Unova

Bio: Bio by JG

Sylvestre Macraul is a lesser-known scion of the infamous Macraul family, a clan of wealthy aristocrats from Kalos who are heavily invested in collecting all manner of strange artifacts. Currently an art collector in Castelia City in Unova, Sylvestre himself styles himself as an art connoisseur and playboy, hanging out with other socialites and claiming to collect "conquests" (though those who know him say these claims are exaggerated) and the avant garde. His eccentricities (far from deviant to the family's work, but terrible for their reputation) have made him a de facto pariah among the Macrauls, who couldn't even be bothered to disown him simply because he's too much work. The family patriarch, Paul, finds this particular nephew to be extremely grating.

Sylvestre is named for his mysterious ancestor, Sylvestra, whose history is shrouded in all manner of rumors.

Pokemon:

Arthur (Starter)

Species: Porygon

Gender: Demimale

Ability: Download

Bio: The ultimate AI butler and bartender. Prone to logic loopholes.

[PENDING]

Species: Umbreon

Gender: Male

Ability: Synchronize

Bio: [PENDING] (looks like this◊ )

[REST OF TEAM PENDING]

Thoughts?

(Iris design credit Foldedstar. Sylvestre design credit JG-abuyan-art. Umbreon design credit Captain Cassidy.)

Hey look, I can make NPC profiles too! :V

Name: Polyxene Krete

Age: Late 30s?

Gender: Female (Transgender)

Ethnicity: Third-generation Anglo-Korean (has noticeable East Asian facial features but is too pale to usually pass as full Korean)

Brief description of their appearance: Gaunt, rather tall and very pale with grey eyes, although she's actually quite toned thanks to her strict exercise regimen. Her hair is naturally lightish brown, but she dyes it an icy-white; it's short and swept back, with the exception of a single large bang that hangs over her face. She's also often seen wearing jangly ear piercings that look like big ice crystals, reminiscent of the ones seen on Avalugg's head.

Her usual dress sense is quite 'retro'; she almost exclusively wears 80s-style power suits with gigantic shoulder pads and eye-catching colours and patterns. She has a preference for stripes and the colours black, white and purple. Sometimes she wears an insulated bodysuit under her clothes to keep her warm in her heavily air-conditioned office.

Any ties to an organization: Is an Executive Vice-President of the Battle Company, and effectively in charge of the company's recently-established Angela branch, headquartered in the Vinter Building in Portokali City. Also moonlights as Portokali City's Gym Leader, based in the same building.

Region of origin: Born and raised in Hoenn, lived in Unova for fourteen years, currently resides in Angela.

Bio: The archetypal business executive, Polyxene Krete is very tight-lipped on her personal affairs, preferring to keep business and pleasure strictly separate - unless it's Pokemon battling, of course. A woman of schedules, she hates it whenever something unexpected happens or her daily plans are interrupted; she values being in total control above all else, and self-admittedly doesn't believe in fate or luck; any setbacks she experiences only have herself to blame, for she clearly didn't plan for it. That's part of the reason why she has a small squadron of Senior Assistants whose job it is to do whatever she asks, just to make sure she remains in control of her schedule.

Not many people know much about her life before she joined the Battle Company; she was originally from Sootopolis City in Hoenn, aspired to usurp Juan as local Gym Leader, had a falling out with her dad over a 'battle addiction', moved to Unova and joined the Battle Company, rising through the ranks at an unprecedented rate before achieving the high rank of Executive Vice-President. She's recently been reassigned to the company's fledgling Angela branch, supposedly to put it in order, although some suspect the CEO hopes she'll learn some kind of lesson from the experience.

Mons:

Species: Glalie

Nickname: Stratosfear

Gender: Female

Ability: Ice Body

Personality/Bio: Polyxene's starter and probably the only Pokemon she caught back when she lived in Hoenn. Stratosfear (or Strato for short) has known her for a long time and is very loyal and dutiful, even if she's also the only one with the guts to brush off her trainer's hardass attitude; she's heard it all at this point.

Species: Walrein

Nickname: Rubycon

Gender: Female

Ability: Thick Fat

Personality/Bio: Polyxene's ace, Rubycon is typically quite vain and prideful; she enjoys grooming her 'luscious, beautiful head-fur' and regards herself as Krete's 'utimate secret weapon'. However, she gets vicious when the odds are against her, especially if someone musses up her look.

Species: Jynx (Shiny)

Nickname: Phaedra

Gender: Female

Ability: Forewarn

Personality/Bio: Phaedra's personality is in many ways a mirror of her trainer's. Blunt and to-the-point, she prefers to end her opponents as quickly as possible - or aid her teammates in doing the same - and will not hesitate to point out their shortcomings; however, much like her trainer, she can get easily frustrated when the tables are turned against her. She and Rubycon are rivals, and often fight for their trainer's attention and praise.

Species: Alolan Sandslash

Nickname: Ricochet

Gender: Male

Ability: Snow Cloak

Personality/Bio: The newest addition to Polyxene's team, Rico is usually considered the odd-one-out of the group. Besides being the team's sole male member, he's also considerably more boisterous and outwardly violent, proudly declaring his willingness to cut up his enemies for his trainer. Krete apparently rescued him from some disaster back in Alola, and as such he highly values his loyalty to her, possibly even more than Strato.

Edited by PresidentStalkeyes on Aug 16th 2018 at 5:24:20 PM

Reminder that I'm not going to be around much tomorrow, or at least not in a position to do any RPing.