This thread is an unproofread repost for reference purposes.
Light Mightyena, Diana, and Kiba
The first to appear for the second round of appeals is Light Mightyena, and the crowd, which had been aroused to excited muttering, quiets down rapidly. All eyes are now on the stage as the trainer steps up, her pokémon already walking by her side. Kiba, the enthusiastic pichu from the previous appeal round, is as chipper as ever. She waves happily at the crowd, one paw clutching at the fur of her teammate to keep herself from falling off his back. Kiba the absol, quite unlike his effervescent partner, is stoic in the face of his audience, offering nothing more than a stony glower at them before Light Mightyena steps back again to make way for the appeal.
Diana jumps down from Kiba's back as the absol comes to a halt, then starts to perform a sprightly, skipping dance around the absol. As she goes, the pichu sings a charming tune, its tempo a bit sedate and soothing for the energetic dance she's doing but pleasant nonetheless. Several members of the audience find themselves slipping into a kind of sleepy trance as the music washes over them, but they do their best to stay awake--they don't want to miss any of this appeal or the ones that come later, after all!
For his part, Kiba starts up a dance of his own, slipping from one battle stance into another as he works his way through an ancient routine designed to focus his mind and enhance his battle prowess. As the dance progresses, it becomes ever more frenetic, and soon the absol is leaping and spinning, his long, curved horn whistling through the air as he tosses his head to the rhythm of his steps. Meanwhile, dark clouds start to gather overhead in response to Diana's erratic, jaunty dance. As Kiba spins to a halt, claws rasping against the stage, the first few drops of rain fall, though Diana keeps dancing and singing. Though the absol is breathing a little heavily after the exertions of his swords dance, he doesn't hesitate to begin a song of his own. The absol's voice is deep and powerful, and the melody he begins, whlie in its own way as beautiful as Diana's, is dark and faintly sinister. The two melodies twine around one another as Diana brings her dance to a halt, the rain escalating to a soaking downpour that has the audience scrambling for umbrellas or holding their programs over their heads in a futile attempt at warding of the water. Diana's light, peaceful song overlays the rumbling, melancholy sound of Kiba's, creating the impression of something a strained peace, something deadly and fell hiding behind a beautiful, calm facade. For a few seconds the two pokémon do nothing but stand on stage, singing their respective songs. As the two tunes come to a close, however, Kiba bends down slightly, tipping his head to the side so that his blade is only a couple of inches above the stage. Diana climbs on top of it and, with a flick of his head, Kiba sends the pichu soaring through the air. As she rises towards the dark clouds overhead, the pichu starts to charge electricity, cheeks sparking for a moment before she releases a concentrated beam of electricity towards the clouds overhead. The charge beam shoots off into the sky while the pichu falls back to earth, landing with a thump on Kiba's back and hastily reaching out to grab hold of his fur to steady herself. The absol grunts faintly when the pichu lands, but other than that remains totally calm and reserved in the face of the crowd's applause. While Diana again laughs delightedly and waves at the audience, Kiba turns silently away and follows his trainer off the stage.
Negrek: 8.8
I like the theme, and overall I think you carried it off well. The last action didn't qutie seem to fit together with the rest, and while the singing part was very pretty, just having the two pokémon stand there and sing with nothing else going on (save the rain) was a little less impactful than it could have been. A nice performance on the whole, though.
Walker: 8.0
It seems very nice to me, and while I assume that Charge Beam was meant to do something, it was awe inspiring none the less.
opaltiger: 7.8
Although a nice performance overall (particularly the first part; I may have mentioned last round I really like appeals that utilise songs in some way), it seemed to be lacking a central unity, especially since the charge beam appeared to do nothing but be there. Mostly it needed a stronger climax. Other than that, a good appeal.
Kratos Aurion, Don Quixote, and Shizuka
Even as Light Mightyena leaves the stage, the clouds are starting to break up and allow the sunlight to beam down again as weather-altering pokémon in the League's employ hastily clear the skies again. By the time Kratos Aurion takes to the stage, the day is again warm and sunny, only the glittering puddles lurking under the bleachers remaining as reminders of the brief shower. The audience pays these no attention anyway, being much more preoccupied with trying to figure out why Kratos looks so much more masculine than he did at the time of the previous round. Of secondary importance is the fact that he is only accompanied by one pokémon, the arcanine Don Quixote, and doesn't appear to be preparing to release any more onto the stage. The faint tremors caused by something very large moving through the ground under the stage go largely unnoticed as a result.
As Kratos Aurion falls back, Don Quixote continues up to center stage, surrounded by several dancing will-o-wisps. The blue balls of fire swirl and dance erratically through the air around the arcanine, but as soon as he's reached the center of attention the arcanine blasts them away with a curtain of flames. The heat wave attack roars out in all directions, vaporizing what water is left over from the previous appeal in an instant, though the faint sizzle that this makes is drowned out by the roar of the flames themselves, and what little steam is generated is torn apart as soon as it appears. Kratos Aurion, standing just outside the reach of the attack, kicks discreetly at the stage.
While the flames generated by his heat wave die away, leaving the stage much hotter and drier than before, Don Quixote breathes out a spinning trail of flame that coils back on itself impossibly, forming a raging column of spinning fire several feet in front of the arcanine, blocking him from view.
Now the audience does notice the movement of the earth, as it is more pronounced now and accompanied by a low rumbling. Moments after the formation of the tall fire spin, there is a great crash as something rips its way up through the stage, scattering bits of wood that are eagerly picked up by the fire spin and consumed. The pokémon that hauls its way out of the hole in the stage is little more than a dark shadow at the center of the flames, but it certainly is a large one, and apparently not terribly bothered by the flames swirling on all sides. It tosses back its head and spits a dense ball of fire into the air. The attack rockets up and out of the fire spin, exploding into the shape of a huge, arcane mark as it sails up into the sky. For a moment the ancient symbol for "fire" is outlined against the sky in streamers of glowing fire before the attack falls apart into scattered wisps of flame that scatter and fade away. Meanwhile, Don Quixote lets the fire spin degenerate, revealing Shizuka the rhydon standing at the center of the attack. She, Kratos, and Don Quixote bow to the cheering crowd before exiting, leaving a ragged hole in the floor of the scorched stage and a few last stubborn tongues of flame weakly circling it, the last remnants of Don Quixote's fire spin attack.
Negrek: 8.0
I'm not sure how well this one went off. I know what you were going for with the whole "Volcano herald/volcano goddess" thing, but I'm not sure how well that was communicated to the audience. As it was, the opening attacks seemed at a disconnect with the ending ones. Also, Shizuka was difficult to see in the middle of the fire spin, which made her entrance a bit less impressive--and the fact that you were going on only one pokémon, rather than two, for most of the appeal was a bit out of place.
Walker: 8.5
This was simply amazing if you ask me, the Pokémon-bursts-out-of-the-middle-of-the-stage thing is creative, although the whole appeal seems to focus more on Shizuka's entrance and less on Don Quitoxe. The whole fireblast into the sky thing is still amazing enough to make up for it though.
opaltiger: 9.5
Very dramatic. An excellent appeal, all throughout - the Will-o-Wisps were a nice touch, if a minor one - it ran very smoothly, which is important. I liked the sudden appearance of the second Pokemon, and the climax was suitably explosive.
Full Metal Cookies, Alphonse, and Edward
There is a brief intermission to allow for the repair of the ripped-up stage, but this only makes the crowd more enthusiastic to witness the return of Full Metal Cookies to giver her second appeal. She tosses two pokéballs into the air, but the sound of their opening is easily drowned out by the cheers of the audience. Once more the huge steelix, Alphonse, takes shape, but this time he is joined by a suave feline, Edward the male persian.
Edward is the first to move, easily outpacing his titanic partner. Darting back and forth across the stage, the persian puts on an impressive show of speed as he starts moving so fast that he is little more than a cream-colored blur shooting back and forth in front of Alphonse. The Steelix doesn't take long to start in on his own command, either, and a raspy grating noise cuts through the air as the segments of his rocky body begin turning and sliding past one another. By the time the steelix has worked up to a veritable cyclone of spinning metal, emitting a noise something like dentist's drill grown to three hundred times the size, Edward is slowing down, three clones sauntering along behind him before he sends them off to range around Alphonse. As the steelix's furious polishing finally comes to a halt, he is noticeably more shiny and smoother than before--and warm to the touch as well, the friction of his body's segments grinding against one another having generated quite a bit of heat.
This last fact is, fortunately, one that Edward won't be forced to discover firsthand. He and his clones turn to look up at Alphonse, the gems in their foreheads glowing momentarily before firing effulgent columns of ruby energy into the steelix. Upon striking his mirrored body, the beams scatter, filling the air with a cascade of refracted light that shimmers and sparkles enticingly as it falls back towards the stage. Though a little stung by the attack, Alphonse doesn't let his pain show as he tosses back his head and lets out a powerful, rumbling roar. As he does so, golden light starts to spill out around his teeth, a ball of pure energy collecting at the back of his throat. As the power gem attack fades away, Edward and his clones tilt their heads back as well, the jewels on their foreheads now glowing yellow as they, too, begin charging power.
Alphonse is the first to launch his attack, letting a huge column of blinding gold energy erupt from his mouth and shoot straight up into the sky. The hyper beam attack is soon joined by four more as Edward and his clones unleash their own. The five hyper beams, three of which are illusions (but which appear just as impressive as the real thing) meet in the air above Alphonse's head. The collision of such immense energies causes a blinding explosion of intense light, and by the time the members of the audience are able to see anything at all again, Edward's clones have disappeared and he is standing calmly in front of Alphonse, the two of them nodding to the crowd as the applause starts. Full Metal Cookies recalls them both, bows, and then makes way for the next coordinator.
Negrek: 8.3
I liked this one a lot, actually. The first action was kind of eh, as it was more or less just a power-up for the two pokémon, and I think you could have done something more with Alphonse than just roar on the second action, but it was still pretty impressive. Alternatively, I may just be easily distracted by shiny things.
Walker: 10.0
Overall a nice appeal, a great way to make use of Steelix's size and reflective surface, and it has a nice bit of (maybe unintended...?) now-you-see-it-now-you-don't thrown in with the clones' disappearance.
opaltiger: 8.7
After the Double Team I was already growing skeptical (most DT appeals lose something in the setup), but this was a very nice appeal; I especially liked the idea of the reflected attack, and explosions make for oh-so-wonderful finishes.
Kusarigamaitachi, Hokage, and Vector
Kusarigamaitachi is up next, and it enters looking remarkably more androgynous than during the previous appeal round. A few of the crowd mutter and peer into their sodas in suspicion, confused by all the gender-bending that seems to be going on in this contest, but most have long forgotten that things were ever any different. In any case, most are far more interested in the pokéballs Kusarigamaitachi tosses into the air than in questioning its precise gender.
Hokage the charizard and Vector the raticate take to the stage in twin bursts of light, the fire-type winging up into the air almost immediately upon materializing. His rodent companion takes a moment to stare out at the crowd, thick whiskers twitching, before he appears to notice the charizard winging overhead. With a yelp, the rat takes off in a blur of motion, shooting around and around the stage in search of some way to escape. Overhead, Hokage does his best to keep up, but the raticate is moving extremely fast. Vector realizes this and slows down a bit until he's just running around normally, and Hokage angles his wings and shoots down towards the raticate.
Vector stops, glancing left and right in desperation, for no means of escape from the stage has presented itself (save, of course, the usual exits), but then flinches and looks up as Hokage opens his mouth and lets out a deafening roar. Drawing himself, the raticate chatters out something defiant, then leaps straight at the face of the diving charizard.
This action is, ultimately, extremely unwise. Hokage's gaping jaws close easily around the raticate's midriff, and he comes in for a neat landing on the stage despite the raticate's struggles. Oozing dark energy, mixed with a bit of blood, dribbles down the charizard's snout, and Vector's drawn-out squeal grates on the ears of all in attendance. As the reedy cry dies away, however, the raticate slowly stops struggling, going limp in Hokage's jaws. The charizard drops the raticate to the stage with a final thump, and the raticate lies still as the audience looks on with horror. Hokage flares his wings and lets out a final triumphant roar, just for effect, before Kusarigamaitachi recalls both him and his partner and calmly walks off the stage.
Negrek: 7.5
This is a tricky one to grade. While on the one hand, it does do a good job of showing off both pokémon's capabilities and was put together all right, on the other I don't know that it's really something people would want to watch. That's not to say that fairly violent, "fatal" appeals can't be done (see Jade Dragonair's below), but yours was not as obviously just for show and choreographed; sort of more a Discovery Channel wildlife special, if you will. IMO your audience is going to be more grossed out by that than impressed. Creative take on appeal structure, but one I'm rather unsure of.
Walker: 6.7
*alerts PETP* Now as we wait for them to arrive and arrest you for the harm done to your Raticate, my grading. A decent appeal, it was carried out nicely and makes good work of Charizard and Raticate's predator and prey relationship, but I'm just not too fond of it for some reason. I guess I'm just not the sadistic type like you.
opaltiger: 9.7
Haha, this was cool. Originality is fun, and I don't think I've ever seen someone put on a drama performance before. Nothing much to say, except that I love the idea and I think you did very nicely with the time available.
Sasori, Drako, and Volt
The crowd is still shaken when Sasori takes to the stage, but after a slight delay, they start to applaud his appearance. Sasori smiles and waves, then tosses his pokéballs into the air to release Drako and a new competitor, Volt, onto the stage. The little elekid looks a bit nervous as he looks out at the audience, but Drako gives a gruff snort that snaps the electric-type back to attention in no time.
While his trainer hastens to get out of the way, Volt raises his claws over his head even as the spark plug extensions on his head start to fizzle and pop with electrical charge. From the elekid's glowing claws flies a flurry of stars, while long, crackling tendrils of electricity radiate from his body. Drako sees his cue and starts to spin, periodically spitting bursts of fire into the mixture of stars and waves of electricity.
Unfortunately, while the discharge attack does go shooting through the swift, crackling in around the glowing stars, the swift itself flies apart very quickly, scattering across the stage with sizzling lines of electricity jagging after it. Though Drako tries to aim his jets of fire through the swirl of attacks, to do so is difficult both because his aim is somewhat shaky due to the spinning and because flamethrower itself is not an attack well-suited to being applied in short bursts. As it is, however, he does manage to shoot a couple of streamers through the glowing, hissing cloud of stars and bolts before the ever-expanding attacks at last engulf him.
The charmeleon snorts as he is buffeted by stars, a wave of electricity striking soon after and sending painful shudders racing through his body. He can't stop now, though, and even as the attacks shoot outward, spreading farther still, he moves on into his next attack. The flame on his tail grows and brightens, burning white-hot as Drako charges towards the front of the stage. The air around him ripples and shimmers with the heat radiating from the charmeleon's crimson scales, and as he tosses back his head to let out a roar, flickering shreds of fire fall from his jaws. A moment later, the charemeleon's entire body explodes in a sheet of fire, leaving him running at the center of a miniature firestorm that scorches the floorboards below and leaves glowing embers dancing in his wake.
Volt, meanwhile, exerts all the psychic energy he can muster to grab the charmeleon and lift him from the ground. The elekid's eyes glow blue, and he strains to raise the larger pokémon into the air. Not very well-practiced with psychic attacks, the electric-type nevertheless manages to avert crisis at least: before Drako can go running straight off the edge of the stage, he is surrounded by a blue glow and finds himself rising into the air, legs flailing uselessly as he is borne gently upwards. Volt manages to lift the charmeleon perhaps two feet before he is forced to stop, at the limit of his psychic abilities. Sweating, the elekid grins weakly at the crowd and tries to strike an intimidating pose, eyes glowing blue, while Drako waits patiently to be let down.
As the crowd begins to applaud, Volt gratefully lets go of Drako, and the charmeleon falls back to the stage with a soft thump. As the flare blitz around his body dies out, the fire-type bows to the audience, then turns to join his trainer and Volt as the two make their way offstage.
Negrek: 5.5
This one didn't work out too well for a few reasons. First, swift and discharge are both attacks that spread rapidly; to really get the effect of electricity going through the swift stars, you'd need to make it a combo. Second, these attacks also strike everything else in their path, so in the partner appeal you have the issue of injuring the other performer unless they're immune to the attacks. Third, flamethrower isn't the best attack to try and create small, artful bursts out of. Finally, elekid have only weak psychic abilities, and trying to hold up a charmeleon that's moving around a lot for any considerable length of time is extremely difficult as a consequence. In general, this one didn't flow very well and, unfortunately, didn't reflect the capabilities of the parties involved very well.
Walker: 6.0
Not so good. In theory, the Swift-Discharge-Flamethrower combination could've been great, but it was foiled by poor choice I think. A non-damaging move like Thunderwave probably could have gotten away with dancing on the Swift stars, and maybe a less linear fire attack like Ember would have been easier to get between the stars. Drako's Flare Blitz-Fir Fang combo was nice, and it had a nice (again, maybe unintended..?) dragon tamer effect with Volt catching him.
opaltiger: 6.3
This appeal appears to be a good idea ruined by a rather difficult execution. I'd say it was also slightly too complicated, with the mixture of things going on, and it just sort of fell apart on itself; lacking also any real finish.
Music Dragon, G'doo, and Albus Dumbledork
Music Dragon comes onstage grinning, his pokéballs already at the ready. He wastes no time in releasing G'doo the claydol and Albus Dumbledork the dratini. Neither pokémon seems fazed by their appearance in front of so many people--though it's not exactly easy to discern G'doo's expression, and the applause has barely had a chance to die down to respectful silence as the two pokémon begin their appeal.
Albus Dumbledork begins to dance, wriggling and twisting back and forth across the stage. At the same time, "Macho Man" starts to roar from the contest hall's speakers, startling several members of the audience and causing others to cringe. On the stage, G'doo starts up a high-speed spin, turning into an indistinct whirling blur in the air. From the claydol's numerous blank eyes beam multicolored columns of psychic force, filling the air with a rippling, shimmering field of psychic power. As Albus continues his dance, he takes every opportunity to show off for the ladies of the crowd, waggling his ears and tossing a coy wink to one or two of them. Even as he does so, the dratini breathes a fine mist out of his nostrils, shrouding himself and then the stage at large with a fine layer of rippling, drifting haze. G'doo, by now, has worked up to shooting little shards of rock in all directions in addition to psybeams, and sharp bits of stone go spinning in all directions, flung away from the claydol by the force of his spinning. A few strike Albus Dumbledork, leaving small cuts on his scaly body, but the dratini does his best to ignore them--he won't allow his performance to be compromised that easily! As the stealth rock attack floats eerily in midair, casting weird shadows across the stage as G'doo's psybeams bounce off it, Albus finishes his dance and the music comes to an end. The stage is left awash in mist and covered by a layer of floating rocks. As G'doo slows to a halt and cuts the lights, the audience starts to cheer, and Albus Dumbledork, not missing the opportunity to be charming, shows off to the crowd for a couple more seconds before the recall beam of his pokéball. Music Dragon smiles, waves to the crowd, and then departs, the mist dissipating and the stealth rocks falling out of the air as he does.
Negrek: 9.0
Trippy. Stealth rock ended up hurting Albus, which was unfortunate, and the captivate attack's maximum effectiveness was only realized on about half the audience. You were asking a little much of your pokémon, as well, to have all those commands crammed into a single action. Very different, though, as always, and a real sight to see.
Walker: 10.0
Well, I managed to narrowly avoid my brain melting from the music by gouging out my eardrums so all is good there. :D Overall a nice appeal, G'doo's disco ball role probably could've been much better had he been something reflective, but it was still pulled off very well. Albus' dance & captivate was done well, and the mist obscuring the stealth rocks was very clever of you. No offense MD, all music apart from VG Music gives me brain damage, not just yours. ;;
opaltiger: 9.7
Another original idea, whoo. I can't say much of your choice in music, but you have the requisite disco ball and dramatic mist effects, so it is not overly annoying. Really, I can't find anything overly wrong with this.
Chiropterus, Dolce, and Lumiere
The current frontrunner, Chiropterus, enters to a shower of enthusiastic cheers and applause. The audience quiets down quickly, however, not wanting to miss the appeal as Chiropterus tosses first one pokéball, then another, to the stage. From the first bursts Dolce, oriented sideways so that her neck won't block the second pokémon to appear: a small roselia by the name of Lumiere. While the lapras is serene and hardly bats an eyelash at the sight of the hushed crowd, Lumiere isn't so certain of himself.
Fortunately, it is easy for him to mask nerves with unhappiness, and the roselia slouches dejectedly on Dolce's shell, shaking his head as he looks out at the empty expanse of empty (if oft-repaired) boards that make up the stage. It certainly is stark--though not for long. Tilting her head back, Docle spews a roaring column of water into the air. The hydro pump surges an impressive five feet into the air before Dolce cuts it off and grabs hold of it with her psychic powers, preventing it from raining back onto the stage. Exerting intense concentration, she causes the long streamer of water to twist and coil in on itself, swimming through the air like a living thing, although Dolce can't do very much to make it look overtly serpentine. Nevertheless, Lumiere doesn't have to exert a great deal of imagination to act entranced by the watery apparition. As it drifts out to the front of the stage, the roselia hastens to follow, keeping his eyes trained upwards and nearly tripping several times on the irregular bumps and spikes on Dolce's shell. Once he leaps down from the Lapras' back the going is much easier, however, and he soon catches up to the hydro pump.
Dolce is grateful, because her fairly weak psychic powers are already starting to be strained. Now comes the most difficult part: splitting the hydro pump into two parts, Dolce flattens and spreads it out with her mind into her best imitation of wings. Unfortunately, about the best she can manage is a kind of two-part dome of water over Lumiere's head, but it matters little; Dolce can only hold that formation for a second or so before she is forced to explode the hydro pump into a scattering of droplets, lest it simply fall apart as her psychic attack weakens.
Seeing his cue, Lumiere starts to dance, raising his roses into the air and shooting petals and leaves in all directions. As he dances, they swirl and spin in the air around him, though the performance is soon obscured by a roaring swirl of greenery. A whirling tornado of glowing green leaves, formed of pure energy, encircles both Dolce and Lumiere in a fierce blizzard of grass-type energy. From somewhere within the storm comes the low, melodic tolling of a bell, and as time goes on, a delightful, soothing scent begins to waft from the stage as well. As the leaf storm begins to die down, leaves vanishing out of its spinning fury one by one, Lumiere can again be seen, still dancing away in a smaller cloud of leaves and petals. The bell continues to ring, now visible above Dolce's head as a glittering, crystal-clear construct made of pure energy. As the leaf storm grows steadily weaker, fading away into thin air, Lumiere's dance begins to wind down as well, until the roselia is standing still in a joyful pose, a broad grin upon his face, as the last few flower petals and leaves drift to the stage around him. The bell over Dolce's head dissolves after one final peal, and for a moment the air is silent as the two pokémon wait, frozen in place. Then the applause starts up, and Lumiere lets his act drop with a grateful sigh, wilting slightly. The very tired roselia and lapras are recalled, and after taking a moment to acknowledge the applause, Chiropterus departs as well, clearing the stage to make way for the eigth and final appeal.
Negrek: 7.6
There are some very nice aspects to this appeal, but I saw two major problems with it: first that lapras isn't a very prodigious psychic, and the degree of water manipulation you asked Dolce to do was a bit beyond her abilities. Second, the leaf storm pretty much obscured everything on stage while it was going on, and it interfered with the aromatherapy a bit as well. Although only about half of this appeal was really "visual," some of the effect was lost simply because the audience wasn't able to see much save the swirling leaves for most of the second half. While pretty, the leaf storm reduced the impact of some of the other moves.
Walker: 8.5
This was a great appeal, it makes great use of both Dolce and Lumiere's powers, and the Heal Bell did add a nice touch. The only thing that held you back in my opinion, was that Dolce couldn't quite get the water in the shape you wanted it, but it is very minor and didn't seem to affect the overall performance.
opaltiger: 8.8
Perhaps the Hydro Pump didn't work out as spectacularly as possible, but it seems to have had no negative effect on the appeal, which is quite fortunate for you; other than this slightly shaky start, the appeal progressed nicely, and if perhaps not quite as dramatic or skillful as your first, it was nevertheless an excellent performance (I liked the bell!).
Jade Dragonair, Zero, and Fornax
The stage is hastily swept clean, but no coordinator appears to take Chiropterus' place. From the left a sneasel appears, leering up at the audience for a moment before snapping to attention as Zero enters from the right. The sleepy-looking abra doesn't look terribly fearsome or angry, but there's plent of force behind the "You!" that rings in the minds of every spectator as the abra's slitted eyes fall on Fornax.
In a blur of motion the sneasel rushes across the stage, one paw lashing out to cut a thin gash down Zero's chest. The abra staggers, then retaliates, his fist hissing and crackling with electrical charge as he slams it into Fornax's chest.
The attack only serve to make Fornax more angry, and he immediately launches into a flashy bit of claw-play, unleashing a fury of jabs and slices at Zero. The abra falls back as the sneasel's claws cut through the air around him, unexpected leaps and lunges on Fornax's part occasionally make dodging impossible for Zero, and the sneasel's claws leave thin cuts across his carapace. At last growing fed up with the dance, the abra takes a particularly large leap back, green light glowing between his paws as he summons life energy into a messy ball. As Fornax moves to reengage, leering maniacally, the abra launches the energy ball straight at the sneasel's chest.
The force of the impact hurls Fornax away in a burst of pulsing green globules of energy, the remnants of the energy ball attack. The sneasel hits the stage hard and skids; upon coming to a rest, he lies very still, making no move to get up--or any move at all for that matter. Rubbing a particularly deep cut on his shoulder, Zero stalks over to the sneasel's supine form and stands above it, glowering down at his opponent. When the sneasel continues to lie where he has fallen, the abra turns on his heel and walks off the stage, tail lashing the air behind him as he goes. The audience is then treated to a most perplexing sight: the sneasel lying with a livid bruise spreading across his chest and the abra gone entirely. Then, from behind the stage, a thin, reedy song starts up; unfortunately, there are no microphones in that area, and people have to strain to hear the abra's voice at all. Perhaps this is for the better; though Zero may have some musical talent, his species is not very giften in the tonal arts, and in comparison to the earlier musical displays this contest, his attempt would probably have seemed a bit lacking. As the audience strains their ears, perplexed, the sky begins to darken. The clouds, banished since the beginning of their contest, eagerly make their return, rolling in to shroud the stage and stands in shadow. As a few raindrops splatter to earth, the audience scrambles to find defense against the storm. Fornax's sudden move catches their attention nevertheless. Slowly, the sneasel raises his head and turns to face the audience, a broad, toothy grin on his face. The rain intensifies, and as water sheets down onto the stage, Zero reappears with Jade Dragonair, who helps Fornax up and then bows with her pokémon as the crowd, snapped out of their temporary shock and unease by her appearance, start in on enthusiastic applause.
Negrek: 8.5
This one was pretty nice. It came together nicely up until the end, which was a bit strange, what with Zero walking off the stage like that and leaving you with several seconds of awkward "dead air time." Also, the singing thing was a bit strange--the abra line doesn't even get plain old sing, or indeed any really vocal kinds of attacks, so I think that that particular aspect of the appeal detracted from the overall performance rather than helped it. The very end of it, with Fornax grinning, was pretty cool, but in the end it just got a bit awkward in that last action where nothing appeared to be happening.
Walker: 8.0
This was a good appeal, if only hurt a bit by the fact that Abra aren't the loudest (or best, for that matter) singers in the world. Not much else I can think to say other than, thank Din there were no microphones backstage. :D
opaltiger: 7.1
Well, this was strange. While the idea of a play-acted battle is interesting, I think Kusarigamaitachi's execution, while similar, worked better since it had more of a dramatic life-and-death chase quality to it; here, you're basically showing us a battle, which we see more or less every day. Still, nothing blatantly wrong.
With the close of the eigth and final appeal comes a resurgence in noise from the crowd, as the members of the audience eagerly discuss just what they thought of the second round's appeals. Speculation over who will move on runs rampant throughout the stands, and people stare up at the great, dark digital screen that will soon display the scores, willing the judges to grade faster. After what seems an age, the board flickers to life and numbers and names start to appear on the screen, the delight of the cheering crowd below.
From here, Music Dragon, Full Metal Cookies, Kratos Aurion, and Chiropter will need to (re)post their final appeals. The twist this time is that you get to make up the stage terrain yourself. Also, the pokémon used for your final appeal must be the one introduced for this round of the double appeals.
Appeal Round Two
Light Mightyena, Diana, and Kiba
The first to appear for the second round of appeals is Light Mightyena, and the crowd, which had been aroused to excited muttering, quiets down rapidly. All eyes are now on the stage as the trainer steps up, her pokémon already walking by her side. Kiba, the enthusiastic pichu from the previous appeal round, is as chipper as ever. She waves happily at the crowd, one paw clutching at the fur of her teammate to keep herself from falling off his back. Kiba the absol, quite unlike his effervescent partner, is stoic in the face of his audience, offering nothing more than a stony glower at them before Light Mightyena steps back again to make way for the appeal.
Diana jumps down from Kiba's back as the absol comes to a halt, then starts to perform a sprightly, skipping dance around the absol. As she goes, the pichu sings a charming tune, its tempo a bit sedate and soothing for the energetic dance she's doing but pleasant nonetheless. Several members of the audience find themselves slipping into a kind of sleepy trance as the music washes over them, but they do their best to stay awake--they don't want to miss any of this appeal or the ones that come later, after all!
For his part, Kiba starts up a dance of his own, slipping from one battle stance into another as he works his way through an ancient routine designed to focus his mind and enhance his battle prowess. As the dance progresses, it becomes ever more frenetic, and soon the absol is leaping and spinning, his long, curved horn whistling through the air as he tosses his head to the rhythm of his steps. Meanwhile, dark clouds start to gather overhead in response to Diana's erratic, jaunty dance. As Kiba spins to a halt, claws rasping against the stage, the first few drops of rain fall, though Diana keeps dancing and singing. Though the absol is breathing a little heavily after the exertions of his swords dance, he doesn't hesitate to begin a song of his own. The absol's voice is deep and powerful, and the melody he begins, whlie in its own way as beautiful as Diana's, is dark and faintly sinister. The two melodies twine around one another as Diana brings her dance to a halt, the rain escalating to a soaking downpour that has the audience scrambling for umbrellas or holding their programs over their heads in a futile attempt at warding of the water. Diana's light, peaceful song overlays the rumbling, melancholy sound of Kiba's, creating the impression of something a strained peace, something deadly and fell hiding behind a beautiful, calm facade. For a few seconds the two pokémon do nothing but stand on stage, singing their respective songs. As the two tunes come to a close, however, Kiba bends down slightly, tipping his head to the side so that his blade is only a couple of inches above the stage. Diana climbs on top of it and, with a flick of his head, Kiba sends the pichu soaring through the air. As she rises towards the dark clouds overhead, the pichu starts to charge electricity, cheeks sparking for a moment before she releases a concentrated beam of electricity towards the clouds overhead. The charge beam shoots off into the sky while the pichu falls back to earth, landing with a thump on Kiba's back and hastily reaching out to grab hold of his fur to steady herself. The absol grunts faintly when the pichu lands, but other than that remains totally calm and reserved in the face of the crowd's applause. While Diana again laughs delightedly and waves at the audience, Kiba turns silently away and follows his trainer off the stage.
Negrek: 8.8
I like the theme, and overall I think you carried it off well. The last action didn't qutie seem to fit together with the rest, and while the singing part was very pretty, just having the two pokémon stand there and sing with nothing else going on (save the rain) was a little less impactful than it could have been. A nice performance on the whole, though.
Walker: 8.0
It seems very nice to me, and while I assume that Charge Beam was meant to do something, it was awe inspiring none the less.
opaltiger: 7.8
Although a nice performance overall (particularly the first part; I may have mentioned last round I really like appeals that utilise songs in some way), it seemed to be lacking a central unity, especially since the charge beam appeared to do nothing but be there. Mostly it needed a stronger climax. Other than that, a good appeal.
Kratos Aurion, Don Quixote, and Shizuka
Even as Light Mightyena leaves the stage, the clouds are starting to break up and allow the sunlight to beam down again as weather-altering pokémon in the League's employ hastily clear the skies again. By the time Kratos Aurion takes to the stage, the day is again warm and sunny, only the glittering puddles lurking under the bleachers remaining as reminders of the brief shower. The audience pays these no attention anyway, being much more preoccupied with trying to figure out why Kratos looks so much more masculine than he did at the time of the previous round. Of secondary importance is the fact that he is only accompanied by one pokémon, the arcanine Don Quixote, and doesn't appear to be preparing to release any more onto the stage. The faint tremors caused by something very large moving through the ground under the stage go largely unnoticed as a result.
As Kratos Aurion falls back, Don Quixote continues up to center stage, surrounded by several dancing will-o-wisps. The blue balls of fire swirl and dance erratically through the air around the arcanine, but as soon as he's reached the center of attention the arcanine blasts them away with a curtain of flames. The heat wave attack roars out in all directions, vaporizing what water is left over from the previous appeal in an instant, though the faint sizzle that this makes is drowned out by the roar of the flames themselves, and what little steam is generated is torn apart as soon as it appears. Kratos Aurion, standing just outside the reach of the attack, kicks discreetly at the stage.
While the flames generated by his heat wave die away, leaving the stage much hotter and drier than before, Don Quixote breathes out a spinning trail of flame that coils back on itself impossibly, forming a raging column of spinning fire several feet in front of the arcanine, blocking him from view.
Now the audience does notice the movement of the earth, as it is more pronounced now and accompanied by a low rumbling. Moments after the formation of the tall fire spin, there is a great crash as something rips its way up through the stage, scattering bits of wood that are eagerly picked up by the fire spin and consumed. The pokémon that hauls its way out of the hole in the stage is little more than a dark shadow at the center of the flames, but it certainly is a large one, and apparently not terribly bothered by the flames swirling on all sides. It tosses back its head and spits a dense ball of fire into the air. The attack rockets up and out of the fire spin, exploding into the shape of a huge, arcane mark as it sails up into the sky. For a moment the ancient symbol for "fire" is outlined against the sky in streamers of glowing fire before the attack falls apart into scattered wisps of flame that scatter and fade away. Meanwhile, Don Quixote lets the fire spin degenerate, revealing Shizuka the rhydon standing at the center of the attack. She, Kratos, and Don Quixote bow to the cheering crowd before exiting, leaving a ragged hole in the floor of the scorched stage and a few last stubborn tongues of flame weakly circling it, the last remnants of Don Quixote's fire spin attack.
Negrek: 8.0
I'm not sure how well this one went off. I know what you were going for with the whole "Volcano herald/volcano goddess" thing, but I'm not sure how well that was communicated to the audience. As it was, the opening attacks seemed at a disconnect with the ending ones. Also, Shizuka was difficult to see in the middle of the fire spin, which made her entrance a bit less impressive--and the fact that you were going on only one pokémon, rather than two, for most of the appeal was a bit out of place.
Walker: 8.5
This was simply amazing if you ask me, the Pokémon-bursts-out-of-the-middle-of-the-stage thing is creative, although the whole appeal seems to focus more on Shizuka's entrance and less on Don Quitoxe. The whole fireblast into the sky thing is still amazing enough to make up for it though.
opaltiger: 9.5
Very dramatic. An excellent appeal, all throughout - the Will-o-Wisps were a nice touch, if a minor one - it ran very smoothly, which is important. I liked the sudden appearance of the second Pokemon, and the climax was suitably explosive.
Full Metal Cookies, Alphonse, and Edward
There is a brief intermission to allow for the repair of the ripped-up stage, but this only makes the crowd more enthusiastic to witness the return of Full Metal Cookies to giver her second appeal. She tosses two pokéballs into the air, but the sound of their opening is easily drowned out by the cheers of the audience. Once more the huge steelix, Alphonse, takes shape, but this time he is joined by a suave feline, Edward the male persian.
Edward is the first to move, easily outpacing his titanic partner. Darting back and forth across the stage, the persian puts on an impressive show of speed as he starts moving so fast that he is little more than a cream-colored blur shooting back and forth in front of Alphonse. The Steelix doesn't take long to start in on his own command, either, and a raspy grating noise cuts through the air as the segments of his rocky body begin turning and sliding past one another. By the time the steelix has worked up to a veritable cyclone of spinning metal, emitting a noise something like dentist's drill grown to three hundred times the size, Edward is slowing down, three clones sauntering along behind him before he sends them off to range around Alphonse. As the steelix's furious polishing finally comes to a halt, he is noticeably more shiny and smoother than before--and warm to the touch as well, the friction of his body's segments grinding against one another having generated quite a bit of heat.
This last fact is, fortunately, one that Edward won't be forced to discover firsthand. He and his clones turn to look up at Alphonse, the gems in their foreheads glowing momentarily before firing effulgent columns of ruby energy into the steelix. Upon striking his mirrored body, the beams scatter, filling the air with a cascade of refracted light that shimmers and sparkles enticingly as it falls back towards the stage. Though a little stung by the attack, Alphonse doesn't let his pain show as he tosses back his head and lets out a powerful, rumbling roar. As he does so, golden light starts to spill out around his teeth, a ball of pure energy collecting at the back of his throat. As the power gem attack fades away, Edward and his clones tilt their heads back as well, the jewels on their foreheads now glowing yellow as they, too, begin charging power.
Alphonse is the first to launch his attack, letting a huge column of blinding gold energy erupt from his mouth and shoot straight up into the sky. The hyper beam attack is soon joined by four more as Edward and his clones unleash their own. The five hyper beams, three of which are illusions (but which appear just as impressive as the real thing) meet in the air above Alphonse's head. The collision of such immense energies causes a blinding explosion of intense light, and by the time the members of the audience are able to see anything at all again, Edward's clones have disappeared and he is standing calmly in front of Alphonse, the two of them nodding to the crowd as the applause starts. Full Metal Cookies recalls them both, bows, and then makes way for the next coordinator.
Negrek: 8.3
I liked this one a lot, actually. The first action was kind of eh, as it was more or less just a power-up for the two pokémon, and I think you could have done something more with Alphonse than just roar on the second action, but it was still pretty impressive. Alternatively, I may just be easily distracted by shiny things.
Walker: 10.0
Overall a nice appeal, a great way to make use of Steelix's size and reflective surface, and it has a nice bit of (maybe unintended...?) now-you-see-it-now-you-don't thrown in with the clones' disappearance.
opaltiger: 8.7
After the Double Team I was already growing skeptical (most DT appeals lose something in the setup), but this was a very nice appeal; I especially liked the idea of the reflected attack, and explosions make for oh-so-wonderful finishes.
Kusarigamaitachi, Hokage, and Vector
Kusarigamaitachi is up next, and it enters looking remarkably more androgynous than during the previous appeal round. A few of the crowd mutter and peer into their sodas in suspicion, confused by all the gender-bending that seems to be going on in this contest, but most have long forgotten that things were ever any different. In any case, most are far more interested in the pokéballs Kusarigamaitachi tosses into the air than in questioning its precise gender.
Hokage the charizard and Vector the raticate take to the stage in twin bursts of light, the fire-type winging up into the air almost immediately upon materializing. His rodent companion takes a moment to stare out at the crowd, thick whiskers twitching, before he appears to notice the charizard winging overhead. With a yelp, the rat takes off in a blur of motion, shooting around and around the stage in search of some way to escape. Overhead, Hokage does his best to keep up, but the raticate is moving extremely fast. Vector realizes this and slows down a bit until he's just running around normally, and Hokage angles his wings and shoots down towards the raticate.
Vector stops, glancing left and right in desperation, for no means of escape from the stage has presented itself (save, of course, the usual exits), but then flinches and looks up as Hokage opens his mouth and lets out a deafening roar. Drawing himself, the raticate chatters out something defiant, then leaps straight at the face of the diving charizard.
This action is, ultimately, extremely unwise. Hokage's gaping jaws close easily around the raticate's midriff, and he comes in for a neat landing on the stage despite the raticate's struggles. Oozing dark energy, mixed with a bit of blood, dribbles down the charizard's snout, and Vector's drawn-out squeal grates on the ears of all in attendance. As the reedy cry dies away, however, the raticate slowly stops struggling, going limp in Hokage's jaws. The charizard drops the raticate to the stage with a final thump, and the raticate lies still as the audience looks on with horror. Hokage flares his wings and lets out a final triumphant roar, just for effect, before Kusarigamaitachi recalls both him and his partner and calmly walks off the stage.
Negrek: 7.5
This is a tricky one to grade. While on the one hand, it does do a good job of showing off both pokémon's capabilities and was put together all right, on the other I don't know that it's really something people would want to watch. That's not to say that fairly violent, "fatal" appeals can't be done (see Jade Dragonair's below), but yours was not as obviously just for show and choreographed; sort of more a Discovery Channel wildlife special, if you will. IMO your audience is going to be more grossed out by that than impressed. Creative take on appeal structure, but one I'm rather unsure of.
Walker: 6.7
*alerts PETP* Now as we wait for them to arrive and arrest you for the harm done to your Raticate, my grading. A decent appeal, it was carried out nicely and makes good work of Charizard and Raticate's predator and prey relationship, but I'm just not too fond of it for some reason. I guess I'm just not the sadistic type like you.
opaltiger: 9.7
Haha, this was cool. Originality is fun, and I don't think I've ever seen someone put on a drama performance before. Nothing much to say, except that I love the idea and I think you did very nicely with the time available.
Sasori, Drako, and Volt
The crowd is still shaken when Sasori takes to the stage, but after a slight delay, they start to applaud his appearance. Sasori smiles and waves, then tosses his pokéballs into the air to release Drako and a new competitor, Volt, onto the stage. The little elekid looks a bit nervous as he looks out at the audience, but Drako gives a gruff snort that snaps the electric-type back to attention in no time.
While his trainer hastens to get out of the way, Volt raises his claws over his head even as the spark plug extensions on his head start to fizzle and pop with electrical charge. From the elekid's glowing claws flies a flurry of stars, while long, crackling tendrils of electricity radiate from his body. Drako sees his cue and starts to spin, periodically spitting bursts of fire into the mixture of stars and waves of electricity.
Unfortunately, while the discharge attack does go shooting through the swift, crackling in around the glowing stars, the swift itself flies apart very quickly, scattering across the stage with sizzling lines of electricity jagging after it. Though Drako tries to aim his jets of fire through the swirl of attacks, to do so is difficult both because his aim is somewhat shaky due to the spinning and because flamethrower itself is not an attack well-suited to being applied in short bursts. As it is, however, he does manage to shoot a couple of streamers through the glowing, hissing cloud of stars and bolts before the ever-expanding attacks at last engulf him.
The charmeleon snorts as he is buffeted by stars, a wave of electricity striking soon after and sending painful shudders racing through his body. He can't stop now, though, and even as the attacks shoot outward, spreading farther still, he moves on into his next attack. The flame on his tail grows and brightens, burning white-hot as Drako charges towards the front of the stage. The air around him ripples and shimmers with the heat radiating from the charmeleon's crimson scales, and as he tosses back his head to let out a roar, flickering shreds of fire fall from his jaws. A moment later, the charemeleon's entire body explodes in a sheet of fire, leaving him running at the center of a miniature firestorm that scorches the floorboards below and leaves glowing embers dancing in his wake.
Volt, meanwhile, exerts all the psychic energy he can muster to grab the charmeleon and lift him from the ground. The elekid's eyes glow blue, and he strains to raise the larger pokémon into the air. Not very well-practiced with psychic attacks, the electric-type nevertheless manages to avert crisis at least: before Drako can go running straight off the edge of the stage, he is surrounded by a blue glow and finds himself rising into the air, legs flailing uselessly as he is borne gently upwards. Volt manages to lift the charmeleon perhaps two feet before he is forced to stop, at the limit of his psychic abilities. Sweating, the elekid grins weakly at the crowd and tries to strike an intimidating pose, eyes glowing blue, while Drako waits patiently to be let down.
As the crowd begins to applaud, Volt gratefully lets go of Drako, and the charmeleon falls back to the stage with a soft thump. As the flare blitz around his body dies out, the fire-type bows to the audience, then turns to join his trainer and Volt as the two make their way offstage.
Negrek: 5.5
This one didn't work out too well for a few reasons. First, swift and discharge are both attacks that spread rapidly; to really get the effect of electricity going through the swift stars, you'd need to make it a combo. Second, these attacks also strike everything else in their path, so in the partner appeal you have the issue of injuring the other performer unless they're immune to the attacks. Third, flamethrower isn't the best attack to try and create small, artful bursts out of. Finally, elekid have only weak psychic abilities, and trying to hold up a charmeleon that's moving around a lot for any considerable length of time is extremely difficult as a consequence. In general, this one didn't flow very well and, unfortunately, didn't reflect the capabilities of the parties involved very well.
Walker: 6.0
Not so good. In theory, the Swift-Discharge-Flamethrower combination could've been great, but it was foiled by poor choice I think. A non-damaging move like Thunderwave probably could have gotten away with dancing on the Swift stars, and maybe a less linear fire attack like Ember would have been easier to get between the stars. Drako's Flare Blitz-Fir Fang combo was nice, and it had a nice (again, maybe unintended..?) dragon tamer effect with Volt catching him.
opaltiger: 6.3
This appeal appears to be a good idea ruined by a rather difficult execution. I'd say it was also slightly too complicated, with the mixture of things going on, and it just sort of fell apart on itself; lacking also any real finish.
Music Dragon, G'doo, and Albus Dumbledork
Music Dragon comes onstage grinning, his pokéballs already at the ready. He wastes no time in releasing G'doo the claydol and Albus Dumbledork the dratini. Neither pokémon seems fazed by their appearance in front of so many people--though it's not exactly easy to discern G'doo's expression, and the applause has barely had a chance to die down to respectful silence as the two pokémon begin their appeal.
Albus Dumbledork begins to dance, wriggling and twisting back and forth across the stage. At the same time, "Macho Man" starts to roar from the contest hall's speakers, startling several members of the audience and causing others to cringe. On the stage, G'doo starts up a high-speed spin, turning into an indistinct whirling blur in the air. From the claydol's numerous blank eyes beam multicolored columns of psychic force, filling the air with a rippling, shimmering field of psychic power. As Albus continues his dance, he takes every opportunity to show off for the ladies of the crowd, waggling his ears and tossing a coy wink to one or two of them. Even as he does so, the dratini breathes a fine mist out of his nostrils, shrouding himself and then the stage at large with a fine layer of rippling, drifting haze. G'doo, by now, has worked up to shooting little shards of rock in all directions in addition to psybeams, and sharp bits of stone go spinning in all directions, flung away from the claydol by the force of his spinning. A few strike Albus Dumbledork, leaving small cuts on his scaly body, but the dratini does his best to ignore them--he won't allow his performance to be compromised that easily! As the stealth rock attack floats eerily in midair, casting weird shadows across the stage as G'doo's psybeams bounce off it, Albus finishes his dance and the music comes to an end. The stage is left awash in mist and covered by a layer of floating rocks. As G'doo slows to a halt and cuts the lights, the audience starts to cheer, and Albus Dumbledork, not missing the opportunity to be charming, shows off to the crowd for a couple more seconds before the recall beam of his pokéball. Music Dragon smiles, waves to the crowd, and then departs, the mist dissipating and the stealth rocks falling out of the air as he does.
Negrek: 9.0
Trippy. Stealth rock ended up hurting Albus, which was unfortunate, and the captivate attack's maximum effectiveness was only realized on about half the audience. You were asking a little much of your pokémon, as well, to have all those commands crammed into a single action. Very different, though, as always, and a real sight to see.
Walker: 10.0
opaltiger: 9.7
Another original idea, whoo. I can't say much of your choice in music, but you have the requisite disco ball and dramatic mist effects, so it is not overly annoying. Really, I can't find anything overly wrong with this.
Chiropterus, Dolce, and Lumiere
The current frontrunner, Chiropterus, enters to a shower of enthusiastic cheers and applause. The audience quiets down quickly, however, not wanting to miss the appeal as Chiropterus tosses first one pokéball, then another, to the stage. From the first bursts Dolce, oriented sideways so that her neck won't block the second pokémon to appear: a small roselia by the name of Lumiere. While the lapras is serene and hardly bats an eyelash at the sight of the hushed crowd, Lumiere isn't so certain of himself.
Fortunately, it is easy for him to mask nerves with unhappiness, and the roselia slouches dejectedly on Dolce's shell, shaking his head as he looks out at the empty expanse of empty (if oft-repaired) boards that make up the stage. It certainly is stark--though not for long. Tilting her head back, Docle spews a roaring column of water into the air. The hydro pump surges an impressive five feet into the air before Dolce cuts it off and grabs hold of it with her psychic powers, preventing it from raining back onto the stage. Exerting intense concentration, she causes the long streamer of water to twist and coil in on itself, swimming through the air like a living thing, although Dolce can't do very much to make it look overtly serpentine. Nevertheless, Lumiere doesn't have to exert a great deal of imagination to act entranced by the watery apparition. As it drifts out to the front of the stage, the roselia hastens to follow, keeping his eyes trained upwards and nearly tripping several times on the irregular bumps and spikes on Dolce's shell. Once he leaps down from the Lapras' back the going is much easier, however, and he soon catches up to the hydro pump.
Dolce is grateful, because her fairly weak psychic powers are already starting to be strained. Now comes the most difficult part: splitting the hydro pump into two parts, Dolce flattens and spreads it out with her mind into her best imitation of wings. Unfortunately, about the best she can manage is a kind of two-part dome of water over Lumiere's head, but it matters little; Dolce can only hold that formation for a second or so before she is forced to explode the hydro pump into a scattering of droplets, lest it simply fall apart as her psychic attack weakens.
Seeing his cue, Lumiere starts to dance, raising his roses into the air and shooting petals and leaves in all directions. As he dances, they swirl and spin in the air around him, though the performance is soon obscured by a roaring swirl of greenery. A whirling tornado of glowing green leaves, formed of pure energy, encircles both Dolce and Lumiere in a fierce blizzard of grass-type energy. From somewhere within the storm comes the low, melodic tolling of a bell, and as time goes on, a delightful, soothing scent begins to waft from the stage as well. As the leaf storm begins to die down, leaves vanishing out of its spinning fury one by one, Lumiere can again be seen, still dancing away in a smaller cloud of leaves and petals. The bell continues to ring, now visible above Dolce's head as a glittering, crystal-clear construct made of pure energy. As the leaf storm grows steadily weaker, fading away into thin air, Lumiere's dance begins to wind down as well, until the roselia is standing still in a joyful pose, a broad grin upon his face, as the last few flower petals and leaves drift to the stage around him. The bell over Dolce's head dissolves after one final peal, and for a moment the air is silent as the two pokémon wait, frozen in place. Then the applause starts up, and Lumiere lets his act drop with a grateful sigh, wilting slightly. The very tired roselia and lapras are recalled, and after taking a moment to acknowledge the applause, Chiropterus departs as well, clearing the stage to make way for the eigth and final appeal.
Negrek: 7.6
There are some very nice aspects to this appeal, but I saw two major problems with it: first that lapras isn't a very prodigious psychic, and the degree of water manipulation you asked Dolce to do was a bit beyond her abilities. Second, the leaf storm pretty much obscured everything on stage while it was going on, and it interfered with the aromatherapy a bit as well. Although only about half of this appeal was really "visual," some of the effect was lost simply because the audience wasn't able to see much save the swirling leaves for most of the second half. While pretty, the leaf storm reduced the impact of some of the other moves.
Walker: 8.5
This was a great appeal, it makes great use of both Dolce and Lumiere's powers, and the Heal Bell did add a nice touch. The only thing that held you back in my opinion, was that Dolce couldn't quite get the water in the shape you wanted it, but it is very minor and didn't seem to affect the overall performance.
opaltiger: 8.8
Perhaps the Hydro Pump didn't work out as spectacularly as possible, but it seems to have had no negative effect on the appeal, which is quite fortunate for you; other than this slightly shaky start, the appeal progressed nicely, and if perhaps not quite as dramatic or skillful as your first, it was nevertheless an excellent performance (I liked the bell!).
Jade Dragonair, Zero, and Fornax
The stage is hastily swept clean, but no coordinator appears to take Chiropterus' place. From the left a sneasel appears, leering up at the audience for a moment before snapping to attention as Zero enters from the right. The sleepy-looking abra doesn't look terribly fearsome or angry, but there's plent of force behind the "You!" that rings in the minds of every spectator as the abra's slitted eyes fall on Fornax.
In a blur of motion the sneasel rushes across the stage, one paw lashing out to cut a thin gash down Zero's chest. The abra staggers, then retaliates, his fist hissing and crackling with electrical charge as he slams it into Fornax's chest.
The attack only serve to make Fornax more angry, and he immediately launches into a flashy bit of claw-play, unleashing a fury of jabs and slices at Zero. The abra falls back as the sneasel's claws cut through the air around him, unexpected leaps and lunges on Fornax's part occasionally make dodging impossible for Zero, and the sneasel's claws leave thin cuts across his carapace. At last growing fed up with the dance, the abra takes a particularly large leap back, green light glowing between his paws as he summons life energy into a messy ball. As Fornax moves to reengage, leering maniacally, the abra launches the energy ball straight at the sneasel's chest.
The force of the impact hurls Fornax away in a burst of pulsing green globules of energy, the remnants of the energy ball attack. The sneasel hits the stage hard and skids; upon coming to a rest, he lies very still, making no move to get up--or any move at all for that matter. Rubbing a particularly deep cut on his shoulder, Zero stalks over to the sneasel's supine form and stands above it, glowering down at his opponent. When the sneasel continues to lie where he has fallen, the abra turns on his heel and walks off the stage, tail lashing the air behind him as he goes. The audience is then treated to a most perplexing sight: the sneasel lying with a livid bruise spreading across his chest and the abra gone entirely. Then, from behind the stage, a thin, reedy song starts up; unfortunately, there are no microphones in that area, and people have to strain to hear the abra's voice at all. Perhaps this is for the better; though Zero may have some musical talent, his species is not very giften in the tonal arts, and in comparison to the earlier musical displays this contest, his attempt would probably have seemed a bit lacking. As the audience strains their ears, perplexed, the sky begins to darken. The clouds, banished since the beginning of their contest, eagerly make their return, rolling in to shroud the stage and stands in shadow. As a few raindrops splatter to earth, the audience scrambles to find defense against the storm. Fornax's sudden move catches their attention nevertheless. Slowly, the sneasel raises his head and turns to face the audience, a broad, toothy grin on his face. The rain intensifies, and as water sheets down onto the stage, Zero reappears with Jade Dragonair, who helps Fornax up and then bows with her pokémon as the crowd, snapped out of their temporary shock and unease by her appearance, start in on enthusiastic applause.
Negrek: 8.5
This one was pretty nice. It came together nicely up until the end, which was a bit strange, what with Zero walking off the stage like that and leaving you with several seconds of awkward "dead air time." Also, the singing thing was a bit strange--the abra line doesn't even get plain old sing, or indeed any really vocal kinds of attacks, so I think that that particular aspect of the appeal detracted from the overall performance rather than helped it. The very end of it, with Fornax grinning, was pretty cool, but in the end it just got a bit awkward in that last action where nothing appeared to be happening.
Walker: 8.0
This was a good appeal, if only hurt a bit by the fact that Abra aren't the loudest (or best, for that matter) singers in the world. Not much else I can think to say other than, thank Din there were no microphones backstage. :D
opaltiger: 7.1
Well, this was strange. While the idea of a play-acted battle is interesting, I think Kusarigamaitachi's execution, while similar, worked better since it had more of a dramatic life-and-death chase quality to it; here, you're basically showing us a battle, which we see more or less every day. Still, nothing blatantly wrong.
With the close of the eigth and final appeal comes a resurgence in noise from the crowd, as the members of the audience eagerly discuss just what they thought of the second round's appeals. Speculation over who will move on runs rampant throughout the stands, and people stare up at the great, dark digital screen that will soon display the scores, willing the judges to grade faster. After what seems an age, the board flickers to life and numbers and names start to appear on the screen, the delight of the cheering crowd below.
Music Dragon: 28.7
Full Metal Cookies: 27.0
Kratos Aurion: 26.0
Chiropter: 24.9
----
Light Mightyena: 24.6
Kusarigamaitachi: 23.9
Jade Dragonair: 23.6
Sasori: 17.8
Full Metal Cookies: 27.0
Kratos Aurion: 26.0
Chiropter: 24.9
----
Light Mightyena: 24.6
Kusarigamaitachi: 23.9
Jade Dragonair: 23.6
Sasori: 17.8
From here, Music Dragon, Full Metal Cookies, Kratos Aurion, and Chiropter will need to (re)post their final appeals. The twist this time is that you get to make up the stage terrain yourself. Also, the pokémon used for your final appeal must be the one introduced for this round of the double appeals.
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