Negrek vs. Byrus, Round One
Pre-Round Stats
Negrek (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)
Cuddles (M) [Gluttony] @
Body Mod: Berry Collector
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Shifting slightly in place to keep himself from congealing
Cuddles's Commands:
Struggle Bug ~ Stealth Rock ~ Bug Bite
Lockjaw (F) [Gluttony] @ 
Body Mod: Rusty Rig
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Absently scraping her tail against the icy floor
Mandarb (F) [Pressure] @ 
Body Mod: Armored (Light + Poisoned Barb)
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Not all that bothered by the cold, actually
Byrus (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)
Fiver (M) [Run Away] @
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Stamping his paws to keep warm
Fiver's Commands:
Switcheroo/Magic Coat/Focus Punch ~ Water Pulse/Magic Coat/Drain Punch ~ Water Pulse/Magic Coat/Drain Punch
Donn Cuailnge (M) [Anger Point] @ 
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Snorting visible clouds and impatiently awaiting his turn
Teetotaler (F) [Tangled Feet] @ 
Body Mod: Ninety-Nine Bottles
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Ninety-nine bottles of ice-cold beer on the wall...~
Arena: Cold Storage
Driftveil City has plenty of attractions: its picturesque lighthouse, its bustling marketplace, and, most important of all to trainers, its official gym. Surely any of those would have made fine sites for a battle and a worthy introduction to Driftveil's culture.
Instead, trainers and spectators find themeselves huddled, shivering, in a glorified walk-in refrigerator.
As it turns out, it's rather expensive to rent out Nimbasa's music hall for a few crazy trainers to have their battles in. And it's even more expensive when you have to pay for repairs after a couple of those trainers smash a hole in the stage and set fire to the orchestra pit. Over budget and facing a suddenly-inflated insurance premium on whatever location it decided to rent, the league found itself too strapped for cash to secure one of Driftveil's more desirable locales.
There was no way they could simply call off the battle, though, so they made do. And, with a bit of effort, they even managed to wrangle a local into teaching their battlers a unique bit of Unovan battle-style, the rotation battle. He's a heartbreaker... His name... Charles...
In a rotation battle, each player sends out three pokémon from the get-go, though only one fights at a time. Up to once per round, at any time, a trainer may choose to "rotate" their pokémon, swapping the one in battle for one of the two in reserve. Now, though the arena manages to avoid the iciest parts of Cold Storage, the floor's a little slick, and the pokémon being rotated in will need to take an action to get its footing. The act of rotating therefore takes a full action, but is otherwise unpenalized. A pokémon that is rendered uncapable of leaving the field under its own power cannot be rotated out.
The frigid conditions of Cold Storage are going to sap a bit of the fun out of this new battle style, though. It's so freezing that all pokémon in battle will lose 5% health and energy at the end of each round, whether or not they're currently in battle. Ice types, of course, love the cold and are immune to this effect--too bad they happen to offend Charles, who can't stand their shameless aping of his aloof and distant attitude. At the end of each round, any ice type actually in battle has a 10% chance (each) of becoming taunted, tormented, confused, or paralyzed as a result of suffering through Charles' intense, furious, and yet carefree stare for the entire round.
Round One: Begin
To be perfectly honest, the ref doesn't even know what they bothered calling him in for. If all of this round's battles are supposed to be overseen by the big burly monkey with the motorcycle over there—just look at the smug bastard, currently engaged in a staring contest with some of the icicles hanging from the goddamn ceiling
yeah real cool buddy—then why does he have to be here, idling in a gargantuan refrigerator? (He'd probably be more offended that Negrek seems to think he can't do his job alone if it weren't for the fact that he didn't want to be here anyway.) If Mr.... Heartbreaker... is such an expert on these rotation battles, he can hang around and freeze his own extremities off by himself, thanks.
But no, here he is, massaging warmth into his hands and waiting for the two trainers to make their final decisions. Six pokémon have already taken the field and steadied themselves on the slick floor, a trio of normal-types shivering in front of Byrus while a steelix towers over its trainer and the absol and shuckle she's chosen to accompany it. None but the absol look particularly comfortable in the biting chill, though most do an admirable enough job hiding their discomfort by taking the time to size their opponents up. The ref resists the urge to wave at the humming spinda, assures himself that his own pokémon's company and cheerful singing will be the one bright spot to this stupid day (and totally not something that he will regret later while nursing a ninety-nine bottle headache, no it will not be), and watches as Fiver the buneary and Cuddles the shuckle make their way to the fore at long last. One last glance back in Charles's direction—his soul-penetrating glowering is at last directed at the pokémon now in play instead of the emptiness... of his... soul... or what the hell ever—and it's time to start. The whistle sounds and they're off, as quickly as they can be in this ridiculous cold.
Fiver gives his limbs one final shake to stave off the cold and then, with a quick, conspiratorial wink at his waiting teammates, bounds forward across the icy floor in Cuddles's direction. A broad smile streches across the buneary's face as he waltzes ever closer, casually tossing his tinkling soothe bell back and forth between his forepaws.
Such a lovely little soothe bell! he whispers, watching his opponent's face for any signs of interest.
Jingle-jingle, such a pleasant sound... I bet you'd love to have this pretty little bell. Such a lovely bell. Better than whatever you've got in your shell, for sure. He gives it another enticing jingle for effect.
It is difficult for Fiver to read the shuckle's resulting expression, his simple facial features and blank look betraying no interest in the enticing, jingly bauble; he'll just have to hope Cuddles is sufficiently distracted and press on anyway, then. He slides to a stop a few feet away from his mark and, with a wave of his paw and a puff of black smoke the bell vanishes without a trace. Cuddles blinks just in time to miss a second paw flourish and puff of smoke, something else smallish and roundish appearing in his hand where the bell had been moments before. Fiver gives him another wink—
you'll thank me for this later, promise—before palming the sitrus berry and stowing it in a clump of fluff for later.
Cuddles is far less appreciative of the sleight-of-hand exchange than Fiver anticipated, however. As it dawns on the shuckle that his pseudopods are no longer folded around a delectable sitrus berry fresh from his shell but around that rabbit's silly
bell—what on earth is he supposed to do with a
bell, so hard and rattly and inedible and
ugh—his curiosity gives way to disgust. He drags himself forward and lashes out with first one gooey tentacle, then the other, slapping and swiping at Fiver's plush fur and, while failing to put much weight behind the blows, leaving a lot of unpleasantly slimy residue on the buneary's face and chest. Fiver balks and stumbles backward, wiping at his fur and leaving Cuddles to sulk over the loss of his treasured berry. A
bell. Really.
The slime continues to seep through Fiver's fur and leave his skin unpleasantly tingly no matter how hard he scrubs it, and at length he is forced to admit that he's just going to have to suck it up along with the cold for now. What an overreaction
that was! Well, if Cuddles is going to be rude and spatter him with nasty bug juice, two can play at that game. Fiver takes a deep breath and, drawing on some mysterious inner reservoir, spews a sizeable torrent of water in Cuddles's direction. Rhythmic blasts of the stuff splash against the shuckle's head, limbs and shell, soaking him and threatening to freeze around him in the cold air. Cuddles cries out and shakes his extremities wildly, his head pounding from the pulses of water and his pseudopods feeling like they'll turn into pseudopodsicles if he doesn't keep them in motion. It takes a great deal of effort to redirect his flailing into forward movement, and he still feels dizzy even as he drags himself across the floor in Fiver's general direction.
Sharp crunching and snapping noises fill the air as Cuddles, fighting through the ringing in his ears, wraps his tentacles around a nearby mound of ice and pulls hard. The ice breaks off after a few good tugs, splintering into shards that, after a bit of mental urging from the shuckle, spin into the air between Fiver and his two partners. If Cuddles is concerned that he was unable to fashion the shards out of rock, as he normally would, he does not show it; he simply returns to side-eyeing Fiver and attempting to keep his pseudopods shifting at all times.
With most of the improvised stealth rock scattered behind him, Fiver figures he has little to worry about—there's nothing stopping him from soaking Cuddles with more water, and so he does. Another blast of water drenches the shuckle and the floor around him, and once more Cuddles is forced to shake himself vigorously to keep a layer of frost from forming on his limbs. He scoots forward laboriously, doing his best to keep the impudent rabbit in his swimming vision. He's had about enough of that puffball's antics, thank you very much. All this water and... and water... and... he did
something with one of Cuddles's... well. It makes his head hurt trying to remember exactly what else Fiver has done to him, but whatever it was it was egregiously offensive and the dumb bunny is going to get his. He just needs to think of a suitable punishment, is all... The shuckle's gaze settles on the sitrus berry just barely visible in a tuft of fur. That will do nicely! Wherever Fiver got that wonderful and very familiar-looking berry, he doesn't deserve to have it any more.
Fiver backs away when he sees Cuddles coming for him again, paws up and ready to fend off any additional attempts at sliming up his coat. He does manage to deflect a wild swipe from one of the mold pokémon's pseudopods, but just as he smacks the limb away Cuddles's head darts out, mouth open, and latches onto the buneary's side. With no teeth to speak of the biting is less painful than it is intensely uncomfortable (slime and drool and more slime and
ugh getitoffofme), but it accomplishes its goal nonetheless—the berry comes away in Cuddles's mouth and he devours it with gusto, savoring both the taste and the mortified expression on Fiver's face. Cuddles slides back across the ice, his head slightly clearer after the assault and subsequent snack, just as tasty as his own berry would've been if only he remembered where it'd gone off to. He even hums a few snatches of the song Teetotaler is now belting up at the ceiling at the top of her lungs (much to Donn Cuailnge's dismay). Sort of catchy.
Round One: Close
Post-Round Stats
Negrek (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)
Cuddles (M) [Gluttony] @
Body Mod: Berry Collector
Health: 95%
Energy: 88%
Status: Confused (light); OM NOM NOM NOPE CAN'T HAVE THIS BERRY YOU JERK
Lockjaw (F) [Gluttony] @
Body Mod: Rusty Rig
Health: 95%
Energy: 95%
Status: Starting to feel the cold seeping through her armor, but otherwise unconcerned
Mandarb (F) [Pressure] @
Body Mod: Armored (Light + Poisoned Barb)
Health: 95%
Energy: 95%
Status: Glaring over at Teetotaler with disdain
Byrus (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)
@
Health: 87%
Energy: 84%
Status: Special Attack -1; hey! Don't steal the berry I just stole! >| Give my soothe bell back, then!
Donn Cuailnge (M) [Anger Point] @
Health: 95%
Energy: 95%
Status: ...Whoa doesn't sing. Why is this spinda singing. Make it stop.
Teetotaler (F) [Tangled Feet] @
Body Mod: Ninety-Nine Bottles
Health: 95%
Energy: 95%
Status: Take one down, pass it around...~
Arena Status: Puddles of water around Cuddles are beginning to freeze over in the frigid air. Several ominous-looking shards of ice hover between Fiver and his waiting teammates, sharp points glistening in the artificial light. Charles is watching carefully from a spot near a large container, and is most certainly not humming a familiar tune under his breath. No he is not.
Ref's Notes
-Apologies for the ridiculous delay and the substandard writing, but yeah, haven't been feeling that great. School is
just about finished for the quarter, so at the very least projects shouldn't hardcore get in my way for a good while. If it goes longer than a week again, though, you should probably get someone else to step in for a while.
-in which Kratos continues to write himself as a whiny asshole of a ref for no particular reason
-The first water pulse mildly confused Cuddles.
-Cuddles had to make do with chunks of ice for his stealth rock since there are no rocks available. Pokémon colliding with the "stones" will take ice-type damage instead of rock-type damage. (Which I guess is irrelevant for everyone but Lockjaw and Cuddles himself, but oh well, whatever.)
-Mmkay, wrt the singing, how about this: You won't be penalized for not singing while Teetotaler is inactive, and instead she can just sing with
me Charles Cuddles. The bottles-of-beer count will still go down by one every round even when she's inactive, though. If only to keep
me her happy. Acceptable?
-Bottles of beer on the wall: 98 (pending agreement)
-Should I be calling your tauros Donn or Cuailnge for short, Byrus (if it's cool to shorten his name)? I'm tempted to see "Donn" as an honorific like "Don" but I'm not sure if it is in this case.
-Negrek attacks first next round.
