Time passes, and for a while it seems that this metronome contest may have already suffered the same fate as the last -- lost in indefinite delay of judgment, never to be completed.
(The fact that the judges of one division were obviously still around, just
busy ... did not help.)
Then, at last, the dead were resurrected and a messiah returned from extraplanar business, and then it was Judgment Day.
(Well, just the latter, one might
expect the former two to come before it, at this rate.)
--
Pathos
Before the lights turn on, the contest hall is quite cool and the visibility provided by the glow of the exit lights (which ... quite possibly need to be fixed, but then, Asberians have always been cheap and have never cared much for safety regulations) is somewhat lacking. Then the lights do turn on, albeit to a dim setting: blue lights from the ground bring attention to an apparently denser-than-air fog; and a single spotlight illuminates the form of an omanyte in a pool.
For a moment, one could make out the omanyte’s eyes and its ten tentacles; but after a moment’s pause, the head-portion seems to vanishes, replaced by a thick stream of water. The force of the shell’s stream pushes the pokémon upward, almost to the ceiling – one might say it created the effect of a shelled cannon, if it weren’t for the fact that cannons generally do not float, and aren’t often used to shoot water.
The omanyte’s stream of water abruptly stops, and gravity ensues; as the shell falls, tumbling in the air, a giant bolt of electricity (large enough to have a mass, even!) appears at its opening, and is shot almost directly upward, toward the spotlight.
The spotlight glows for a brief moment, then explodes for whatever reason. The omanyte, still falling, reaches the ground with a thud. In the blue light from the front of the stage, the pokémon does not move.
Mai: 5.8/10
Eh. This... sort of seems like it's missing something? The attention is all on omanyte, I suppose, but it seems off in an odd way. So you floated up and broke a spotlight and that was cool because...
?
I guess there's just something I'm missing here.
bluzzy: 7.3
A decent appeal – there wasn’t anything wrong with the execution, but it was a bit short for my tastes. I also think you could’ve done something else instead of Withdraw, since I think Omanyte can start in its shell anyway, or at least pull into its shell without the aid of the move.
res: 10.0
your omanyte might not like you very much after this, but I do like the concept. (res has a thing for physics abuse, and it shows.)
--
Shadow Serenity
After Pathos recalls his seemingly-comatose Pokemon and hurries off the stage, Shadow Serenity steps into the spotlight with a small gremlin at his side. The lights remain bright for a few moments so the audience can appreciate Diamond the Sableye, eyes sparkling and face stretched in a grin as he basks in the attention. Then the light dims and Diamond all but fades into the shadow, his location marked only by his glittering gems.
Diamond tilts his head back and carefully but quickly blows a stream of large bubbles. They jiggle gently as they travel through the air, quite noticeable despite the dark settings as the thin surfaces catch the light. The Sableye keeps frothing while spinning in a slow circle, until the stage is populated by bubbles. Between the veil of bubbles and the dim lightning, the audience can barely see Diamond.
Suddenly, in the centre of the foam, something begins to glow a mystical blue-green. Diamond focuses and condenses pure energy in a deadly physical form, then grasps it tightly. With his newfound sword, Diamond leaps through the wall of bubbles, sweeping his weapon in wide arcs. In the dimly-lit arena, the Sableye is a sight to behold, his radiant sword marking his path as he spins and lunges, viciously slashing at the bubbles and cackling a bit as each fragile sphere bursts. The mass of bubbles thins and at last only a small cluster in the middle of the stage is left. Grinning widely, Diamond crosses his arms in an X-formation and lunges at the cluster with a quick one-two strike, slaying most of them with a final sweep of his sword and catching any stragglers with his other hand. All bubbles popped, Diamond allows his weapon to fade away, leaving the stage dark once more.
Mai: 8.7/10
Wheee--
This is pretty cool, actually. I like the bubbles and the playfulness and a lot of other things about the appeal. The only thing that seems odd is the proportions of that combo you made; the sword would probably make the whole thing seem a bit awkward, but it doesn't really matter.
bluzzy: 9.0
Flashy and dramatic. Good use of lighting as it brought out the bubbles, the sword, and Diamond’s eyes.
res: 5.6
can't say I'm too impressed by the business of making stuff and destroying stuff, but hey, you made use of what you had and put on a show of it.
--
Luxcario
Much to the audience’s relief, as Shadow Serenity hurried off the stage with Diamond, the lights brighten so that they do not need to squint and strain their eyes. But of course, appeals with normal lighting are few and far between, and so the stage is washed by light purple. luxcario walks on the stage, looking a bit intimidated by the crowd and by his older, more experienced rivals. Nevertheless he releases his Pokemon, a Woobat, who snuffles in delight and darts to and fro.
Once Cloudy Toaster is sure he has the crowd’s attention, he beats his wings furiously and begins to zip around the stage. The audience has trouble following the speedy creature; heads keep jerking crazily as people try to keep up. As Cloudy Toaster flies, he opens his mouth wide and gathers a vague, cloudy sphere of energy, which he spits towards the ceiling. There it stays for a moment, and, upon finding no abnormal influence in the atmosphere, begins to drift back down. Meanwhile, Cloudy Toaster is spent – flying at such speeds is rather taxing, and he doesn’t have the energy or concentration to spit out another Weather Ball.
The audience is a bit perplexed as Cloudy Toaster does nothing more than dart about the stage. After a few drawn-out moments, though, the Weather Ball reappears, gravity drawing it down at an unhurried pace. Upon seeing his cue Cloudy Toaster brightens somewhat. Water bubbles out of his rear end (some members of the audience cringe before realizing the liquid is colourless) and he lunges at his own attack, turning at the last second to slam it with a sheet of water. The Weather Ball bursts into shreds of mist, coloured blue by the water’s influence and purple by the lights.
Mai: 5.8/10
Hm. I don't really know what you were going for. There's nothing that wrong with it, but nothing particularly exciting. The multicolored weather ball idea is neat, but not that much came of it until the last action. What was he flying around for?
bluzzy: 6.8
Even though there were a few hitches in your execution, it didn’t come off that bad. First of all, you can only launch one Weather Ball. Second, the attack description indicates that the attack spends a bit of time in the atmosphere and floats down slowly, so you had a bit of dead air time while Cloudy Toaster just darted around. Finally, perhaps you could’ve done something other than Fly, since Cloudy Toaster can already Fly and using the move only permits him to Fly higher, which isn’t what you wanted. The ending was enough to secure you some points, but unfortunately the stumbles took some away.
res: 1.1
well, am not overly impressed by the make stuff out of moves, and then breaking it with another move.
--
ole_schooler
This time, the lights used are blue; they remain dim as they turn on to an empty stage. But soon enough, a small, vaguely saurian figure -- a larvitar -- waddles onstage from the left (from the audience's perspective, in any case. Nearing the center of the stage, it bends over slightly, as if to take a bow; its rocky, one-piece body does not really lend itself to bending, however.
The larvitar turns upward, and spits many droplets of what seems to be water, though as the first few drops fall to the stage and some smoke rises from the ground, it becomes clear that it is not pure water. Before all of the liquid falls to the ground, the larvitar's face develops a look of deep constipation -- er, concentration -- and then a look of wonder, and the remaining liquid remains suspended in the air for a rather long, gravity-defying moment. And then it falls.
As the liquid falls, the larvitar begins to glow with a dazzlingly bright white light -- celestial light, one might say, except that stars do not work that way.
The liquid reaches the ground and begins burning through the stage before the larvitar's white lighting effect ends, devoured by the bright red light of the pokémon being recalled.
Mai: 7.8/10
Your appeal sounds very pretty! I don't think a larvatar[sic] would be the best choice for it, considering everything, but I don't see a very good reason to fault you for that. Psychic type moves are useful in a lot of ways, and I'm sort of glad you made use of them. Not that unexpected, though.
bluzzy: 6.2
Unfortunately, Confusion isn’t the best move to manipulate objects, as it’s a very weak move. Therefore, the Acid droplets fell before Xander could use Cosmic Power, so it seemed disjointed from the rest of the appeal. Levitating Acid droplets aren’t particularly mindblowing by themselves, either (and probably difficult to see given some distance).
res: 8.9
no idea what kind of acid acid sprays! it must necessarily be an aqueous solution, and is presumably a corrosive, but. (actually, most acids probably wouldn't burn through the stage, but rule of maximum arena destruction, eh?)
--
RespectTheBlade
RespectTheBlade enters with his Pawniard, Byrne, at his side. Byrne poses dramatically for the crowd and his trainer waves. The audience is given a moment to take in the appealers and applaud before the lights dim.
The audience can just make Byrne out as his metallic armour catches what little light is left. Suddenly, his features twist in unparalleled rage and a faint but furious red aura seeps from his body. At the same time, he swings an arm forward and a swarm of bees appear at his fingertips. Their yellow-and-black bodies are weakly illuminated by Byrne’s glow, but it’s enough for the audience to follow their path. Byrne swings his arms with a wild grace and the bees obey, swooping this way and that. Despite their natural fear of bees, the crowd is mesmerized by the movement.
Finally, Byrne brings both arms down on the stage, embedding his blades in the wood with a grunt of exertion. The bees follow, creating a waterfall of yellow-and-black bodies. As Byrne’s concentration falters, his red aura fades and the stage is plunged in relative darkness. The audience can still hear the bees, though, which are buzzing angrily. Squinting, they see Byrne crouched on the ground, a look of intense concentration on his face. And then the bees are on him, swarming all over his body, stinging and biting with all their might.
Before Byrne can unleash his explosive Bide, however, a judge blows a whistle and informs RespectTheBlade that his allotted time is up. Disappointed, he returns his Pawniard to his Pokeball and quickly shuffles off the stage.
Mai: 7.5/10
That would've been a lot better if the bide actually had time to go off (I thought it would! I should probably think more about mechanics), but I actually like your appeal either way. There were... bees.. and rage... and things. Yeah.
bluzzy: 6.3
The AAG doesn’t describe Rage as giving off a red aura, but I decided to be generous and give that to you. Sharing that aura with the bees is a bit of a stretch, though. Regardless, the lighting and the movement of the bees was nice. Bide takes a full round to charge and unleash, though, so the ending was rather disappointing.
res: 3.3
well, the appeal is bees. doesn't quite make much sense with a pawniard, but it's metronome contest, that's not unexpectable.
timing of bide being way off is something of a thing, though.
--
Sweetie Belle
Before this appeal, a carbon dioxide haze had to be arranged, and that was a mess, so this had better be good.
The lights are dim, bright enough to reveal the figure of a pink cow in the middle of the stage, just about enough to make out the details of its markings on its hide, but dark enough that most of it is shadowy.
The miltank begins by spraying a powder into the air, into the haze. The astute observer may note that the substance released is made of mushroom spores, and acts as a sort of sleeping drug.
In any case, it acts quickly on the miltank, which promptly falls asleep, curling up for whatever reason into a somewhat cute ball.
Mai: 2.5/10
Reasons why res shouldn't judge: it is a killjoy, and makes appeals very sad. Either way, though, I don't think it would be best to order an action of sleep...? Er, I couldn't quite follow your logic either, but sorry it turned out badly. Miltank are cute... I guess?
bluzzy: 3.5
I gave some points for effort, but the appeal was very underwhelming. I’d recommend thinking of the attacks’ effects thoroughly next time. The Spores would indeed be suspended in the mist, but MooMoo couldn’t scatter them far enough to avoid inhaling them herself. Even if she could, Defog involves blowing away the mist, which would put much of the audience to sleep and would screw up her next action.
res: 0.0
?? no idea what you were trying to do. it made no sense to me. I could make no sense of it.
lighting conditions is nonsense. there's a limit to how many constraints you can add to a problem before it really is impossible!
I fail to see the logick behind spore not working with carbon dioxide haze around -- it really shouldn't be concentrated enough to interfere at all with anything, at least not without also suffocating the miltank, which ... could be arranged. Would needs be unsafe, though.
defog should not work that way. blowing things away while leaving suspended particles in place does not happen, and magicking things away is … not usually how defog is described.
consider thinking about what you're trying to do in the future.
--
Blastoise Fortooate
Hidden behind the curtain, Blastoise tosses his pokéball out to centerstage; it opens up revealing an aipom, and the lights significantly brighten to signal the start of the appeal. At about the same time, the most beautiful song ever started to play and res had to arrange for the music to go off before the aipom started performing, in order to maintain unbiased judging for the contest.
(The other idea was to remove Mai, but that would also have skewed the judgment.)
Jimmy begins by lighting up his head with an aqua color, gaining the calm necessary to perform his task. Juggling, got it, it was time to go. Creating a few stereotypical white boxes for this sort of thing, complete with a red ribbon, he casually threw them into the air and began to pass them from hand to hand to tail-hand. Feeling a bit confident, he added two apparitions more while he was at it; in the end, he was juggling five and looking proud. Then, flashing a grin, he chucked them all into the air in rhythm. Hopping up onto the judges' table for a springboard and producing water from nowhere to fuel his jump (dousing said judges in the process--not cool, Blastoise), he sped into the air and crashed right through all of the presents; some of them exploded in a rather comical manner, but the minor injuries obtained from that were healed by the last one. Heading towards the ground quickly, he softened his landing with a spontaneous somersault and stood up just in time for him to give a bow.
Mai: 8.5/10
Hey! Again, res, not cool.
I really enjoyed this appeal. Your aipom's juggling was pretty entertaining, and even though I did get wet I'm willing to forgive that for the idea of Avatar music. The idea of your performance was really neat, actually, and Jimmy did well.
bluzzy: 8.5
Juggling is always nice, and Jimmy’s species fits the bill perfectly. The ending was dramatic, too (but watch the water next time; even if I’m rust-proof I can’t say I enjoy water). I feel like Zen Headbutt’s potential was a bit wasted though; maybe you could’ve headbutted a Present or something, I dunno. Just making something glow (and heightening concentration maybe, but the audience probably wouldn’t realize that) for an entire action doesn’t really command attention. Good job overall, though.
res: 6.7
pretty sure you'd care more about impulse there, not momentum, but taking off points for that would be mean, and exactly in character for a res.
make stuff, break stuff isn't that impressive. juggling is a nice touch, though.
--
Grass King
Gargoyle the druddigon takes the stage in a rather offbeat way; being sort of disgusting. Bringing up a bunch of goop and spreading it over his body with a quick movement, the acid armor admittedly helps with his defense but does nothing to improve his already mediocre complexion. Still, though, the slightly bulkier dragon decides to perservere; he begins with crafting a huge slab of ice out of thin air. That's not an unimpressive feat, the audience agrees, but that wasn't the end of the discussion; next, Gargoyle had to shape the hunk of ice. Chipping off a bit here and there, adding a small amount on the bottom to even things out, smoothing out the texture with his oily, sandpapery hands... in the end, the structure would have gotten him into a poke-design school, if it hadn't taken him so long. Nevertheless, Gargoyle hoped to do well in the round; lighting himself on fire and burning up every ounce of his acid armor, he slammed into his creation with a mixture of heat and force that either sent flying shards of ice at the audience or doused them with water, depending on their distance from the stage.
Oops.
Mai: 6.2/10
Not much happened here! It didn't seem something like freeze shock would work well in a contest, actually... it seemed to require concentration. The combination of types was good, I guess, but that's just what you were dealt.
bluzzy: 8.0
Creating something and then destroying it is a pretty done-to-death type of appeal, but it had a legendary signature move and lots of fire so I liked it. Causing the toxins on the skin to burn was a nice touch, if (perhaps) unintentional. I might’ve changed the command order so Gargoyle created the ice obelisk first, then doused himself in poison, lit himself on fire, and then killed the obelisk, so the audience didn’t get bored on the first action, but what you had was fine.
res: 3.3
make stuff, break stuff, eh, as I've mentioned. it is, at least, somewhat impressive stuff, but the concept just … doesn't flow. freeze shock isn't really the best legendary move for these purposes, I suppose.
--
Effercon
The lights on the stage are dim, but, puzzlingly, the rest of the theatre is lighted as it would be during intermission.
And then a giant metallic bird launches itself from a back corner; and almost as soon as the audience has had time to react to its presence, it swoops at them -- at some points, so low that the audience has to duck to not be hit by a giant metal bird; one is, in fact, hit by a claw as the skarmory rises, but just gets back up with no apparent injury. The bird, having alarmed the audience with its flight, lands in the other back corner of the theatre.
Almost immediately after it lands, it takes off again, again forcing the audience to duck -- though this time, they are more prepared and nobody gets hurt. (A good thing, too -- think of the legal fees!) This time, the skarmory lands on the dimmed stage; as it turns, it shoots a wide blast of pure darkness at the entire audience in the theatre; for a moment, the theatre is, to the audience, entirely black.
It lasts only a moment, but when it ends, a good part of them are still blinking and rubbing their eyes.
Mai: 6/10
Not a big fan of most physical attacks, really, and I don't think brute force was the way to go with this. Your attacks don't really add up to a hugely important thing; if you ordered them in a battle, the damage would only rack up to about ~38% or so, and that actually doesn't hit the damage cap in a lot of cases. The acrobatics could have been interesting if they were built on more, but the appeal isn't that exciting over all. It's not terrible, though, and the finish was impressive enough.
bluzzy: 6.3
Traumatizing the audience probably isn’t the best thing to do, though I guess you were trying to go for excitement? Anyway, the repeated Brave Birds were a bit disappointing, because even having a giant metal bird lunging at you gets old eventually. The music didn’t seem too fitting either, as it was, in my opinion, too mellow to match a bird swooping at you from above. Night Daze made for a dramatic finish, though it didn’t seem particularly connected to all the swooping, either.
res: 5.6
pretending to do bad things to the audience, eh. impressive big attacks, eh. blinding the audience, eh. complete disregard for safety regulations, eh.
seems ... flashy, but not that impressive. but please do not attack the audience.
--
Kusarigamaitachi
At the beginning of the appeal, the audience is rather confused; everything is dark and vague other than a beaming, bright spotlight that shines on absolutely nothing. Wasn't there supposed to be an appeal going on...? Well, it was the last appeal of the night (two months or so, whatever), it must have been a mistake and obviously everyone just needed to go home.
That was until the body was tossed down from the ceiling. Everyone had a moment of horrified fear/terrified excitement, expecting some terrible murderer to come following on and seeing the best appeal ever take place before they realized it was just a dummy and no one died. That was a pity, but it didn't detract from the totally awesome factor of an egocentric-yet-well-intentioned treecko following in a dive. Translucent, watery knives suddenly appearing in Kusha's hand, he tossed them one at a time at the plummeting dummy while watching him fall and completely forgetting he was doing the same. Once his target was subdued, his ever-present cocky grin grew larger than ever. With an exciting and infectious whoop of victory, he ripped his hands--which had suddenly gained cutting nails, exaggerating the effect--into the dummy's chest and yanked out some stuffing. Standing back up proudly, flashing a soon-to-be-signature smile, Kusha soundlessly padded off the stage before anyone could tell him the show was over.
The curtains closed on the first round, with hopefully only a few of the contestants noticing the slight delay.
Mai: 9.5/10
:D
I actually liked this outside of the knife outline! The moves used were creative, your treecko hanging on the ceiling was a unique (to the pokemon) touch, and even though treecko only learn crush claw the appeal seems perfectly fitting for them. I wasn't quite sure how sonicboom was supposed to work, but this was a metronome contest; pokemon are expected to do weird things.
bluzzy: 9.3
This appeal was unique and used Kusha’s natural speed and… gecko-yness. Dramatic and exciting, but also a bit too quick. Regardless, great job overall, and nothing to really complain about.
res: 8.9
a terrible, a terrible, a terrible unpersons, have I mentioned?
that said, cohesive combination of appeal and pokémon is cohesive.
not seeing enough physics though should I take off points for not getting the promised physics
--
Composite scores are as follows:
- 27.7 Kusarigamaitachi[/*]
- 23.7 Blastoise Fortooate[/*]
- 23.3 Shadow Serenity[/*]
- 23.1 Pathos[/*]
- 22.9 ole_schooler[/*]
- 18 Effercon -- mai only gave one sig fig! (17.9)[/*]
- 17.5 Grass King[/*]
- 17.1 RespectTheBlade[/*]
- 13.7 Luxcario[/*]
- 6.0 Sweetie Belle[/*]
As such, Kusarigamaitachi, Blastoise Fortooate, Shadow Serenity, Pathos, and ole_schooler advance to the next round of contest.
The rest ... don't. Sorry about your lack of luck, perhaps, for those of who tried and failed.
--
Music was not considered, though it probably did influence our decisions.
We apologise for the inconvenience!
