When the audience is quite settled down, all their chattering and excitement brought down to a hush, the MC - or all three of them, them being the judges - clear their throats to announce the start of the contest. They all already know what's going on: this is the second part of the second tournament, but the excitement hasn't dulled. Metronome. Anything can happen...
The Omskivar
The first contestant walks onto the stage - a torkoal. The curtains still closed behind him, he walks slowly, taking his time, and trailing white-smoke as he goes; flickering red lights flash on the stage, following him and lighting up the smoke trail, and his own burning furnace is quite bright as well. When he reaches his destination at center-stage, he pauses, looking over the audience with a sense of trepidation.
He can't help but raise his head skyward, and luckily the judges have had the forethought to clear the roof for the torkoal, letting the sun shine in. Moments pass, and a roaring whoosh is heard from above - and suddenly fire, blue-flames on falling meteors crashing into the curtains and stage, plummeting into the floor and just barely missing the first-row audience members. People scream, jumping out of their seats and into the seats of those behind them, when just as suddenly Hephaestus roars, releasing a burst of water from his shell. The water manages to strike some of the still-falling meteors, coaxing the blue flames down but not putting them out entirely; mostly, though, the draco meteor has by now petered out, the boulders littering the stage and even the draconic flames already withering. The stage itself is a giant, giant mess, almost entirely destruction with barely any area to walk on left; strands of curtains linger about, caught under meteors and planks of wood. Hephaestus stands in the middle of this, thankfully unharmed by his own draco meteor, while the audience slowly and fearfully get back into their seats.
Now Hephaestus is stuck: the meteors have all fallen already, and he has naught to feint onto. He squints his eyes and decides to go for it anyhow, kicking off from his sole safe spot with sudden speed and landing on a large boulder, then striking a rather bold pose. There, he's conquered the boulder, it is his! He smoke has by now spread across the entire stadium, even towards the audience, and it sends the message of the destruction loud and clear. This will be a difficult clean-up job.
pathos: 6.0
I just... didn't get it. Water can't put out dragonfire; you can't keep draco meteor going for three actions unless you use it continuously; plus it's an extremely exhausting attack, there's no way a torkoal could feint onto a still flying meteor. I mean, if it could, that'd look nice, sure. But. No.
Crazy Linoone: 5.0
Besides Draco Meteor not working that way, your appeal doesn't flow. Hephaestus is panicking, and suddenly he turns into a badass? Destruction is nice, but it's not destruction in the way you planned for it to work...
Blastoise Fortooate: 5.4
You get a couple points for the dramatic pose and division-appropriate move (lucky you! :}), but the appeal didn't go as you planned at all.
Totodile
The lights dim, and a small ralts walks onstage, looking pensive. He places himself in the middle of the stage, kneeling down and seeming to prepare for something; after a few moments his expression changes, a strange serenity coming over him. He gets back to his feet, raising his arms and stretching them mightily, hoo-ing and hah-ing as he suddenly and quite impressively bulks up in size.
His stretching doesn't stop; he continues swooping his arms around, his legs joining in for a strange, mystical sort of dance. And as he moves, flames flare up around his arms, leaping forth with every lunge he makes; he twists and turns, tossing the fire into the stage curtains and the ceiling in twisted shapes, burning his mark. Flames criss-cross across the arena, twisting and turning as he dances, marking his existence. Soon he stops his dance, but his symbol is everywhere: burnt marks in the ceiling, floor, walls. More often than not the burns are scribbles - slashes in the walls - but some are clearly V's, fiery ashes still glowing on them like sparkles.
Contented, the ralts gets into a meditative position, and begins to rise - floating into the air. This would perhaps be more remarkable if he were not a psychic type, which are known to levitate at will, but still he floats in the middle of his destruction, burnt ceiling dropping around him occasionally.
pathos: 7.8
I liked the flavour in your post, but it didn't translate so well into the appeal to me. Destruction is nice though.
Crazy Linoone: 8.3
You rolled a legendary move and it's exactly as it should've gone, but I don't think the appeal flowed as well as it could have. But shiny destruction yay.
Blastoise Fortooate: 8.4
Very nice use of Searing Shot, quite graceful, but the Magnet Rise felt a bit disjointed in the end of things; a ralts that shoots magic fire should end on something more than floating. There's not a lot that can detract from a legendary move, though, so good on you.
Skylark
The lights suddenly peter out, one by one; as they fade, small ornaments can be seen on-stage, possibly dragons and round red balls, but it's hard to take notice before the stage darkens completely. Only one light remains: the flame flickering on a charmander's tail. The charmander, strangely, seems to be wearing clothing, something akin to what a samurai might wear, although it also looks sort of paper and like it might ignite if brought too close to the pokemons' tail-flame.
Said tail-flame is being held close to the charmander's face, flickering in and out of focus; the charmander - Inferno - slits his eyes at the crowd, a slight grin marking his face. He takes in a breath, hardly visible, and as he opens his mouth, a giant burst of bluish flames leaps forth, flying up above the stage and lighting it up, finally, for the audience - the flames grow into a soft v-shape, circling Inferno and the entire stage - and Inferno doesn't wait before letting loose another dragon rage, more blue flames bursting forth and leaping into the first ones. They meet each other, the first second dragon-rage exploding in a ball of flames into the second, and both of them hitting the stage ceiling together -
And suddenly, the stage is on fire.
Inferno looks pleased, and he begins to dance, his tail glowing brighter and brighter, lighting up the stage for all it's worth at this point - for the fire spreading across the ceiling, dragon-blues and fire-reds mixing both, are lighting it up quite well already. The paper ornaments littering the stage are clear, but the audience, at this point, is more interested in the fire, and possibly in running away, though the judges assure them that the fire will be calmed before it reaches them.
And indeed, when Inferno ceases his spritely dance, and his tail glow fades, the fire is calmed by the judges' water-types and their hydro pumps. Inferno looks rather disappointed, but it can't be helped.
pathos: 6.6
Repeated use of attacks is pretty eh. This would definitely have scored higher otherwise. The appeal also didn't seem to have much continuity other than 'light stuffs'. Bonus for explodies.
Crazy Linoone: 6.5
Eh, repeated use of attacks is boring. There's also quite a lot more props on stage than there should be. The effect of Tail Glow lighting up the stage is nice though.
Blastoise Fortooate: 8.6
I enjoyed this a lot. There were, perhaps, too many props, but I felt that they were integrated well enough. This sounds weird, I know, but there was too much fire; the stage didn't remain dark enough for your needs and I imagine the paper decorations were damaged as well. The idea was great.
Byrus
After a quicker-than-allowable-by-physics cleanup, the roof folds itself in once more as Byrus strides out from backstage, releasing his pokémon. The lights dim to a low level, the bulbs on the ceiling just barely glowing, as Deschain the escavalier appears next to a wooden scarecrow-like figure. After a brief bow, the bug-knight circles his way as quickly as he can away from the dummy, stabbing at the air confidently as he makes his slow progress to the end of the stage farthest from the audience. Although his kind aren't exactly known for their speed, Deschain makes good time and arrives relatively quickly.
Deschain stops his showing off abruptly, his spiked arms held readily at his sides. After a moment of concentration, the escavalier's body snaps to life with dancing, sparking grey power; a split second and the energy drains down into Deschain's lances, brighter than before. He can't resist swooping his weapons about once more, now leaving glowstick-esque patterns, before he takes off in a straight line.
To the audience, the Bug-type's destination is clear; the rather lifelike jousting dummy is obviously the target of the escavalier that is, like a steam train, quickly picking up momentum as he paints the dim stage with white streaks of light. As the audience and judges blink the streaks from their retinas, Deschain swings into close quarters with the dummy and delivers a punishing blow to its center, following up with a double-slice to the legs and dual stabs to the arms. As he finishes the Close Combat and his glowing arms fade, the audience is left looking at a jousting dummy with one battered arm, snapped-off legs, and a wholly untouched head, all overlayed with bright light-streaks on the inside of their eyelids.
After a few seconds' stunned pause on the viewers' part, Deschain's right arm, coated with blue for the moment, slices upward at the head. It arcs upward for one, two, three seconds before it lands neatly on the sharpened end of the escavalier's other lance. Although it takes the crowd a moment to see what has happened in the dim light, they burst into applause as Byrus recalls his partner from offstage.
pathos: 8.3
Destruction for destruction's sake is cool. Could have used more... of a theme I guess, but it works. Not a huge fan of the dummies though.
Crazy Linoone: 7.5
I'm sorry, but I'm biased against dummies. Destroying a dummy that can't even fight back isn't that dramatic... It's not even a life-like dummy. Destruction for destruction's sake only works if burn the whole stage down (don't tell the clean-up crew I said that).
Blastoise Fortooate: 8.5
The glowing was (if a bit of a cliché) very well-used. I also liked how you got your jousting pokémon to, well, joust. The dummy wasn't too disjointed since it's a part of what jousting is, so no points lost there. Escavalier is a tad too slow for all that dashing around, though I did enjoy the head-impaling.
Wargle
The cleanup crew is by now demanding a pay-raise, surely, but the stage is all set for the new contestant, looking for all intents and purposes brand new. Even the audience is cleaned up, and they, at least, have tipped the cleanup crew. The lights dim, only light enough to barely make out the stage; flickering lights aimed at the curtains seem to spell out strange enchantments, though in some language no one (except for one loudly whispering person in the audience) can make out.
A dim figure walks on stage slowly, dragging what looks like a dead body behind it. Either the dead weight slows it down or it's stuck in some sort of trance, because it takes its time to get to center-stage; when it does, it plops the body down, or up more like, standing it upright; the dummy wobbles a bit but stays steady, though of course it's not clear what it is in the dim lighting. Kosciuszko takes a few steps back, steady, appearing to mumble something to himself continuously.
His chanting stops and his mouth opens, a torrent of blue-flames cascading forwards and enveloping the dummy; the flames' light reveals Kosciuszko finally, washing him in blue light: a wyrarble. The light cuts out suddenly, no more flames, and none have even stuck to the dummy, who was too awash in them to be clear to the audience; Kosciuszko continues his chanting for a moment before reigniting the dummy. Nothing so different to before; Kosciuszko is made clear to those who didn't get a clear picture of him before, until the fire cuts out.
Kosciuszko's chanting continues, growing louder somewhat, enough for the audience to hear some of it, though of course it all sounds like jibberish to them. He throws his head skywards - and suddenly the stage is thrown into light, daggers of piercing light forcing their way through the ceiling and piercing the poor dummy; it's struck down, a large radiating light-dagger shafted through its middle and into the stage, several others stuck in the ceiling and the stage surrounding. Kosciuszko's chanting murmurs to silence, finally satisfied, and the cleaning crew let out a giant groan.
pathos: 8.1
Again, repeated moves. Just a waste of an action. And I'm biased against the dummies. But I like the theme of the appeal, it works nicely overall; it would have scored more if not for the repeated move.
Crazy Linoone: 8.0
Here's an example of dummy-using that’s actually okay. There's a theme going on (Judgement on the sacrificial sheep dummy), and there's drama (dramatic lightning, dramatic chanting). Repeated moves subtract points though.
Blastoise Fortooate: 6.7
I liked the magic writing, and I liked the chanting, and I liked the Judgment (duh) but it didn't all fit together. It would have if not for the Dragonbreaths that contributed too little to bear repeating. It was too dark to see your pokémon, too, and that isn't really in the spirit of a pokémon contest.
HighMoon
The lights remain dimmed, but at least they brighten somewhat as the next appeal begins. Adding further light are a number of lights on the floor, pointed at a large pool in the center. The judges look a bit miffed when they see yet another prop, a large rock, in the pool; they're here to judge the pokémon, not the pretty stage, and (despite there being no absolutely clear ruling on the subject) they seem to feel like it's not good form to use so many objects. The audience, however, is absolutely riveted on the impressive setup as Xqui the absol enters the area.
As the Disaster Pokémon nears the rock and pool, he breaks into a run and leaps gracefully onto the rock's base. His claws screech as they dig into the boulder's surface and Xqui heaves himself rapidly to the top of the makeshift cliff. After a tiny moment's rest, the absol sits down, sphinxlike, as the lights dance over his white fur and through the clear blue water. After a calm stare at the ceiling, HighMoon's pokémon whips his head downwards with a roaring whoosh of wind; a vortex the size of two fat snorlax, sucking up the water in an instant, whips out and around Xqui. It picks up fancy hats, sandals, and even a poor little shuckle in its outrageous winds.
The absol, still perched on the rock in the eye of the storm, opens his mouth for the first time in the appeal to create a beige sphere, surrounded by rotating multicolored orbs. These fly in all directions, turning the whirling grey Hurricane a bit more colorful. All about the whirling maelstrom, vaporized rain turns to icy dust or shifting fog, all dancing with occasionally sparks of electricity. As the storm finally dies, the audience (now speckled with a mix of temperate rain and sharp frost) is left looking at a serene, unruffled absol surrounded by a transparent rainbow. Although the offstage HighMoon looks a tad disappointed with the results, the crowd and indeed the skeptical judges are clapping wildly despite their ruined clothing.
pathos: 8.9
You'll notice the rules state 'only one prop'; your points were docked for that reason. Otherwise, a great appeal.
Crazy Linoone: 8.8
Minus points for having extra props. Very dramatic though!
Blastoise Fortooate: 9.0
Yep, too many props. I liked the rest of it, though! Absol was a great pokémon to go for 'stoic' with, and although the Tri Attack wasn't as versatile as you'd hoped I still think this was a great appeal.
Coloursfall
As the audience as a mass finishes drying themselves off with towels (or, in one case, a mareep), the roof cranks open to reveal darkness has fallen. A few stars dot the sky, no more than you would expect with all the light pollution, but the moon is more than halfway full and it's a clear night. The audience shivers from the sudden influx of cool Asberian air, but they're general complaints are quieted when the ambient light increases out of nowhere; the sky is now filled with an unnaturally large moon, completely full and big like in the movies. As if to compensate, the lights snap off completely, leaving the large room lit only by the powerful Moonlight and the occasional cell phone.
Almost imperceptibly, the curtain ruffles and Katniss the taillow flits out of the backstage area, flying low to the stage floor and doing little to attract attention. Only the frontmost crowd members and the three judges of the contest notice her as a thumping beat issues from the speakers. As Katniss settles into her low flight, the notes resolve themselves into a popular song by Katy Perry, 'Firework'. True to the music, the taillow begins spewing fire from her beak, the flames that manage to survive behind her swiftly being surrounded by pale pink orbs. The flames, fed power by the surrounding oxygen and somehow fueled by the Psychic attack, trail after her as she continues to flit about, now more noticeable. By now, at least one of the judges is bouncing in his seat and singing along under his breath, and much of the audience is either staring intently at the display or dancing around in their places.
Soon, Katniss begins flinging the bubble-fires upward in pairs as she steadily ascends; when she has sent all of them skyward she does so as well, swooping down and then pulling into a steep climb. One by one, the bubbles rapidly burst as Katniss darts between them, exploding in such a way that the flames within flare up briefly and spectacularly before dying. Shadows dance powerfully and the crowd goes wild, although they respectfully remain quiet enough to hear the last few lines of the song. Finishing up, Coloursfall's taillow whips herself upward once more, spinning in such a way to place herself both right above the dying embers and also directly in the path of the enhanced moon. It's awe-inspiring enough that nobody even shouts an internet meme, and the crowd claps powerfully as the lights click their way back on and the moon returns to normal.
pathos: 9.7
Really cool appeal. Nothing else to say.
Crazy Linoone: 8.5
It looks pretty, but the brightness of the moonlight sort of overshadows the fireworks... I think a regular moon would’ve worked a lot better.
Blastoise Fortooate: 9.3
Great appeal. I was a bit weirded out by the flame-bubbles but they were at least mildly feasible, and the musical appeal thing really appeals to me more than I think it did to the others. I liked how despite it being nighttime this was one of the brighter appeals. I wish you had used a bigger contestant, though; the stage was a bit huge with the open sky and everything.
blazheirio889
Soon after the previous contestant left the stage, the stage turns dark again. Only the row of lights surrounding the bottom of the stage remains on, and they were dim. As the audience tries to get used to the sudden darkness, a thick, white blanket of fog slowly rolls over the stage. Half-hidden in the fog, the gastly laughs, an evil, cackling sound that sends shivers down the audience's spines. Only the creepy grin and the half-crazed eyes of Rectal are visible. But not for long. The gastly fades away, its grin melting into the deep purple fog, until only the echos of his ominous laughter remains.
Suddenly, a pair of red eyes flash right in front of the audience. Someone screams. Rectal cackles again, his sinister laughter, while not as booming as he might have liked, enough to strike fear deep in the audience's hearts. As the gastly slowly fades away again, even the toughest members of the audience find themselves shaking uncontrollably from fear. It wasn't until the lights switch back on again do they realize that the whole room has been covered with a thin layer of frost from the Sheer Cold.
pathos: 9.2
Nice flow and use of the moves, scary and gastly. I like.
Crazy Linoone: 9.3
Very nice appeal for the horrible moves you got! I mean, Lock-On what
Blastoise Fortooate: 9.5
I'm a sucker for a good jump-scare. It was a bit predictable, as such things go, but great use of props and great choice of pokémon as well.
Windyragon
After some minor cleaning up, the stage lights dim slightly for the next appeal. Cheerful music starts playing in the background, and Sasha, the star of the show, pokes her head out from behind the curtains and gives a cute, if a bit surprised, little grin at the audience. The ones with more sensitive ears can hear a faint buzzing sound in the background, but most just put if off as bad quality music. The vulpix doesn't seem to notice anything wrong with the music though and comes through the curtain with a little dance. She looks like she's enjoying herself as she prances around on the stage, but soon the audience members start to murmur amongst themselves. Daw, so uguu! But is that all there is to the appeal? They had signed up for a metronome contest, which means death and destruction and legendary attacks, not this little dance thing. To be frank, it is sort of cute, but the audience and the judges are obviously getting bored.
Abruptly, the music shut off, leaving only the ominous buzzing sound. Sasha stops and looks about, confused, as if she's not sure what she's supposed to do. Then--
Oh god bees.
A swarm of yellow-and-black death shoots out from behind the curtains, some puncturing right through the thick cloth, and heads straight towards the wide-eyed vulpix. Sasha (not to mention several audience members) screams and attempts to flee, but the swarm is upon her before she can run. The vulpix's cute little dance abruptly turns into panicked flailing as the bees land on the poor vulpix, buzzing angrily all the while.
What happens next is even more bees. The swarm grows in size, getting bigger and bigger as the bees multiply in number. Sasha seems to have given up fighting the bees and instead curls up in a little ball, paws over her eyes and shaking in fear. However, any pity the audience may have had for the vulpix turned into fear when the bees, satisfied with torturing the vulpix, turn their collective attention towards the audience members. The bees, forming a very very large and very very angry swarm, starts circling the audience threateningly. The audience are panicking as much as Sasha was now, and some are trying to flee the room while dragging their unconscious friends with them.
Suddenly, a streak of fire cuts through the darkness, destroying the swarm in a spectacular burst of flames. Still shaking a bit, Sasha stands on the stage modestly as glowing embers fall to the ground all around her. It would have been sort of pretty if not for the fact that they are made of burning bees.
pathos: 7.7
I like the flow of it, but I honestly felt really bad for the vulpix. I think some less-pitiable pokemon would have been better off here...
Crazy Linoone: 9.6
Even though you repeated moves, it was for dramatic effect and OH GOD BEES. I love the little plot that’s going on here, or maybe I’m just a sucker for the modest hero types who manage to pull through when things get bad.
Blastoise Fortooate: 8.8
I like the appeal-within-an-appeal, and dancing vulpix is adorabruu. I think it might have been better if it had been made clear at the end somehow that this was all fake. (Trauma blankets ain't cheap)
sreservoir
As the shaken audience return to their seats, the lights turn back up to their normal brightness. When the (replaced) curtains open again, the center of the stage has been replaced by a small pool. A wailmer floats at the top of the water, looking supremely uguu. Then, rotating until it is facing up, the wailmer spits out a poisonous purple blob straight up into the air. The Gunk Shot sizzles as it flies through the air, then falls back down straight into HMS Uguu's open mouth. The wailmer's aim isn't perfect though, and some of the goo splashes onto the stage, burning little holes where they touch the wood. The audience cringes as the wailmer swallows the toxic blob with a little burp. It obviously isn't going to turn out well. The wailmer starts making strange faces as if she has indigestion. Hiccuping and seeming to choke on the goo, HMS uguu's facial expressions start becoming more and more painful.
And the wailmer explodes.
Due to having to keep contests PG-13 rated, the audience members and the judges are saved from being showered with the wailmer's insides. However, the rules don't save the room from destruction. A wave of pure white energy rushes out from the wailmer, blinding the audience members with its bright light and sending the front rows flying backwards with the shockwaves that follow. The curtains vaporize. Chairs rip out from the floor. Wooden shrapnel fly through the room, embedding themselves into the walls and, in some cases, members of the audience.
After everything has calmed down, the judges very carefully peek out from above their tattered tables, finding that the stage has been replaced with a giant smoking crater. In the center of the hole sits HMS uguu, smoking slightly and very much unconscious.
pathos: 9.2
Boom. Kind of short and to the point but booms.
Crazy Linoone: 9.0
This is hilarious. Minus points for hurting the audience (it’s only the first round!), plus points for explosions.
Blastoise Fortooate: 8.9
Nasty, I'll give you that. You worked with what you had and it made for a... novel appeal. Also, no props and no lighting shenanigans, so bonus. Further, I wish I could give you points for your attached essay on Wailord physics.
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- blazheirio889: 28
- Coloursfall: 27.5
- sreservoir: 27.1
- HighMoon: 26.7
- Windyragon: 26.1
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- Totodile: 24.5
- Byrus: 24.3
- Wargle: 22.8
- Skylark: 21.7
- The Omskivar: 16.4
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And there we have it, the winners of this round. For the record, we chose to have music be allowed as a prop. Congratulations to those moving on! And better luck next time to those who aren't.
