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Format: 2vs2 single Style: Set DQ: 1 week Damage Cap: 30% Banned/Restricted Moves: OHKOs Arena Description: An Ill-fated Playground
This playground near the edge of a forest needs to be upgraded, and how better to commit insurance fraud than to set a pokemon battle in it? Like all good playgrounds, it's shaded and has a plastic jungle gym, bars to hang from, slide, swings, swimming pool, barbed wire fence .... You know, the basics.
Since it's a playground for kids, unevolved pokemon that can evolve only, please!
Viktor the male Machop <Guts> @ Prism Scale Maxine the female Cyndaquil <Blaze> Sierra the female Zubat <Inner Focus> @ Black Sludge Schtolteheim Reinbach III the male Cleffa <Magic Guard> @ Soothe Bell Arshtat the female Hoppip <Chlorophyll> @ Eviolite Jeane the female Pichu <Static> @ Soothe Bell Chiepoo the male Meowth <Technician> @ Amulet Coin Elenor Silverberg the female Venonat <Tinted Lens> Eugene the male Taillow <Guts> @ Prism Scale Cleo the female Fletchling <Gale Wings> @ Sharp Beak
Zhorken's active squad
Riley the male Buneary <Klutz> @ Ring Target Zadie the female Trapinch <Arena Trap> @ Eviolite Jazz the female Deerling (Autumn Form) <Serene Grace> @ Occa Berry Ruth the female Deino <Hustle> @ Reaper Cloth Jan the female Snorunt <Ice Body> @ Dawn Stone Findlay the male Zigzagoon <Gluttony> @ Lucky Egg Aleth the male Munna <Forewarn> @ Moon Stone Ambrose the male Fennekin <Magician> @ White Herb Lawrence the female Flabébé (Blue Flower) <Flower Veil> @ Eviolite Maëlys the female Espurr <Infiltrator> @ Lucky Egg
Hmmm. The blue-flower Flabébé sprite won't appear; I changed it to display a default red flower sprite for now.
(Zhorken edit: bloo flabeeb has arrived)
Next up:
-surskitty sends out
-Zhorken sends out and issues commands
-surskitty issues commands
-I do something I haven't gotten to do in a long, long time...
Start with Taunt, unless Schtolteheim moves before you, in which case use Double Team.
Then use Hyper Voice. If he's doing priority shenanigans twice in a row, or if you can't hit him because he Dug or something, use Focus Energy instead.
Finally, another Hyper Voice. If you can't hit him, Work Up.
If at any point Schtolteheim tries to damage you with a Fairy move, teach him a lesson with Oblivion Wing.
You have every advantage, Reinbach! You can do this! I believe in you! Do your family proud!!
Let's start by giving yourself a Helping Hand! Make sure you really prioritise yourself! You're the most important person there is, Reinbach, and you deserve to know it.
Since that probably means Ruth's brought up a bunch of Double Teams, try to clear them out with Icy Wind! If instead you're really pissed off at her, Signal Beam that jerk instead! You're too awesome to deal with that shit.
Let's finish this by taking advantage of your natural type advantage and hit her with a Sweet Kiss! Maybe if you're lucky, the sheer fairiness of you being a fairy using a fairy move against a jerk dark dragon will make it hurt. Or something. Try hard, Reinbach!
surskitty (OO)
Currently out: Schtolteheim Reinbach III
Male Cleffa [Magic Guard] @ Soothe Bell
Health: 100% / Energy: 100%
Status: Stable
Condition: Not sure which playground feature to be all over first.
Commands: Helping Hand ~ Icy Wind/Signal Beam ~ Sweet Kiss
This playground near the edge of a forest needs to be upgraded, and how better to commit insurance fraud than to set a pokemon battle in it? Like all good playgrounds, it's shaded and has a plastic jungle gym, bars to hang from, slide, swings, swimming pool, barbed wire fence .... You know, the basics.
Since it's a playground for kids, unevolved pokemon that can evolve only, please!
That which stands tall for a long time may become admired for its resilience... Or covered in rusty patches, stains, mud, sand from the sandbox, and other gross things that, for better or for worse, only children would spend an entire day rolling in. This playground was definitely in need of renovations. And so, the owners, seeing the reopening of Asber, felt that they could cut costs on demolition and even earn a little premium on the side by inviting destruction upon their property. Unfortunately, the Metronome battlers weren't interested, but they got the next best thing.
Two trainers took opposite positions on each side of a hopscotch doodle on the ground, and a referee lay down on a slide nearby. An ill omen spread across the land as the rules were read and the flags were waved.
First, surskitty pronounced a complex German name and sent out a small Pokémon that proceeded to exactly what you'd expect from a baby in a playground. He started running around all over the place, approaching all of the rides and toys but not settling on any one of them for more than five seconds. Clearly, he wasn't about to take position soon, so Zhorken went ahead and sent a different Pokémon out. This one, a blue reptilian creature with spots of bushy black hair and an impressive collection of minor injuries, immediately started running around the park in the opposite direction, although in the interest of bumping into and biting everything -- she had to be ocasionally stopped from actually trying to eat a rusty bar or another. After one nightmare of a time, the hyperactive Pokémon were finally settled into position and given their commands, and so, the battle began.
Immediately, Schtolteheim Reinbach III stretched out a tiny hand to the side. Finding none to reach it with, he proceeded to self-handshake. Fearing that this was some kind of Fairy shit about to explode into a mess of painful magic, Ruth briefly pondered whether to use Double Team or Oblivion Wing, and decided on the former when she realized she had no idea what an Oblivion Wing was. She started zooming around the park again, but this time, with a purpose -- the incredible speed of her sprint blurred her image and split it. At the very end, her inability to see her surroundings cut the fleet of foot short with a hard trip over the rim of the sandbox, but there were still apparently four of her by the time she had stopped.
The four Deino then approached the cheerful opponent menacingly, each with their own Reaper Cloth fluttering eerily in the air. They started to snarl, and the Cleffa began to sniffle and slowly back away, although the movement made his Soothe Bell jiggle, calming him down.
Nonetheless, the threat before him was still 25% real -- an earth-shattering roar pounded everything in the arena. Swings started to swing on their own, the sandpit's sand started to dance in the air, the seesaws incessantly plunked against the ground as they shifted back and forth, the slides reverbated with the sound waves (much to the referee's misery). And of course, the target of the attack had a front row seat to the ear-splitting noise, and a great proximity to the epicenter of the minor tremor.
Daunted but kept going by the ringing of his precious bell, Schtolteheim Reinbach III hustled to counterattack, using his magic powers to summon a below of bitterly cold wind. However, he failed to read the wind that was already blowing in the arena, which shifted his own icy flurry away from the expected range. Instead of just narrowly reaching all four of the targets, it could only land against two of them, which promptly disappeared as the chilly gale blew straight through them. At least, only two others remained.
Still, those two proceeded to put on a two-dinosaur rocking show by continuing to attack with Hyper Voice. Just as everything started to settle, chaos rose again to smash everything in the park, like a wave rising up and crashing on the wake of a previous other. At least one swing couldn't entirely withstand the shockwave, and one of its well-worn chains finally snapped. This place really needs the upgrade, it seems.
After the horror ceased again, the Cleffa ran towards his opponent, reeling from a sudden throatache, and jumped up to give him a peck on the snout. Just as soon as he touched Ruth's head, however, she diseappeared into thin air, leaving him to land comically facefirst on the grass. The real Ruth stood on the other side, unfortunately having missed the amusing scene due to her lack of eyesight, and simply facing the foe dead-on.
Round 1 – End
surskitty (OO)
Currently out: Schtolteheim Reinbach III
Male Cleffa [Magic Guard] @ Soothe Bell
Health: 80% / Energy: 91%
Status: 1- Attack
Condition: Puffing his cheeks out at Ruth.
Performed: Helping Hand (failed) ~ Icy Wind (missed) ~ Sweet Kiss (missed)
Zhorken (OO)
Currently out: Ruth
Female Deino [Hustle + Intimidate] @ Reaper Cloth
Health: 100% / Energy: 87%
Status: Stable
Condition: Not going to make it to that karaoke party tonight.
Performed: Double Team (3 clones) ~ Hyper Voice ~ Hyper Voice
Arena status: Unchanged.
Additional notes:
- You know, before I got the joke, I fully expected to see Oblivion Wing mysteriously edited into Deino's learnset.
- Icy Wind rolled rather poorly for accuracy, even without considering Double Team, so I had it miss, but clearing two clones.
- Sweet Kiss also missed, but cleared the other clone. Pity, really, because the flavortext would have been hilarious.
- surskitty commands first next round.
If you're not Taunted and she's not Protected, cry some Fake Tears! You're perfect and I know you're perfect, but what if you wanted to ride that swingset!? LOOK WHAT SHE'S DONE. -- No, Reinbach, you have swings at home; I will bring you to more swings; it is okay; you are to FAKE tears. ... ... ... I want to ride the swings.
Otherwise, Signal Beam, and either way, Icy Wind and then Signal Beam.
Alright, gonna give your vocal cords a break for now. Use Protect so he hits your shield with a Signal Beam, then Spite Signal Beam. You should still be faster after Icy Wind, so Spite that too, but if he gets his second Signal Beam off before you can use another Spite, just use Hyper Voice.
surskitty (OO)
Currently out: Schtolteheim Reinbach III
Male Cleffa [Magic Guard] @ Soothe Bell
Health: 80% / Energy: 91%
Status: 1- Attack
Condition: Puffing his cheeks out at Ruth.
Commands: Fake Tears/Signal Beam ~ Icy Wind ~ Signal Beam
Zhorken (OO)
Currently out: Ruth
Female Deino [Hustle + Intimidate] @ Reaper Cloth
Health: 100% / Energy: 87%
Status: Stable
Condition: Not going to make it to that karaoke party tonight.
Commands: Protect ~ Spite ~ Spite/Hyper Voice
Arena: An Ill-fated Playground
This playground near the edge of a forest needs to be upgraded, and how better to commit insurance fraud than to set a pokemon battle in it? Like all good playgrounds, it's shaded and has a plastic jungle gym, bars to hang from, slide, swings, swimming pool, barbed wire fence .... You know, the basics.
Since it's a playground for kids, unevolved pokemon that can evolve only, please!
Arena status: One of the swings has had a chain snapped.
-----
After a short break, Schtolteheim Reinbach III and Ruth resumed battle from their previous standoff.
The former was very eager to get into his attack. He skipped his way towards the broken swing, and started to point at it while welling up... No response. He let out a bawl. Green lights shone near his opponent's ears. Of course... freaking Protect. He sighed in annoyance, bringing his thespian performance to a premature end, and then hopped on one of the swings that still worked, using its momentum to flutter quickly towards the mark, firing colored lightbeams whilst airborne. Of course, they uselessly bounced of the protective barrier, although it clearly took some effort to keep it from caving.
After the move was done, the Deino dismissed her shield, and then proceeded to do something about those beams. They friggin' sucked to defend against. Ruth didn't like that kind of thing. She, in fact, hated it. And she unleashed this hatred in the form of a creeping shadow that infiltrated Schtolteheim Reinbach III's very spirit, filling thoughts of the move with negative energy.
After seemingly shrugging off the strange influence, the Cleffa started to attack again. Another blistering cold gale blew at the command of his magic, this time landing dead-on and wrecking havoc in the Dragon-type's heat-adapted metabolism. She would be moving more sluggishly for a while, although her powerful four legs still had more steam in them than the foe's diminutive limbs.
That attack, too, felt despicable to Ruth... Who proceeded to repeat the earlier move, giving her disdain metaphysical form to haunt the enemy's very heart.
Schtolteheim Reinbach III tried to attack with Signal Beam again, but just as she began to summon the move, a rush of dark thoughts started to flood in. For a moment, he bawled real tears, but his movement caused the Soothe Bell to ring, pacifying him again. Nonetheless, his soul felt weighed as he resolved his magic into another blast of colorful lights, and even while he successfully hit the mark this time, he felt exhausted after using the move.
Round 2 – End
surskitty (OO)
Currently out: Schtolteheim Reinbach III
Male Cleffa [Magic Guard] @ Soothe Bell
Health: 80% / Energy: 74%
Status: 1- Attack. Signal Beam and Icy Wind are under effects of Spite.
Condition: Spiritually worn out.
Performed: Signal Beam (protected) ~ Icy Wind ~ Signal Beam
Alright, time to get back to rocking out. First use Hyper Voice, but while you're shouting, you may as well be shouting about something — in particular, how great you are. In other words, Swagger at the top of your lungs. Burst his eardrums and make him mad all at once. If he pulls priority, though, just use Work Up.
If the combo worked, you'll need to take a moment to breathe after that, but get right back to Hyper Voice for however many actions are left. Keep Working Up if priority happens.
Hyper Voice + Swagger / Work Up ~ recharge / Hyper Voice / Work Up ~ Hyper Voice / Work Up
Okay, Reinbach, as much as I want to do the 'quickly shake hands with yourself' thing again, because that was amazing and so are you, you know what you really need to do? You need to encourage her. You may be amazing, but just because you're amazing doesn't mean she can't be amazing, too. She can be the best deino she can be without that impacting you at all! Tell her this and give her an Encore.
(If you can only Encore one move in a combo, rather than the whole combo, go for Swagger.)
I'd then like you to get up on the slide (everyone is cuter on slides) and serenade her with an Attract. The two of you could be just awesome together, and that would be even more awesome, eh?
Finish up by either adding some true rock band flavor with Aromatherapy if you're confused (though I'd hope you wouldn't be so petty as to get upset about her being great too, eh?), or add in a light show with some Thunder Wave.
This playground near the edge of a forest needs to be upgraded, and how better to commit insurance fraud than to set a pokemon battle in it? Like all good playgrounds, it's shaded and has a plastic jungle gym, bars to hang from, slide, swings, swimming pool, barbed wire fence .... You know, the basics.
Since it's a playground for kids, unevolved pokemon that can evolve only, please!
Arena status: One of the swings has had a chain snapped.
-----
The wary Pokémon waited on each other's move for a while. Schtolteheim Reinbach III was ultimately the one to open the round -- with his mysteriously gained knowledge of combo mechanics, he chose against Encore and instead approach his enemy to talk shit about how he's a Fairy-type who's going to beat her black and blue with Fairy-type moves. With added help from the fact that she's already been beaten black and blue, as far as he could tell.
The effectiveness provocation enraged Ruth to the point of (further) irrationality, but she could still give it a shot back. She gave a roar, and then started letting out easily enunciated screams such as "GO ON SWAGGER ALL YOU WANT", "IF YOU'RE SMART STOP RIGHT NOW", "POUND THE THICK FAT ON MY BELLY DRUM", the works. The earth-shattering gibberish frustrated, confused and physically hurt its mark, all at once! Such efficiency.
The likes of which were never again seen in the round. Schtolteheim Reinbach III tried to climb on the slide, but he kept single-mindedly trying to walk it up from the sliding side, and the results were tragicomic. His opponent fared little better; even when her vocal chords were a little less strained, her attempts to attack with sound again seemed to degenerate into more nonsense. "I HEAR IT'S AMAZING WHEN THE FAMOUS PURPLE STUFFED WORM IN FLAP-JAW SPACE WITH THE TUNING FORK DOES A RAW BLINK ON HARA-KIRI ROCK." Unfortunately, all the waste of gab was accomplishing no end but that of hurting the Deino's own throat.
Round 3 – End
surskitty (OO)
Currently out: Schtolteheim Reinbach III
Male Cleffa [Magic Guard] @ Soothe Bell
Health: 66% / Energy: 70%
Status: Confused (severe). Signal Beam and Icy Wind are under effects of Spite.
Condition: In playground tartarus.
Performed: Swagger ~ confusionfail ~ confusionfail
Arena status: One of the swings has had a chain snapped.
Additional notes:
- To the best of my knowledge, you can't Encore a combo. I suppose Schtolteheim Reinbach III knew that for the intents and purposes of conditional crunching, somehow.
- Hyper Voice+Swagger was ultimately not great for the former half of the combo, which had to be toned down and controlled in order to deliver audible sounds instead of sheer noise (thus, requiring more energy and dealing less damage); however, Swagger only increased 1+ Attack instead of 2+ as a result of the braggartry being backed up by an intimidating display.
- Schtolteheim Reinbach III and Ruth contuniously confusionfailed after the first action (and in fact, Ruth would have done it in the second action too if she were actually moving). The former took no damage due to Magic Guard.
- surskitty commands first next round.
- To the best of my knowledge, you can't Encore a combo. I suppose Schtolteheim Reinbach III knew that for the intents and purposes of conditional crunching, somehow.
I'm going to actually command tomorrow, but just noting that Magic Guard protects against everything except confusion damage. So recoil yes, weather yes, burn yes, life orb yes, confusion no. \(O_o)/
I guess confusion damage counts as a direct attack... from yourself? It does use the plain old damage formula, hence Swagger being a thing in the first place.
EDIT: That... that actually sounds plausible. That Magic Guard sees it as a direct attack because it goes through the same function as direct attacks. Huh. God damn I want to get better at disassembly so I can figure stuff like this out.
Ugh, I do peril to imagine how an Encored combo would work. It's not even possible to use a combo more than once per round... If laziness's sake reigns supreme, I guess you could argue that Schtolteheim Reinbach III couldn't Encore the combo until Ruth used it, but Ruth was waiting on his move, so they would've ended up in a circular wait and this is a (slightly) superior alternative to that happening.
Also, I guess I got the incorrect impression elsewhere, but I went to actually check now and Magic Guard does indeed not prevent confusionfail damage. I'll fix that tomorrow (should be 6% damage total dealt there, for reference).
This is definitely a funnier alternative to that happening, and at least now we know what happens: the ref looks for an excuse to make it not happen, for the benefit of all.
Viktor the male Machop <Guts> @ Prism Scale
Maxine the female Cyndaquil <Blaze>
Sierra the female Zubat <Inner Focus> @ Black Sludge
Schtolteheim Reinbach III the male Cleffa <Magic Guard> @ Soothe Bell
Arshtat the female Hoppip <Chlorophyll> @ Eviolite
Jeane the female Pichu <Static> @ Soothe Bell
Chiepoo the male Meowth <Technician> @ Amulet Coin
Elenor Silverberg the female Venonat <Tinted Lens>
Eugene the male Taillow <Guts> @ Prism Scale
Cleo the female Fletchling <Gale Wings> @ Sharp Beak
Riley the male Buneary <Klutz> @ Ring Target
Zadie the female Trapinch <Arena Trap> @ Eviolite
Jazz the female Deerling (Autumn Form) <Serene Grace> @ Occa Berry
Ruth the female Deino <Hustle> @ Reaper Cloth
Jan the female Snorunt <Ice Body> @ Dawn Stone
Findlay the male Zigzagoon <Gluttony> @ Lucky Egg
Aleth the male Munna <Forewarn> @ Moon Stone
Ambrose the male Fennekin <Magician> @ White Herb
Lawrence the female Flabébé (Blue Flower) <Flower Veil> @ Eviolite
Maëlys the female Espurr <Infiltrator> @ Lucky Egg
