route_1065 | HOENNWEEN: INTRO CHALLENGE LOG

Entry tags:

HOENNWEEN: INTRO CHALLENGE LOG

Who: Hoennween Plot Participants!
Where: Tohjo Falls!
When: Wednesday, October 29th
Summary: You've just received a call from a mysterious voice asking you to come help save the world. This is Day One of The Rest Of Your Life™ — the introductory skirmish that will determine your field position for tomorrow and the advantages you'll have going in to the fight against Archie and Maxie.
Rating: PG-13 in general; please mark threads that go higher accordingly!
Log:

YOU ARE HERE. YOU'RE FIGHTING THESE GUYS AND ALSO POSSIBLY THESE GUYS. THEY'RE NOT HAPPY TO SEE YOU.

ETA: AND THIS IS YOUR BACKGROUND MUSIC!
KEY:

• GRAY areas in the north are a range of mountains that form a natural barrier around part of the Tohjo plain where the Elite Four's resort is located. It is both difficult and dangerous to get up into the mountains proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Magma Grunts are entering the area.

• GREEN areas in the southeast and southwest are densely-packed forested areas interspersed by lakes and rivers that seem to be feeding into the main waterway into the area. It is both difficult and dangerous to venture into the woodlands proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Aqua Grunts are entering the area.

• The BLUE area in the south is the massive lake that feeds the eponymous falls that give Tohjo its name. You will also find Team Aqua Grunts here taking great care to hold control of the lake, if you're interested in engaging in a water battle.

• PINK diamonds in the east and west are the sites of massive formations of Mysterious Plot Crystals™ jutting up from beneath the surface; the Grunts on both teams appear somewhat wary of these growths, so they will be keeping a reasonable distance from them while still doing their best to protect them.

• The BROWN rectangle dead-center in the map is...the Elite Four's resort. Not exactly what you might call a fortunate place to be located, but it's easy to see why this might be considered prime real estate for both teams. You're likely to find members of both Team Aqua and Team Magma hanging around here, so be cautious!

A FEW OTHER SETTING NOTES:

• As per Arceus's summon, there will be Gen VI Pokemon joining the battle on their own! You may NPC these Pokemon, within reasonable limits; you may not capture them in Pokeballs, and they are still wild so they will not take commands from characters the way a captured Pokemon would from its trainer. However, they do recognize that the portaled-in humans are fighting on roughly the same side as they are, so they won't attack player characters and might occasionally come to their aid if need be — you're free to NPC them as you like for purposes such as this.

• The aforementioned Gen VI Pokemon can be any Pokemon that swarmed during September, plus any of their evolved forms. They've had several weeks in the wild to get buff and settle in; now you can see what they've got to show for it!

• You may NPC the Team Aqua and Team Magma Grunts as you see fit; either one can be found anywhere on the map, though Team Magma will be more highly-concentrated in the northern areas of the map, and Team Aqua will be keeping more to the south.

• There is no restriction on how many Aqua and Magma Grunts you may fight.

• You may fight members of both teams on this log if you so choose; you are not required to pick just one or the other to focus on for this particular log.

• You may forego Pokemon battling entirely and simply beat up the Grunts with physical violence yourself. If you KO a Grunt, they will white out and be warped to the nearest Pokemon Center back down in the regions proper, where they will be arrested by an officer of the Kangaskhan Police.

• FOR CHARACTERS INTENDING TO USE HONEDGES LIKE WEAPONS: due to the high volume of questions we have received on this topic (it's a popular inquiry!), we want to clarify for this Pokemon in particular —

If you choose to use a Honedge as though it were a traditional sword, the most that the Honedges will allow might be slapping the grunts with the flat side of the blade. They are still opposed to attacking/killing humans, opponents or not, and if you try to stab an opponent with them, you're going to get a really obstinate ghost sword going incorporeal and ineffectively going through them. There's also the fact that you're grabbing them by the head and swinging them around — they won't like that very much.

PLEASE NOTE: if you intend to use a Honedge in this manner anyway, we may ask that you experience light IC consequences for it later in the plot! We're not barring you from getting your sword skills on with your Honedges; we're simply pointing out that there may be natural outcomes that follow from those choices.

• UPDATE: if you would like to interrogate the grunts, check here for information you can learn from them!

~

☆ THE NUMBER TO MEET OR BEAT IS 50 PARTICIPANTS ☆.

REMEMBER: IF YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT POST TO THE INTRO CHALLENGE LOG AT LEAST ONCE
(AS A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT OR IN RESPONSE TO SOMEONE ELSE'S TOP-LEVEL COMMENT)
BEFORE 9:00 PM EST on OCTOBER 28, THEY WILL NOT COUNT TOWARD THE 50-PARTICIPANT GOAL!

~

QUICK LINKS

EVENT LINKS MASTERPOST | THE INTRO CHALLENGE INFOPOST | QUESTIONS FOR MODS | INTRO CHALLENGE PARTICIPATION CHECK-IN THREAD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's likely a bad sign when one of the first people to show up on the scene is this guy.

Kimblee isn't the sort to answer Heroic Callings; he's not exactly here to save the region, after all, and if that's what Johto has ultimately brought him here for, then he hates to tell everyone this, but it summoned the wrong person. This sort of work is better suited to Fullmetal or his brother, or...well, just about anyone but him, and he'll be the first to acknowledge that; that being said, what brought him here wasn't a call to save everyone.

It was a promise that he'd get to see a world-deciding battle.

He'd been in the middle of preparations when he'd heard it, and if he hadn't already been muttering to himself while he worked he would have assumed he'd hallucinated it; his focus had thoroughly been elsewhere, however, and the usual sounds and words from Ishval haven't crept into his head for quite some time, and it had been just urgent enough for him to pause, and to turn around, and that...that certainly was a portal, wasn't it.

...What on earth...

He'd eyed it warily for a while, just long enough to ascertain that it wasn't going away, and it had occurred to him that maybe it was another dream. That maybe he just doesn't remember this part of the leadup to the castle last year, and perhaps that was exactly how that entire mess started.

But on the other hand, that entire mess had involved a battle, and it had involved alchemy, and while there's an element of "fool me once, shame on you/fool me twice..." at work here...

...Let's say he's never really been one to turn down a chance to see the world ending, and that is exactly what this sounds like. So he'll be showing up with a full team of six, and for a while he'll just...watch curiously as the grunts do their thing and seem a bit oblivious to the new guy standing near the crystals over there (and they do seem to be keeping their distance from the crystals, so perhaps that's not a surprise), and after a while he just smiles, the look in his eyes coming rather alive when he realizes what he's standing next to.

Rejoice, Johto!

He's going to be very intent on messing with those crystals; he's laying his hands on them way too much to be comfortable, for one thing, and for another...well, he's got an Electrode out with him that he seems to be conversing with on a regular basis, quietly, just out of earshot.

Somebody might want to see what he's doing, because he has entirely too much first-hand experience with what these crystals do when they're blasted full of energy...]

[This is the second year in a row now that Carmen's come down with a sense of deep foreboding during the week of Halloween while present at a battle at which she's spotted her friend Nietzsche, and all things considered that's an uncomfortably specific pattern of events and it's one she's not entirely sure she likes.

It hadn't taken much to get her through the portal, either — the logical conclusion that this could offer some explanation for the strange happenings that have been plaguing the region lately, and the urge to be present at...whatever it was that the voice seemed to think was coming, because when there's a party she wants to be present, and sometimes you act out your plan like a woman of thought but sometimes you do it like a woman of action, too.

She's riding comfortably along with a Kadabra when she teleports into view a short distance from the man and his Electrode, and admittedly the aforementioned Kadabra doesn't seem too thrilled about being so close to these giant masses, but he remains as faithful and silent as always at her side as they land near this fellow trainer he remembers so well.]

Enjoying yourself, Nietzsche?

[He doesn't take his gaze off the crystals when he replies to her; there's no need to watch her, because he knows her well enough to know that while she might shove him off a rooftop, she's not going to stab him in the back. So he remains where he is, his hands ungloved for once while he continues doing...whatever it is he's doing.]

We'll see whether I enjoy myself or not in a short while.

[And something seems to occur to him then, if the brief way his breathing hitches a bit before he laughs is any indication. The sound is soft, and he shakes his head a little before he continues.]

What did you hear - did someone invite you here? Because if they did, I can guarantee that we didn't hear the same thing.

[As he resumes his efforts, she reaches to her belt and produces a pair of Pokeballs of her own; one light toss later, an Empoleon and Ivysaur have been summoned forth, and given the way they both look instantly to her Kadabra, it's pretty clear that whatever's going on here is something they've practiced many times over.

But that should do to keep any particularly daring Grunts at bay, at least for a while. And Chief (or Rousseau, depending on who's asking) knows how to handle himself without his trainer's direction.

Which means, of course, that she's free to talk.]

You heard it too, then. That voice, just before the C-5 Corridor opened up.

[...Portals. c: ]

Dare I ask what yours said?

[And that does get his attention, though he doesn't say anything after he's given those Pokémon a quick glance-over to see exactly who they're being aimed toward.]

You wouldn't like the answer.

[And that is, as far as he's concerned, the end of that.]

"C-5 Corridor", however...you've seen these sorts of things before?

We have that technology back home. It's a little different than teleporting with the help of a Pokemon — there's a visible portal to walk through, and a certain amount of effort involved in setting the entry and exit coordinates.

[And we didn't have that when she was a detective but you know what, it makes the game more interesting so good on the kids, really.]

My rivals use it to try to keep up with me.

...Well, I certainly hope none of your rivals look quite like that.

[Between the pirates and the...whatever those other people are.]

They're an interesting lot; it seems our new arrivals don't like them very much.

[And for a minute she's just kind of...quiet, watching his interest in those crystals, glancing toward the commotion going on around them as more and more people filter onto the scene and battles start erupting into being all over the clearing.]

Are you choosing a side on this one?

[It's a valid question.]

[It occurs to him that normally that's the sort of question he wouldn't answer; he'd leave it up to the asker's imagination, or maybe he'd ask what they think, or he'd simply ask to be left alone so he can work and they would see later.

What he does is offer her something that's not a smile, really; it doesn't reach his eyes enough for that, doesn't involve enough of his face. But there's something there regardless.]

Say what you will of my normal activities around this place, it wouldn't be the first time I fought in defense of my country. Because I've been asked to, of course, but also because regardless of what I think of it or intend to do to it in the long run, it's mine.

[He glances over toward one of the masses of grunts over there.]

If they were truly the superior option for us, they wouldn't be invading us right now. That's how I see it.

I understand.

[It's a little...off, that; she feels as though it ought to have been a "thank you", but that didn't seem quite right either, both because there's really no need to run the risk of making Nietzsche QWOP right now in the middle of a war zone, and because she half-figured if she did, he'd just look at her in that mildly inquisitive way like he couldn't work out what in the world she was thanking him for in the first place.]

You know this sort of a party isn't my realm of expertise. Should I expect any notice for places I should avoid, or am I trusting my own skills from here on out?

[Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be any underlying implications in that; it's an honest question all around.]

My preferred combat style isn't exactly subtle; I trust you can handle yourself.

[And there's nothing condescending in that; just a statement.]

You'll know where I am once I start.

Try not to set the house on fire. I'd rather circumvent the decision of whether or not to run into a burning building entirely.

[GOD FORBID THERE MIGHT BE HIPSTERS IN THERE.]

...You said once I might make a fair interrogator. Since war's not my realm of expertise, maybe I'll go try to find out what these armies are up to here, instead.

Tell me what you find out, if you wouldn't mind...?

(no subject)

doitrockapella - 2014-10-27 22:05 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

explosivecombat - 2014-10-28 00:32 (UTC) - Expand

[Henry had literally been on his way to Tohjo when he got the call. Glowgan and Eleanor -- the Inkay and Trevenant he met during the swarms -- had both been feeling uncomfortable for a while, but when both of them demanded independent leave at the same time, that was when Henry became concerned. His Pokemon felt a strong need to move to Tohjo Falls, so Henry dropped every single obligation he had and started traveling to Tohjo Falls. When they went to bed on the 28th, both had been antsy, convinced that they weren't going to arrive on time... and then the 29th happened.]

[Long story short, here he is: a seventeen-year-old boy with a wide smile. He's smiling mostly because oh boy, oh boy, people gonna kill people today!]

[He'd let Glowgan and Eleanor head off to help with the wartime preparations, dragging his two starter Pokemon around with him as he searched for some other way to assist. Who cares if this isn't Ylisse's army? This is his Pokemon's army, so it's Henry's army too.]

[Soon enough, he decides to inspect the crystals, mostly because he's heard mention of "glowing pink gems" for about as long as he'd been in Johto, and this is his opportunity to see them up close. Instead of trying to hear Kimblee and Electrode's conversation from afar, like a normal Grunt would, Henry simply strolls up to them, with a Murkrow on his shoulder and a Vulpix in his arms.]

Heya! What'cha doin'?

[Oh...hello there. He doesn't recognize the voice, nor does he recognize the person it's coming out of, but he'll acknowledge him anyway.]

These crystals have been a particular interest of mine for a few months now; I'm wondering if these have the same properties as the ones I have experience with.

[Henry makes a thoughtful noise as he looks up at the massive tower of gem. If he had to guess, this would probably be similar to Dragonstones or Beaststones, which enable certain races to transform into various creatures... but if they are the same, there's no Taguel or Manakete around here to try it out on. Too bad.]

What properties do yours have? You're not just talking about what they feel like or how tough they are, right? 'Cause, I mean, the fact that they're huge and glowing and pink kind of implicates a bigger meaning than that.

Oh, quite.

[Goodness, sir, you give off the impression that whatever pops into your head comes immediately out of your mouth.]

Things like this erupted out of the ground several months ago; they were destroyed back then, but the shards did some interesting things when they had a sufficient amount of energy put into them.

[That impression is 100% correct.]

[At the very least, though, he listens. If the gems popped out of the ground a few months ago, they're probably similar to the small pink gemstones people kept talking about on the Network.]

Oh, so these are the ones that shake and give Pokémon headaches and stuff, right? What do they do when you put energy in 'em?

Edited 2014-10-27 21:20 (UTC)

They both draw it in and amplify it, from what I've seen, until it reaches a point that the crystal can no longer contain the energy it's gathered.

At which point they explode rather violently.

[And there -- right there -- you can see Henry's demeanor change entirely.]

[He gives out a little gasp and clenches his fists, body language practically oozing excitement. Exploding things? Heck yeah! Exploding things with those red and blue guys around? Double heck yeah!!]

That's so awesome! We can use these to wipe out a bunch of those grunts at once!

[Now, that's interesting.]

...We could, if we so chose.

[Let's see where this goes, shall we?]

They're easier to weaponize in shards; it would be more strategically sound to take one of these down and then use them more like grenades - charging up the ones we want and controlling what we destroy and what we don't, rather than simply taking out large numbers of the party on both sides.

Oh, yeah, you're probably right.

[Tactics were pretty much never Henry's strong suit, mostly because he finds the concept of "don't kill your own soldiers" kind of difficult. But this is exciting, so he's gonna try regardless!]

But how are we supposed to get it apart without anyone noticing? There's almost no one around here, so it'd be really obvious.

[Oh!]

Unless we just shatter it so that it doesn't explode, but the pieces fly all over the place... it'd look like collateral damage from a battle...

[...

Rule #1 - it's only acceptable to kill your own side if you're using them as meatshields to defend yourself.]

There you go. Physical damage, rather than anything energy-based.

[See, that's what makes you a major and him a lieutenant, Kimblee.]

Okay, so once they're all over the place, we just pump 'em full of energy and kablammo, right? But it's gotta be a way that can't be seen, or else we'd be found out...

...man, I really wish I still had my dark magic... [The definition of dark magic for him is, literally, "magic that cannot be seen with the naked eye".]

A mage, are you? Well, we don't have anything of the sort here...

[He tips his head down to the Electrode there.]

Fortunately, that's what she's for.