these_balls: (SERIOUS MOD BUSINESS)
Route 29: mods ([personal profile] these_balls) wrote in [community profile] route_10652014-10-27 03:00 pm

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
explosivecombat: (And what have we here?)

[personal profile] explosivecombat 2014-10-28 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
By firing electricity exactly where I tell her to.
glaciates: (EXPLAIN ❅ i can't believe this shit)

[personal profile] glaciates 2014-10-28 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
A what?

[Well, he has no idea what that is, but moving on...]

They might have been driven back. Fighting both sides would be difficult.
cawsforalarm: (Oops ✧ Round round round round)

[personal profile] cawsforalarm 2014-10-28 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
That might be pretty obvious with the sound and the light, though. You'd need some kinda conductor to get it there... [He can't use the ground, for obvious reasons. Or maybe Kimblee has some weird Pokémon thing up his sleeve that Henry hasn't learned about yet.]
explosivecombat: (And that's verbatim)

[personal profile] explosivecombat 2014-10-28 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
It would be obvious, yes, but if it's well-done enough, who's going to stop us?

[Henry, we are going to shrapnel-bomb everyone who tries.]
fatalissimo: keikaku means plan (CATGRIN ♫ just according to keikaku)

[personal profile] fatalissimo 2014-10-28 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe; I was a bit too distracted by someone deciding that it was a good idea to pick on a little girl and her birds.

[She's smirking when she says it, though; they know better now, that's for sure.]

Either way, they've got Pokémon and not much else from the look of it. We've got at least one guy who's figured out how to make frag bombs, a bunch who are willing to attack the trainers, and some guy with a fishing rod. We've got the advantage, looks like.
occultigen: (PONDER ⚜ or i could stab him in the face)

[personal profile] occultigen 2014-10-28 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
[It...it made sense, didn't it? Just support those who matter — wasn't that, in the end, why she'd insisted Cain take her with him when he'd gone to that mad doctor's stronghold? That choice...it'd ended so badly, with so much heartache and pain, but if she hadn't been there at all, who would have shoved him out of the way of the rapidly-descending threat of a deadly blade? Had all that really been her fault?

Even if she'd only ever gotten free from the doctor's clutches because he'd let her...did that really mean that none of it counted for anything at all?]


I...

[She looked hard at the little Fletchling, and then over at the Poliwhirl and Lucario in their midst. Even her Tropius, her dear Tropius...hadn't she always tried her best to lend support where it was needed?

Was she really asking them to put themselves in danger for her any more than Cain had asked her to do it for him?

No, it was...it was something else.

Squaring her shoulders, she dug out the rest of her Pokeballs and tossed them to the ground, more because she still wasn't much at telling them apart yet than anything else. And sure enough, out they all came — Miltank, Chinchou, Mareep, Eevee, and the one she was truly after: her dear Tropius.]


Then I suppose I'd...best start acting like I belong here, hadn't I?

[Briskly, she went to her Tropius, which hunkered down obligingly to let her up onto its back, amidst the security of its big fan leaves and generally imposing size.]

I may not know how much good I can be, but if I can help — that's what I want!
cawsforalarm: (Ooh! ✧ I can set myself right here)

[personal profile] cawsforalarm 2014-10-28 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Instead of responding, Henry's grin somehow gets even wider, because he knows quite well what they're going to do to everyone who tries. He just hadn't realized they have that kind of power!]

Woohoo! This is gonna be awesome!
unkinder: (☆ but I've seen despair here)

[personal profile] unkinder 2014-10-28 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
[After his...experience back at the Rocket labs, Nagi hasn't really been doing much beyond training. Training hard, so hard that many of his Pokemon have evolved and are well up there in levels by now (of course not his Abra though, his Abra ain't got time for that). So, naturally, when he's startled out of his usual browsing of his 'Gear with a metaphorical slap in the face via The Voice Of Crawford, followed by a sudden portal opening up in front of him, it throws him off a bit. He's not going to dare ignore it, but nonetheless it is damn jarring and he's really not sure what to make of it.

And when he steps through into utter chaos, he's not sure what to make of that, either. So, the only logical response is to fight anything and everything that gets in his way, not going out of his way to fight anything, and using the constant shifting to observe and get an idea of what's happening.

Hovering behind either shoulder are an Abra and a Porygon, both with explicit instructions to warn him if something is coming his way. At either side on the ground, a Raichu and a Ninetails follow, the Raichu occasionally zapping the ground near the feet of any grunts who try to venture too close in the search of a fight. The Ninetails only has to bare her fangs and snarl loudly to get the message across. And finally, at the rear, an Umbreon and a Gardevoir keep watch behind.

When Nagi does find himself approached for a fight, he doesn't back down. He also doesn't hesitate to bring forward his Gardevoir- arguably the strongest Psychic at his disposal currently- to give them a nasty taste of what a real telekinetic can do.]
explosivecombat: (Don't worry; it's nothing personal)

[personal profile] explosivecombat 2014-10-28 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
Let's see what we can do about getting one of these crystals down, then, shall we?

[...you are gonna have so many shrapnel bombs, Henry

you can use them by setting them on fire too]
captainash: (smiling)

[personal profile] captainash 2014-10-28 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
[Awww man, such a beautiful sight and Ash doesn't even have popcorn to properly enjoy it. He does, however, have two legs that can bring him closer to the grunt pile, to get a better look at their uniforms.

As for Dark Hound, once addressed directly, he sits up and barks happily. Considering that he follows that up with an approving nod towards the Lillipup, he seems not to mind those few moments of discomfort.]


Don't worry too much about him. He's had a Lickitung collapse on him before; one idiot or two is nothing. Did they have anything interesting to tell?

[Because that sure looked like an interrogation over there.]
glaciates: (ANGER ❅ bradley's still an asshole)

[personal profile] glaciates 2014-10-28 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not worried about the Grunts. They've been pretty easy to take out so far. I'm more concerned about the people leading them. What do they want? Why are they here? If they're leading these groups then they're probably stronger than these guys.
fatalissimo: (UNSURE ♫ that's so gauche though)

[personal profile] fatalissimo 2014-10-28 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
That's the thing, there's nothing here.

[It'd be a lie to say that hasn't been bothering her about it, actually...]

The crystals and the house, that's it. And the crystals haven't really done anything but sit there.
awesmazings: (☼ for music)

[personal profile] awesmazings 2014-10-28 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Jimmy comes running from where he'd been a little tied up near the lake, breathless and...pretty wet, if the way he's dripping as he runs is anything to go by. Chasing after him are a Furret and a Houndoom, his other Pokemon briefly returned to their balls for the time being to rest after so much water battling.

When he spots Emmy and her Lillipup in hot pursuit of a group of grunts, Jimmy skids to a stop and puts his hand on the Furret's long back, prompting her to stop and stand up on her haunches.]


Cherry, help her! Stop those guys!!

[The Furret nods and is off like a shot, her short paws beating the ground with a frantic tempo as she speeds their way at a diagonal, enough to where she'll reach the point they're trying to run to before they quite get there.

There she stops and turns on a dime, rearing up on her haunches. Suddenly, a massive ball of water forms in midair in front of her mouth, which she abruptly hurls to the ground. It seems to explode like a landmine, a huge, crashing wave spilling in every direction outward from her in an attempt to slow- or even stop entirely- the grunts' escape.]
cawsforalarm: (Yay ✧ I can feel the pound)

[personal profile] cawsforalarm 2014-10-28 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ !!!! ]

[he can help with that!]

[this is really shaping up to become Henry's perfect day and it's kind of terrible.]


Sounds good! So, like... do you have any Pokémon that can throw something that high? 'Cause I don't. [When your options are a baby Murkrow and a Vulpix you don't know how to evolve, battling can be difficult.]
glaciates: (HUH ❅ amestris is a circle isn't it)

[personal profile] glaciates 2014-10-28 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah. There's got to be something here that they're after, but I can't figure out what it would be. This area doesn't seem to have anything that important, but maybe I'm missing something.
explosivecombat: (And what have we here?)

[personal profile] explosivecombat 2014-10-28 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
[...Hmmm.]

I have us covered on the brute force aspect, don't worry.

[And he'll just be tossing one of those Pokéballs out and hello there massive steelsnake.

...clearly Kimblee just doesn't believe in Pokémon that look like natually-occurring creatures at all, if the Steelix and Electrode are anything to judge by.]
solas_ion: (you were lock jawed in your ways)

[personal profile] solas_ion 2014-10-28 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
Much better, now you're gettin' it!

[Smirk turning into a grin, he knocked a few unfortunate grunts back with a swing of his unconventional weapon. This...was really something he needed, wasn't it? A nice and simple fight to clear his head and get him properly re-accustomed to this human body.]

Stick with me for a while, huh? I'll watch your back and you can help watch mine, we can start with that. It's been a while since I've been able to fight like this, so I might need the help.
paopuprincess: (Oh?)

B

[personal profile] paopuprincess 2014-10-28 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Riku. You are the biggest dork ever. I mean, who concentrates so hard on looking cool while eating a sandwich. In fact, that sandwich looks pretty tasty. Do you know who wants a taste? The wide-eyed Espurr crawling up your back and staring into your soul.

Meanwhile, Kairi isn't really bothering with riding a pokemon. She sort of... plods along behind the turtle-mounted dork, followed closely behind by her Staryu and her newly-evolved Lucario.]
cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa: (HOGWASSSSH)

[personal profile] cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2014-10-28 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
Archer?

[In the midst of all the Pokemon and the enemy Grunts, Cobra hasn't really noticed any familiar faces. So of course, when he spots one he doesn't hate, he's going to call out and try and get their attention. In the middle of a battlefield. Because that's a smart decision.]

Ssssslice, Night Slash!

[And while Scizor takes care of that Grunt, he'll continue trying to get the attention of one of his few Rocket friends.]

Archer, is that you? What are you doing here? And what's going on?
paladinlost: (Tellah)

[personal profile] paladinlost 2014-10-28 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
[Some time into the fight, a few Magma grunts come running in a panic from the northeastern side of the battlefield. If they are somehow stopped and interrogated, all they can do is babble quickly about being good boys and girls, really, they swear, please let them go. And if whoever interrogates them decides to look for the source of their terror, they might find themselves having to dodge both more panicking grunts and projectiles.

Extremely colorful projectiles.

Extremely colorful exploding projectiles.

...Merry early Christmas, everyone!]
fatalissimo: (SUGGEST ♫ put a stupid hat on it)

[personal profile] fatalissimo 2014-10-28 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
I don't know what's in the damn house that could be that important, so it's got to be the crystals. Sometimes useless things...really aren't.

[#shounenproblems #tw: clothes]

Go check the crystals out. I'll see if there's anything pattern-wise that we should know, see if either group is going for anything in particular.

[...]

Take care of yourself, Beastmaster, you're too fun to have taken out of the fight.
cawsforalarm: (Ooh! ✧ I can set myself right here)

[personal profile] cawsforalarm 2014-10-28 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
[Well the Steelix looks like it's kind of made of naturally occurring substances... maybe...]

You are so cool!

[He's not addressing Kimblee. He's addressing the Steelix. Due to A. having Pokéspeak and B. being an insensitive jerkass, Henry tends to completely ignore Trainers in favor of their Pokémon when they're sent out.]
wakeupslap: (pic#8436231)

[personal profile] wakeupslap 2014-10-28 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
[So the grunts wore Red and Blue. Those were simple colors and he could see them from a distance. And he went around taking them out with his fists. He has to put Princess back in her ball due to how much he was moving and how hard it was to stay attached. So he's without a Pokemon right now, but he didn't ever need one to begin with.

So when he noticed someone in blue? He knew what he needed to do. He moved around a little bit closer to the shore. Forget that he was taking down what appeared to be his own team members, Moses was more focused on himself jumping up into the air, and towards Kayneth. Not really paying too much attention to his surroundings.]
freshprints: (EYES ❈ that's checkmate motherfucker)

[personal profile] freshprints 2014-10-28 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Kirigiri is another of the contingent assembled here who remembers the events of Nightmare Castle almost one year ago; back then, the battle had followed a disorienting week after being kidnapped to a half-dreamlike world, and the battle that followed had been plagued with all the suspicion and over-cautiousness that tended to follow something like that.

This year, however, she's a little better prepared, and more importantly she's here with a very definite set of priorities. There's no telling how many of her classmates might've come through the portal, and a few minutes of observation had quickly confirmed that people were appearing all over the map when they first came through.

Priority one, therefore, was to take stock of who might be where, and get a headcount in whatever way she could. So, after sending out a mass-text to all the resident Dangans asking for confirmation of their location, she proceeded to send out her Noctowl to sight from the air while she herself mounted up her Arcanine, flanked on either side by her Lucario and her Empoleon.

Classmates first. Once that was settled...everything else after.]
glaciates: (EXCITED ❅ gonna ride a glacier brb)

[personal profile] glaciates 2014-10-28 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
There's no way I'm going to get taken out this easily. You take care as well, alright?

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