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
preybeforemeals: (DISMISS ♞ oh - that was your girl?)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
[And Tsukiyama does not bother getting up from where he's more or less all over that grunt, though he does look up at her, flicking his hair out of his eyes one-handed; he really needs to get his fringe cut, he's been intending to for a few days now.]

Ah, it would seem so! My apologies if you found this barbaric, but it's one way of getting the job done.
doitrockapella: (DEADPAN ❖ would you like a hint)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Barbaric" wasn't the first word that came to mind.

[She kind of glances at Tsukiyama, sizing him up a bit, but more importantly gauging the demeanor of the nervous-looking grunt in question.]

Why don't you let him up? It'll be hard for him to tell you anything like that.

[...is she just inviting herself into being a part of a fresh round of Good Cop Bad Cop...?]
preybeforemeals: (CASUAL ♞ jealous of your cigarette)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
[And when he laughs again it's understated, and he shoves a bit more than necessary on the grunt's shoulder when he moves to get up, pressing the guy into the ground for a moment before rising to his feet.]

Do you think so? He's been a bit on the difficult side for me - ostinato. Isn't that so...?

[And he'll be glancing down at that grunt, who seems a bit hesitant to follow the purple-haired maniac to his feet but at least he's sitting up.

...and looking like he has no idea what to expect but he has the general idea that he should be grateful for his red-coated savior, um.]
doitrockapella: (CONFIDENT ❖ why yes i speak jive)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
Calmatevi.

[Without missing a beat.]

That's no way to treat anyone.

[And she proceeds to shift her position a little, a kind of natural side-step that brings her a little closer to the hapless grunt and translates wordlessly into a sense of standing between the aforementioned maniac and the guy on the ground.]
preybeforemeals: (ARROGANCE ♞ mhmm sure she did)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Arguably, what they're doing is no way to treat anyone, either.

[But he doesn't move, and he shifts back when she moves, offering a sense of distance; he keeps his gaze from lowering any - he doesn't want to imply submissiveness, not in the least - but he'll defer just that much, anyway.

The grunt, on the other hand, looks suspicious as hell before awkwardly pushing himself to his feet; his first priorities seem to be with brushing his pants off, though he mutters something that's definitely thanks, ma'am as he does so.]
doitrockapella: (ASIDE ❖ we don't talk about maelstrom)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that begs the question of what they are doing, doesn't it?

[You're not off the hook, Friend Grunt, but the thanks are appreciated. And she's not going any further than that one step, so...well, if this gentleman here decides to press forward himself, the tide might just shift back from whence it came.

Speaking of which: ]


I don't recognize that uniform. Who are you with?
preybeforemeals: (LECTURE ♞ yes but unfortunately...me)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
[That just gets the grunt to straighten up - it's clear that uniform is something he takes a lot of pride in, thank you very much.

"I'm from Team Aqua - helping to make the world a better place for Pokémon everywhere, ma'am!"

...Tsukiyama is looking like he may just believe that to be purest bullshit, but to his credit he'll leave it alone for now.]
doitrockapella: (BOW ❖ holy shit was that an honorific)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
Team Aqua.

[...oh my god you are dressed like a pirate and she really is not one to talk here because she once made all her henchmen dress like pirates too but you know what.]

And that makes your friends in the red hoods...?
preybeforemeals: (DISMISS ♞ oh - that was your girl?)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[The grunt scoffs a little. "Those losers? They're Team Magma - we're rivals, you know?"

...and...yep. Yep, this is about where Tsukiyama's tolerance for the idiocy on display will come to...well, at least it's a coasting halt.]


Care to tell me how you're making the world a better place, amore? This looks more like turf warfare to me.
doitrockapella: (POCKET ❖ it's my bar of chocolate)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[Oh, well, you're a lot lower on the willingness-to-comply scale, poorly-dressed fistypunch guy, but it appears that this grunt's team pride also extends to his team's mission, so it's with a touch of defiance that his answer eventually comes.

"Team Aqua's goal is to expand the amount of water in the world! With more water, there'll be more room for Water Pokemon to thrive!"

And then he sort of grinds to a halt a minute, because it kind of just hit him that he isn't precisely sure what all this does have to do with, uh, Team Aqua's overall goal in particular, but you know what...uh...

"That's why our boss is going to come out on top!"

There we go.]
preybeforemeals: (HM? ♞ who invited the rube)

[personal profile] preybeforemeals 2014-10-28 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
[......................................]

Tell me I'm not the only one that heard that just now. Please.
doitrockapella: (SIDELONG ❖ judging you right now kthx)

[personal profile] doitrockapella 2014-10-28 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[You know what god bless her tolerance for stupid henchmen right now.

Such nostalgia, man.]


Rabbits can learn to spit fire after being hit in the head with a data disc. Tolerating a mission statement like that isn't much by comparison.

[But anyway.]

...The boss is going to come out on top of what, exactly?