ROCKET BATTLE LOG

[indigo_league]

As the clock nears 10 PM on Saturday, the manor (or the parts of it that people aren’t blocked off from, anyway) is completely abuzz with speculation and gossip. What could Lance possibly be planning to announce? And why haven’t any of the Elite Four even been around? They’re fairly reclusive, but it’s safe to say that everyone is at least a little curious, if not actively suspicious.

But it’s time for the big reveal, so manor staff are bustling around, reminding everybody to be in the ballroom in a few minutes for Lance’s important unveiling of… well, whatever it is he’s unveiling! The staff all seem pretty excited, so it must be big, right?

There’s been plenty of room to dance and move around in the Ballroom until now, but with everybody packed in there at once, the space is a little tighter. Especially with the small stage and podium set up in the middle. As the last (or seemingly last, assuming there aren’t any carefree stragglers who didn’t bother turning up on time) person is ushered in by staff, complete with whispers of "Psst! Hurry up, it’s almost time!", the door to the ballroom is shut and the lights dim slightly, sending a hush over the audience.

After some fumbling from whoever’s in charge of the lights (... wait, is that Captain Garfield and his Rattata up there? He’s a theater tech too?! That guy must REALLY be a jack of all trades!), a spotlight flips on and centers on the podium, where the head staffer (who might be recognized as the one with the terrible hipster mustache who’s been doing a PARTICULARLY egregious amount of schmoozing and sucking-up to trainers over the course of the party) is stepping up to the podium.

He clears his throat.

"Welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen! On behalf of the Elite Four, we’re all so happy you could join us! We hope you’ve all been having as good a time as we have, because I’ve got to say, I think this is our best party yet!"

He looks around at the assembled trainers eagerly, as though anticipating unanimous agreement.

When there’s an impatient buzz (and a shout of "Get on with it already!" from someone) instead, he laughs awkwardly.

"Oh, yes, well, we’re all here for one reason, right? To see what Lance has brought you all here for! Well, folks, as you can see, he’s not here with us right now… He’s had a bit of a-- how shall we say… an accident! So sad, I know! But fortunately, he’s graciously allowing us to make his announcement for him. Which is…"

On cue, the spotlight turns stark red. If anyone has the presence of mind to look, Captain Garfield's Rattata is holding a bit of red plastic filter in front of it.

But chances are, everyone’s attention is probably going to stay on the stage, because the guy at the podium literally just RIPPED HIS CLOTHING OFF DRAMATICALLY, revealing… yes… a very, very familiar black-and-red uniform underneath.

It’s followed immediately by more ripping sounds as other staff and even some partygoers scattered throughout the audience follow his lead, and the telltale noises and flashing of Pokemon being released from their balls. And many voices, all yelling at once...

"PREPARE FOR TROUBLE! AND MAKE IT DOUBLE!!"

The music shifts.

OOC Notes: The number of characters who must participate in the battle to call it a success is 37! In order to keep track, once you have made your first comment to this post (either a toplevel or a tag to someone else!), please bring it to the CHECK IN THREAD by 10 PM EST tomorrow! YOUR COMMENT MUST BE POSTED TO THIS THREAD IN ORDER FOR IT TO COUNT TOWARDS THE TOTAL.

GUESS WHAT GUYS?

glittertextmaker.info

OOC notes: Here it is, the part where your characters get to explore the Rocket Base and discover its secrets! Maps of each level will be posted in this top post as they are opened up, with blacked out sections being revealed as obstacles are cleared. Obstacle clearing will be based on total comment count to any mod comment with a count listed, whether those comments are contained in a single thread or spread out over multiple different ones. As many people can comment to an obstacle or base level as wish to, for as long as they want, even after it has been cleared. There are a total of two obstacles (including the first one) which are triggered by character actions we will be watching for!

Anyone who wants to thread anything out in the base or mansion during the time characters are trapped (and who doesn't want to use this log for whatever reason) is free to make their own network/action posts with whatever they like! But mods will not be coming around to those with interaction, and they will not count towards clearing obstacles.

Questions? Ask them HERE!

NOTE FOR ITEM RNG: In order for the mods to give out your item, your character must be actively looking through the loot piles in whatever tag you'd like us to respond to with your item! Items can also be given out in the middle of an existing thread between characters, whenever they get around to searching the piles! The header does not have to be in your toplevel.

Links List

Level One



OBSTACLE - KEY CARD (CLEARED)

OBSTACLE - CONVEYOR BELT HELL (CLEARED)

Level Two



Level Three



ELITE 4 JAIL

OBSTACLE - FREE THE LEGENDARY

Comments

[rosehecate]

[Her picking skills leave a lot to be desired. Back home, she never had to force anything open - if Anthy needed to enter, things would allow her. But picking locks is a thing Rockets are taught, it's Rocket 101, and she's pissed. The Frillish she released hovers around her in concern.]

I can do a lot of things - [Jam it in, wiggle it - pop, there goes the lock! A Gothita pops out and scurries away.] - I'm not proud of them.

[rambling_runner]

"Given how you're using them now, I'd say be proud." He smashed another cage door, freeing a Vullaby that immediately fluttered to the ground and scurried away. Didn't matter how one picked up a skill, if it turned out to be useful then it was useful. And in a situation like this, he wouldn't say no to a lockpicker helping out.

As he broke another cage, he noticed the Frillish. "Anthy? You got a friend hanging out." He pointed with the bar he was using to the ghostly jellyfish.

[rosehecate]

[Anthy is going to get in so much trouble back at the base - but nothing will ever be as terrifying or as painful as being pierced by thousands of hateful swords. She could deal with whatever comes.

She looks over while jamming her bobby pin into another lock, blinking in confusion at the Frillish.]

Hello?

Frill! [The blue ghost looks happy to have been acknowledged, bobbing closer.] Lish, frilli...

[rambling_runner]

Ash smiled as the Frillish drew closer to her. "He one of the ones you saved? Looks like he's grateful."

Anthy did have the Knack with animals and Pokemon. Ash continued to work ont he cages housing whatever didn't seem like it was a water type. he had no idea what they were meant to do with some of the poor fish encaged here.

[rosehecate]

[It's lucky this guy can float, then. He hovers just a little closer, such a gentle and soft boy, looking at her with beseeching eyes.]

...You're welcome.

[He's...still not leaving.]

Don't you have a family to go home to?

Ishhhh...

[She fiddles with the lock in her hands again before it pops open, letting out a cluster of Castform.]

...If you insist.

[rambling_runner]

Ash got back to work as Anthy talked with her newfound friend. He was working steadily towards a cage slightly above them; it's inhabitant was making a lot of noise and the cage was violently shaking, nearly toppling over. He looked over the cages; some inhabitants looked beaten down and in despair, while others thrashed if they were approached. He smashed the next lock more forcibly.

"I hate this. I fucking- I thought things were different. But it's the same shit, just swept under the rug."

[rosehecate]

...I thought they were different, too.

[Her eyes are for the next lock only as she jams the pin in.]

[rambling_runner]

There was silence as Ash smashed another cage. Then he spoke very quietly, glancing over to Danny who was freeing another Vullaby.

"They kept trying to take Danny. Every time I turned around, some Pokemon had their claws in him. They told me to stop delaying the inevitable." His hands tightened on the iron bar, smashing another lock with more force than was really needed. "And Danny wasn't strong enough to fight back so I just. Started throwing myself at them."

His expression was dark as he focused on the locks, head lowered. "But that's the thing. I don't know why they're doing this shit. People start things like this but then they get youngsters in, like the kid I hit. And there's so many shitty reasons people end up in shit like this."

"I just thought that. I thought there were more options." He smashed another lock bitterly.

[rosehecate]

[Anthy listens to him quietly, actually trying to put some effort into this lock and not just be forceful with it.]

...What if...they just woke up in this place, just like us? What if that's the only reason?

SORRY ANTHY

[rambling_runner]

Ash held his iron bar tighter. "If I just woke up here and Team Rocket offered me a place with them, I'd tell them to fuck off. They'd have to put a chain around my neck to get me to stay and not run off. I get that some people won't do that. But when it comes down to some 'oh no my poor circumstances' story against someone trying to hurt or take my friends? I'm not buying it."

He broke another cage, thinking carefully. It was strange for him to look so serious. He lowered his voice, so only Anthy would hear him. "...I was raised in the fucking gutter back home, Anthy. My Dad found me all alone on the streets when he was a homeless teenager. We've done shitty things to get by because it was that or starve. I get doing bad shit. But this?" He gestured to the cages. To the Pokemon. To where Danny could have ended up.

"You gotta give me one Hell of a good reason to do this, and 'I woke up here and they gave me a contract' doesn't cut it for me."

WOW RUDE ASH

[rosehecate]

[Anthy listens. She even pauses in her lockpicking attempt to listen, and very quickly she feels her whole body ice over with a hard, bitter something that she hasn't rightly felt since she came here. It was the cold that numbed everything, that shut down all threads of possibility - that reminded her of the truth of her situation. Somehow, she's the calmest she's been all evening - but that in itself is frightening, even if that truth is for what can be argued is the right reason.

Anthy had never put a single Pokemon or animal someplace it didn't want to be. Her snails had been happy to live in her pencil box, Mr. Mongoose was comfortable in her desk drawer. She didn't even like to kill the pests in the rose garden. And now, though she knows there's a bundled black uniform hiding upstairs, waiting for her to return, that never meant she had caged any of the creatures here. Not a one. She didn't even know this "mission" went further than the surface of the earth. But what would that mean to Ash? To Angel? To any of the well-meaning people she'd met at this party, more than she'd ever thought could exist at one time? For the first time, she thought of sweet Calyx and felt awful for her first genuine act of cruelty, no matter how much better the Espeon had come to turn out as a friend rather than some child's lap pet.

There were two choices, Anthy could see them clearly before her. Either she made the jump to leave the Rockets, lay low, never tell a soul and find some way to survive...or she stays, and does things like this. Lets Pokemon go. Fucks shit up.

God, what path to choose.]

...I'm sorry to say that...I'm not sure what kind of reasons they'd have. I just don't know.

[rambling_runner]

Ash looked down at his hands. He exhaled, tension sweeping out of him with that gust of air. "Sorry. I just. I know that people end up in horrible situations and end up stealing and shit to get money. Or because of their pasts or whatever. Cos that's been my life til I got here, and to be honest? It's probably all I'm gonna be."

The poor kid from a bad neighbourhood, whose dad is gone some nights doing God knows what to bring home enough cash to pay for a roof and food. He wasn't some 'feel good' story, he wasn't making good grades and he wasn't going to be 'found' and pulled up higher than where he was.

But he wasn't going to fall any further down. He wasn't, even if it killed him.

"I just hate evrything about this whole fucking thing."

[rosehecate]

...It doesn't have to be. Not here.

[She says that with a surprising amount of confidence, even given her circumstances.]

You're doing something good now. And...you don't want to continue down that path. This place has choices. Options. [Finally, she returns to the lock, and it clicks open at last. Another Pokemon freed.] And you're not alone.

[rambling_runner]

"...Heh. I know I should be glad but. I want everyone to be free." He kept up his breaking spree, although his method used a lot more energy than Anthy's. And talking this over didn't exactly drain his energy or calm how angry he was. But it made him thoughtful.

"Stupid, right? That kind of 'free the world' stuff just, doesn't happen in real life. But like- I want everyone to have that chance, ya know?" He gave her a sheepish smile, unsure how dumb he was currently sounding. Probably very. "Nah like. I know I'm sounding dumb. I should just be grateful for what I got. A chance. Some good friends. And whatever else is coming."

[rosehecate]

No, it's not dumb. My...my very best friend wanted the same for me.

[She has to turn her back on Ash now, both to work on this next lock and to keep her composure. Just to think of Utena in those last moments...]

If I didn't learn anything else from her, it's that...with my own freedom, I should try to do the same.

[rambling_runner]

He saw her turn her back on him but they were busy. He smashed the next lock, pausing to gently coax out the Pokemon inside. He thought over something careful and when he spoke, it was with his old, confident determination.

"So, we do this together, yeah?" He began to move some of the empty cages so they could reach the ones that were still occupied. "Fight Team Rocket. Free the Pokemon they steal or capture. Make sure there's things people can do when they're low and in trouble so they don't have to turn to stuff like this. For freedom and all that good stuff."

Kick ass, take names and give people a chance to not be dicks. And it wouldn't just be him and Anthy; they both had friends, other people who had been here and now knew what was going on.

[rosehecate]

...Yes. Together.

[Or as much together as she can. There might be things...only she can do. But. We'll figure that out later.]