victory_road | The Contest Spectacular!

The Contest Spectacular!

Who: Everyone attending the Contest Spectacular! (For more information about this event, check out the info post here!)
Where: Celadon City
When: January 18-20
Log:

It’s finally here… the Contest Spectacular! The whole city of Celadon has been bustling ever since the preparations for the contest began, but now with the addition of all the contestants, their friends, and the general crowds, the town is downright packed. Hotel rooms booked en masse (good luck getting into that big fancy one near the casino-- thank Arceus there's plenty of others!), the Center stuffed with younger trainers who are short on cash but couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the first ever Pokemon Contest in this region, and generally even more foot traffic than usual.

But nowhere is it moreso than in Celadon Center, where massive, colorful tents have been erected. Pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue! There's no missing what they're for-- enormous banners advertising the Contest Spectacular fly from every corner. The streets surrounding the square are packed as well-- food carts and merch stands line the sidewalks, eager to snag a bit of the glory. Teeny tiny portions of hoity-toity restaurant food usually too expensive to buy are being hawked to passersby right alongside Pokeblocks and Poffins of varying quality, in case your Pokemon need a treat (or a little extra oomph before the show starts!). In addition to the stands selling gobs of Hoenn contest celebrity memorabilia (contest nerds might recognize figures such as Contest Idol Lisia and her Altaria, Ali, featured quite prominently!), Celadon City's many fashion boutiques and clothing lines have gotten first dibs on available space, so any contestants still looking for an outfit for themselves or their Pokemon is in luck, because there’s absolutely everything you could imagine for sale if you find the right stall. Opportunistic photographers (some official, some... not) have also swooped in to set up booths with rentable costumes and fun backgrounds, for anyone who isn't performing but wants some cute souvenir pictures of their Pokemon being a contest star anyway.

But of course, for eager audiences and contestants alike, the real attraction lays within the tents themselves. Audience members will have to wait in line for the shows to officially begin at noon on Friday, but for those who entered the contest themselves, well, that's another story entirely!

Stages of all kinds have been arranged to suit most every type of act that’s been submitted, from the more traditional wooden stages to huge tanks to little fields (the oodles of hardworking staff making all of this possible are making good use of moves like Grassy Terrain!), and the Contest Hosts’ voices can be heard presenting acts and cracking jokes about said acts almost all day long.

After registering but before checking into their lodgings (prepaid rooms at the ritzy Celadon Hotel! Lucky you!), contestants and their Pokemon will be shown behind the scenes and made familiar with all the utilities at their disposal-- small refreshments, makeup stalls, a selection of props to make use of (although, as the harried-looking staff will tell them, bringing your own unique items is really the best way to stand out!), lights, camera, and of course action! Unsurprisingly, the entire back workings of the Contest is a flurry of activity-- it's a lot of people, Pokemon, and equipment to manage; and in true, bombastic Hoenn style, there are bright lights and flashy colors everywhere you look! But contestants will still find that no matter how busy or frantic they are, the staff will still find time to help them out with special requests or technical requirements for the act. It is, after all, their job!

But ultimately, the act is on you and your Pokemon. Don't get stage fright now-- the curtain's going up any minute!

~*~

[IMPORTANT: Please submit your contest entries here! For all other activities, feel free to make your own top-levels!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah! Hi there!" Kazuki waves back, and he and Honky Tonk walk their way over to Ash and Scuabtuinne. Well, Honky Tonk does his caterpillar-esque shuffle, but he's still pretty good at getting around on land, much easier than a Lapras would. "Thanks so much! Tho' Tonks deserves more of the credit-- I picked the music, but he put the routine together!"

Honky Tonk turns his head slightly to the side in a show of modesty, but he's still rather proud of himself. He thought their act did really well! He shuffles around Ash a little to see Scuabtuinne better and barks happily-- you did really well too!

"You guys were great too! I've never seen costumes like that before. Are they from your home?"

Scuabtuinne lowered her head down to Honky Tonk, smiling softly to him. "I thought your dancing was lovely."

"They are kinda! I figured if they wanted us to be otherworldly and exotic, why not go all out and call back to some old culture too?" Ash grinned. "Yours had a certain look to it too. Really dapper! Oh wait, was that a song you would play back home then? Since you picked it out and all." He was eager to hear more about Kazuki's music. He didn't know any trumpet players back home - it was all drums, guitars and banging on whatever you could find if you didn't have the money for all that.

"Thank you so much!" Tonks puts his flippers over his mouth in glee. "Your singing was out of this world! And what you did with the water... I want to learn how to do stuff like that when I'm a Primarina someday!"

"It totally felt like a fantasy movie! The kind with magic and fairies and stuff! It totally matched the Beauty theme," Kazuki happily exchanged compliments, and would continue to do so until he got blue in the face. "The song we picked was from the late 50s, so I wanted to try and do something retro and wholesome like the variety shows from back then!" "

"And yeah, I've played it back home. I love Jazz! It's so much fun when you can go off-script and just play something the way you feel it, you know?"

Scuabtuinne blushed, her snout turning a darker hue of blue. "Oh, thank you... I can teach you the song if you like. Ash taught it to me."

"Well, there actually is magic back home, so it's good to know I brought some of that here." Ash laughed. That was actually a really high compliment in his books, given how much he missed some of his magic. It was nice to know he could still give that impression, or that aura even without them here.

"Man I haven't heard much jazz before. Not live anyway. I mostly know indie kind of songs and folk stuff. So the most off-script I usually go is for a little guitar solo, but even then you can't really drag it out too much or you'll ruin the vibe."

"Oh, please do!" Honky Tonk stood up on his flukes and did a fancy turn. "'Tho my voice isn't nearly as melodic as yours..."

"Music and magic?" Kazuki's eyes are wide with wonder. "Your world sounds awesome! I mean, I really like mine and all, and I really want to go home, but I keep hearing about all sorts of different places-- At least I can travel here as much as I want! I think I've got the same itch everyone else here has."

"Indie and folk, huh? Are you part of a band?"

Scuabtuinne lowered herself in the pool. "Your voice is just as lovely." She assured Honky Tonk, smiling softly.

"Not in a band as such. I got a group of friends, we go to this little empty place that's never used by anybody and jam together. So sometimes we'll play a bit of what I lean towards, and sometimes it's someone else's preference. And me and my dad would play quite often together too. He taught me guitar, but his instrument was always his violin." Ash rambled, smiling as he went on. "You'd be surprised how well we could mesh a violin and a guitar to a song with nothing else but our voices to add to it!"

"I'm still young! And learning! But someday I'll be as good at singing as Kazuki is with his trumpet! He tells me I will!"

"Ahhh, that makes me miss Orchestra Club!" Kazuki finally sits down now that they're deep in coversation. "We would do improv like that there sometimes, for fun. That's a lot different from rock, but I think the fun of it is the same."

"That must have been great! To have a partner ready to play with whenever... I really like the way stringed instruments sound together, even though you pluck a guitar, and bow a violin. A piano is sort of a stringed instrument too!"

"Well I mean, Dad wasn't always home. Work and all that." Ash shrugged. At the mention of a piano being stringed, he actually had to pause. "...Shit, you're right. You never really think about it cos it's all keys when you see people performing with a piano but on the inside, it's all strings. And here I thought my family had some variety!" He laughed. "So you were part of an Orchestra Club? What sort of instruments did you have in that? It'd be strings and wind instruments, right?"

Scuabtuinne nodded, humming. "I believe it. Oh! Maybe you should meet Ronan. He is Ash's Brionne. I think he has been looking for his own music style, so maybe you could help him."

"There's been an argument going on basically forever on whether or not the piano is a stringed instrument or a percussion instrument. And nobody totally agrees!" he chuckles a little, "Since it's the strings that make the sound, but they're hit with a hammer... I think it'll just be a mystery forever."

"Yeah, I am! Now that I've graduated, I'm kind of a senior representative. But Orchestra club is open to anyone that plays any instrument! The different groups tend to work together though. Brass, stringed, woodwind, and percussion.!"

"Really? Tonks gasps, and shuffles himself closer. "I've never met another Brionne before! What kind of styles has he been trying out?"

"Huh! I thought Orchestra had to be like...fancy. Like violins, cellos, horns, all that kind of thing. But that sounds really cool. We didn't have any clubs like that at my school. Just Chess club, an art room open on an afternoon for people who wanted to use that stuff, and all the sports you can think of." Ash's school kind of sucked. "It'd be cool to play with ya sometime. My guitar and your trumpet. And we can get our Pokemon involved too!"

"Ronan has tried to copy Ash, but it does not suit him he feels. And he has tried rock too, but still didn't feel like it fit him. Oh, and Ash's friend has a Popplio too! She is performing today too. Her name is Quay."

"I went to a high school that was really focused on music education! I mean, we had Gen Ed students too, I'm good friends with some of them, but Seiso is really known for churning out musical talent. The entrance exam was so hard! I've never studied like that in my life!" Kazuki laughs. "That'd be great! I'm sure my Pokemon would like to make some new friends too! Whereabouts do you usually hang out?"

"I'd love to meet all of them!" Honky Tonk does another happy twirl. "Maybe Kazuki could help him! He knows all sorts of different kinds of music!"

"Oh yeah, that's. Wait you had to take an entrance exam?" Ash is a public school body, he barely had the money for basic supplies let along going anywhere special. Best not to dwell on his status. "But oh! I live in Olivine, down by the shore. Makes it easy for Scuabtuinne here to hang out. She basically lives in the sea and I go out to see her everyday."

"That would be good!" Scuabtuinne nodded. Meeting new people...it wore her out and made her self-conscious, but it was still a nice thing to do sometimes. After all, she got to meet Honky Tonk today.

"Yeah! I've heard that's kind of a Japanese thing tho'. You don't have to go to high school; it's not against the law, so high schools are actually kind competitive."

So middle school is the real crunch time for Japanese kids. Pretty much all the third years go to cram school before taking national exams.

"Okay! I was in Saffron City before I came here from the contest. I was actually on my way to Lavender Town, since someone told me there's a music scene there to check out. But I was in Goldenrod for a few months before I started traveling," because everyone was telling him that was the thing to do. But now he keeps hearing about people that permanently live in certain places too! "Maybe I'll loop back to Olivine when I come back to Johto? Is it a nice place to live?"

Huh. School was mandatory until you were 18 for Ash. He was only coming up to the end of his education and boy did he feel the pressure of needing to find a job and a career and all that. And then he'd ended up in Johto and had just, rolled with life here.

"Lavender was that? I might need to check that place out someday if it's got the music bizz. But oh yeah, Olivine's awesome! It's right by the shore, with a lighthouse and a dock. There's a ton of nice places to eat by the coastline, and in summer it gets real busy. But it means that the rest of the year, it's really chill. And you can get to the Sevii Islands from there."

"Oh, you can? Armin and Jean live on the Sevii Islands! Then if I went to Olivine... Yeah, that sounds like a plan!" Kazuki nods confidently, and Honky Tonk shuffles back to his side with a sweet wave back at Scuabtuinne. "After I check out Lavender Town, I'll come back to Johto and see where everyone lives!"

That's a bit much to assume there, buddy! Tho' he means it in more of a see the city they live in rather than the house they live in.

"Do I need a Pokemon that knows Surf to get to the islands, or is there a boat I can take?"

"Oh, there's a boat! Oh wait, you know Armin and Jean too? They're friends of mine." Ash beamed. "I haven't been to the islands they live on yet to be honest. I've just been too busy getting my mons all set up at home. Make sure you send me some snaps from Lavender, yeah? It sounds really cool!"

Scuabtuinne smiled to Honky Tonk and nodded to him. She hoped she saw him again in the future.

"Yeah! They were really nice to me when I first got here. Well, everyone was really nice... And they still are! Which is good, because I need the help!" he scratches the back of his head sheepishly, while still grinning brightly. "Sure, I will! I'll let you know if it's worth a visit!"

"Good things there's a boat too, 'cuz Honky Tonk isn't Surfing me anywhere."

He gives a jovial nudge with his foot to his Brionne, who shakes his head resolutely. Nope, Honky Tonk is not an HM kind of Pokemon, not even if he evolves into a big Primarina! Rides will be strictly for emergency situations only, okay?

(He could ask Maestra, who would probably be willing, but who on earth knows that Furrets can Surf? Definitely not Kazuki!)

Ash smiled and laughed at Honky Tonk's refusal to be ridden. Scuabtuinne made a soft sound, nudging Ash. His expression softened and he turned, petting her nose and talking to her in Irish. "It's okay love...we're getting there."

To Kazuki he sheepishly explained. "Me and Scuabtuinne have been working on that. She knows how to use Surf, but she's self conscious about her back or having anyone behind her. She's better than she was. I'm kinda hoping this will help with her confidence." The Lapras lowered her eyes, positioning herself behind Ash shyly. It had helped her confidence yes, but she was still timid by nature.

"Oh..." Kazuki peeks around Ash a bit to try and get a better look at Scuabtuinne, but when he realizes that she's being shy, he backs off. Sometimes his energy could be too much for quieter types, a lesson he's slowly been learning. "I think I read on the gear that Lapras usually like to give people rides, but it's okay if she doesn't want to! Her singing was so pretty, after all... Everybody's talents are different!"

"No no I mean; we both want to ride together. But, she's got some nasty scars. The people who had her before me weren't good to her." He murmured a reassurance to Scuabtuinne, he nuzzled into him and let him guide her, so her side was facing Kazuki. Ash nodded to her heavily damaged shell.

"Most Lapras have a complete shell; the cracks and the notches on her? That's the damage that was done to her, by Team Rocket." He pet her neck, leaning into her. "So she's sensitive about people getting near to that."

"Oh!"

Oh, shoot. Kazuki doesn't mean to bring up tough subjects like that. He hasn't seen a whole lot of these Team Rocket folk, but nearly everything he's heard has been really bad. Who would hurt an innocent, gentle Pokemon like that?

"I'm really sorry," he replies, lowering his voice a notch to make the conversation a little more private. "That was really rude and dumb of me to assume. And I'm sorry someone did something so mean to you, Scuabtuinne."

He totally butchers the pronunciation of her name, but it's the thought that counts.

"It's alright." Ash smiled. Scuabtuinne nodded, turning slightly to face Kazuki again. But she didn't mind Ash standing by her side. "This is what I meant about getting ehr confidence up. Before she didn't like having people see it at all, but she was great on stage! So, that's gotta be a step forward."

Or at least, Ash was hoping it was. There was still some way to go before the two of them hit the waves together but they were getting there!

"Yeah, she was awesome!" Kazuki heartily agrees. So does Honky Tonk! He claps his flippers together in applause. "Her song and her costume were all really beautiful! You would have never guessed she was shy at all!"

Maybe by the time Kazuki gets to visit Olivine, she and Honky Tonk can go for a swim together.

Scuabtuinne smiled softly, ducking her head again but thanking Honky Tonk and Kazuki for their praise.

"Exactly! So, we're working on it." Ash wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a hug. Given her body shape and their respective sizes, he was essentially hugging her neck as she returned the gesture. It was still sweet.

"So if you ever drop by, you gotta let us know so we can meet up. I've got quite a few mons who love to perform, I just wanted to give Scuabtuinne her chance to shine."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Contest Spectacular!

this is great! anything is fine! :3

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