Castle Prom 2020

[indigo_league]

After arriving in Cerulean City and riding in one of a fleet of Cerulean Cape Shuckle Shuttle buses for an hour or so, the trees break and the road snakes along sea cliffs. In the distance, all can see a grand building rising up into sight, and excitement bubbles up within each and every heart as this year's mysterious, grandiose Prom location draws ever closer...




Welcome to the castle!

Their duo of hosts stand ready to welcome the characters when they arrive, assuring them that their luggage will be taken care of, and inviting them for a special tour of the castle, or would they rather first see their rooms, or perhaps even have a bite to eat? The choice is up to them.

THE CASTLE SIGHTS The Outer Courtyard For those wishing to get a breath of fresh air or looking for a place to perhaps engage in a little battling, look no further than the courtyard. Nestled safely within castle walls, the courtyard has been given a thorough renovation. The stones gleam like they have never gleamed before; a large fountain (certainly too new to have belonged to the original castle) stands at the center of the courtyard, the water gently cascading down over the marble figures of two nondescript and crowned humans, one holding a sword, the other a shield; wide-open doors welcome characters further into the castle. The Stables To the west lie the stables. Anyone interested in taking a ride along the cliff trails (or guests who just wants to see the horse Pokemon) is welcome to enter. The comforting smell of hay and wood hangs in the air, though any persons expecting to find familiar faces like Rapidash, Mudbray or Zebstrika is going to come off rather surprised. Instead what they will find are snow-white, proud-looking equines. Their long, pastel-colored manes and tails have been brushed to perfection, occasionally adorned with braids and white flowers. Long, violet colored horns jut out from their foreheads, a spiralling pure white groove running along their length. Long fetlocks drift along the ground, rather like delicate pink clouds, almost giving the Pokemon the appearance of being stabled on air rather than something so common as hay. Yes, anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of being able to admire the beauty and grace of the Galar Rapidash can look and ride their fill here. While the stable hands cannot allow anyone to actually keep one of the magnificent horses themselves no matter how much a guest is willing to pay, whenever their bosses aren’t looking, they certainly prove willing to provide characters with a Galarian Ponyta egg for a small price. (Limited to one per character) The Kitchens To the east lie the kitchens, and what kitchens they are! At all hours, characters will be able to smell the delicious aroma of a variety of sumptuous meals being prepared. In the mornings, the scent of fresh bread and breakfast fills the air, changing to the scent of pastries and later on more filling dishes as the day continues on, and fresh pots of tea are always on hand. Officially, the guests are asked not to enter the kitchen, as to not to disturb the many cooks working there. Unofficially, there are not exactly any guards, so if you really wanted to sneak in, you probably won’t get stopped. The Dining Room Adjacent to the kitchens awaits a large dining room. Tables have been set up in long rows with plenty of room for all with some to spare, and once someone sits down, almost as if by magic, they will soon find one of the waitstaff at their side, presenting them with an extensive menu. Order as much (or as little) as you like! The chefs will have it ready for you in a flash. The Ball Room The old castle ballroom has been done up to the nines, reflecting nothing but glory and splendor. Some delicate little tables and chairs stand at the sides of the room, for anyone who needs a quick break for their feet, but most of the polished marble floor is intended for dancing. There is a small chamber orchestra playing in a corner to provide everybody with only the classiest of tunes (though they do take requests for more modern music) and neatly dressed waitstaff with an uncanny ability to tell who is and isn't underaged flit through the crowd like black butterflies, making sure no glass goes unfilled. The Inner Courtyard The doors of the ballroom open wide onto a second, smaller courtyard at the back of the castle. Unlike the Outer courtyard, which was all stone, this smaller, Inner Courtyard is dominated by plants. The gardeners have done their very best to dress up the inner courtyard with plants and flowers of any kind - so many plants, in fact, that there is no room for battling out here. But if you wanted to take a breath of fresh air, wander around and look at the plants, or perhaps even try and find some of the small, secluded nooks created by the plant cover, you are more than welcome. In between the lovely smelling blooms, characters will also be able to find bushes and small trees laden with unfamiliar berries! Small cards in the soil will explain exactly what kinds of berries they are and what effect they have, and characters are invited to pluck a few berries if they want. Just don’t get too greedy! The new available berries are: Apicot, Salac, Ganlon, Petaya, Liechi, Lansat, Custap The Library Situated on the second floor is the castle's splendid library, a welcome respite for those less inclined to dance and frolic. Whatever books originally filled these weighty shelves are long gone, but their hosts have spared no effort in making reading material available to their guests. Among the shelves, guests will be able to find many books on the Galar region's history and myths. Some of these tales are already known over in this region (Who doesn't know the tale of the wise King Arthur and his oval table?) but there are also many more obscure and unknown fables and tales; the truly inquisitive may even be able to find some material on the two crowned fellows depicted in the main courtyard's fountain. It's almost as if Prom's esteemed hosts shipped over their whole personal library. They may, in fact, have shipped over their whole personal library. Pull up one of the plush armchairs, grab a book, and make yourself comfortable by the roaring fire! There's more to read here than you can finish in a lifetime! The Bedrooms Upstairs, guests will find all manner of bedrooms to choose from, from smaller rooms meant for a single person, to large ones for couples, to even larger ones for characters that would like to spend the night with a few friends. One thing holds true for them all: these rooms are seriously extravagant. Decked out in the finest of antique furniture like large canopy beds, solid wooden chairs, tapestries, and rugs, the decor brings to mind bygone centuries. There are even hearths in every room that can be used to light a small fire; while the rooms are all wired for electricity, unfortunately, central heating was a bit outside of the realm of possibility. The Tower Not all of the towers have undergone restoration, but the grandest, largest of them has. It will take some real stamina to climb all these stairs, but if they do, characters will be rewarded with two things: First of all, their two hosts have seen fit to create a small miniature museum inside the Tower’s chambers. Paintings, tapestries, and artefacts have been brought over from the Galar region to be put on display. All the artefacts brought over depict moments from Galar’s rich history, including paintings of ancient kings and queens, an actual knight’s armour, chalices, swords tucked in velvet under lock and key, and richly woven tapestries that for some reason seem to depict knights battling giant Slugma. If you still have energy after the climb to get here, you can continue on to the very top of the tower. From the tower’s high vantage point, it seems the entire Kanto region is on display in the incredible view. The ocean stretches out along the horizon, but closer to home, characters will be able to behold wild forests and cliffs, the green lush routes of Cerulean Cape itself and at night, millions and millions of stars twinkling up overhead. And all the rest... Beyond those sparkling rooms and done up corridors lies... the rest of the castle. The parts of the castle not quite done with their renovations are roped off, but nothing is stopping guests from exploring if they so wish - especially if they are interested in finding those rumored lost treasures or traps. While the rest of the castle shines, these parts of the castle feel almost haunted. Dust and derelict dominates the rooms, old broken furniture covered in dingy white sheets and creaking doors adding to the atmosphere. Did the eyes of that painting just move? Why is there a weird draft coming from that wall? What was that strange ominous creak coming from behind you? Are there any dungeons? Wait, did you just hear someone crying in a far off room? Jeez, no wonder they say this place is haunted. The Rocky Beach The main attraction outside of the castle, besides the hiking and riding paths, is a small stretch of rocky shoreline accessible just outside the main courtyard and down a surprisingly sturdy set of stone stairs. While it's a crummy place to lay out and get some sun, it is littered with bits of detritus from the sea. Shells, whole or broken, peek out between smooth pebbles and the rare piece of sea glass, and at low tide clumps of seaweed lay draped over the craggier outcroppings. Nothing is stopping you from fishing or poking around in the shallows for Pokemon, but you're more likely to find an interesting souvenir than a new friend...

---

AVAILABLE POKEMON Naturally, this wouldn't be a Pokemon Prom without some Pokemon to catch! All catchable Pokemon range between the levels of 10 to 30. The Pokemon in the castle mostly haunt the unfinished section, but feel free to have the occasional encounter in the renovated sections too! Castle Impidimp; Gastly; Haunter; Litwick; Lampent; Duskull; Shuppet; Sinistea; Misdreavus; Honedge; Doublade**; Dusclops**; Polteageist***; Gengar***; Courtyard Butterfree; Cutiefly; Ribombee; Beautiful; Vivillion; Rocky Shore Binacle; Staryu; Wimpod; Frillish; Krabby; Kingler**; Jellicent**; Slowking***; During the characters' stay, they might suddenly find their room a mess, as if a small tornado went through their luggage. They might even find themselves missing some incidental items or articles of clothing, nothing necessarily valuable or significant, but it sure is weird. This is... probably the work of the castle's Pokemon, right?

---

TREASURE HUNTING While your shuttle bus slowly trundles towards the castle, the driver will regale his riders with local stories and legends, chief among those the legend of the castle itself. You see, the castle was built by a relative of Bill (you know, the Pokemon storage system inventor?), but no one has lived in it for years and years because it is haunted. No, not haunted by Ghost types. That would be rather common and hardly worthy of note, wouldn't it? No, the castle is haunted by the ghost of Bill's great-great-great-uncle, and rumor has it that he is so possessive of the castle and its contents that he will kill all who enter. You see, even when he was alive, this man's enormous hoard of wealth was only outmatched by his enormous amount of paranoia. He was so paranoid that others would come to steal his wealth that he built his castle high upon the cliffs where no one could approach it undetected. But that wasn't enough to settle his fears! He started to hide his multitude of treasures all around the castle, and he built many traps and secret passages to protect them. It's said he was so fiercely protective of his money that he refused to leave the property even after his death, and his spirit still haunts the castle to this day. Many who have tried to find his treasures have disappeared. That is what the rumors say, at least. In any case, feel free to explore those abandoned halls and ruins for these supposed long-lost treasures. Better check for hidden rooms and passages behind old bookcases, trap doors covered by thick dust-riddled carpets, and perhaps even a hidden vault or two in the castle basements. Players are free to go absolutely wild in coming up with secret passages and hidden secrets for their characters to find. Now, as for the treasures characters can find during these explorations, they can broadly be divided up into two categories. The first category of treasures are common treasures. These are small, fairly common items that can be sold after prom for a small amount of Pokedollars each (think 100-200p), or they can be kept as a memento. Generally, these are small items that could easily fit inside a character's pocket and won't necessarily be well hidden. Characters are allowed to find as many of these common treasures as they want. Examples of common treasures would be items like pieces of antique silverware, broken mirrors, small figurines, old books damaged by the passage of time (but perhaps still readable in some places), or parts of worn and threadbare tapestry. The second category of treasures are rare treasures. These are properly hidden items that can either sell for quite a bit of Pokedollars after prom (think 5000-6000p), or can be used in-game. In order to allow of an element of surprise, every character that wants to participate in finding some rare treasure is allowed to comment once to a special RNG comment to find out exactly what they will find. Each treasure will consist out of somewhere between two and four items, the exact number of which will be left up to chance. For any questions, please refer back to the previous OOC post.

Comments

[strings_theory]

You're lucky I'm in here alone, 'cause if my girl was in here you'd already be outside and limping the rest of the weekend. [Protective, this one.

And fuck no does she want to go through his pockets, but this is why she has Demon who is going to do it for her. So enjoy that not intimidating at all sylveon going through your pockets and pulling everything out with his weird flesh ribbons, Steven.]

... You call this treasure, seriously? Either this is a really shitty cover or you're really fucking bad at this.

[insidescoop]

Carly is the brain in All relationships. Romantic. Friendly. Distant-

It's sad, but anyway.

"...Wait we got kicked out of the last ones?" Carly didn't know about this. But hey! Focus! Her Milcery gives a cry, and the woman snaps back into it. "AHA- RIGHT! If we get this water sugary enough, and coat this guy, we should be able to just bake him in place~! And I bet they'd have a fun time trying to lick their way out too, delicious..." Pokemon, right?

It'll be fine. Carly just points at the Gengar, grinning. "We just need...to take aim, and combine~!"

[insidescoop]

Heeheeee..~ [The conversation at least is a nice distraction enough from the sheer desire to just curl up in one of the blankets forever.] Mnnh, I think so...there's a whole castle to explore, but honestly I don't think that much will be worth seeing...

It'd probably be all the unrestored areas if anything...

...Which means more time to enjoy this~

[insidescoop]

WHHHHHAAAAA-

"HHEEEEEEEH!!" That probably didn't need translating.

"S-Seriously..!? They can translate then!?" The way she looks at Isis proves that she's waiting for the little bird to confirm for her- but, then again...well. As usual, she's emotive enough that translation might not even be entirely necessary...

[standless]

Understood!

[Everyone else seems to be plenty ready to use offensive strategies as it is- well, other than Sunny Day but Armin just asked for that after all- so with a nod, Jonathan pulls out a pokeball that Armin might be familiar with.

Yep.

It's Castella.] Alright little one- Sing as loud as you can, and as long as you can, understand? Do your best!

[One tiny speck of blue zips out from Jonathan's hands, speeding about to start chirping serenely. Kingler may be huge, but that's not really going to help with something so small- heck, if they try swatting she may well just fly through the claw's vice.

It's with the time that opens up, that Jonathan looks to the others.] What we've tried so far is more or less what you're seeing now. We've not had much time to try and calm them I shall admit.

[standless]

Oh?

[He doesn't move- and in the meantime, Castella is doing her best to munch the spoils of victory.] Just like this? I could let her sit somewhere more clearly if you like, [He offers, entirely unaware of the appeal.]

[standless]

Jolyne? How wonderful! Did you know she's a descendant of mine? [he starts with a grin, clearly happy about the news.] It's good to hear that she's travelling with someone trustworthy then!

[Now there's no time to unpack that-

The smile doesn't so much as fade as it does swap for something else entirely as Johnny explains his stand- Jolyne has mentioned Stands before, but they sounded a little less... ...Well frankly he's not sure what to make of this. He blinks, raising a brow.] Indeed I haven't- I practiced the art of Hamon for a time, but that's the closest thing I have to offer. Jolyne did explain a little about stands at one point, but it was somewhat tricky to grasp. She was able to unravel herself into...strings?

...Just what did 'Tusk' do to make use of your nails?

[seacub]

[Well he'll certainly do as told- but ultimately it just seems even more confusing.] I haven't even been here for a month, so I'd be pretty surprised to even do that by accident!

[And of course, as a testament to just what he expects from literally everyone-] Nope, she made it pretty clear where her things were going- and I don't have a lot, so it's easy to sort mine out. It's just...weird. I heard that ghost pokemon play tricks, but most of them were just showing me different passages earlier...

[asmywitness]

[It's a work in progress. I'm actually thinking in English for her to pass on, and she sends me back voices that I'm learning to understand, and general emotions you're giving off.] He seems a little tired as he explains. [We're both learning an entire language from nothing.]

[notyourgoddess]

Probably not. I know he's been worried about the event coming under attack again.

[Maya doesn't seem worried. Probably because she's half hoping it will. (Sorry Armin.)]

We should take some notes for the game while we're here though.

[notyourgoddess]

Yeah, mine turn out to be less names sometimes and more words. Like the one I named Knowledge or the other one I named Corrode. ....she goes by Corrie now.

At least this place has books I can look for more ideas in.

[notyourgoddess]

I've been there.

[Sometimes you get caught up in research or training or fighting or anything that seems more important then food.]

Find anything interesting?

[fingersandteeth]

God, I love the library here. I could spend hours in it if I'm not careful.

I wonder what they're going to do with this place after prom is over. Maybe they should turn it into some kind of luxury resort.

[notyourgoddess]

"I think I'll leave it down this time. I don't feel like gelling it up and it's too short to do much else with it."

She'll poke her blue hair for a moment.

"Maybe I should grow it out someday."

[notyourgoddess]

Everyone already knows if they can't find me they should look there.

Well hopefully nothing happens to destroy it. I know Armin's been worried after the last few proms? I've only been to one so far and at least the boat didn't sink....

[sleepallthewayhome]

Yeah. Jonesy and I have been looking together and he gives me hints if I can't find it.

[It's training for both of them.]

Some places look like they could be really good hiding places if something goes wrong.

[She's getting better but she's still thinking of backup plans.]

[sleepallthewayhome]

[Always be prepared.]

I found a Spell Tag!

[sleepallthewayhome]

Well yeah, but it's a pokemon that looks like a sword. Pokemon look like a lot of things.

[schachmeister]

[Armin is mumbling a little to himself, his mind racing as he goes through what he knows about Kingler and their attacks.]

Kingler have several strong water type attacks. Sunny Day should help lower their potency.

[A quick glance at Keith.]

Can you make sure that Sunny Day stays active? Keep applying it, please. I don't think any of us wants to take a Crabhammer or Razor shell at full strength.

[Then it is Allura who his eyes fall on.]

I'm sorry, electric attacks might not be the best idea right now. Sunny day makes them more likely to miss. Do you have any Grass types maybe? Or Ghosts? Kingler have a lot of normal type attacks too. A ghost pokemon should be immune to those.

I was hoping we might be able to weaken it enough to hold it down and talk to it. I don't think it means to attack us. It's just... confused. Terrified probably.

Chaos

[notyourgoddess]

[Yup you were right. Maya is looking for other people she knows as well and will go over to where she spots Armin.]

Well this fell apart quickly. Which way are you going?

[strings_theory]

It's not her fault she was never allowed the brain cell, come on.

"Sounds like a Them problem and less of an Us problem." No one but you thinks this way, Jolyne. No one. Ever. But back to the matter at hand, yes, which is far more important than anything else going on right this moment. "That sounds disgusting, but I guess that's an option." It's better than what she was doing, clearly.

"Shouldn't be too hard, a good flamethrower is easy enough to aim precisely enough for something like this. Just tell me when."

[asmywitness]

[Tyler is only alerted to the new man's presence, from his place at Lydia's other side, because Isis the Natu on his shoulder starts staring him down intensely. And he grimaces at the man and his prissy attitude.

He turns his attention back to the Butterfree, and snaps his fingers to point at the area.

And Isis's pupils narrow sharply, her eyes glow purple, and some of the large chunks of statue in the wind suddenly stop dead in the air, with the same purple glow, and they slowly lower out of the air. Shards of glass whipping around get snatched out, and everything Isis catches with her Psychic she lowers to the ground a safe distance away so it can't be whipped back up.]

[shiro2hero]

Where are we headed?

[See guys? Wearing normal clothes to prom was a good idea after all! Just like Armin warned you all about. Speaking of Armin... it's hard not to spot his friend darting off on a mission, and impossible not to fall into step with him. Jogging along with Armin, his Gengar trailing in their wake.]

I thought we were done with all this. [He's getting too old for this shi-- Armin.]

[shiro2hero]

See if you can help, Green!

[The Tropius isn't psychic, but she can assist in plucking bits and pieces out of the air, too. Vines extend from her leafy wings, moving to help Isis with the careful removal of air debris -- but not without a low trill of thanks in the Natu's direction. Couldn't have done it without you! she's saying.]

[As for the Butterfree...]

I've got a Gallade who can help if we can't get it calmed down.

[Says Shiro, as ... Blue the Gallade is apparently hiding behind his trainer. What the heck are you talking about, dad? That bug is HUGE.]

Tower

[thedifferencebetween]

Jack has made no attempt to actually climb the stairs, he's scowling at them when Tyler comes down. What was wrong with that guy? It wasn't like there was a gold plated dragon up there, at least from what Jack's heard. It's just a friggin view.

"Haven't these assholes ever heard of an elevator?" To his credit, despite the fact that he's just griping in general, he does make sure that he's looking in Tyler's direction when he talks.

There were old timey elevator designs, it wouldn't ruin the aesthetic or whatever. They were making this place over, weren't they? Elevators. Somebody needed to get on elevators.