victory_road | Battle Convention!

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Battle Convention!

Early Saturday morning, the doors of one of the largest --if not the largest-- convention centres in Viridian City open to welcome everybody to this years Battle Convention.

Spread out across several floors, and the battling fields outside, the Battle Convention is the place to be for anyone with an interest in pokemon battling. Whether you are a hardcore battler trying to hone your craft even further, or a newcomer to the battling scene hoping to learn, the Battle Convention has things of interest to everybody. It's promising to be a busy event, with trainers attending from all over Johto and Kanto. Famous battlers and gym leaders alike can be spotted in the crowds, hosting workshops or even entering in the tournaments.

The Tournament Ground

Outside of the convention centre, stands have been erected around at least a dozen Pokemon battle fields. This is where the various Tournaments will be held. Throughout the weekend, three tournaments will be held here. There is the Otherworlder Battle Tournament, a separate tournament for native Elite Four Champions, and a third Li'l Champs tournament for trainers under the age of ten.

Viewing the various battles is absolutely free, and could be a good source of insight into battle strategies employed by some of the best battlers in the region. Or, if you are attending the Li'l Champs tournament -- a most adorable insight into the dedication and friendship between young children and their first Pokemon.

Due to the number of battles, at any given time, various battles will be ongoing. The Li'l Champs tournament will be held on Sunday, while both the Otherworlder battle tournament and the Elite Four Champions battle tournament will have most of their preliminary matches held on Saturday, with the finale few matches on Sunday.

So, if you are done shopping (or maybe just ran out of money) and there aren't any workshops catching your eye, why not come down to the Tournament Grounds and catch a few battles?

First Floor

The first floor of the Convention Centre has been reserved entirely for various workshops and battle demonstrations. In essence, whatever topic related to battling you might be interested in -- whether it is using certain moves or items, battle strategies, or even demonstrations on why you should be adding X type to your roster -- you'll probably find someone here willing to talk about it. Even breeders might find something of interest here, as there are a few people giving workshops on how to breed pokemon for battle-minded customers.

Schedules are available so you won't miss anything you are interested in. Some of these workshops might only be given once, while others are repeated a few times throughout the convention, so make sure to check your schedule!

And among the crowd giving demonstration and workshops, you might even find a few familiar faces -- yes, members of the Aurora League have also been given the chance to speak about any battle topics near to their heart. Why not check out what they have to say?

Second Floor

The second floor of the Convention Centre has been reserved for the important business of commerce. Have some money to burn? Want that sweet serotonin boost of buying a thing? Maybe you deserve a little treat after winning (or losing) your battle. If so, head on up here.

Spread across various rooms, the Battle Convention dealers have everything that could be of interest to a trainer. There is, frankly, far too much to list here individually, so please accept this rough list of what your characters can find here.

Held Items -- it is possible to buy held items here, however the vast majority of them are pretty rare, so sellers will only sell you one of each. Buying several different held items is fine, but you won't find anyone willing to sell you five Amulet coins. The only exception is for held items that also double as evolutionary items. Those can be freely bought in any quantity.
TMs -- It is also possible (though might require some searching across various dealers) to buy any kind of single-use TM here. The same rules apply as with Held Items -- TMs that are currently available in stores can be bought at any quantity; TMs outside of that are limited to one per person.
Eggs -- There is also a small group of professional breeders present where you can order eggs with egg moves. The eggs themselves will be delivered to you in the days after the tournament. There is no limit on the amount of egg moves you can request for your egg, but there is a hefty price tag involved! These are professional breeders, so expect a base price of 6000p per egg, with 1000p per requested egg move.
Training Equipment -- it's also possible to buy all manner of training equipment for your pokemon. From weights to training bags to agility aids -- if you can think of something that could help you train your pokemon in a more efficient manner, you can find it here. And the bigger items can be delivered to where you are staying, so you won't have to carry around a giant Wailord Training Bag.
Odds and Ends -- In addition to all this very focused battle stuff, you'll also be able to find general pokemon items, such a wide variety of Pokeballs, Evolutionary Items, Vitamins and Potions and such. All of these will be sold for the same price as in stores.

However in addition to all of these items, the Silph Co. Booth is drawing a lot of attention. There is an announcement that they will be unveiling something truly special on Sunday, so all of Saturday is awash in rumours and guesses. There is talk that whatever they will be unveiling will be one of the prices in the tournament, though who knows if that is true. When Sunday finally comes, there is a huge crowd around the booth, watching as Silph Co. unveils

EXP-Share, the newest held item to make your training a little easier.

The EXP-Share, which will go on sale in the department stores after this weekend, is a new type of held item. Once given to a Pokemon, this Pokemon will receive EXP during battles, even while not battling itself. Have a Pokemon that is difficult to train like Magikarp? Did you just hatch a new Pokemon, but you are in an area where the wild Pokemon are too high in level for them to train against? Why not give them an EXP-Share and have them comfortably gain EXP without risking them in battle.

Battle Convention attendants can get an early start on buying an EXP-Share, though they are limited to one per customer. The price is 40,000p.

Third Floor

This is where you can go if you need a little break from all the hustle and bustle downstairs. Various food vendors and sit-down places have been set up here, allowing characters to grab a meal or something to drink, rest a little, or even go strategise for upcoming tournament battles.

As always with these type of events UBIRDS will be available to fly characters to Viridian City and back to where they were staying afterwards.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Most people where I'm from wouldn't think it was possible. I'd probably be the same if it hadn't happened to me."

Twice now even. Is he some kind of magnet for this sort of thing? "It's nice to be able to speak to people who get it."

"Well, seeing as I've been here for more than a decade, and have spoken to people from all manner of different worlds, it doesn't seem too strange an idea, really."

It's usually the newbies who have a harder time with these concepts.

Luckily it's not the first time Min's spoken to someone who's been here a long time, but it still sends a shock through him. It's terrifying to consider being here for that long, but all he can do is remind himself it's unlikely and try to push past the thought.

"That makes sense. It seems like there are people from all kinds of places here."

"There are. There are even people here who weren't human in their own worlds, in fact."

Just to give him an idea of how different some of those worlds can be.

"Yeah, I spoke to some guy who's a... Fraggle?"

He thinks that's right, anyway...

"Is that common here?"

"In the sense that it happens regularly, yes. But I believe vast the majority of otherworlders are human to begin with, however."

Well, more or less, seeing as some worlds include things like being able to use magic as part of being human.

"But not always from the same places... I've spoken to quite a few people who aren't even from Earth."

Which is a little weird if only because it means humans somehow evolved in multiple worlds. This one included.

"Indeed. The world I'm from is called Menoris."

Well, humans in Sion's world exist because the gods created them as component of an elaborate, massive spell, but that's a whole other story.

"Oh, really? What's that like?"

He's assuming it's magic in some way. Probably. Or at least pretty different from Earth.

"Well, there's no Pokémon, for one thing, and the technology isn't nearly as advanced as what can be found here. And unlike this world, magic not only exists, but is fairly commonplace. On the other hand, it has a long history of warfare between nations, with some areas only rare knowing peace."

There's, well, a lot more he's not mentioning, but getting into things like 'the gods made the world to seal another god away' and so on usually is a bit much to lead off with.

"That doesn't sound so different from my world, aside from the magic."

It's probably very, very different. He's probably right, though. The full explanation might have been a bit much to take on all at once.

"It sounds like some of the technology is only a couple of decades ahead of what it's like in my world? But some of the stuff like storage systems are way beyond where we're at."

"Ah, then your world must be much more similar to this one than mine, if you don't find the technology that unfamiliar. Menoris doesn't utilize electrical power, to say nothing of things like the train or motorized boats."

So their worlds are doubtless pretty different, considering.

"Wow, seriously? Yeah, that's very different." He pauses, scratching his head. "Does magic kind of make some of that stuff redundant, though?"

He has zero experience with magic, so isn't sure what to expect from a society where it's pretty common.

"Well, no, not really. Magic isn't something that can do just anything no matter what. While in theory anyone with the means to access the right training can use it, learning to properly use a given spell takes time, and researching and developing new spells often takes years."

It's not some wave a magic wand and it's done nonsense.

"And a spell can only do precisely what it's designed for, with more complex spells being more difficult both to develop and to cast. Something like, for example, calling someone on the Pokégear would be numerous layers, all of them complex, if it were even possible at all."

"It isn't?"

That surprises him. It's not like he's spent a lot of time dwelling on it, but part of him must have subconsciously always figured if magic was real it could do just about anything. Maybe even more effectively than technology would. It's kind of disappointing to find out it takes just as much work to be effective with as new skills in his world do.

"The PokéGear's way beyond any technology we have, too, but we do have regular phones. We can voice call on them, or leave a voicemail, but that's about it."

"Why would it be? If it were capable of arbitrarily doing anything with no regards for its own rules or natural laws, it would be quite impossible to learn how to effectively and reliably utilize it."

One can't make reliable spells out of a force of pure chaos, but following rules means being bound by the limits of those rules. It seems a rather natural conclusion to Sion, at least, but then again he was born in a world with magic.

"That does sound like your world isn't very far off at all, though. I imagine you've not had much trouble learn to use the technology here, then?"

"I... don't know. We don't have it where I come from, but it's in a lot of books and movies. I just... I should've known better. Obviously fiction wouldn't apply to real life."

He feels a little stupid for thinking that when he puts it like that. Obviously magic wouldn't be an easy fix all. Especially not in a world he's outright said is plagued with war.

"I mean, some of it's difficult. But overall, I guess it's not been too bad."

He imagines he's probably had less of a learning curb than someone completely unfamiliar with any of the technology here.

"Well of course in stories there's all kinds of wildly unbelievable feats, but that applies as much to things like strength and skill as much as to magic, doesn't it?"

Granted, there's some pretty big exceptions to some of these rules even in his own world, but they aren't exactly well-known. Mostly because they have to do with beings that really have no interest in anything beneficial to humanity.

"What about in terms of culture, or social organization? Does your world have similar celebrations and governments and such?"

"I guess you're right. They're not exactly a reliable source."

It should have been obvious, but look. It's his only frame of reference, even if it's clearly a poor one. He'll know better than to assume next time he speaks with someone from a magical world. As for the other similarities between his and this one...

"That's... difficult to answer," he admits, scratching the back of his head. "So far it seems like there are some similarities? But I haven't been here long, and celebrations and government structures vary a lot in my world depending on where you come from. Some of it doesn't seem too different, but Pokémon have an impact on the culture here in a way no animals where I come from do. I think that alone makes it very different."

"I see..."

He considers that information for a bit.

"It seems that when some people arrive here, this world is so similar to theirs that they can almost mistake it for another part of their own world, or another time. Yet others are from worlds so different that there's no possibility of that. And a few others still weren't even human in the worlds they come from. I wonder if there is some sort of degree of closeness, in a fashion, and some worlds are simply situated nearer this one in that sense than others."

~~Sion is this really the time to get into increasingly-divergent parallel worlds type theories--~~

That's. A little bit brain breaky. This might not be his first time travelling between worlds, but the specifics of it remain a mystery to him. This world has only complicated that. It's very different from his experience before, and has introduced him to the knowledge of a whole slew of other worlds he's never heard of before.

"I have no idea. Everything's so much more complicated than I even knew. I don't know if I could ever begin to understand the real answers."

And only partly because if he thinks about it too hard it fills him with existential dread.

It's probably a good thing Sion's not inclined to try explaining the fundamental nature of his own world. Multiple layers of 'worlds' or realities overlayed on a base of the massive corpse of a dead (sort of) god tends not to be the easiest concept to fathom.

"Well, if it's a subject you're interested in, I imagine you'll get all kinds of answers if you ask people about the worlds they come from. But suffice it to say that it's best not to expect things here to work by the same rules you're familiar with, necessarily."

Probably for the best. Even speculation is making him more anxious than it has any right to.

"Yeah, got it. It seems like every world has its own set of rules, so I should start expecting that."

Possibly including the ones that are similar to his? But since he hasn't spoke to anyone from a comparative time he can't be sure either way.

"It does tend to make it easier to deal with some of the oddities when you think of it in those kinds of terms."

A pause.

"Most of the time, at least."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Battle Convention!

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