come alive, come alive - spring is here!

[indigo_league]

Who: Everybody!
Where: Ilex Forest
When: March 14th
Summary: Come one, come all to the newest contest hosted by Riegfried and Soy. Today's theme: springtime and nature!

The sun is shining brightly and the weather is surprisingly fair–perfect for an outdoor contest spectacular! Spring is finally around the corner, and with it comes budding trees and the first fresh green leaves in many months. Just a short walk away from the edge of the Ilex Forest is a clearing where the contest is being set up, and boy, have Riegfried and Soy gone all out. This is one of the few contests to take place outdoors, after all.

The contest grounds have been set up so that the ‘stage’–in this case, a wide, clear patch of ground designated for performances–is at the center of everything. Despite the thick trees of Ilex Forest, this singular patch of grass seems to have a natural spotlight cast upon it, which makes it perfect for people’s attention to be drawn to it. Foldable chairs have been placed in concentric circles around the area, so the audience can get a nice 360 degree view of your performance.

Next to the stage is a private, portable dressing room where contestants can go get ready. All manner of costumes have been provided, if you don’t mind the fact that most of them are quite ostentatious. There is also a treasure trove of decorative props that you can weave into your performance.

Further into the trees, market stalls and concessions have been set up for your enjoyment. Local craftspeople seem to be selling all manner of trinkets and baubles, many of which are Celebi themed. You can also buy all manner of specialty PokéBalls–hey, we are near Azalea Town, after all. There are workshops where you can pay local crafters to walk you through making something with your own two hands, such as your own clay bowl, or a birdhouse, or a floral arrangement, or heck, even forging a tiny, decorative metal broach! (Results may vary based on individual skill.)

The food stalls seem to be mostly street food that you might see at an outdoor market–things that you can easily carry with you and eat on the go. Yakitori skewers, takoyaki, mochi, sandwiches, meat patties, hand pies, and kebabs are among some of the selections. Yum!

If you’d like to get away from all the hubbub, you can pay a visit to the Ilex Forest Shrine for some quiet contemplation. Riegfried and Soy were careful to set up far enough away so the shrine would not be disturbed. A few townspeople have left some offerings–perhaps you’d like to, as well. They say it grants you good luck and wards off evil spirits.

Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?



[Don't forget to view the contest FAQ here!]

Comments

[nastyboy]

Character name: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Pokemon: Hob the Raticate, Coblynau the Steelix
Move used: Grass Knot, Quick Attack, Ice Beam, Rain Dance

The performance:
It starts, quietly enough, with one single Pokemon released from her ball: Coblynau, a massive Steelix.... that is in fact released already in position. Her large frame is truly massive, even for a natural stage like this, but she compacts herself well, serpentine form contorted so that she fits well enough. Her head is tucked away carefully amidst herself.

Pidgeot-eyed viewers in the audience may notice gray packs, carefully blended in with her shining rock hide, have been attached to her.

But Coblynau isn't the star here. That would be Hob the Raticate, who leaps into the spotlight after Coblynau has had a moment to settle. The smoothly furred Raticate is dressed in a simple brown sweatshirt that matches her fur well enough, not obstructing her in the slightest as she races about the massive Steelix towering there in place. She squeaks! She sniffs! She inspects so very thoroughly!

And then.... She attempts to climb.

But steel is not a grippable material - and in the direct and dazzling light of the sun, the Steelix's hard body shines almost like ice as much as something that might have once upon a time been rock. Hob reaches up, but her little rat hands find no purchase, and she slides down. Again and again she tries, to no avail, at every possible spot around the base of the steel mountain.

Just climbing is clearly not enough.

So she tries to make handholds for herself with rapid Quick Attacks sent right at the base of this mountain. Again and again, the little blur of brown races around it, tries to slam right into that imposing gray. Each and every time, she bounces off dramatically, until, rolling from the latest bounce, her sweater slips off, revealing a little dress of blue sequins shimmering there on her.

One last Quick Attack, one last bounce and roll of defeat, and she flops in place, sighing and sad. Sighing, sighing, sighing... Until she finally gets up, trotting around the base of the mountain. Yet those watching may notice that she's not only sighing, but blowing out a discrete Ice Beam from her mouth as she looks up and down at thee massive Steelix mountain, until it really is ice covering a great deal of it. Despondent, she reaches up to try and make one last attempt up the mountain.... but the ice only makes her slip all the faster and sooner.

Hob does one last sad walk around the base of the mountain, her head bowed, her tail dragging along the grass..... But her gait is even more unsteady, now, wobbling, weaving, twisting - it's Rain Dance! The more she walks, the more clouds begin to gather there amongst the leaves over her head, until the stage is gloomy and dark.

Discouraged, uncertain, the blue of her dress no longer sparkling with no sunlight to see.... Hob curls up, there at the base.

And then the rain starts. A quiet few drips, there upon ice, and steel, and grass - and Hob herself, landing there delicately upon her nose. She raises her head up to the gloom in confusion, just in time to meet the intensifying rain. None meets the audience, just the two Pokemon there in the center.

Sparks suddenly burst from the Raticate - a small controlled Thunder Wave, and the electricity leaps from fur, to grass. Suddenly, it leaps to the mountain of a Steelix and crackles up along its massive form, finding route where water pours along steel and begins to melt the thin layer of ice there.

Hob squeaks.

Once, and then again, her little body rowsing as she stands on all fours. Energy is in her ears again as they twitch upright. Hob braces her body, tail thrashing through the grass behind her, sending water upwards in small splashing waves where it'd grown heavy on the blades of grass.

And then she's bursts off again!

Just not straight towards the mountain. Instead, again, she races around... and, as she does so, little feet kicking up green...

She uses Grass Knot.

The grass begins to grow further upwards, crawls up against the base of the mountain to replace dull gray with vivid green. Another race around again - the grass keeps growing! It tangles upon and over itself, a layer of green -

Until Hob can leap forward, and her little hands dig into the sanctuary of where the grass has grown across the unforgiving steel.

She keeps running, on the mountain now, and the grass follows in her footsteps, giving her more and more handholds for all that it gets thinner the higher she goes. And yet, as she's racing around and up the mountain, her tail goes thrashing wildly as she Quick Attacks....

And her tail smashes into one of those packets attached to the Steelix, spilling forth a dozen of brilliant and bright flowers that fall upon the grass knots.

Higher and higher she goes! More and more grass grows! And flowers, tumbling forth from more and more places where they'd been hidden on the steely mountain. And finally, finally, Hob races up to the very top -

She backflips -

And, as she does so, two things happen. The first is that the force of her flip sends the sequins on her dress reversing, showing off no longer that sad and somber blue, but a green to match the vivid vegetation now all around her. Green that sparkles brilliantly with sunlight bouncing off of it.

The second? One last smash of her tail against a packet tucked away at the very top, sending dozens upon dozens of flowers flying high into the air.

Landing on her feet, Hob looks up towards the sky, where the rainy clouds have faded away. Now, there is only light. Light, and flowers.

Atop a mountain of newly made green, Hob looks over everything and everyone for one final squeak before she curls back up.

The Raticate closes her eyes.

Exhausted.

Content.

Flowers float gently upon a breeze to rest upon her head, and down to a few lucky audience members.





NO STEELIX WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS CONTEST ENTRY.
A TRAINED TEAM OF RATTATA AND RATICATE WERE ON SCENE TO CHEW THE GRASS OFF OF HER.