Prom 2023 - Back to the Falls!

[indigo_league]

What’s this? There’s glitter in the air. What’s this? There’s dresses everywhere.

Oh right. It’s Prom time.



From the afternoon on, on Friday the 7th of April, your characters will all be arriving at Tohjo Falls via the transport arranged for by Lance. He did end up borrowing a few of those Corviknights from the JKBA, but there are also several of you who will find themselves flown to the Falls by one of Lance’s Dragonites or Charizards. Please give them a poffin if you are able, they are all very good boys and girls.


Your characters will be set down on a tiled driveway (more like flyway, Ha) in front of an impressive-looking villa. Those who have been here before might note that the villa has gotten a bit of a renovation and an update. Turns out that when Team Rocket kidnaps you and keeps you captive in your own home for several weeks while wrecking the house and digging Arceus knows how many basements beneath the house, you might be entitled to some compensation.

And from the looks of things, Lance and co used that compensation to turn their little vacation home back into something where they can relax in peace.

After you arrive, you’ll be greeted by Lance or one of the other Elite Four members, who will give you a quick run-down. You are free to explore the house and surrounding area at your leisure. Please respect their privacy and do not go into any of the locked rooms. You’ll find your accommodations behind the house, so feel free to head there and unpack. Oh, and, there will be a little announcement later, so if you could be in the dining room for that, that’d be stellar.

Well, off you go!




WELCOME (BACK) TO THE FALLS

THE SIGHTS The Villa As mentioned by Lance and Co, parts of the villa are off-limits to guests. Not to worry, there is nothing nefarious hiding there this time. It's just that those rooms are the Elite Four's private quarters, and they'd rather not have people go through their underwear drawers! Other areas that are off-limits include the kitchen, but this is just for practical reasons; wouldn't want to get in the way of the cooks preparing lunch and dinner. Still, even with these off-limits areas, there is still plenty to see. Library On the upper floor, there is a decently sized Library for anyone who needs a bit of peace and quiet. The books within are part of the Elite Four's personal book collections. There are a lot of books related to each members' preferred Pokemon type, as well as a very sizeable collection of books on Pokemon Battling, strategies and counter-strategies, in addition to a good number of autobiographies from famous (former) gym leaders and Elite Four members. Their books aren't all business though! There is also plenty of fiction available, as well as non-fiction related to the Elite Four's personal hobbies. The books are not marked, so it's hard to tell which book belongs to which E4 member, so have fun trying to figure out who added the books on glassblowing to the collection, and to who the knitting books belong to. Gallery Also on the top floor is a gallery that contains the many prizes each Elite Four member has won over the years, as well as some interesting artefacts they've found during their lives. Ever wanted to see Lance's first badges? Or perhaps Bruno's weightlifting trophies? And wow, looks like Will participated in some contests back in the day! Okay, those things probably aren't worth hours of visiting, but there is also a collection of photos of various legendary pokemon, as well as some items related to them, such as a feather that is said to have belonged to Ho-oh, a scale that was left behind after Groudon and Kougre fought and could it be true? One of Hoopa's hoops itself? Fascinating! Dining Room Obviously where characters can dine. Unfortunately, the dining room itself is not big enough to fit all characters at once, so they've also set up some tables outside among the tents, and people are asked to check back if there is no space. When not in use to have dinner in, the room is left open and available to anyone who'd like to use it. Ball Room Now that prom night is finally here, your characters may enter in what was previously forbidden. Yes, beyond these doors lay a mysterious land of, uh... tables and a dance floor. Listen, there is only so many ways you can describe a ballroom, okay! There is a central floor where people may dance if they so desire, and around that spot, plenty of tables and chairs have been set up for you to rest your tired dancing feet at. Though there is no big dinner served at prom, there are staff flitting around with refreshments and canapes and, fitting the style of the villa, tapas. There are, of course, also flutes of champagne and wine and other adult drinks. Note the emphasise on adult, there. Don't expect to con these waiters into giving you something if you are underaged. (instead, try and find a trusted, untrustworthy adult friend. It's okay. We won't tell your mom. Pool Outside, of course, is the pool. This hasn't changed that much from previous visits here. It's... well... it's a pool! What more can we say? It's a good place to have some fun and play around, but if you are more into relaxation or perhaps even catching some rays, there's also plenty of space around the pool with plenty of deck chairs available to you. It is still only April, so to make sure nobody catches pneumonia in the pool, the water has been heated. Please do not heat the water further. You know what we are talking about! The Accomodations Those who have visited before may remember that the Villa doesn't exactly have enough bedrooms to house all promgoers. In fact, there have been years where you just kipped on the floor in the garage-like area. Maybe Lance is trying to match the standards set by previous organisers. Maybe there was a little extra money left over after the renovations to plurge, but this year, you won't be expected to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag! Instead, behind the Villa, beyond the pool area, there is a field of tents. And these aren't your basic little travelling tents. These tents look pretty luxurious. True, you will still be sharing them with a few others, but at least you'll be sleeping in something like a regular bed. There are also some chairs and benches dotted around the area, where you can sit and relax, as well as a few open tents that have tables and benches inside of them where one could eat breakfast or dinner. (And, of course, there are tents available too where you can take care of the, ah, less glamourous needs of the human body. No need to bring your own TP either, it will be provided!) The tents house four people each. If you, for whatever reason, want to cram more people inside, Lance will be a little startled but will allow it. If you try to grab a tent all to yourself, Lance will give you a very disappointed look. The Surroundings If your character isn't the type to hang out for hours by the pool or spend their entire Saturday already getting ready for prom, why not go exploring a bit? The area around Tohjo Falls is normally off-limits to people, after all. This might be your only chance to see it. (unless we come back again here next year) While exploring, your character has the option of trekking into the forests behind the villa or descending into the cave that houses the waterfalls this area has been named for. Wild pokemon can be found in each area, though please be careful! As few people visit this location, the pokemon here are very unused to humans. Please always bring a strong pokemon with you when you go exploring! And who knows, if you keep an eye out, you might run into an unfamiliar pokemon or two... Forest (lvl 20-45) Charjabug, Corvisquire, Venipede, Sizzlipede, Fletchinder, Greedent*, Whirlipede*, Nincada*, Flapple**, Appletun**, Talonflame**, Ninjask**, Shiinotic**, Sprigatito**, Centiskorch***, Vikavolt***, Corviknight***, Trevenant***, Scolipede*** Cave (lvl 20-45) Sandshrew, Woobat, Rolycoly, Noibat, Roggenrola, Aron*, Glimmet*, Sandslash*, Rhyhorn*, Carkol*, Noivern**, Swoobat**, Boldore**, Fuecoco**, Lairon***, Rhydon***, Glimora*** Falls (lvl 20-45) (Fishing/Surfing) Qwilfish, Staryu, Arrokuda, Wishiwashi, Finneon*, Skrelp*, Lumineon*, Relicanth*, Starmie**, Overqwill**, Quaxly**, Seadra**, Gyrados***, Barraskewda***, Dragalge***, Kingdra***

---

THE ANNOUNCEMENT


Once everybody has arrived and has been given some time to unpack, it's time for the announcement Lance has been teasing. What is this unique opportunity he mentioned? Will this have anything to do with prom itself? Has Lance conned us all into attending a Tupperware party?

In any case, you all gather in the dining room. The Elite Four is gathered at the front of the room, Lance taking the center stage. Will is standing next to him. For a moment Lance just glances out over the crowd, as if checking that everybody is here, before he clears his throat and begins.

"First of all, let me say that I am very happy to see you all here. It's been a few years since we last were able to greet you in our home, and here is to hoping things won't end as badly as last time.

But that is not what this announcement is about. Rather, there is going to be some changes within the Elite Four. Changes we'd like to make you a part of.

A few months ago, Will announced to us that he will be stepping down from his position as Elite Four member to--" Lance seems to pause for a moment, looking at Will, "--pursue opportunities elsewhere!

Of course, we cannot leave his spot unoccupied, so in the last few months, we've been hard at work vetting and narrowing down the choices for who will replace him. And finally, we've been able to narrow it down to just two remaining candidates. It's been a struggle, let me tell you! We've had so many qualified and incredible trainers who wanted to join us, but we believe we've found the best two.

And that is where you come in!

As I said, we have been able to narrow down the field to two final choices. And what I'd like to offer you this weekend, is an opportunity to take an active part in deciding who gets to be our newest member. You all, after all, have proven over the years that you not only care about pokemon, but you've also grown to care about this world, often helping us out when situations were dire. We believe you, as much as anyone, have a right to determine the future of this region.

In just a moment, I'd like to introduce you to our two final applicants. I can already assure you that they are both excellent trainers, and very skilled battlers, as well as individuals who we believe we can rely on in a bad situation. What we'd like if for you to cast the final vote on who takes over Will's position.

Throughout this weekend, they will make themselves available for questions. Please ask them anything you wish to know, and please also discuss the manner among yourself if you wish. Whichever person you choose, know that we already feel we could work and depend on either of them. At the end of this meeting, we'll distribute voting slips to everyone. These cannot be replaced, so please hold onto them, and once you've made your choice, please submit them to the vote box in front of the Ballroom before the start of the dance. Then, during the party on Sunday, we will reveal who will become our newest members.

Now, I've said quite enough, so let me introduce you to our two final applicants--"

The dining room doors open, and two figures stride in, walking to the front to join Lance and the other Elite Four members.




"Please welcome Bede from the Galar region and Malva from the Kalos Region"

---

Not sure what is going on? Why not check out our prom FAQ

Comments

[songstressedout]

[ Her shirt, being thin and breathable, clings to her skin when out of the water... and as a result? Is turning out to be considerably see-through. She does fortunately have a bra on underneath, of course, but even that is clearly visible when IV's eyes drift down to her modest chest. The accidental part is what makes it hotter, IV.

Fortunately for IV, she hasn't noticed both her own apparent indecency (which is IV's fault anyway) or the fact that his eyes fell to her chest. He lives for another... well, perhaps not day, since it's only a matter of time... but he lives a little longer regardless.

In any case, she turns her head to look at him, a little surprised. ]

Yeah, actually! I mean, there's more to it than that, but athletics of any kind is bound to give you some kind of edge.

[ She turns herself around, leaning back against the side of the pool and holding herself up that way. Unbeknownst to her, this makes her chest... easier to see, actually. She clears her throat, suddenly looking very serious before suddenly... ]

Duelists locked in battle! Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters! They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTIOOOOOOON... DUEL!!

[ ...and with that little performance out of the way, she smiles and relaxes again. ]

Hehe...! Even though it's been forever, I can still recite it perfectly! Aah, that takes me back...

[ She looks up nostalgically at the night sky. ]

[4play]

[It really REALLY does!

IV swallows as he watches her move around. He has to keep reminding himself that her eyes are up there, and now- well, what's so blatantly presented for his teenage self to enjoy right now.

This isn't normal.

Usually he can ignore these things easily. Turn on his professionalism, remember that this is all just a play on a stage and be on with it on his own happy way without letting anything stick to or influence him. And yet here he is, acting like a stereotypical horny teenager. He groans lightly and runs a wet hand over his face. Get a grip, Thomas!

It's a good thing she isn't looking his way right now.]

Heh... I bet I wouldn't be all bad with that either. Although I'd refuse any cheesy self-announcements!

[songstressedout]

[ IV cannot resist the Yuzutitty and really, who can blame him? ]

Hey, you do it with your opponent, and it's basically tradition! Though I guess you're not the first Xyz Duelist to refuse to do the chant...

[ Sora ended up needing to improvise an audience call-and-response... which had gone very well! The whole duel had gone well! Until it, well, stopped going well. In a sense, that was Yuzu's first time seeing what a battlefield looked like. ]

You seem like you'd make a good Action Duelist, too! It's a lot of fun... running alongside and even riding your monsters. In a sense, it kind of prepared me for ending up here.

[ It's why she took naturally to riding her own Pokemon, after all. ]

[4play]

I'm not? How ...shocking.

[He can't quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice, even as his eyes are starting to stray again.

IV has just settled to look up at the sky as well -- possibly that'll help him survive, should she finally clue on! -- when she says that he'd be a good action duelist as well. Survival instincts forgotten, he gives her a curious look. IV isn't used to being entertained like that, except by III.]

You think? I'd have to change my deck, though. Seeing my dolls as things to be touched and who can touch you would definitely give some in my audience nightmares. How do you manage to sit on holograms?

[songstressedout]

Ahaha... believe it or not, you'd probably be fine. There's a niche for everything, after all.

[ Cooking... fortune telling... idols... really, Yuzu is just from the Theater Kid dimension considering how dramatic they all are. ]

Oh, that? It's thanks to Real Solid Vision... you need an Action Field to do it, but it gives mass to the holograms and basically revolutionized dueling. Especially since then, with Action Fields, you could create any kind of field to duel on. Ancient coliseums, medieval castles, just about anything is possible. Though... I guess since the dimensional war happened, Action Fields stopped being necessary for Real Solid Vision.

[ After everything she's already told IV about her world, she doesn't mind telling him more. Besides, even if it ultimately lead back into the bad parts... it's nice to think back about her world. ]

[4play]

Even for Gimmick Dolls? I've made several adults cry or have nightmares with them, and they were only exposed to them as VR holograms!

[Admittedly, the design of IV's nightmare circus of broken and horribly twisted dreams deck is only one part of what he'd traumatized those unlucky enough to be his opponents with.]

Any kind of field? Huh, my brothers would have loved that... [there's a very good reason why he's excluding himself from that statement] I think I understand. The 'aliens' from the other dimensions we've got to deal with actually don't have any real corporeal from in ours. So they need to fudge it with technology somehow, too.

[songstressedout]

[ Yuzu immediately thinks of EVERY FRIGHTFUR EVER... which, admittedly, have made kids cry! Which Yuzu doesn't necessarily approve of... but Scissor-Bear managed to catch on and get pretty popular eventually! Somehow... though Wheelsaw-Lion, Chain-Sheep, and Mad Chimera probably needed more time. ]

Honestly? Yeah! I know a Fusion Duelist with pretty similar monsters... imagine these super cute and cuddly stuffed toy-like monsters that fuse with these sinister sharp and metal demons to become these like... demonic stuffed toys with sharp metal things like scissors or buzzsaws bursting out of them. Super unsettling... but duel with anything the right way and it'll catch on eventually.

[ Yuzu hums... though as they're talking, a gust of wind ends up blowing by, and Yuzu promptly shivers. ]

Brr... nighttime swimming is fun and all, but it's getting pretty cold...

[ And so, with that, she'll start to pull herself out of the water, standing up and looking down at the way water immediately starts to drip from her clothing. ]

Aah... if I knew you were gonna drag me in, I'd have put on my... swim... suit...

[ ...key thing to note here, she's looking down. At herself. Meaning she's got probably the best view to realize just how much her sleepwear has decided to cling to her skin... as well as how transparent it is.

There's a small part of Yuzu's mind that immediately thanks god (Arceus?) for the fact that she slept with her bra on tonight. Unfortunately, that part of her mind is immediately overshadowed.

From IV's point of view, she suddenly starts to trail off... looking down at herself and freezing as her eyes go wide. Soon after, even in the relative darkness with only the pool lights illuminating the area... the fact that her face is quickly turning red is clear.

She slowly looks over at IV. ]

A-Ah... ah...!

[ T-Minus 3 seconds until explosion. ]

[4play]

Sounds like the reason why some guys love and others hate animatronics. [Looking at out the pool, IV smirks. There is something very peaceful in the near-silent small movements of the water. It creates a companionable solitude that he can see himself actually grow fond of.]

My deck just skips the cute fluff and dives straight into the uncanny and the grotesque- Oh. Ah. Uh.... [What does one say when he's just realized that he's standing on a erupting volcano and the countdown is already at T-Minus 1?

IV's voice is comically blank and casual as he gives her a look that comes with a badly hidden blush (at least of she manages to catch a glimpse of the flaming red tips of his ears. His usual mane of hair is too wet to cover them properly thanks to all that swimming and splashing around.)]



....You finally realized, huh?

[songstressedout]

[ Yuzu's eyes go as wide as possible, her own blush reaching her own ears... and perhaps unsurprisingly... ]

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—

[ ...she might be waking a few people up as she promptly wraps her arms around herself, crouches down, and promptly smacks IV upside the head. ]

HOW LONG WERE YOU STARING AT ME LIKE THIS!?

[4play]

OW-fdghjsd!! [IV's yelp is cut short when his head's pushed underwater by the force.]

Yu- WHY?!

[He sounds positively betrayed as he sputters, spits out some pool water and then promptly crouches his legs against the wall so that he can use it to push off and quickly swim back to the middle of the pool. Shark greets him happily there, completely oblivious to the drama the Magikarp is watching unfold.]

I didn't notice it until a few minutes ago, okay?! I just had no clue how to bring it up without making it embarrassing.... !

[songstressedout]

A-Ah, sorry! I-Impulse...

[ She reacted pretty intensely, but you can't exactly blame her for that, right!? Either way, she's still crouched down, blush reaching all the way to her ears as she keeps her knees pressed up to her chest to give her some level of modesty. IV's reasoning is fair enough... but alas, Yuzu for once does not have her paper fan with her. If she did, it'd be very wet, very soggy, and very useless. ]

...still, that just means you kept staring.

[ Her face is still fully flushed, but it does look like her pout is more out of embarrassment than actual anger. ]

[4play]

Yeah, uh, well...

[What to do now? Run? Confess and beg forgiveness? Try to play it off cool?]

I'm not dead or blind, okay?! And you're basically still wearing a bikini like this!

[ > IV has chosen attack. Will it be effective?]

[songstressedout]

It's not the same!! Would you go into a pool in your underwear!?

[ Putting aside the debate of whether being in a bikini is the same as being in your underwear, it is clear that Yuzu is of the opinion that it is NOT the same therefore all IV has done is dig himself into a deeper hole.

> It's not very effective... ]

[4play]

[IV blinks at her.]

....you mean you have never before?

[Yuzu countered using confuse! It was very effective!]

[songstressedout]

Wh...

[ Yuzu blinks at him, a look of disbelief on her face. ]

Of course I haven't!?

[ Are you telling her you have, IV!? ]

[4play]

Oh. Does that mean you didn't have any larger bodies of water around where you grew up? We used to hop into a nearby lake all the time when we were kids!

[Pool, a small like on the way back home, as long as it was a known swimming spot its all the same difference, right?

Swimming a little closer again, he smiles up at her, offering a half-cocky, half-fond at the memories grin.]

I learned it from my mom. As long as you wear something, nobody can blame you for going in naked, and in the evening barely anybody is around to care anyway! You just have to take off your wet clothes and still look decent in your dry ones on your way home.

[Going commando while in your own car or walking the last bit of the stretch back home by foot was never a big thing to the family. Well, Chris had always acted all awkward and worried about being proper, but it had also always been funnily obvious that his big brother had been the one hearing the siren call of the cool water the most. After the death of their mother, IV had taken up the mantel of being the wild one in the family and had kept enticing his siblings whenever the chances were right.]

[songstressedout]

W-Wh...!? N-No!? I mean, yes!? My city was coastside! But you don't go to the beach in your underwear!

[ So yes in the sense that she's been to the beach, but no lakes. In any case, IV's mother definitely sounds like the wildest woman Yuzu's ever heard of. ]

I think I know what side of the family your wildness comes from, then...

[4play]

Not when you're planning on going into the water, no, but sometimes on your way back home or when you're just on a walk and it's a scorching sunny day... ?

[He dares to swim closer again, looking both humbled and shyly proud of her assessment of him.]

I'm taking the most after her both in look and temperament, yeah. Though I guess one could also simply say that I've taken the worst from both of my parents.