Lugubrious

Pokemon: New World

Scoffing, the Cacnea crossed its arms. From it a gurgling noise issued and, seemingly in response, the Karrablast let loose a determined cry and scrunched up its face. Its expression became a mask of goofy, overdone, and ineffective intimidation—to Olivie, at least. Buck, though, could only shudder as his trainer snickered. At this the Brunette's eyes widened in surprise. ”You kidding? That's not a scary face at all. Rollout, now!” Grateful for the distraction, the Bidoof tucked himself into a fluffy sphere, ready to smash into his opponent as a wrecking ball. Unfortunately, the Karrablast was faster. It took advantage of Buck's momentary fearfulness to leap in and, with a horn brimming with strength, deliver two diagonal slashes to form an 'x' from their trails. Fresh cuts opened across Buck's back, and the second slash, a bottom-left to to-right sweep, threw him back.

By then, however, he'd tucked himself tight enough and gained enough momentum to power through the pain and roll straight into the Karrablast. The force behind the full-body blow, combined with the added edge of rocks picked up in the roll and sticking out of Buck's fur, dealt a decisive blow to the bug. It stumbled backward, barely keeping itself upright and teetering on its little feet even after it recovered. The short but brutal exchange earned an approving nod from Olivie. ”Looks like it didn't like that Rollout at all.” Buck, still curled up tight, continued to roll around the clearing blindly. His trainer imagined that he wouldn't be able to cancel the attack, but she'd already made up her mind that a repeat performance would be wildly effective. It made sense; though lightweight, fast, and annoying, bugs couldn't typically take much punishment, especially from heavy, blunt objects. Still tottering, the bug in question gnashed its teeth and assumed a solid stance. Olivie watched, suddenly intrigued, as some sort of power began to build up in its horn, visible by a light green glow. Quite unexpectedly, the Karrablast's horn suddenly exploded outward, growing to twice the size and gaining an array of new spikes. Before Olivie could react, it threw itself like a torpedo at the oncoming Bidoof. A pang of fear gnawed at the girl's heart: could her partner make it? By now, all of his rolling had picked up a lot of dust and stones in his coat, making him look like a miniature boulder, but the Karrablast's Megahorn looked fearsome to say the least. As the two Pokemon drew near, Olivie held her breath.

In a flash it was over. A cracking sound echoed through the field as the revolving force of Buck's Rollout diverted the Megahorn's point straight down, and where the horn went, the Karrablast followed. In the end, the Bidoof rolled right over it, burying it partially in the dust and cracking off its horn. Fragments of carapace littered the ground as Buck rolled to a halt, emerged from his ball, and began to shake himself off. He was worse for wear, and terribly dirty, but he was still conscious. The same couldn't be said for his foe. When Buck saw that he'd won, he chattered noisily in celebration, and Olivie knelt by his side to brush him off. ”Great stuff! That dumb beetle really bit the dust. That's three wins under your belt, counting that crappy Pansear.” Rising to her full height, she crossed her arms beneath her chest and narrowed her eyes at the Cacnea, who'd also been looking on. She felt as though the walking plant were sizing her up, but it was an altogether different sensation from what she got from the usual 'sizing-ups' that went her way. This thing was deciding whether or not to respect her from the abilities and attitude of her and her partner alone. Honestly, it was exciting.

Out of nowhere, the Cacnea raised its arms up and began to move. It whirled around and around like a helicopter, its clublike arms the rotors, until it sprang toward her. As it flew her way, Olivie watched silently, noting the dozens of spiky needles protruding from its limbs. Taking a deep breath, she waited until it was in range and then extended her right arm in a backfist punch. The guard of her fighting glove intercepted the Cacnea's arm in mid-air, and it stuck like a burr. After that, all Olivie needed to do was toss her arm to throw the Cacnea off. It landed in a roll, righting itself in no time, and sprang to its stubby little feet. Somehow the brunette didn't think it would attack again, and her prediction came true as the Cacnea crossed its arms again and put on a wide smile. Though Olivie couldn't truly understand it, she tried to imagine what it might be saying. Looks like yer one tough customer, those beady eyes told her. Ah guess Ah kin tag 'long with ya fer a while. When the girl picked up a Pokeball and held it out, the Cacnea didn't flinch, so she proceeded to throw it. Surprisingly, the Pokemon struggled a great deal inside the ball—one last test. In the end, it could not break free, and Olivie grabbed her new minion to set it free. ”Aaalrighty. That's two scrappy Pokemon in my team. Welcome to the club, pal. We're gonna go far together, so I hope you've got enough fight in you to keep up.”

As Buck and the Cacnea approached one another and began sizing one another up as well, Olivie's gaze fell upon the Karrablast. She hadn't planned on nabbing anything besides the Cacnea, but the blue bug put up a pretty good fight for such a small beetle. Besides, it looked much cooler than any other Bug-type Olivie had seen, and the whole way it used Megahorn was pretty sick. ”Eh, I guess I've got room for one more.” Procuring another Pokeball, she tapped it against the Karrablast's shell, capturing the dazed bug easily. With it contained, she rose back up and tapped the ball thoughtfully against her head. ”Let's see. What am I gonna call you jerks?” She shrugged after a few moments. ”Eh, come on. We're going south. Today's the first day of my journey, and Feyhollow's the nearest place to explore.” Flanked by her two Pokemon, Olivie waded back into the grassy field, headed toward a thick green forest only about forty-five minutes away.

@Balthazar007

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Abel Fulgurate – Cafeteria

By the time his teammate discovered and made her way to his side, half of Abel's handcrafted bacon, egg, and biscuit sandwich was gone, and only the core remained of one of his two pieces of fruit. A cup of coffee, mixed with some milk and sugar, sat beside a cup of juice on his tray. Having spotted her approaching, he made no motion but to put down his food so as to not let it get in the way of conversation. He brought a napkin to his mouth, just in case, while Sapphire got herself situated. “Good morning,” he replied to her greeting. She didn't seem too pleased to be her, but her presence was pleasant enough. Hanging around SASG's team leader never bothered Abel—in fact, he felt it appropriate that two of the less talkative hunters-in-training at Beacon should be together. With that out of the way, he gingerly picked up his remaining pear to bite in. Before he could do so, his partner's voice came again, for which he paused in his tracks. Immediately his mind shot to his proposed nature excursion with Krysanthe, but blabbing about it up front struck the guardian as the wrong thing to do. He couldn't quite place why he felt that way -he wasn't doing anything wrong, after all- but all the same he thought it better to be vague with his reply.

Thinking to himself that he could easily blame early-morning grogginess for his lackluster response time, Abel told Sapphire, “I was thinking of heading out into the Emerald Forest. You know, for some fresh air. Explore the woods and all. Um, after that...” He groaned inwardly as he recalled a stroke of misfortune that had been hanging sneakily over his head like a little stormcloud waiting to burst. “I gotta study for the English quiz on Monday. It's all rhetoric, but I'm just awful at all that wordplay stuff.” At this point, Abel felt on a roll. Several sentences had been completed without a major flub. Feeling brave, he performed a stiff give me a break gesture and continued, “I mean, why do we even have English and Math and stuff at Beacon? Won't help us kill anything or keep ourselves from gettin' killed. You...uh, you get what I'm saying?” Abel went ahead and took a large bite out of his pear in order to both provide valuable nourishment and to signal the end of his part of the conversation. Basically, he was home free at this point. Sapphire could drum up a response, or shrug her shoulders and say nothing, but the weight of the interaction lay on her now. Any awkwardness would be totally her fault; to be frank, though, Abel was torn between feeling bad about putting his partner into the spotlight and feeling pleased with how well he'd articulated himself prior to coffee. Speaking of which. Following his nugget of fruit, the guardian busied himself with his coffee cup.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Lugubrious Sapphire's talking to Abel, you planning on posting?

@Prince of Seraphs

Yes. I was waiting for Eklispe, but it's no problem to talk in the meantime.

All In (Video Game Multiverse)

Hey, Prince. I see the message about when you're next available and all, so I'm leaving this here for you.

I have conferred with a couple of the other players (namely Kafka and Propro) and we've all reached a conclusion as to why we've lost interest in this RP. The chief reason is that you've been very disengaged from the managing process. We've been given places to be in, sure, but not much stuff to work with, and you haven't been motivating us to post. The choices our characters make and the things we do have felt like they don't matter; we get more the impression that we're an audience for a spectacle you're putting on and we're just along to react to it, rather than essential elements of an interactive story. I can't speak as much for the Hyrule group, but for the Gourd Lake crew, I'm definitely inclined to think this way. The most interesting thing that happened was a clash of personalities when several characters met. As for the introduction of the Big Sisters, it was more of a spectacle than something to engage in, given that there was never any actual fight--all attacks were either flawlessly dodged (Kaiser) or canceled out (Henry), and individual powers were effortlessly seen through (The Spy). In addition, on a few occasions we've attempted to spur you into action to fix the situation, and nothing has come of it. I believe Propro has stated problems and suggested changes only to be ignored, and I have purposefully withheld from writing an uninteresting reaction post for Henry to see if you would check in with my as to why I'm not posting, or if you would just move on after a while, but that hasn't been the case.

To summarize, we are feeling as if the mostly hands-off strategy you've taken to managing is not blending well with the limited creative freedom you've given us in the meantime. This was the case with the Demons RP you tried a while ago as well, I believe. I am sorry that things turned out this way, and I hope this criticism does not tarnish our friendship, but I must formally withdraw.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

<Snipped quote by NarayanK>

That feeling when you haven't even got one Halloween skin yet.

@Awesomoman64

Man, that video's already gone memetic. Still don't know how Jeremy didn't think that would happen...that desk is hollow with cardboard ribbing.

Pokemon: New World

When it came to choosing her little partner's first target, there was no contest. If the blueberry-colored runt called Karrablast thought it could act tough when it saw the dynamic duo of Olivie and Buck, a thorough bludgeoning seemed entirely excusable. ”Alright then, pipsqueak,” she told it. She threw her hand out, her thumb and index finger extended to form an 'L', before pivoting the hand downward and tucking the index finger away to execute a thumbs-down. Her Bidoof followed the path of her arm and nodded menacingly, acknowledging the Karrablast as his target. Thanks to the time she spent with her nose tucked in her Pokedex, Olivie knew exactly what to say next. ”Beat it blacker and bluer! With Hyper Fang!” Buck gave a fierce chatter and barreled forward, his mouth wide open to bite.

However, the Karrablast attacked first. It fell down onto all fours and charged, horn extended. Olivie watched, suddenly grasping the severity of the situation, as its greater speed and reach caught her Pokemon right in the middle of his attack. The points of its horn pierced Buck's nose, causing the surprised Bidoof to stagger, but the assault had scarcely begun. By wiggling its head back and forth, the wild Karrablast whipped its horn from side to side like a sword cutting to and fro, striking Buck three more times. The final scratch barely missed his eye, but when nothing followed it, the resolute little brawler threw himself forward. His huge buckteeth chomped into the Karrablast's carapace, preventing it from escaping and earning a pained hiss. While the bite surely hurt, Olivie could see that the fight would go nowhere if she allowed her single-minded Bidoof to stay like that. Instead, she smacked the bottom of her fist into her other palm and called, ”Use those muscles of yours, idiot! Throw the bug and then Take Down!”

Filled with the thrill of the fight, Buck obeyed. He gathered his strength to pitch his body violently, throwing the Karrablast back about a foot. It landed on its side and rolled onto its back, where it could only rock helplessly in an attempt to regain its feet. The Bidoof then scampered toward it and, with little regard for its own safety, used his jaw with the weight of his head and the power of his neck behind it like a hammer with which he cracked down on the Karrablast's lightly-armored stomach. A wheezing sound escaped from the bug as it stiffened, but Buck reeled away, moving as if drunk. After attacking in such a risky way, Olivie imagined, he must be seeing stars. The Pokedex had informed her that the move called 'Take Down' involved the Pokemon who used it executing a brutal but reckless strike that hurt itself more often than not. Perhaps, with some training, he could use a Take Down that didn't hurt him quite so much.

Before Buck regained his senses, the Paras, which had been sitting on the sidelines as if to spectate the duel, leaped into action. As it crawled toward the rodent, it shook its body, scattering motes of purple powder from the mushrooms on its back. The sight of these wisps wafting toward Buck filled Olivie with sudden panic—and rage. ”Buck, move now!” she yelled as she began to move, noting her partner's adept dodge of the slow-moving cloud in only the most cursory manner. Her attention lay on the Paras instead, which was now spinning to look at her. Before it could properly process he threat, she'd already grabbed it by one of its pincers, and when she held it in front of her face it could clearly see her wrath and tremble.

The tightness around Olivie's eyes, the hard slant around her eyebrowns, and the bunched muscles on her forehead all hinted at her fury as she growled, ”You puny bitch! What gives you the right to sneak attack my buddy when he's fightin' fair and square, huh? If you wanna fight so bad, I'll do it!” She let the Paras go, but it did not get much of a chance to fall. The very next instant, her gloved fist cannoned into its back like a hydraulic piston. A sputtering noise could be heard as it shot straight into the ground, kicking up a little bit of dust as it skidded to a halt. With clenched teeth, Olivie demanded, ”Buck, rack up your second K.O with Headbutt!”

No sooner had she given the command than Buck, too engrossed in the battle to care about attacking a hurt opponent, hurled himself at the Paras to slam his head right into it. Olivie watched, satisfied, as the bug flipped end over end to land right be her foot. With the toe of her shoe she upended it onto its front. Its blank eyes gave off the impression that it had been knocked clean out. ”Way to go! Gotta make sure these creeps learn they're lesson, eh, Buck?”

That said, she knew full well that class was still in session. About two meters away, the Karrablast had righted itself. Something else had happened, as well; from the shadows of the derelict granary, a third Pokemon revealed itself. This one resembled a little green ball with darker-green ridges all over, clublike arms, dark eyes, and a mouth that looked like it had been stitched on. Olivie did not know the creature's name, though she guessed it was a Grass-type Pokemon, but she instantly saw something she recognized in the way it bore itself. Standing with arms crossed and eyes narrowed, the Cacnea looked mean, tough, and commanding just like the leader of a gang of schoolhard bullies might. Pointing a finger, Olivie declared. ”I'll bet five bucks you're the ringleader of this little crew. Well, it's no great shakes, but you've caught my interest. After we mop up the blue beetle, you're next, big boss.” Plus, if he even came close to living up to his image, the surly Cacnea would be coming with her.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

ABEL, YOU FOOL! DON'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP OSWALD DID

@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

Hm? And happy 1000 days on the Guild mate.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Some secrets are better kept that way.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Abel Fulgurate

All the preparations he needed to have a fine day complete, Abel stepped out of the dorm room and into the hall, closing the door softly behind him lest he should awaken the tubular dude still dozing within. He had a mind to visit the cafeteria, but before he could move five steps from his front door, his pocket became abuzz with his scroll's 'alert' sound. Krysanthe's response time made the guardian's heart just a little bit lighter, though of course, he reflected, she could have given him a swift and crushing 'no'.

This was not the case. He opened up the newly-received message to learn that the blonde huntress was keen on his idea. Silently patting himself on the back, Abel pondered how best to reply to her followup question. Frankly, he doubted that any of his teammates would want to accompany their least interesting teammate on such a mundane task, barring the fact that one was sleeping and the other two were who-knows-where, but he also didn't want to find out lest they confound his expectations by joining him. Was that selfish? Abel though so, glumly, but concluded that it was a necessary vice at this moment. If they ever cared to find out, his teammates would surely understand.

To: Abel
From: Krysthane
Subject: Re: Hang out?

I don't think my teammates would be very interested. If you know anyone that would hate to miss out on something like this, though, feel free to invite them along. Just now, I'm heading to get a quick meal. What do you say we meet at the cliff over the forest at 9:00?

Hopefully that would be suitable—and hopefully none of Krysanthe's teammates insisted on tagging along. While Abel wouldn't begrudge them unduly if they did, the last thing he wanted was for a forest hike to turn from a special event to a school outing.

Pokemon: New World

An eastbound path through Central City took Olivie and Buck through the heart of the commercial district. Here, extravagant advertisements peered at pedestrians from every angle, and one could scarcely find a single place to look that wasn't agog with colorful imagery. No stranger to this jungle of glamour, showiness, and bustle, Olivie plotted a course down its main avenue, where a sidewalk of purple bricks framed a bizarre, mint-green street. The entire place, she had to admit, oozed personality, but it certainly came off forced and a bit disingenuous. Still, she could not fault those who made a living on this avenue: every day, people flocked to this part of town to purchase, be their objectives everyday items or boutique products. Someone like Olivie, who had all she needed at the moment and whose interests lay elsewhere, did not linger for long.

Only once did she stop, at a point where a torn-down building had been made into a little plaza full of small stalls, just like one would expect to find at an amusement park or marketplace. In particular, the brunette's eye was caught by an odd-looking creature sitting alongside a man behind the counter of a caricature-drawing stall. Her curiosity invigorated by the sight of the critter, Olivie withdrew her Pokedex from its place on her thigh ring and flipped it open to see just what the new Pokemon was.

“Smeargle,” the device told identified. “The Painter Pokemon. Smeargle marks the boundaries of its territory using a body fluid that leaks out from the tip of its tail. Over 5,000 different marks left by this Pokémon have been found.”

Before she continued on her way, she cast one more glance at the Smeargle. No doubt, given its location, the man beside it had taught it to paint caricatures. Olivie had zero interest in anything like that, so she wasted no time in moving on.

By the time she could no longer see the flamboyant colors of the commercial district's artsy avenue when she looked over her shoulder, Olivie could see the edge of town not far ahead. Following along the side of the road, she passed the invisible boundary that lay beyond the fences of the last few buildings, then stopped. To either side of the road as it sped away from the city lay vast, green fields that swayed gently in the wind. Since Central City had something unusual for a substantial urban center in that it still cultivated surrounding farmland, these particular fields must, Olivie assumed, be scheduled for an off-season on the crop rotation. Such practices prevented the farmers from inadvertently exhausting the soil's nutrients. Very little trivia about farming passed through the girl's head, however. Her focus lay squarely on the defeat and/or acquisition of new Pokemon. Her newly-purchased balls were practically begging to be used.

”Here we go,” she declared, getting Buck's attention. The next instant she plunged herself into the field, veering sharply away from the road to wade out into the bladed lake of green. Though the sounds of the city still reached her, the chirps of Bug-type Pokemon captured her attention. They blended with the whistle of music through the grass to create a simple but pleasing ambiance. Every once in a while, the sound of feet could be heard in the tall grass around her, but Olivie could neither identify nor confront any Pokemon that sensed her first and opted to flee. Instead, she hunted for a likely spot, leaving a trail of crushed grass behind her that Buck could trod happily upon as a personal highway.

A smear of brown lay in the middle of the field, and after spying it Olivie made her way there. When she grew close, she discovered that the thing she'd spotted was a miniature granary—an open-air shed-like structure meant to keep tools and harvested crops out of the rain until they could be picked up. This one looked to be completely derelict, but a collapsed granary made for a choice opportunity in Olivie's mind. Surely some Pokemon lived here.

Her guess proved correct, for as she stepped out of the grass into the little clearing in which the neglected shed stood, dark shapes moved within its inner shadows. A wicked smile appeared on Olivie's face as she reached for her fighting gloves, and Buck, now knowing what that meant, waddled around her until he stood between his trainer and the partially-destroyed structure.

Out of the granary moseyed two Pokemon, both in a threatening, defensive stance. The first, a round, bipedal bug with a blue carapace and a long horn, glared at Olivie with yellow eyes. Its companion attempted to look as fierce, but the cartoonish roundness of its eyes prevented it from achieving this. With an air of absolute confidence the girl brazenly ignored the insects' display, instead consulting her Pokedex briefly to figure out exactly what these loathsome little freaks were. ”Karrablast and Paras, huh? Hope you little worms don't crush too easy.” Though they may not have understood her words, the bugs reacted to her town with aggressive hissing noises. Olivie cracked her knuckles, though she resolved to let Buck go first. Time to see what her partner could do.