Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
Post by Elliot Sunderland on May 2, 2020 3:34:07 GMT
"On your mark . . ."
HYAH!'s front prongs turned like a rotor, churning great amounts of water and seafoam behind them as they waited at the starting gate. Elliot held tightly onto their upper rear prongs, his feet resting in the grooves between their lower rear prongs. It was almost like holding onto a jetski.
"Get set . . ."
The Starmie's gem flashed a few times, before settling into a bright, intense glow. Echo held her starting flag high, and Reverb clutched her stopwatch close.
"Let's go!"
Echo swung her flag, and HYAH! tore off like a rocket with Elliot in tow. The first leg of the journey was the marathon; a long, gentle stretch of the Kiddie Pool, designed to get a sense of a Pokemon's speed and stamina. While the second was still up for question, HYAH! had the first in abundance. They were a bit slower than they had been during the race. After all, not only did HYAH! have a rider on their back, but they could only use one set of their prongs for propulsion. However, the speed Elliot was experiencing with HYAH! was like nothing he had ever seen before. The Training Grounds melded into a blur around him, and he found himself practically pressing into the Starmie to avoid being flung off of its back. "You're doing great!" he said, voice warbling from how vigorously he was getting shaken up. "Don't worry about me! I'm hanging in there!"
Fortunately, at this point Elliot didn't need to worry much about handling, turns, or sudden stops. This was all about pure distance, and while HYAH! started slowing down after their initial sprint they had already covered quite a bit. Elliot turned to peek over his shoulder and could faintly make out several tiny colored specks on the horizon; was that the rest of his team? He turned back to HYAH!, an impressed grin on his face.
l96RbHAXp_ ! (At this point, HYAH! is already surf trained. Buuuut what's the fun in that?)
Unfortunately, the next part wouldn't be so easy. The course transitioned from strength to agility as Elliot and HYAH! entered the obstacle course leg. Large, sturdy rocks, whirlpool-generating turbines, and masses of tangled seaweed littered this section of the kiddie pool, and if HYAH! continued rushing forward full steam ahead they and Elliot would end up bumbling into each and every obstacle.
Elliot's saving grace here was that HYAH!'s movement was almost hummingbird-esque. They stopped on a dime just before crashing into a rock, Elliot lurching forward and clinging to HYAH! to avoid falling off. He also clung to his stomach to avoid pretty much losing his lunch over the sudden movement. Before he could even regain his composure, HYAH! dashed to the side and circled around the rock with ease. For the first few rocks they needed to stop, recalibrate, and circle. However, as they got more comfortable, they started being able to swerve around the rocks without even taking the time the stop. Similar methods were used to avoid the whirlpools, HYAH! leaning forward so it could skip across them like a gently tossed stone.
It was the seaweed, surprisingly enough, that proved most problematic. Once it coiled around HYAH's prongs, the Starmie decelerated to a halt, listlessly squirming as it tried to tug its away out of the plants. Elliot looked at the pile, swallowing nervously as he thought about all of the time that they had lost, before clinging to HYAH's prongs and closing his eyes tightly. "This is going to suck, but I think we're going to need a Rapid Spin," Elliot said. HYAH's eye flashed as they obliged, spinning both sets of prongs at a speed that got Elliot screaming from dizziness.
Sure, by the time they stopped spinning Elliot couldn't see straight. But they had made it out of the seaweed, and with it to the next leg of the course.
p_ + 83 = 103!
Another obstacle course was next, this one known informally as the battle course. Surfing Pokemon needed to know how to defend themselves without hurting their trainers, after all, and a series of simple wooden gates made great targets to practice on. Fortunately, this was an easy obstacle for HYAH! to deal with; a single Hydro Pump crashed through the gates like the Kool-Aid Man, HYAH! passing through before they could swing shut again. Such a powerful move trivialized large portions of this course; double, triple, and even quadruple-stacked doors all smashed open with ease under the pressure of HYAH!'s hydro pump, and Elliot could just feel them blazing through this portion of the obstacle course.
The next section might have been a bit harder. These gates were series of bamboo poles, held together by thin wires of webbing. An Araquanid crawled across the support beams holding the poles up, chittering at Elliot and HYAH! in a heckling fashion. Fortunately, HYAH! had a solution for this problem too. Their gem flashed yellow as they spun their forward prongs, a star launching from each of the five and flying towards the strings. Each projectile met its mark, slicing through the string with ease and sending the poles sinking down into the water. Elliot waved to the Dewpider as he and HYAH! sailed past, the spider grumbling as they dove beneath the waters to reset the mechanism.
The final obstacle of the battle course wasn't an attack at all, but instead a defense! This section of the kiddie pool turned into a choppy wave pool, battering Elliot and HYAH! on all sides. The sea star Pokemon was surprisingly heavy and sturdy, so the waves didn't do much to break its stride. However, they buffeted Elliot quite rapidly, the boy sputtering and coughing as sea spray hit him right in the face. Soon the boy's footing started to slip, leaving him dangling on HYAH! by his wrists. "U-uh, HYAH!? Can I get a little help here, please?" Elliot asked. The Starmie's gem pulsed a few times, glowing violet as a psychic force adhered Elliot onto the starfish's back. It wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it would at least keep Elliot from getting washed away into the waves.
p_ + 103 = 135!
The last round was another empty stretch of water, but this one was a little bit different. Whereas the first leg of the obstacle course was for overall speed and stamina, this was a mad dash to the finish line. There were no more obstacles to worry about, so Pokemon testing their speed could sprint without a care for how much energy they used.
HYAH! may have taken this part a little bit too literally. Their gem flashed blue again as they swiveled around in place, facing backwards towards the finish line. "I . . . HYAH!? I don't think this is a good id-" Elliot started to protest, but was cut off by the sound of a Hydro Pump erupting from every facet of HYAH!'s gem. Elliot let out a panicked shout as the Starmie exploded forward like a rocket, the scenery blurring into a multicolored mess and the wind practically deafening him. Elliot was pretty much wrapped around HYAH! like a cheap suit now, clinging to the Starmie and waiting to see when it would all be over.
p_ + 155 = 197!
Fortunately, the Hydro Pump didn't last as long as Elliot feared it would. It petered out around 3/4ths of the way to the finish line, HYAH! leisurely turning around and skipping the rest of the way forward. Echo waved the finish flag as Reverb clicked his stopwatch, the two psychic types catching the woozy Elliot as HYAH! dropped him off on the shore.
Overall, HYAH!'s performance wasn't bad at all! They had surprising amounts of stamina, raw speed, and maneuverability, yet their rather linear pattern of thinking meant that obstacles or hitches in the plan could sometimes catch them off guard. In addition, while they could put out a surprising amount of offense while carrying a rider, a lack of limbs or protective techniques meant that Elliot himself was rather vulnerable. In addition, some moves such as Rapid Spin were a lot more usable in theory than in practice. These were all kinks that diligence and patience during training could work out, though. For getting from point A to point B, it was hard to deny HYAH!'s sheer effectiveness.
Once he had time to regain his bearings, it'd be time for Elliot to see how Curly compared.
Post by Elliot Sunderland on May 2, 2020 4:30:11 GMT
"On your mark . . ."
Compared to HYAH!, which was less mounted and more held onto, riding on Curly was a lot more traditional. Well, as traditional as sitting on a sea serpent could be, anyway. His legs wrapped around the Huntail's upper back, a tiny spot between its head and tail where a rider could stably rest, and he swayed side by side as it undulated through the water.
"Get set . . ."
Curly turned towards his audience, showing off his fin for them and letting out a few chattering taunts. Echo and Reverb readied themselves again, and Elliot's eyes narrowed in determination.
"Let's go!"
Compared to HYAH!, who rocketed forward at unparalleled speeds before decelerating to a safer levels, Elliot was in for a much more measured pace when riding with Curly. In fact, there was almost something comforting about the way he gracefully swayed from side to side. While his original speed was nothing to brag about, it was only moments before Elliot began started to feel the wind rushing through his hair and the scenery zooming by again. His best was only on par with HYAH!'s average, so Elliot knew that him and Curly'd be working from behind to try and meet the Starmie's score, but that was okay. The obstacle courses would really be what made or broke their times.
In the meantime, Elliot let himself kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride. After the whirlwind of a ride that HYAH! had taken him on, he earned the chance to get some rest!
JYA6uUgnp_
Surprisingly, Elliot hadn't lost too much time by the time he and Curly made it to the obstacle course! Curly must have put everything he could behind his sprinting to try and match up to HYAH! Elliot couldn't help but appreciate that; it was a sign that the two were doing everything in their power to try and match up to one another. Yet this was an area more to Curly's preference, favoring control over raw speed. If they performed well here, would they leave HYAH!'s time record in the dust?
It wouldn't be quite that easy. HYAH! was so fast that Elliot didn't realize the true secret of the obstacle course. The boulders drifted listlessly through the waters, weaving into various patterns and blockades. Without being able to just bypass them, Elliot and Curly were actually going to need to think about how to best bypass them. Fortunately, form fit function here, and Elliot knew just how to worm around this puzzle. "Don't wait for them to separate in full. Use your long body to try and weave through them," Elliot advised, Curly nodding and flashing him a winning smile. His long, flexible coils were able to pass through the gaps between stones with ease, even if Elliot need to square his shoulders and turn his body to avoid being scraped against the stone himself. The whirlpools, too, proved ineffective when faced with Curly's length. Rather than face them directly, he simply curved between them, not only avoiding getting caught in their vortexes but also using the rotational force for a bit of extra speed.
Finally came the seaweed, the obstacle that tripped Elliot and HYAH! up the most last time. Fortunately, Curly had a plan for this. He opened his jaws, icy mist rolling out from the back of his throat. It withered the seaweed with a touch, making the resulting Ice Fang capable of tearing through it with ease. Their path forward unopposed, Curly and Elliot slithered onward to the next leg of the kiddie pool.
p_ = 157! Look out, HYAH! Curly's out to smash those records!
While the obstacle course would be very easy for Curly, the battle course would prove a lot more difficult. None of Curly's moves had the range of power that Hydro Pump did, and while a single Water Pulse was capable of knocking one door open at a time, it struggled quite a bit when faced with more than one. Oftentimes Curly had to resort to bashing the gates with his skull in lieu of using an actual technique. Fortunately, Curly's head was still quite hard, so he was able to make his way through with a bit of effort. Was this where all of the shell from his previous evolution went?
Without a ranged technique, Elliot was a little bit worried about what Curly would do when it came to the bamboo gate. However, it seemed like Curly had another plan in mind. He tapped Eliot's shoulder with his tail, looking up expectantly at him. He took in a big, exaggerated gasp of air, then puffed his cheeks out. "Oh! Are you telling me to hold my breath?" Elliot asked, Curly nodding eagerly in return. Elliot took a big gulp to oblige, only to be surprised as Curly dove right underneath the water. It turned out bamboo gates weren't a problem if you didn't even need to interact with them!
When they resurfaced, the dripping wet Elliot laughed in excitement. "That was brilliant, Curly!" Elliot said, only to look towards the wave pool that'd be awaiting them next. "You know, waves are above the water, right? Not below? I think that gives me an idea," he pondered, Curly nodding along excitedly. Elliot took in a big gulp of air, and by the time they resurfaced the entire obstacle had been circumvented.
p_ = 225! Curly wins, and he damn well knows it.
That just left the sprint round. Being a deep sea diver and endurance hunter, not very capable of accelerating much in a quick burst, this was far from Curly's strong suit. However, with all of the time that he and Elliot had saved on the obstacle rounds, Curly knew that he had the time to try and push himself. His coils thrashed from side to side as he tried to push every bit of speed he could out of his body, but try as he might he simply couldn't compare to what HYAH! could bring to the table. Their swimming speeds were at least comparable to one another, but without any tricks like Hydro Pump that he could pull out, Curly knew he'd be ending this leg of the race in a distant loss.
p_ = 244
As Echo waved the victory flag, and Reverb held up her stopwatch, Curly, Echo, and HYAH! excitedly gathered around to see the results. HYAH! had decisively won the sprint, by the largest margin between them, but Curly had a similarly commanding win on the obstacle course. The marathon was a close call, but ultimately HYAH! had prevailed. Yet it was the battle leg where the real difference in capability showed; HYAH! had fought hard and come up short, but Curly had avoided it all to complete it in record time.
Curly turned towards HYAH, smugly preening at them, while HYAH! beeped and grunted in irritation. Yet ultimately, Elliot stood between the two. "No, no, I think I get it!" he said. "The most important lesson of self defense is that the best way to protect yourself is to not get into a fight in the first place. By avoiding danger, Curly proved that lesson, and with it ended up with the best time on this obstacle course. It was a metaphor all along!"
Echo facepalmed as Curly and HYAH! turned to Elliot, both looking rather unamused. "Or maybe you're just two very different Pokemon, and an obstacle course trying to prove which of you is objectively better is kinda missing the point," he offered instead, a guilty smile on his face. "But, hey! Pretty sure you both blew your times during your first competition out of the water. And you did it all with me hanging on you guys, too. You both really grew today!" They still weren't amused. ". . . Snacks at the Litten-Kaboodle?" Elliot offered.
Okay. Now they were amused. All's well that ends well, so long as delicious, sugary bribery was on the table!