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.
Akane jogged through the city streets at an easy lope, her body aching for the outlet of exercise. She'd been confined to far too much sedentary travel lately - first on a ship, and then on a torturous taxi from Bass City. It felt good to finally have a chance to stretch her legs and burn off some of the perpetually-aggravated energy that bubbled beneath her skin. She cut through the pretty paved alleys at a steady clip, and soon enough found her at the broad mouth that marked the edge of Route 1. Phase one complete. Yippee. [break][break] She slowed, eventually coming to a stop just as her boots hit dirt. Her warm chocolate eyes drifted over the rolling hills and nearby coastline, dipping downward for a moment to check her observations against the map app the Professor had suggested. The scenery was a far cry from the close, quiet forests and open trails of New Bark Town; much to her chagrin, Akane felt herself getting homesick for the more familiar setting that Johto provided. Perhaps she wasn't so different from the eager, bright-eyed children she so disdained. They, too, were pushed out into the wilderness - and they, too, were determined to overcome whatever obstacles stood in their way. Akane might be less enthusiastic about the whole affair, but the outcome would doubtless be the same. [break][break] With a sigh, Akane put her phone away, and began walking down the route.The egg in her bag bumped against her hip at every step, a weight that reminded her of nothing so much as everything she'd left behind. The unfamiliar sensation of a pokeball clipped to her hip would also take some getting used to - but she had plenty of time with which to do so. A journey of a thousand miles began with a single .... oh, whatever, lets just get it over with already.
Akane had been walking for a grand total of five minutes before a serpent slithered out of the grass. The blade at the end of its tail winked in the overcast sunshine; a Seviper. Akane glanced down at the single minimized pokeball at her hip and frowned. Was Arciel overrun with giant snake pokemon, then? How interesting. And how unfortunate for the residents. She took a single step forward, prepared to ignore the new pokemon, but the Seviper dashed quickly into her path. Its eyes were locked on Akane's bag - where the egg from her research lab rested, all unaware. "Viperrrr!" hissed the serpent, weaving closer, its eyes narrowed with hunger. [break][break] "Oh no you don't," she snapped. "If I was willing to get rid of it that easy, I would have just smashed it by now." With a flick of her wrist, she activated the button on Ekans' pokeball. The large purple snake emerged in a flash of bright white light, coiling on the ground in front of her. Part of her noted that this would be her first real pokemon battle - but it did so without any true interest. [break][break] The Seviper wasn't cowed. Akane smashed her fists together, as she would when greeting an opponent in the dojo. "Fine then. Ekans, use Leer, then go after it with a Wrap attack." Ekans dove forward, obediently rushing into battle with the other serpent. It paused just in front of the other pokemon, yellow eyes narrowed in a vicious glare. The Seviper trembled a moment, but darted forward to drag its forked tongue across Ekans' neck. Ekans reeled away, using the momentum to curl her entire body around the other pokemon. Trapped, the Seviper tried to bite into Ekans' flesh - but the constant, crushing power of Ekans' muscular body soon sapped it of all life. [break][break] Uncurling itself from her unconscious opponent, Ekans looked expectantly at Akane - who only blinked in response. "You might as well stay out, I guess. Probably run into more before we get anywhere useful," she noted, waving her hands idly towards the fallen pokemon. She began to walk away, uninterested in catching the Seviper; Ekans slithered along behind her, leaving a serpentine mark in her wake. If its gaze drooped with disappointment, Akane didn't notice. [break][break] [Fainting the Seviper]
Akane continued down the thoroughfare, keeping an eye on her phone's nav app to be sure that she didn't accidentally stray off of the trail. Movement nearby caught her attention; a pair of young pokemon splashed and played in the surf, not too far from the path. They looked up as Akane and Ekans made their way by; a Simipour and a Slowpoke. Akane paused, glancing to the serpent at her side. Given the choice, she'd rather ignore the two pokemon and continue on her way. But Ekans could probably use the experience - and wasn't this what being a trainer was all about? Battling, leaving a trail of unconscious pokemon in your wake....So far, Akane didn't get the appeal. [break][break] Even so, she knew she wouldn't get very far in the gym challenge if she didn't train. If she thought of it as a type of sparring - like conditioning for a martial arts tournament - perhaps that would lessen the inherent idiocy of it all. With a sigh, she turned towards the two water types. Two on one wasn't terribly fair, but at least the pair looked weak. They had the telltale signs of newborns, all bright and shiny eyed. Akane pressed a finger to the crease between her eyes, smoothing it out before flicking her fingers at Ekans. [break][break] "Ekans, wrap 'em up and hit them with poison sting," she ordered. Unlike the Seviper, both Simipour and Slowpoke would be vulnerable to poison type abilities. The yellow-eyed snake leveled its gaze at the opposing pair. If she felt bad for the innocent water types, she didn't show it; instead, she launched herself forward like a giant spring, using her momentum to coil tightly around the Slowpoke's body. The pudgy pink pokemon barely twitched; likely, it hadn't even registered that it was in pain yet. Ekans twisted her head, mouth opening wide as she spat poison-coated darts towards the flailing Simipour. Almost immediately, the other pokemon's face took on a sickly pale cast; Akane noted the effects of poison, wishing that she had thought to bring a notebook and some pens to catalog her observations. She wasn't a researcher any more, but old habits were hard to break. [break][break] The Simipour shrieked, lashing out and scratching at Ekans' exposed side - once, twice, three times. Its Fury Swipes were cut short, though, as Ekans leveled another round of poison sting directly into its face. The Simipour collapsed - and the Slowpoke, crushed within Ekans' tight coils, yawned. Immediately, Ekans' eyes got blurry, and it struggled against an answering yawn. Akane cursed. "Hit it with poison sting before you fall asleep!" she called. Ekans twisted around the Slowpoke's body, obediently sending another spray of poison into the water type's face. Between that, and the ongoing damage from wrap, the Slowpoke fell limp - just in time for Ekans to fall asleep. Its coils relaxed as its head drooped onto the ground, a quiet snore dragged from its blunted snout. [break][break] With a grunt, she returned Ekans to its pokeball. It would only take a moment to run back to town, visit the pokemon center, and then head back out again. Better that than try to go on with the only pokemon in her arsenal snoozing - and likely not in the best of health otherwise. Akane replaced the 'ball on her hip, adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder, and marched back to Birch. It was less than half an hour later that she returned, right back where she started. "Lets try this again." [break][break] [Fainting them both]
The path was fairly direct, and rather scenic - assuming one was into that sort of thing. Like many things in her life, however, Akane did not feel particularly drawn to the outdoors one way or another. Outside, inside...did it matter? The task at hand was what was important, not where it was performed. Beauty was secondary to function. Oh, if she had to pick based on appearance alone, of course she'd choose the more aesthetically pleasing of any two options, but it was never a priority. Even ugly things had their uses. [break][break] As she walked on, Akane noticed a conspicuous shadowy figure lurking on the side of the road. It started and ran off before she could get too close, but as she approached the spot where it had been, she saw that it had left something behind. Two pink acorns lay nestled in what had probably been a growing pile. With a shrug, Akane bent down and pocketed the two acorns, curious as to whether the pokeball trade was as active in Arciel as it was in Johto. [break][break] [Akane picks up the acorns and continues onward.]
Last Edit: Dec 2, 2019 23:41:15 GMT by Akane Aragaki
After another hour or so of walking, Akane paused beside the trail to reach into her pack, pulling out a bottle of water. Tilting her head back, she took a swig, idily rearranging the towels and clothing around the mystery egg as she did so. The darn thing had better hatch soon... Grousing to herself, Akane looked up in time to see a young-looking kid heading in the other direction; probably heading back to Birch. ”Hey, lady! Are you a trainer, too? I've been looking for a way to stretch my partner's wings all morning. Let's battle!” The kid – okay, he was probably like sixteen or so – eagerly brandished a pokeball in her direction. Akane scowled. The boy's grin deflated. [break][break] ”First of all, I'm not a lady. Secondly, I only have one pokemon.” Her voice was harsh, and her glare was sharp enough to carve through a layer of ice. In a way, it was nice – she didn't have to pretend, or put on a fake smile, or don a mantle of professionalism. She wasn't an aide – she was a trainer. No one in Arciel would recognize her from Johto, so it wasn't like she was risking the Lab's reputation by being snarky. She was fully aware that she'd have to battle other trainers eventually, but she wasn't stupid enough to think she could beat one who had so many pokeballs on his belt. She put her water bottle back in her pack, shouldering it once more. She walked right by the shellshocked bird keeper, passing him without a second glance. ”Let's not, and say we did.” [break][break] Passing up a fight didn't sit well, but better that than losing one. She'd have to do something to remedy the minuscule size of her team; it would be some time before skill could make up for lack of numbers. She would much prefer quality over quantity, but she'd never heard of a trainer with just one pokemon to their name. Ekans was doing fine so far, she supposed, but it wouldn't last long alone. With that in mind, Akane threw a pokeball at the next wild pokemon that caught her eye. Ponyta weren't particularly rare, but she'd never seen one of the Galar variants up close, and she was frankly surprised to see one at home in Arciel. At home was probably a misnomer, however; the poor, fanciful creature had tried to hide behind a boulder as soon as it had seen Akane coming. It had stuck its head out, shyly, as Akane came nearer – only to be enveloped in the bright white light of a pokeball in the next moment. [break][break] The ball fell to the ground, shaking once, twice...and then it clicked as it fell still. The sound was oddly satisfying. [break][break] [Skip. Icly catching the Galar Ponyta Akane received in the Gacha.]
The day was half gone by the time Akane ran into another pokemon. The wind had picked up, and the temperature started to plummet; Akane zipped her vest a little tighter, thankful for the warm leather. She would have been even more thankful for the long sleeves of her lab coat, but that didn't really come with the job any more. Maybe, once she'd started to understand the whole trainer gig a bit more, she'd invest in some bit of clothing that hearkened back to her old uniform. [break][break] A sharp cry off to the side caught her attention; a curious Gorebyss had drawn close, playing in the surf. The pink seahorse-like creature whistled shrilly, bouncing and splashing around, clearly in a good mood. Akane warred with herself for a moment. The young water-type looked to weak to give either of her new pokemon much of a challenge, and she certainly wasn't interested in catching it. Since beating up on weaklings wasn't really her style, Akane ignored the Gorebyss and continues walking. [break][break] She didn't feel the egg in her pack twitch. [break][break] [Skip]
The wind picked up enough that Akane was forced to untie the spare ribbon from her arm in order to tie her hair back. It seemed like the weather was only going to get colder as the day wore on; hopefully she would be able to make it to the next town before nightfall. Of course, that was continually in question as eager young trainers and feisty wild pokemon continued to interrupt her journey. A Mudkip stepped boldly out of the surf, its legs planted sturdily on the ground. Its crest rose when it saw Akane, and it stepped forward. "Kip! it demanded. Akane paused, eyes narrowed - and then with a sigh, she stopped to face this newest opponent. [break][break] Akane's hand hovered over the two pokeballs on her belt. After a pause, she clicked the button on Ponyta's ball. She had never understood why trainers insisted on dramatically throwing their pokeballs out into the battlefield. For catching a pokemon, sure; the ball had to connect. But for battle? The pokemon were released as soon as the mechanism was activated. There was no need for theatrics. [break][break] The pastel-hued Ponyta emerged with a shrill neigh. She looked back towards Akane, and immediately started to paw at the sand, bashful even in the face of battle. Akane was just so pretty, and strong-looking, and perfect..."Ponyta, tackle it. And keep tackling it, until it's stomped into the surf." The trainer's no-nonsense tone snapped Ponyta out of her reverie. With a deep blush, she charged forward, using her hooves to slam into the smaller water-type. The Mudkip toppled end over end in the water, but quickly sprang back into a ready stance. The hardy little creature spat a stream of water at Ponyta - who, unlike her non-Galarian counterparts, was not weak to the type advantage. Ponyta shook off the water, going in for another Tackle. [break][break] "Break it," Akane urged, and Ponyta crashed into the Mudkip with violent eagerness. The Mudkip was all but slammed into the dirt, slumping into unconsciousness. Ponyta eagerly dashed back to Akane, big dark eyes gleaming as she nudged Akane's shoulder expectantly. "Er. Right. Good job," the former researcher offered. Ponyta blushed prettily. Akane had praised her! [break][break] Rolling her eyes, Akane abandoned the Mudkip to the waves, and Ponyta trotted eagerly alongside her. [break][break] [Fainting the Mudkip]
The steady clop, clop, clop of Ponyta's hooves accompanied Akane's progress down the route. Another person might have asked the horse pokemon for a ride - but Akane saw no need to burden the pokemon with her weight when she was more than capable of walking on her own. Maybe if she was in more of a hurry, the prospect would be more appealing - but as it was, the thought barely even crossed the former researcher's mind. Also, though the Galarian Ponyta's divergent appearance and unique typing was interesting from a scientific perspective, it didn't exactly have the kind of aesthetic that Akane otherwise preferred. So she would not be riding on the pretty pink pony pokemon, thank you very much. [break][break] Movement near the edge of the path caught her eye once again; a familiar blur of darkness. It skittered off into a nearby copse of trees as Akane and Ponyta approached, leaving another pink acorn in its wake. This time, Akane bent to pick it up with a more wary cast to her expression. Once might have been a coincidence, a random encounter, but twice seemed more purposeful, pointed. Ponyta whickered inquiringly, sniffing off towards the direction the strange shadow had vanished. Akane merely shrugged and continued onward. As far as potential threats were concerned, mystery shadows that left pink apricorn presents were the least of her worries. [break][break] [Picking up the acorn and continuing on]
The next few miles passed relatively uneventfully. In the interests of fairness, Akane had let Ekans out of its pokeball, and the yellow-eyed serpent had immediately hitched a ride on Ponyta. The latter, pleased to be useful, didn't seem to mind, so Akane let it happen. She saw a few more pokemon off in the distance, but none of them seemed interested in battling, and Akane wasn't about to traipse into the wilderness to chase after them. [break][break] This time, when the egg twitched in her pack, Akane felt it. She paused, brow furrowing - but no, there it was again, a jerky twitch that rustled against the clothing in her pack. Akane called for Ponyta and Ekans to hold up a minute; shrugging the strap of her bag over her shoulder, she'd just maneuvered it onto the ground when the bushed nearby rustled ominously. [break][break] "You have shit timing," Akane groused to the egg. She turned to Ekans and Ponyta, who were both looking over her shoulder at the pack inquisitively. "Ekans, whatever that is, spit some Poison Sting in its face." The snake pokemon blinked, but obediently turned to face the approaching threat - which turned out to be a solid-looking Shroomish. Akane dragged the zipper down on her pack, just in time for a crack to appear on the surface of the egg. [break][break] The wild Shroomish had barely taken a step out of the tall grass before Ekans' barrage of Poison Sting caught it full in the face; the super effective attack sent him reeling. He rallied quickly, however, not out of the fight just yet. A green light enveloped it, its skirt whirling as it sapped health from Ekans. The snake shrugged off the Absorb attack, and without prompting, spat another round of poison sting at the grass-type. Despite the bit of health it had managed to heal, the Shroomish wasn't able to withstand another super effective move - it fell, eyes wide and empty. [break][break] Akane, meanwhile, was busy picking shards of eggshell out of her hair. After that first crack, the egg had shattered with such force that Ponyta had just barely managed to duck out of the way. Akane hadn't been so lucky - but now, instead of an egg, she held a baby Shinx. The two blinked at each other for a moment. Akane was somewhat confused - the folks at the lab had sent her with a ...Shinx egg? She frowned thoughtfully, even as she took out a pokeball and transferred the new hatchling to its formal home. She wasn't sure what she had expected, really, but a Shinx hadn't been on the list. [break][break] [Fainting the Shroomish, IC Shinx egg hatching]
Mulling over the origin of her newly hatched Shinx - who would, at least, help to round out her party in terms of type advantages - Akane resumed her journey. She'd never really had the desire - or the ability - to wander around the routes on foot. If she had to travel, she typically used a more modern means of conveyance. It wasn't safe out in the tall grass without a pokemon, after all, and she'd never had a pokemon before today. Oh, she'd certainly worked with them, studied them, interacted with them....but she'd never had one of her own. [break][break] Akane frowned thoughtfully at Ekans and Ponyta. The former was draped around the horse pokemon's neck like a scaled boa, while Ponyta herself trotted happily along on the trail. Akane strode forward purposefully, her pace measured and direct, the black leather of her faux skirt trailing behind her. As far as she was concerned, she was doing relatively well with this whole trainer business. Three pokemon already, and so far none of them had tried to run away, or set her on fire. She wasn't terribly surprised with her good fortune - she had a habit of doing things competently, if not always enthusiastically - but even so, she still didn't understand what all this was supposed to be teaching her, exactly. [break][break] She was spared from getting too introspective when another wild pokemon appeared on the trail. This one, a Surskit, brandished a stick like a sword, brandishing it threateningly. Ponyta paused in surprise, but it was Akane who stepped forward. "You wanna fight?" she asked, tightening the straps on her gloves as if she would be the one jumping into the battle. The Surskit hesitated a moment, unsure - but then it fixed its eyes on Ekans, and its makeshift sword thrust forward in answer. Akane huffed, waving the serpent forward. [break][break] "Fine. Ekans, you got this. Start off with Wrap, and then finish it off with Poison sting until it hits the ground." The purple serpent slithered off of its perch on Ponyta, coiling her body for leverage before springing, open mouthed, at the long-legged Surskit. The smaller pokemon stepped bravely forward, undaunted; it sprang forward in the same movement, slamming into Ekans with a swift Quick Attack. Ekans constricted around it in the next moment, applying a constant stream of force. A wash of poison quickly followed, splashing across the Surskit's form. [break][break] The Surskit released a sweet smelling perfume in surprise; Ekans, entranced by the scent, loosened her grip on the enemy for a moment. She shook off the effects in the next breath, however - and spat another wave of poison at the other pokemon. Still constricted by the Ekans' coils, Surskit fell, collapsing just as easily as all the wild pokemon before it. Akane huffed in disappointment. It hadn't been as much of a challenge as she'd hoped it would be. [break][break] [Fainting the Surskit]
06
00
Lv8
