this is the run, we are invincible

[domeinion]

[The days are here, and the Battle Park is all done up for the show. Banners with a weird shield-like symbol announce the Dome-tide tournament, and everything is organized in an orderly fashion. Everyone who signed up will be directed to their place and given a free water and name tag, and spectators will get a program detailing all the matches and locations.

The prizes are... well, something that a weird nerd would think are good prizes. First prize gets a Nugget, second a bunch of EXP candy, and third and fourth get literally just 30 Ulternian Poké Balls each. She had to be talked out of giving you textbooks.

select your team, b yourself, and have fun!]



[HOW IT WORKS

The bracket was seeded with characters who were signed up on the thread linked above for the month's plotting post! Since there were 10 teams and thus four people would have had to play an extra round, I gave those slots mainly to people who signed up multiple characters. You can find the bracket here with all the results, which were done via RNG.

The matches can be threaded out on the post in their toplevels according to the RNGed results, or can be skipped, depending on player preference. There will be a toplevel for rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4, and another for general spectating.

ICly, this runs on the 12th, but backtags until whenever are fine as always! This is a player-run event, so if you need anything, let me know!]

Comments

SPECTATORS

[domeinion]

[Spectators can thread here with each other! Have fun watching the matches, and don't forget the popcorn.]

[RNG echoing the Unova league is wild]

[serperiority]

Battling a friend in the first round, in which he's eliminated... again? This was some serious deja vu and not the good kind. It's... kind of depressing, actually.

Well, it wass inevitable, too, of course, he hadn't devoted much time to serious training here, more concerned with making a living and learning about this place (hoping to leave), not to mention all of the issues with Gold and Elio. This was just a reminder he was still far from beating Alder sir and needed to get serious about training!!

Unlike in the past, Trip won't leave as soon as he's defeated. He'll join the spectators and cheer on his friend, too! He's just a bit quiet either way, though, so he won't talk to the other spectators unless approached.

[domeinion]

[Alice plops down in a nearby seat between paperwork and healing her team up.]

How did your match go? I didn't get the chance to see...

[serperiority]

Oh, hey, Alice.

… not so good. Gold did well against me, though. I just haven’t been battling in a while, it’s my fault, really.

I haven’t trained seriously enough here.

The competition’s bound to be tough, though, with those Champions.

[domeinion]

[She winces at his description and shakes her head.]

That's true. Everyone here is strong, and they come from all different kinds of places. I knew I was out of practice when it came to opponents this strong, too. But that just means we have a goal and a clearer view of the variables at play, doesn't it?

[serperiority]

[Trip tends to assume losses are due to him doing something wrong or lacking something, he’s a bit hard on himself that way.

At Alice’s take, Trip started to smile.]

Yeah, it’s like a refresher, almost. I know where to focus on my training, too, so I’ll be a more worthy challenger and have a better chance next time.

Do you know what you’ll be focusing on?

/slides in

[closedbond]

"Oh, it's you."

Wow what a way to greet someone. X was a natural at conversations, which he wasn't. He too had to admit, was disappointed in his early loss but what he could he do? Moping about it wasn't going to change the results.

Unsurprisingly his Quaxly is out, but in X's arms.

"I saw your match."

he's moody, don't mind him

[serperiority]

Trip's not the best speaker, either, but he certainly could take offense at rudness and eyed X with a raised brow, still in a low mood.

"... terrible, right?" Trip sighed, a bit theatrically, and slumped. "Sorry for the disappointment."

He resumed moping. Well, that was one way to end a conversation...

[closedbond]

"Did your Pokemon feel that way?" X couldn't help but question. He recognized that moping, and down in the dumps attitude. "Don't apologize for losing. That's all part of being a trainer."

"Pompom!" Coiffe quacked in response. X glanced down to him, and back at Trip.

"I'm disappointed too, for losing my own match."

[serperiority]

"... not so much. Just a bit disappointed, but I don't blame them or anything, so..." Trip replied, slowly looking back up.

"... I guess you're right. How's your Pokemon doing? It looks well," Trip commented on Coiffe, briefly forgetting his name.

Oh, it was a bit hard to tell how X felt about things.
"Makes sense. The competition's tough."

[red_berry]

Since his battle isn't until the second round, Red spends the first round spectating, silently rooting for Gold and Alice. After Alice's match is over, he'll send her a text complimenting her on the battle and wishing her luck next time.

After his loss on the second round, Red returns to the seats, satisfied with the results. If he has to lose, it's good he lost finding out that the other Red was just as strong as himself. He'll have to fight him again sometime. Now to watch the rest of the matches! And of course, take a lot of photos while he's watching.

[domeinion]

[Alice gets the text, but she waits until after Red's own match to go find him. She spots him in the stands and heads over there, then sits down and offers out the bag of popcorn she got.]

You did great out there. I told you, we've got a lot of strong trainers, right?

[red_berry]

Oh, popcorn! Red takes some and munches on it, then nods in reply.

"...Blast's sthrh- ...strong," he says, fumbling with the surprisingly difficult sentence, and also offering no context to the name.

[domeinion]

One of your Pokémon, right?

[She takes some of the popcorn herself and gives a quiet nod.]

You did a good job out there. I'm a little out of practice myself facing higher-level opponents these days. But it's fun, isn't it?

[ulternprofessor]

[Normally the Professor of Ultern would be holed up in his lab but not today when he knows Gold is out there, participating. He's not wearing his iconic straw hat, sunglasses or labcoat for once. In fact for once, Banyan's expression is clear as day thanks to the lack of hat and shades.

Next to him there's a girl who sat, wearing all of the missing pieces of his outfit over her own. No one really seemed to be bothered, or questioning it.]

Woo, way to go Gold! Ya can do it!

[Banyan will loudly root for Gold during his match. The girl sitting next to him will be giggling behind a gloved hand.]

[gold_drum]

Gold will hear his name being called and look over there. Seeing Banyan, he gives a big bright smile and waves at him with two arms. It's odd seeing Banyan without hat or his shades, so Gold wouldn't have recognized him if he didn't live in the man's house.

Speaking of the hat and shades, why the hell is the person next to Banyan wearing those? Oh, maybe that's one of Banyan's brother's kids or something? Gold will have to investigate.

And so, after his final match, he'll go up to the audience and head directly to Professor Banyan. Except he'll actually look at the girl wearing his outfit pieces first.

"Professor Banyan! I made it to top 4!" he announces with a big grin, flashing a peace sign, then pretends to do a double-take, eyes widening. "Wait, you're not Professor Banyan! What'd you do with him?" he exclaims with obvious exaggeration, pretending not to see Banyan.

[ulternprofessor]

The girl noticing Gold making his way over to her, and pretending she's Banyan got a laugh and grin out of her.

"Ahaha, Uncle Beni you should consider going out more without your lab get up." It's clear once she spoke, she wasn't Ulternian from her accent. All the while, the girl is playfully elbowing Banyan who gave a sheepish smile in response to her light teasing. Pulling up to her feet, she clapsed her hands behind her back while looking Gold up and down. "Hm, hm!"

"Lemme introduce ya two, Gold this here is R-"

"Blaze!" She interrupted, grinning wide. "The name's Blaze! Nice to meet you~!"

[gold_drum]

A part of Gold is kind of annoyed at seeing this girl so close with Banyan, but he's told himself to quit that kind of behavior, so he keeps that to himself, smiling as his joke landed.

While she looks him up and down, Gold watches closely and analyzes her as well. She seems like a fun person, but something's nagging him about her. The shades and hat hide her face, but Gold has a feeling he's met her. Or somebody who looks like her, maybe? An alternate version of her?

"Blaze, huh?" Gold says cheerfully, pretending he didn't hear Banyan starting a different name. "You look kinda familiar, have we met?"

[closedbond]

[During the first match, and right after his own match in the second round X can be found seated where he can watch either opponents and their team clearly. His focus seemed to be set on the match with Coiffe his Quaxly being seated on his lap.

He takes a second to pull out one of his Pokeballs. There's a small smile on his lips.]

It's okay, you did your best. We'll just train harder for next time.

[Despite his loss it seemed he wasn't in a sour mood. In fact he seemed a little relieved.]

[megabond]

[After watching Rounds 1 and 2 matches, Sycamore is surprised at how skilled the trainers were in the tournament. Even Ash was able to win his match seemingly with ease despite the sudden addition of a strange Seviper. Despite their current situation, he was happy to see these young trainers perform very well in their training.

But as he watched a random Round 2 battle, he noticed a familiar face nearby and he couldn't help but approach him.]

Bonjour, X. I saw your match earlier.

[closedbond]

[X lowered the Pokeball he held before turning in Sycamore's direction. At Sycamore's comment about the match his gaze moved back down to his Pokeball, and back to Sycamore.]

Hello, Professor. My team and I did what we could.

[He'll nod over to the field. He'll speak, of course referring to his match earlier.]

Did you come to watch Ash? He's strong.

[megabond]

Yes. When I heard about the Dome-tide Tournament, I have a feeling Ash might be participating in it. And I'm not surprised once I saw a battle against him.

[Not being surprised seems to be an understatement. After he met him when he arrives in the Ultren region, he has a feeling he might be participating in any battle once he hears about it.]

Speaking of which, what do you think of Ash and his battling skills?

[domeinion]

[Alice comes around eventually, after healing her team and making sure no one's having a fight in the stands or anything.]

I feel I should apologize. I could at least have fixed the bracket so we'd be able to fight right away, but I felt that might've been cheating.

[She's smiling, though, so it doesn't seem too bad.]

I thought you did well.

[closedbond]

[There's a smile on X's face too.]

That's fine. We can always battle some other time, it doesn't have to be up on the field.

[He's still staring at the Pokeball in his hand.]

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to or not, but battling here help make up my mind on what I wanted to do.

[domeinion]

You mean going forward? [She tilts to look at the Poké Ball he's gazing into.] What is it you want to do?