A Dazzling Start to a Dazzling Journey!

[Rei]

Belle grasped her ticket firmly in her hand as the cool Sinnoh breeze swept through her hair. A flock of Wingull chuckled past, signalling that the ship was approaching the docks in Canalave City. Belle looked down over the cold iron railing at the deep blue water crashing into the bow of the steel hull. She gazed into the abyssal sea and thought about all the different Pokémon living right beneath her. Perhaps Water-Types, maybe even some Pokémon that hadn’t yet been discovered. She put her hand out and Eevee caressed it with its furry forehead. She was ready. They were ready.
After reaching Canalave City, Belle took a small boat across to Jublife City, home of her first ever contest. But with an Eevee that was so young and inexperienced, she would need some training before entering the upcoming contest.

~

Belle retreated to a wooded area nearby the city to train. She plucked a flower from a soft patch of grass in the middle of 3 trees. She instructed Eevee to use Tackle to move between the trees and steal the flower from her hands. Eevee began to clumsily skip from tree to tree, leaping towards Belle’s hands each time but to no success. As Eevee continued to hop across the grass, she became ever so slightly faster and more accurate, however it was also evident that she was running out of stamina. After around 30 minutes it was too much, and Eevee sat with Belle for a snack and a break before continuing with the progress. They sat by a nearby stream, and Belle brushed Eevee’s fur with a soft brush from her hometown, after rinsing her smooth fur in the water. They then continued the practice session. Once again, Eevee was to leap from tree to tree, and attempt to confiscate the flower from Belle’s hands. She began to jump and quickly picked up momentum. It was still a little sloppy, but she seemed to have improved already. She moved with more grace and precision, her technique had a less unprofessional appearance. Belle continued to protect the flower from Eevee, however it was becoming increasingly difficult to stop Eevee from obtaining the flower. After a few minutes, Eevee had begun to pick up quite the pace, and finally managed to snatch the flower from Belle’s hand, and glide serenely towards the next tree. Belle approached Eevee to congratulate her, and picked her up in a loving embrace. Eevee stared deeply into Belle’s eyes, and suddenly her eyes began to glow a brilliant pink, and glitter shimmered from her endearing gaze. Eevee was using Baby-Doll Eyes! The glitter gathered around Belle’s face and captivated her, enchanting her into a trance of affection. After snapping out of Baby-Doll Eyes’ effects, Belle resumed the training. Eevee had improved even further, now able to capture the flower about half of the time. Furthermore, her stamina seemed to have improved, and she seemed to be able to handle the practice without tiring herself out much. The practice continued, and Eevee was evidently becoming much faster and more skilful a Pokémon. Soon she was galloping from point to point in miniscule amounts of time, and was snatching the flower from Belle’s hand 9 times out of 10. By this point it was already dark, so Belle and Eevee wrapped things up and headed to the Pokémon Center to sleep.
The next day, Belle and Eevee returned to the secluded area to continue their endeavor. They continued with the tree technique, however it only took a few minutes until Belle felt that Eevee no longer required more training in that area for now, and she had now warmed up. Belle then decided to practise attacks. She started with Tackle. She decided to have Eevee use Tackle on various rocks, starting with small rocks and building up to large boulders. Eevee had worked on speed and precision, but not on power, so initially her attacks were not enough to damage the rock, which of course was understandable. She pushed and pushed, and soon was able to begin to create small cracks in the rock. She was already off to a success. However, Eevee had tired herself out by that point, so they decided to take a break in the same spot as the last time. Belle fed her a PokéPuff that her mother had made for her, as a gift for working hard. They then resumed the training, and Eevee got off to an amazing start. She continued to create cracks in the rock, and eventually managed to completely smash the rock with her Tackle attack. Eevee and Belle were overjoyed, and Eevee suddenly swiped her tail and unleashed a flurry of golden stars into the air. She had learned Swift! Eevee continued with the rock training, moving on to a larger rock. Her speedy Tackle attacks were beginning to grow in power, and she was now able to cause cracks in the average-sized rock after several attacks, however Belle had begun to notice that the attacks were also inflicting some damage on Eevee, as she was tackling such hard objects at such great forces. A foe’s Pokémon could easily create a similar effect with a block of some sort, which could not only bring down Eevee’s attacks but also cost her points in a contest. So, Belle decided to try a combination move using Tackle. The way she saw it, a foe’s Pokémon could stop Eevee’s attack by blocking, or attacking back. So she designed 2 combination attacks to prevent this from happening. First of all, she combined Baby-Doll Eyes with Tackle. Her aim was to attack the opponent while lowering their Attack power, so that they would be unable to strike back hard enough. Eevee’s eyes began to glow pink, and as the shimmer glitter began to appear, she began to run towards the target, creating a sparkling pink streak behind her attack as she approached the target. The glitter then surrounding the target rock as she came in to collide. The attack seemed to work as planned, so they continued to practise it. However, as she continued to practise, Eevee suddenly began to burst into a stream of light as she ran, and her speed drastically increased. Eevee had learned Quick Attack! Belle decided to name this attack “Brille Balade”. After finishing up on that attack, Belle then began to practise the next attack, which undermined any defensive stance an opposing Pokémon may take, Endure + Quick Attack. Eevee ran towards the rock, enveloped in a gleaming white and orange streak, and smashed into the rock, taking minimal damage from the collision, while dealing maximum damage to the rock. She named this attack “Resilient Rush”. At this point, she had developed a fondness for combination attacks, and would require them for the contest anyway. She combined Sand Attack and Baby-Doll Eyes, to create an attack in which a rosy-golden veil of sand is whipped up by Eevee’s tail, and her eyes glow pink and release glitter into the flurry of sand. Entering the cloud could cause a lowering in Accuracy and Attack, therefore making it an ideal defensive move. She named it “Shimmer Sand”! Her final idea for a combination attack was one in which Eevee first used Swift to create a frenzy of gleaming, golden stars, then Baby-Doll Eyes to cause the stars to glisten and glow a dazzling pink-gold color, an attack that deals damage, cannot miss its target and affects the target’s Attack power. Eevee practised this attack. This particular combination made for a difficult attack to master, and Eevee struggled to time it correctly in order to create the desired result. However, Eevee eventually got the hang of it, and even managed to learn to target several foes at once, if such an ability would ever be required. Belle named the attack “Starlight Gleam”. After practising speed, power and stamina, Belle decided to hone Eevee’s attacks in general. She attacked several rocks with each of her known attacks, and even practised her combination moves. After all of that work, Eevee jumped into Belle’s arms, and laid to rest.

~

(Word count: 1219
Level: 5 -> 16
Exp Remaining: 11.9 (not sure how the system works, if this is rounded up or not)
Happiness: 120
New Attacks: Baby-Doll Eyes, Swift, Quick Attack)
Suddenly, Eevee began to glow a beautiful white in Belle’s arms, and began to change shape! The glow grew brighter and brighter, until finally, she emerged from the transformation as a Sylveon!
(New species: Sylveon)
Sylveon leapt into the air and landed on the ground by Belle’s feet, exclaiming “Sylveon!”. She brushed her head against Belle’s hand, and its ribbonlike feelers entwined around Belle’s arm, send a pulse of calming aura through her body. Belle lifted her into the air and hugged her newly evolved Fairy-Type Pokémon, before making her way towards the sign-up desk for the contest. She approached the person behind the counter, smiling as she waited for her to speak.

[Leon]

OOC: Everything has been altered on your Application. Sylveon's Experience, Moveset and Happiness have all been updated and the Sylveon Ribbon has been removed.


IC:

The woman behind the counter smiled. "I'm terribly sorry about my delay to attend to you.", she spoke to Belle. The woman seemed stunned for a moment, before starting up with a big smile. Her attention was on Sylveon. "I've never seen a Sylveon in person before, it's such an adorable Pokemon miss. I assume you're here to enter a contest here in Jublife City today?", she asked. A co-worker of hers, a tall male with short brown hair was attending to others at the counter. "I think if you are, I'm certainly going to be cheering you and your Sylveon on.", the woman said, positively beaming with excitement at the prospect of seeing a Sylveon in action.

[Rei]

"Oh... oh, no, don't apologize! Really! Uh - um, yeah, she just evolved from -- from an Eevee, you see. Th- thank you miss, for the support, I mean! Thank you!" Belle clumsily blurted out, before her eyes drifted their way towards the direction of the woman's gaze, "Uh -- thank you, again! For your help, of course. Thank you, uh - um, bye!"
Belle stumbled her way towards the man, finding herself at his desk after almost getting lost in the crowd.
"Uh-um, hello, sir! I'd like to register in the contest, I mean, please! If - if it's not too much to ask... Th-thank you!" she mumbled.

[Leon]

The woman smiled and waved as Belle left her and moved towards her co-worker. The male attendant looked up, holding out a paper and pen. "I'll just need you to fill this out, we'll need your name, and the Pokemon you'll enter in the contest. Return it to me when your done and you see the door on the far left of the hall? That's the waiting room, just go in there.", he said politely, patiently waiting on Belle.

[Rei]

"Oh, uh thank you! I'll fill it in right away -- ! Uh, um... Hmmm..." Belle muttered before looking around for somewhere to sit, oblivious to the fact that she was holding up a queue. Eventually she found a bench, and sat down and filled in the form, with her name and details, and her only chosen Pokémon being Sylveon. She handed the form back before making her way into the Waiting Room. There were lots of other coordinators in the room, but due to her shy nature, she sat peacefully with Sylveon's ribbons wrapped around her arm, waiting for something to happen.

[Leon]

A woman dressed in a three-piece suit entered the waiting area. Removing her sunglasses, she snapped into place a pair of glasses, round and pristine. Her dark eyes cast their gaze across the room to each and every individual within the room. In her right hand, a clipboard and her left, a pen. Holding the clipboard close to her, she began to tap the pen against it. She took time before she cleared her throat to speak up and address the room.

"Ahem.", the dark-skinned woman began. "I would first like to welcome you all to the Jubilife Contest Hall, and thank you for your participation today.", she said, garnering the attention of those in the room with relative ease. "As always, the objective is to work alongside your partner of choice to create a spectacular performance to please the judges. Today's judges are our local Nurse Joy, myself Lady Cordula, and the President of the Pokemon Fan Club.", Cordula stated. She seemed to finish before showing a very surprised look and shaking her head. "Oh dear, I forgot there's four of us, the Pokemon Champion Cynthia will also be joining the panel of judges."

She shifted her stance, tilting her head to the right and staring off into the group. "Of course, I expect all of you will excel and show us your best. Now then I will explain how the contest will run today.", she continued, looking down at her clipboard and noting something with her pen. "Now then darlings, today will be an Appeal followed by a Battle. The goal of your appeal is to work with your Pokemon to impress the four judges. Good displays of skill and teamwork are always good. You'll also want to hype up the audience watching the contest, never hurts to get them going.", she spoke delicately as she held her hands behind her back, clipboard under her right arm. "Then we have the Battle Phase. Typically five minutes in length, we're looking at short battles to not only show off your Pokemon, but also to battle. To show us passion with your Pokemon in a pressured situation!", she exclaimed, suddenly pointing towards the crowd with a jovial smile.

"That is all darlings! Our first Coordinator under the spotlight is the lovely Belle Rose and her partner. I expect great things from you and that stunning partner of yours.", Cordula told her as she turned and exited the room towards the stage, motion for Belle to follow her. Outside the room, a crowd was cheering for the contest to begin, anticipating a great show.

[Rei]

After the information, Belle quickly escaped to the changing room to get into her outfit. Her hair was fashioned into two, neat pigtails with curls at the ends. She tied them neatly and tightly with long, pink ribbons which flowed down to her legs. A similar ribbon was fastened around the collar on her blouse, which was blanketed with a pink, buttoned overcoat. Her skirt was pink and free flowing, and she wore 2 pink stockings; one decorated with stars, and the other adorned with stripes. Her shoes were pink and had a single bow on each.

"Cynthia... I can't believe it... She's the most powerful trainer in the entire region, and she's going to be watching me in 5 minutes. What if something goes wrong? This is so embarrassing, I don't think I can do this... I'm going to mess up..." panicked Belle, in her head, as she dressed.

As she drew back the curtains, Sylveon greeted her and wrapped its ribbons around her hand. Belle was reassured, and walked Sylveon to the stage. Belle held her right arm with her left hand awkwardly, and spoke.

"Uh, h-hi, my name is Belle... Belle Rose. And I'm going to be coordinating today." she spoke, grasping Sylveon's ribbons tighter.

Belle looked down, paused, and took a deep breath. She then assumed a more open pose, and began.

"Sylveon, Shimmer Sand."

Sylveon whipped its tail, while its eyes shimmered a vibrant pink. A rose-colored veil of sand weaved around the stage, and spread a sweet scent through the atmostphere.

"Endure."

Sylveon began glowing orange, creating an orange glow around its body, to prevent the veil of sand from obscuring it from view as well as creating a beautiful gradient effect with the orange and pink contrast.

"Now, use Brille Balade."

Sylveon began released pink glitter from its body, colliding with the sand particles and causing them to burst with light. Sylveon then began to dash around the stage, causing the veil to burst with light, and absorbing the light, causing it to glow and shimmer brighter and brighter as time went on.

"Release the energy!"

Sylveon, having absorbed all of the light causing it to glow and shimmer a brilliant pink and being the sole thing left on the stage leaped into the air, and released a burst of shimmering rose-colored light, before landing softly on the ground, bathed in the iridescent light.

[Leon]

Cordula was providing a standing applause, quite literately from her place at the judges table. The crowd cheered Belle and Sylveon's performance. It was thunderous moment. Nurse Joy seemed relatively content with the performance, clapping her hands. The President of the Pokemon Fan Club seemed quite enamored with Sylveon, as if he had never witnessed such a Pokemon before in his life. Cynthia, was content to smile lightly at Belle and her partner as Cordula approached the stage with Belle on it.

"Thank you Belle and Sylveon, it seems your opening act got the crowd roaring!", she said, gesturing all around the hall. "I'm happy to tell you that the judges have all given you a passing grade, you'll be participating in the Battle Round.", she announced. She leaned in to whisper to Belle. "Lovely performance darling, go get some rest there's a quite a few coordinators to go through before the Battle Round starts up, but do enjoy the other acts.", she advised as she waited for Belle and Sylveon to take their leave of the stage, before addressing the next participant.

[Rei]

Belle felt a wave of endorphins rush her body as she heard the news. To think that a shy, awkward Kalosian girl like herself would accomplish this filled her with confidence. She gasped with joy, and held onto Sylveon's ribbons.

"Thank you so much! Uh-um... Bye!" she clumsily stuttered.

After watching the rest of the entries from the contestants, Belle returned to the Pokémon Center to rest. She awoke to Sylveon staring at her from the edge of her bed. It had clearly been awake for a while, but it didn't seem to have moved an inch since it woke up. Belle greeted her, got ready for the day, and left to the contest hall for the Battle Round early.

[Leon]

Centre stage stood Cordula alone. Microphone in hand, she bowed to the cheering crowd. She remained, drawing out their thunderous applause before raising herself to speak. "Thank you to our wonderful entrents for todays contest! With the Appeal Round coming to an end, I will announce those who will be moving onto the Battle Round.", she stated, her left arm pointing up towards a large display above the stage. There were four dark portraits, each representing one of the four finalists.

"Now, without delay our finalists are...", he began, adjusting her glasses before continuing. ".. Belle Rose! Who was our first today, but dazzeled the judges with her Sylveon's moves.", she said, before announcing the next. "Donovan Bramson, who with his Weavile showed us an agile performance!", she said, the display lighting up both of the portraits. "Our third finalist is Jacklyn Garrod, who alongside her partner, Pachirisu, showed us that all Pokemon should not be looked down upon.", she spoke. "And lastly, Sydney Carter, whom rocked the judges with their Nosepass's sturdy display!", she said, clearly livid over something she had just said.

"Now that we have our finalists, the Battle Rounds can commence. Remember, you don't need to use the same Pokemon that you used during the Appeal Round! Our first match will be between Belle and Jacklyn!", she announced, waiting for both Belle and Jacklyn to take their positions on the battlefield. Jacklyn assumed hers quickly, holding up two Pokeballs. She seemed to be deciding which Pokemon to go with during the Round.


OOC: Just checking, are you looking to win/lose this contest or anything in particular?

[Rei]

((I really don't mind if I win or loose ahaha, just whatever you think aha))

Belle was slightly unnerved at the sight of 2 Pokéballs. It wasn't a lot, but it was still double what she had. She summoned Sylveon from its Pokémon and prepared for battle, awaiting her decision.

((Sorry I know this is rly short but I don't know what else to write ahah))

[Leon]

ooc - that's fine, just checking to get a feel on things and yeah, since we're moving into the Battle Round my posts are going to be slower. Gotta try to keep that detail up.


ic:

Cordula looked over to Belle, smiling at her choice of Pokemon. "Belle will be partnered with her Sylveon during this Battle Round.", she announced to the crowd, who seemed to already be growing in anticipation towards seeing more of Belle and Sylveon. However, they were equally excited to see Jacklyn's choice, after all her performance alongside Pachirisu was executed well. It was incredible to see the Electric Type scurry about, utilising the move Follow Me to attract the attention of the crowd, followed up by a Sweet Kiss. Afterwards, it used Swift, sending the stars into the air. Moments later the small Pokemon had released a Discharge attack, striking all the stars from the Swift. Jacklyn had certainly impressed the judges and the crowd, but the crowd was certainly more excited to Belle again.

Jacklyn tossed out the Pokeball in her left hand. Out of her selected Pokeball came a Bidoof, who didn't seem to react at all, other than a vacant stare towards Sylveon and Belle. "Jacklyn appears to have chosen to battle with her Bidoof!", Cordula shouted into her microphone, before composing herself. "Ahem, now then the Battle Round will last 5 Minutes. The objective is to battle, but style is an absolute requirement. Make your Pokemon look and perform, while ensuring your opponent cannot do such a thing!", she said. "Jacklyn, you will have the first move.", Cordula said as she walked back towards the panel of judges.

Jacklyn smirked. "Ya know, I really liked that performance of yours. But I think me'n'Bidoof here gonna win.", she said to Belle, clearly ready to begin the battle as a buzzing noise signaled the start of the match. "Bidoof, use your Taunt attack on Sylveon!", she commanded, Bidoof staring towards Sylveon, before narrowing his eyes and sticking his tongue out in a truly bizarre fashion. Clearly the goal of Jacklyn's first move was to prevent the use of status moves, giving Belle and Sylveon much less room to play around with if the Taunt was successful.

Spoiler:

[Rei]

"Uh, good luck!" Belle encouraged her opponent before her attack.

Bidoof's attack seemed to frustrate Sylveon. It moved into an attacking position, gritting its teeth. The Taunt attack was successful. "If this is what a Bidoof can do, just imagine what a stronger trainer would be like..." Belle though to herself. Belle was quickly deciding whether to use Quick Attack or Swift. She decided to use Swift to avoid vulnerability to close-range attacks.

"Sylveon, Swift!" she commanded.

Sylveon gracefully leaped into the air, before summoning a flurry of shining stars, storming towards the opponent's Bidoof. Sylveon then dashed away to another position, cloaked in the stars, to avoid any attacks Bidoof may use without the Bidoof knowing that Sylveon had moved.

[Leon]

"It seems that Bidoof has opened with a Taunt attack that hit Sylveon! The judges will certainly remember the first move made in this contest!", Cordula announced to the cheering crowd as Belle and Sylveon took their turn. Her eyes followed Sylveon into the air, noting the grace in each movement, before launching the attack. She tilted her head to keep her attention on Slyveon.

Bidoof seemed less concerned about the battle than his trainer. The Pokemon didn't even wait for a command from his trainer, but one could see that Jacklyn had been about to command Bidoof to use Defense Curl. Bidoof rolled itself up, making it's best effort to defend itself from Sylveon's Swift attack. There was no counter-attack from Bidoof, and thus left Sylveon's display, though amazing, with less of an effect on the bar.

"This is certainly interesting! Though Sylveon gave us a spectacular attack after being taunted like that, Bidoof responded with an interesting choice of it's own. Though it took the hit, it's defenses have been raised and it did not waste a move after Sylveon had cloaked in it's Swift attack.", she pointed up to the bars, which were about equal at 7/8's. "One can only imagine who will be victorious here!", she said, rallying the crowd into a fervor.

Spoiler:

[Rei]

Belle panicked slightly, but kept a cool face. She knew how much appearance counted in a contest, and she wasn't going to let her opponent hinder her performance.

"Sylveon, use Swift and Quick Attack," commanded Belle.

Sylveon began glowing an iridescent ivory color, then began whipping its tail, causing it to glow gold. It then rushed Bidoof with brilliant white and gold light. As soon as Sylveon made impact, stars spiralled out of the impact then smashed into Bidoof like comets.

Immediately after the attack, Sylveon skidded off to the side of the field to keep its distance, in an attempt to avoid any close range attacks again.

[Leon]

Jacklyn was clearly enjoying herself in the Battle Round, despite her choice of Pokemon. The judges were also extremely focused, watching to see the outcome of Belle versus Jacklyn. Cordula could be seen smiling, and continuing to speak to the crowd about the ongoing events of the battle.

As Sylveon ran at Bidoof, it would seem to be a repeat of the last action. That was, until Jacklyn shouted a command to Bidoof. "Rollout.", she told her partner as he rolled towards his oncoming opponent, taking the hit but also delivering a hit back, as Sylveon would have to have impacted against Bidoof to land the Quick Attack. Bidoof's bar dropped slightly more than Slyveon's did, cementing Belle and Sylveon in the lead currently.

"It looks like Jacklyn and Bidoof are going on the offensive now with a Rollout! What will Belle and Sylveon do to continue their current lead?", she asked the crowd, who cheered on for Belle and Sylveon.

Spoiler:

[Rei]

Sylveon skidded backwards after being hit from Rollout. The plan had backfired slightly, but Belle was smiling, as a lightbulb had just gone off on her head. Bidoof was now trapped in a frenzied roll that would last for a while, making Bidoof vulnerable to being taken advantage of. Sylveon's anger had also died down as Taunt had worn off, which opened up Belle's options further, nullifying Sylveon's obligation to constantly use attacks.

"Sylveon, hug the edges," commanded Belle.

Sylveon dashed to the edge of the arena, bouncing off the wall and landing next to it. Belle planned to wait for Bidoof to come close to Sylveon with its Rollout attack, before commanding Sylveon to leap over Bidoof and avoid the attack, causing Bidoof to slam into the wall of the arena.

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