bravenewworld | Light 'em up (The Calderan Day of Fire)

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Light 'em up (The Calderan Day of Fire)

It's the morning of the 19th and it's clear even to the inexperienced traveler that the city has a different air to it. If it wasn't the atmosphere that got them, then the stalls lining the streets would. Many people are still working on getting set up for the night festival, but the stalls that are complete are lining many corners and they are filled to the brim with bright colors. From afar, the streets look like someone threw a rainbow of paint across the city.

They haven't seen anything yet.

It's not yet time for the festivities so any visitors are free to wander the streets. The natives seem to be delighted if amused at all the people interested in the holiday and are happy to sell anyone as much colored powder as they want. They are glad to explain the fascinating origins of the holiday or even talk shop about what they're planning to show off later in the night. It seems that not even the gloom and unease that might have rolled into town with Union has caused these people to falter with their grandest tradition.

Sometime close to noon is when things change. The natives all kind of stop what they're doing. The colored stalls start to close up and everyone looks tense. Those who visited last year might take this as their cue to get ready.

A long, rattling trumpet sound rings through the streets and that is when all hell breaks loose.

It's every person and pokemon for themselves. Have fun everyone.

[Ooc: Feel free to make your own top levels in addition to using the prompts below! Have fun guys!]

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Like every year before it, all hell breaks loose in the span of only a couple of seconds. One minute, the silent anticipation hangs in the air and then... like an explosion the air is filled with colors.

It's out of one of those rainbow clouds that Ryuko Matoi bursts, yelling her head off and flinging handfuls of color every which way. She lands in a crouch and looks sharply from side to side. She's dressed in her best less-than-conservative Calderan style and loaded down with bags of colors of all kinds. Up above, a Fearow and Flygon soar through the air, dropping colors bombs on anyone below. Skullface is strapped to her back adding to the assault as best she can with her tiny Cubone hands.

"Let's do this!" Her Pokemon cheer in agreement and the four of them lunge forward, diving right into the chaos.

She's home and she's here to party.

Oh, man, there is noise over here. There's noise everywhere, but this particular noise draws a pair of tiny blue feet faster than any of the other noises. This is the noise of someone here to party. This is the noise of someone - who might want to dance.

"Woop!"

Gene the Wooper has promised not to make it rain today. But that doesn't mean he can't invite other people to do other sorts of dances while they, in turn, rain powder on him. That's almost as good as water.

So he runs in a circle beneath the clouds of powder Ryuko and her Pokémon are unleashing, hopping, twisting, and generally having a grand ole time. Make it rain! Make it raaaaaain! "Woop wooop woop woop woop woop wooooooop!"

He's not really trying to stay out of the way of feet, though. Might want to look down before you trip.

"Whoops!"

As reckless as Ryuko's charge is, she's not quite totally consumed in it to the point where she'd miss the dancing Wooper around her feet. She misses a step and hops over it, stumbling to a stop and looking back over her shoulder.

She stares at the excited little guy for a minute before grinning and glances back as Skullface pokes over her shoulder with an excited call and points to Gene. Up above, her flyers do the same and wheel back around. Looks like somebody's getting into it. She grins.

"Okay, you heard him! Let 'im have it!"

If Gene wanted to get covered in powder, he's getting his wish and then some, as a storm of powder rains down all over him from all sides.

O-oh maaan! From all angles! Everywhere Gene looks - even some places he isn't looking - he can't hop in place fast enough to take a look at all the powder hitting him from everywhere. This is just the best thing! The very best thing! This is amazing!!!!

"WoOOoOOOooOOoOooooOop! WooooOoOoaooo----"

The wooping's cut short by a coughing fit, as Gene inhales some of the powder and finds it's a lot more fun outside of him than inside. Every time he coughs, the resulting puff of breath is a different color....

Oh. Ooooh, crap, that's not good. Ryuko notices when the Wooper stops his ecstatic hopping and starts hacking up a technicolar lung instead. She tosses a handful of powder up in the air and raises a hand authoratively.

"Hold your fire!" In maybe the first case of actually practiced coordination she's managed to get out of them, Ryuko team stops the bombardment. After which, she's quick to make her way over to lift the Pokemon out of the dust cloud and pat him on the back to clear out the dust. "You alright, buddy? Gotta watch this stuff sometimes."

"Woop!" Gene doesn't seem the worse for this discovery. In fact, his already-beady eyes cross watching the puffs of colored powder wafting up. He coughs a few more times, then turns and coughs deliberately on Ryuko.

And then grins. That's how to play this game, right? He got color on you!

Gene's surprise attack is a resounding success! Ryuko is pelted right in the face with coughed up color dust and rears back in surprise. Aaugh! That's actually pretty gross! And then she's coughing because she got coughed-up dust in her mouth! AAAAUUUGH!

Up above, obnoxious Fearow laughing rings out as Squawks nearly doubles over in hilarity, nudging Chompers with one of his wings.

"Guh-! Aaaugh! That's so gross!" She holds Gene out at arm's length, wiping dust from her face and staring at him. "Did you freaking plan that?!"

"Woop!" Gene just smiles. He is a master of dissembling. Ryuko will never know.

He may also just be so pleased with the way things turned out that he wasn't listening, but Ryuko will never know that, either.

This Wooper is an impenetrable barrier of deception. Even Ryuko's intense powers of perception are no match for his cunning mask.

"... Tch." Fortunately, living with a Muk for a partner means Ryuko's built up a pretty high tolerance for all manner of foulness. Getting coughed on is pretty light in her books nowadays. "At least you're gettin' the idea."

Now that the dust has settled a bit, she sets Gene back down, even pats his head.

"Just try not to use that move too much, alright? Might actually piss a couple people off."

Gene nods, happy for pats (even when he isn't sure why he's getting them. Perhaps even especially then). Hey, do you want to see a special trick? It's the best one! "Woop? Woop wo---"

He stops mid woop, mouth hanging open, then snaps it shut. He just forgot. He just got so excited that he forgot he is not allowed to make it rain.

What to do.

"Huh?" Ryuko blinks, tilting her head in confusion when the Wooper goes from excited to quiet in a second flat. "What, somethin' wrong?"

Up above, a more perceptive onlooker picks up on Gene's predicament and immediately sees the chance to mess with his trainer. Squawks flaps his big wings and CAWWS down encouragement toward the Wooper.

Do it! Do it!

Chompers might try to dissuade this course of action but she's too busy wandering around an interesting looking corner.

"Woop?" Gene looks up, feeling a sense of nostalgia. He was at a party like this when he first met his best friend, wasn't he? Dimly (not for lack of fondness, but because Gene does everything dimly) he feel as if he's been in this situation before. Where people wanted him to make it rain. Where they liked it.

Hesitantly, he takes the first few steps. Steps turn to skips. Skips turn to taps.

Gene is not going to make it rain just yet: he still finds himself torn between desire and duty. But in the meantime, as he wrestles with the Greatest Moral Crisis Of His Life, he is a Wooper who can tapdance.

Then gets so into tapdancing he forgets what he was worried about. This is fun!

"Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop!"

Alriiiiight. Somewhere along the way, Ryuko wound up completely lost here. When Gene starts his tap dance routine she watches, bewildered, because what the heck brought this on? Sure, Squawks is up there bitching away but Squawks is always up somewhere bitching away.

Gotta admit, the little guy's pretty good... she figures. She doesn't really know dancing. She'll humor him at least, rubbing the back of her neck before.

"Hey, not bad."

Squawks though, knows exactly what he's doing and he is determined to see his trainer get soaked, and he's not concerned with any moral crises that might get in the way. He flaps his wings again, calling encouragement. Make it rain! Make it rain!

Those calls! Gene remembers those calls. He is On Stage now, and that makes the world a wonderful place. In the back of his head, he knows there's something about this that should be making him uneasy, but the only thing better than singing and dancing is singing and dancing in the rain, and no one ever wants him to do this (except that one time at someplace like this when he met Snor-Lord), except now they do! They do! They do!

He begins wooping excitedly as the dance changes, less tap and more - strange looping patterns. And a tiny cloud begins to form.

Well, okay, this is getting weird. Ryuko appreciates the show just fine but daylight's fading and there's still so many rubes to hammer with dust out there! She can't stay here and watch a Wooper dance forever.

So, she straightens back up again, clapping her hands together a couple times.

"Alright. You're pretty good, but I gotta run, so...."

Argh, no! Squawks flaps again. She's getting ready to leave, time's running out! Come on, come on! Let's get some downpour up in here!

"Woop!" Gene hops alongside Ryuko in protest, rain cloud following him. "Woop! Woop! Woop! WooOOOO---"

Said raincloud lets out a little thunderclap, startling the Wooper so badly he falls over. It's never done that before!

That sudden thunderclap gets Ryuko jumping too, even though she manages to stay on her feet. Immediately her head snaps upward toward the heavy thundercloud that had formed over her head without her noticing.

"What the hell?!"

Squawks couldn't be happier. Look at him up there, dumb asshole cawing away like an asshole.

His cloud! His cloud made a noise! His cloud contributed percussion!

Gene continues his dance by swaying his feet and head from a seated position, looking up at the rain cloud as it darkens. There was something about rain he was supposed to remember. Something important....

Oh yeah! Don't do it!

He is so happy he remembered. So happy, he forgets to blink as rain starts falling. Right on his upturn face. And possibly Ryuko's.

It's too late to do anything about it now. Ryuko let her guard down, failed to notice the trap set above her before it was sprung. The first few drops hit her face and her eyes widen in terrible realization... before the downpour begins.

"GAAH!"She raises her arms as she's instantly soaked and, being covered in dust, is rapidly covered in clumpy, muddy streaks of color!

Squawks is practically rolling with laughter at his trainer's predicament by now. Enough that Chompers comes back from her wandering. She looks from the cawing Fearow to Ryuko, back to the Fearow.

Flygon?! What did you do?!

"Woop! Woop! Woop!" Gene knocks his little feet together, enjoying how the ground beneath him soaks up the rain. Maybe if he's lucky, it'll turn to mud. He likes mud. But more to the point, he remembered! He remembered what he'd forgotten, which was very important, and Trainer stressed it a lot! He remembered that he's not supposed to make it rain....

...

.........Gene looks up at the sky, at the rain cloud that seems quite intent on raining itself out upon the street.

The rain keeps falling.

Ryuko might have something to do or say about this whole situation, but she's a little preoccupied at the moment. She's got mud running down into her eyes, you see. At least she hasn't caught on that Gene is responsible. Probably because she's not all that well-versed on Pokemon moves.

"Friggin'-- what the hell? Where did that come from? Just came outta friggin' nowhere--WAAH!" That last part is her foot slipping on a patch of colorful mud and Ryuko falling backwards onto her butt without a hint of grace.

Squawks is nearly hyperventilating at all this.

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actsmagnificent - 2016-06-28 15:05 (UTC) - Expand

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actsmagnificent - 2016-07-02 18:45 (UTC) - Expand

Hey, Matoi, remember that crack you made about "brain powers" being cheating?

Maka is nowhere to be seen, but Ryuko will feel the sensation of tiny paffs against the back of her head, sending up clouds of color. If she turns, there's nobody there, and it immediately resumes by paffing her on the back.

Still nobody that could have thrown it? Weird.

Paff paff paff--it keeps happening no matter where she turns. If she's quick she'll see that someone has apparently wadded up these colors into perfectly circular balls for the purpose of throwing them. Who's that bored, seriously?

She remembers that. Also, she meant it too.

She skids to a stop in her charge when the first dust balls hit the back of her head. She turns around, her own big handful of dust in her hand, to try to spot who threw it when... more bursting against her back from the other side. She tries again! Same result. Everywhere she turns, somebody's hitting her from behind with the dust.

Ryuko growls. Somebody's messing with her, but they're not gonna beat her that easily... she's a Day of Fire veteran, for crying out loud! She's got this....

So she waits, right up until she feels the dust balls hit her back and she turns-- arm cocked back to throw-- but then, at the last moment she spins back around and throws directly behind her with a mighty toss indeed!

The shot flies true and hits!

...Except it hits a Pokemon--a familiar-looking cat that sneezes and tries helplessly to clean herself. Stella was throwing the shots this whole time?

No--treachery, she's just a distraction! More balls come raining down from the sky in response.

"Death from above!"

Oh, it's this little shit. Maka looks obnoxiously pleased with herself when she lands, more colored orbs ready for the throwing floating ponderously around her.

"Is that the best you've got, Ryuko?"

What the--? An Espurr was pelting her a second ago? No... no, wait a second. She knows that cat!

Ryuko gasps and turns around just as the next barrage comes her way. She raises her arms as the colored dust bears down, quickly vanishing behind a rainbow cloud. Seconds tick by before it clears up some, to reveal Ryuko standing there with her arms crossed over her head in defense. Her eyes flash when she looks at Maka, and grins.

"Not even close, Albarn!" There's no real care or precision in Ryuko's counterattack. She's just going to unload with a full artillery assault. Hurling powerful throw after powerful throw of duct clods at Maka. There's no way her cheating brain powers can stop them all!

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