PALACE GAME: Round 3

[cultfavorite]

You open your eyes—

You're standing in the vast lobby of a corporate building, facing the reception desk, where a Team Galactic Grunt is stationed—she's currently on the phone, though, and occupied. A few other grunts move through the lobby, looking as if they're on their way to their next assignment. All of them look identical. And if you watch their paths for a while, none of them actually end up leaving the room.

The walls are a bright, metallic, sterile blue with white, and the floor is made up of gleaming silver metal tiles emblazoned here and there with a gold logo. The reception desk is slightly to your right, and to the left of that there are three doors in the far wall in front of you.

To the right of the reception desk, there's a little area with a vending machine, a large ottoman to sit on, a potted plant, and . . . a dotaku? With a face? It's sitting resting on the floor next to the vending machine, and it's staring right at you with those red eyes.

Directly to your right, closer to the front door, there is a glowing green circle on the floor with a sign on the wall next to it.

What will you d—

Wait. Your phone is buzzing. Whether or not you had it with you back in the prison, you do now, whether in your pocket, in your hand, whatever. It's on your person, and it's vibrating demandingly for attention. If you choose to ignore it, a mechanical voice emanating from it begins literally saying the word buzz! buzzzzzz! buuuzzzzzz! in an increasingly irritated tone.

Check your phone?

Comments

[cultfavorite]

Nothing comes up in the Pokedex, but when asked directly, Rotoron is always "happy" to help:

Jumping right in, are you? Well, you'll have to do it anyway if you want to get anything out of this silly place. Good eye! You'll be performing onstage with a Pokemon and trying to appeal to the panel of judges to win the top prize!

[moonlit_knight]

You're the only Pokémon I've got right now, you reckon you can dazzle 'em with me?

[cultfavorite]

You've got to be kidding me! Don't worry about that. They've got free rentals available for people who don't bring their own. Unthinkable! They ought to charge a pretty penny for that.

[moonlit_knight]

And here I was hoping to see your moves. Fine, I'll take a free handout, don't give anyone ideas about upselling me.

[What are the chances I can watch a contest before I go rent a partner]

[cultfavorite]

Zero if they enter the building. But it might be possible to get a peek from outside if they find a window to creep on.

[moonlit_knight]

[yeah okay let's try and sneak a look I can get to windows]

[cultfavorite]

There are definitely windows that look in on the various auditoriums inside! You can see that a performance is happening in one right now: a young man dressed in a dusty pink suit adorned with ruffles and ribbons is having his Chansey perform an adorable dance and then produce eggs for the judges. Don't think too hard about how that works.

The judges are a panel of five sitting in the front. You would normally not get this blurb until Selena was onstage themselves, but they're a clever cheater and get a sneak peek. Our panel of judges, from left to right:

Mr. Big Shot: A man in sunglasses and a suit, with a briefcase at his side. He's holding his tablet, but he's also on the phone at the same time, watching you out of the corner of his eye as he chatters away with someone about . . . it's probably important?
Miss Sinnoh 20XX: A woman in a tiara and an evening gown, with opera gloves and an updo. That's a lot of satin she has on. When you make eye contact with her, she flashes you a winning smile and lifts her hand in a beauty queen wave.
Mx. Pokerainbow: A famous streamer with an adorable sense of style and a rainbow motif. Everything they have on is rainbow. Rainbow ruffled tutu, rainbow fingerless gloves, a rainbow vest and collared shirt . . . they bounce up and down in their seat like a child when you come out onto the stage.
Mrs. Butcher: A large, older woman with guns out to there and black leather up to here. Silver spikes adorn every part of her that can be adorned. She sits with her arms crossed and gives you a gruff nod.
Mr. Wise Guy: It's literally just Fran.

[moonlit_knight]

Is that fucking Fran. Get out of here he's not a Pokémon character.

[well fuck they're going to have to wear frills for some of these judges aren't they. WHAT DO THEY RATE PINK CHANSEY DANCE MAN]

[cultfavorite]

Watching the show, you can see that the judges look bored and unimpressed other than Mx. Pokerainbow. But after the performance wraps up, Mx. Pokerainbow gets up out of their seat and begins talking animatedly to the other judges, making huge pleading eyes. You can't hear anything happening, but it's pretty clear even without words.

Then all five of them hold up perfect 10 cards.

[moonlit_knight]

. . .

I guess it's better than having to appeal to a beauty queen.

[Sigh let's go in]

[cultfavorite]

Rotoron cackles from your phone.

The lobby is pretty and cheerful, brightly lit with a warm pink and purple theme to the decor. Even the lobby desks are purple! There are three of them, each manned by a peppy worker; two of them have long queues, but the third is completely free of people. When you walk in, the elegantly coiffed young man working that desk looks up at you and waves you over after a moment of clear recognition.

"All contestants in this line! Step this way, please!"

[moonlit_knight]

What, nobody else is competing in this bracket?

[heading his way]

[cultfavorite]

The man pulls out a tablet as you approach and begins tapping away on it.

"Just let me get you signed in here. Don't worry, you've got a little time before you're on stage. Have you picked your Pokemon partner yet? And today is single's competition! The goal is just to challenge yourself to get the highest score you can."

[moonlit_knight]

That's stiff competition indeed. I haven't picked my partner yet, I hear you have rentals?

[cultfavorite]

"That's right! Come on, I'll show you the backstage."

The worker slides out from behind his desk and grabs his keyring, beckoning you to a door against the back wall and unlocking it to usher you inside.

It's a backstage dressing room! There are partitions set up; you can hear murmuring and bustling around behind them, but the employee leads you to your own private area to the left. The decor is a similar cheery pink and purple as the lobby was. There's a rack of clothing, a mirror and makeup area with a sink, and most notably, five Pokemon waiting patiently for you to choose your destined partner: an Absol, a Gardevoir, a Skitty, a Croagunk, and a Sharpedo.

All of them look up at you hopefully(?) when the man leads you over to greet them.

Oh, and Bronzong is also here, sitting in the corner watching them keenly.

[moonlit_knight]

[kinda want the sharpedo but skitty is cute- oh hey bronzong! Waves!]

Fancy meeting you here.

[cultfavorite]

"Huh?"

The man looks over to see Bronzong in the corner, blinking.

"Is that your Pokemon? That's definitely not one of our rentals."

[moonlit_knight]

Yeah, that's a friend of mine.

What do you think Bronzong? You like this kind of thing, or are you more interested in cheering me on?

[cultfavorite]

It lifts up and bobs up and down, coming to settle at their side and looking at the usher. It would seem Bronzong is volunteering!

[moonlit_knight]

I'd be honoured to work with you. Got any favourite routines or tricks?

[cultfavorite]

"I'll leave you two to it!"

The usher gathers up the rental Pokemon and leaves you two alone to get ready. Bronzong starts by floating over to the clothing racks:

Thankfully, all of the clothing is somehow in your size, whether you're Moon or Ritsuka or anyone in between. It sure is handy how mindscapes work.

There's a wide variety of outfits to choose from, and you can mix and match pieces as you like; feel free to find just about anything here the mind can imagine. But there are some common themes to the selection. Each clothing piece tends to fall into one of five loose categories:

Category 1: Tough-guy type clothes and accessories like leather pants, studded jackets, bandanas, boots, and aggressive jewelry;
Category 2: Frilly and adorable wear, in pretty pastel colors, featuring ruffles and lace and ribbons;
Category 3: Suave, slick, professional outfits like tweed jackets and silk button-downs, expensive sunglasses and hats, leather shoes, and so on;
Category 4: Casual but snappy techbro-type gear, blazers and vintage sneakers and t-shirts and tech accessories;
Category 5: Elegant formal clothing, evening gowns and tuxedos and sparkling gemstones with designer shoes.

You can make any outfit your heart desires. Feel free to spend a ton of time on this so that I, the GM, can enjoy what you come up with and also go get some water between replies. Just make sure to note in your reply what category your character is aiming for, or whether it's a mix 'n' mess, or if they're choosing not to change at all. I'm not the boss of them! (If they don't, just describe what they're already wearing.)

That said, since you have +1 Bronzong Buddy with you, it is steering Selena towards Category 4.

[moonlit_knight]

No frills and rainbows for us huh?

[can i get a blazer on bronzong can we match]

[cultfavorite]

YES. YES YOU CAN AND SHOULD.

Rotoron laughs from your phone:

Does that look like a Cute Pokemon to you? Can you imagine a bow on that thing? Geheh!

[moonlit_knight]

So what? We'll appeal to a different type of judge. I bet the big shot boss will be into this look.

[can i check Bronzong's moves on the pokedex]

[cultfavorite]

You can in fact add Bronzong to the Pokedex by pointing your phone at it! It comes up with this:

Bronzong
Bronze Bell Pokemon
Type: Steel/Psychic
Moves: ████████ ████ ██████ ██████████████ ██ ██████

Huh.