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]

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.

[moonlit_knight]

[...stares at bronzong]

Why are you censored.

[cultfavorite]

It twirls around in the air. If it had a sense of humor, it might laugh.

Rotoron buzzes:

Oh, that thing? It doesn't belong here! That bell's not supposed to be part of this whole setup. It's probably cheating its moveset . . . bah. If only we were all so lucky! I hate Psychic types!

[moonlit_knight]

[slaps a fancy high end phone case on Rotoron to go with their tech bro chic]

I'm not about to complain about the cheaters being on our side. An element of surprise can work in our favour, but it makes choreographing more difficult.

[cultfavorite]

Rotoron looks so cool now, and this lightens his mood considerably.

How do I look? Snazzy? Heheh! Just for thinking of this old man, I'll tell you exactly what you're aiming for here. This is the Clever look. That's a good choice for a Psychic type. You'll be appealing to the last judge. That's the lad with the glasses I don't recognize. He's an odd one.

Oh no. It's Fran.

[moonlit_knight]

You look like a million bucks. We're going after Fran huh? Usually I appeal to him with some gentle teasing. Bronzong, can you drag him on stage when I ask for a volunteer?

[cultfavorite]

Bronzong nods, as cheerfully as a Bronzong can nod. Then there's a light knock on the partition, and the usher's voice whispers in:

"Hey there! Two minutes. You guys ready to go on?"

[moonlit_knight]

[we've planned nothing and selena knows none of their partners moves but they get the feeling they'll do fine. Looks at Bronzong and Rotoron]

You ready?

[cultfavorite]

Bronzong nods. Rotoron buzzes at them.

Leave me out of this! Weeeell, maybe if you come up with something flashy to order me to do, I'll do my best to oblige.

[moonlit_knight]

We'll think up something extremely cool for you. Let's do this.

[going to get the door]

We're ready.

[cultfavorite]

The usher nods and leads you to the curtain. It's showtime!

You step out onto the stage. The stage floor is a soft perky yellow, and the curtains are a baby pink; the seats in the theater are a friendly blue, and also full of friendly people. There's a decent crowd in this auditorium today, and luckily, they seem easy to please.

At least, most of them do. The crowd itself is a group of families, couples on dates or with their children or grandparents out with their grandchildren to spend some time together, and they all look eager to see the show. But at the front is a panel of five judges sitting at a long table, each holding a tablet and looking up at you with an opaque expression.

This is where you would have gotten the description of them you already got. Pretend they're doing those things now.