lostcarnival | ⇨ ALOLA

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⇨ ALOLA

Who: EVERYONE.
When: Day 73 - Day 87
Where: The islands of Alola.
What: The Carnival arrives at its next touring location, a series of tropical islands inhabited by a species of animal called Pokemon and their trainers!
Warnings: Pokemon is pretty PG-rated.

IT'S A POKEMON WORLD↴

Alola is broken up into four different islands, with a number of unique points of interest. Boats can easily be rented in order to get between the islands, or you can just pay for the fair of a scheduled trip. If you can prove you have the skills for it, you can also call on a "Ride Pokemon" - that is, either a Charizard or a Lapras that will fly or swim you between locations.

► POPULATION: Though the islands appear very small as an abstraction in the actual games, that doesn't hold over into the actual reality of it. When interacting with the different locations, imagine that they are about as big and spread out as they would be in real life. It's about on the same scale as Hawaii is on earth. Ignore any wikis that say the population of each island is like 200 people, because that's just adding up all the scripted NPCs, and there are realistically more than six houses per town.

► AMENITIES: Even if they aren't overtly listed on island maps, it can be assumed that all towns and cities will have basic amenities - that is, places to eat, place to go to the washroom, places to buy souvenirs, and the other things one would expect in a tourist heavy area. You can also buy malasadas pretty much anywhere.

► POKECENTERS: You'll be able to find a Pokecenter in pretty much every town - a Pokecenter is a public building in which Pokemon Trainers can rest and get their Pokemon healed. Think of it like free international Pokemon healthcare. You can also buy Pokeballs here, as well as potions and other healing items for later use.

► AETHER FOUNDATION: A peace keeping organization that shelters Pokemon from harm and abuse. If you kill/maim any Pokemon or otherwise act violently in public, they will come to try to take you down with their Pokemon. They also are the main force working against Team Skull.

MELEMELE ISLAND↴
[MELEMELE DETAIL MAP] [GUARDIAN DEITY TAPU KOKO] [WIKI LINK]

► TRAINER SCHOOL: A full fledged for young, aspiring Pokemon Trainers! Students go here to learn about Pokemon care and battling before setting out on their own journeys. It would be sort of weird for an adult to show up here, like it would for an adult to try to attend an elementary school, but you can probably learn some of the basics just from touring the facility.

► HAU'OLI SHOPPING DISTRICT: The biggest shopping district on Melemele, you can do a lot here, from eating out to getting your hair dyed. A lot of shops are, unsurprisingly, completely Pokemon focused - but there are some that aren't, too. There are also some very nice beach fronts nearby.

► BERRY FIELDS: Berries come in a lot of different types and have different effects when used. Mostly, Pokemon love to eat them, regardless of what type they are. This is a big field of them, most of which are free to take if you catch them when ripe.

► TEN CARAT HILL: The secluded interior of a small mountain, filled with some rare types of rock Pokemon. You have to be able to bypass the left overs of some recent rockslides to get in.

► TRIAL SITE: There is only one trial on this islands, which is the Normal type trial. All you have to do is fight a bunch of Pokemon ferrets, and then fight an even bigger Pokemon ferret that thirsts for your blood. It's not so bad.

AKALA ISLAND↴
[AKALA DETAIL MAP] [GUARDIAN DEITY TAPU LELE] [WIKI LINK]

► TIDE SONG HOTEL: A big ass hotel near the port - if you want to stay on Alola overnight, this is a pretty good place to go. It isn't too expensive, and is also rather nice.

► DIMENSIONAL RESEARCH LAB: Alola, on occasion, has been the site of various dimensional breaks (haha) in which extraplanar creatures called Ultra Beasts have crossed over. There isn't much information about these beasts, but they are something that are being actively studied. Characters who are nerds might find some of this information interesting.

► HANO GRAND RESORT: The inevitably big, fancy resort that tends to take route in touristy places like this. If you actually pay to spend some time there, you can enjoy all the things you'd expect to find in a fancy resort, except with way more Pokemon. There is also a fancy, secluded beach for resort goers only.

► BATTLE ROYALE DOME: A battle area in which 4 trainers fight each other all at once, with teams of there Pokemon. The trainers here are mostly quite expert, and you need a team of three Pokemon to play, so player characters probably won't be able to participate. However, you can still come to watch, if you like seeing a bunch of colourful monsters slapping each other around.

► PANIOLA RANCH: A large ranch that keeps a lot of Pokemon that resemble earth farm animals. You can leave Pokemon here to stay for a while if you need a break from the strains of trainer life. Quite often, however, your Pokemon will end up getting knocked up and leave you with another egg to care for.

► TRIAL SITES: Brooklet Hill is a lake filled area that contains the Water Trial. You have to fight a bunch of schooling Wishiwashi, and then an even bigger schooling Wishiwashi to win. Wela Volcano Park contains the Fire Trial, where you must climb to the top of the dormant volcano, and spot the difference between a series of ceremonial island dances. Then you gotta fight a team of Marrowaks and a giant Salazzle. The Lush Jungle contains the Grass challenge, in which you have to find a series of rare organic ingredients in order to brew something that will lure out a giant Lurantis.

ULA'ULA ISLAND↴
[ULA'ULA DETAIL MAP] [GUARDIAN DEITY TAPU BULU] [WIKI LINK]

► MALIE GARDEN: A nice big garden to hang out in and chill. Also, there are Pokemon there... and also, Pokemon battles? There's really no end to it.

► MOUNT HOKULANI OBSERVATORY: Up at the top of the local mountain, you can go see a space observatory. Like most things in Alola, it's like a regular observatory, except with more Pokemon, since some Pokemon just straight up come from space. You can take a bus up here, but you can also hike if you want.

► HAINA DESERT: A shitty desert in the middle of the island. Mostly only good for if you want the kinds of Pokemon that live in shitty deserts.

► ABANDONED THRIFTY MEGAMART: A Megamart, but haunted. Extremely haunted, filled with the kind of ghost Pokemon that would actually kill you. You have to take a bunch of pictures of ghosts on your way through here if you want to beat the Ghost Trial.

► PO TOWN: The ramshackle remains of the town that Team Skull have taken over. It's completely walled off from the rest of the world, and is pretty terrible. No point in going in there unless you're fighting crime, in which case you can expect to get challenged to Pokemon battles by a lot of Team Skull knuckleheads.

► LAKE OF THE MOON: A huge, round temple thing in the middle of nowhere. It's used to praise a legendary Pokemon that existed years ago, but there presently doesn't seem to be anything around except cool architecture.

► TRIAL SITES: The Observatory contains the Electric Challenge, during which you have to fend off various kinds of electric grubs, before eventually taking on a giant Vikavolt. The Abandoned Megamart must first be cleared before challenging the Ghost Trial officially, at which point you will have to defeat a powerful Mimikyu.

PONI ISLAND↴
[PONI DETAIL MAP] [GUARDIAN DEITY TAPU FINI] [WIKI LINK]

► SEAFOLK VILLAGE: A village made of nothing but houseboats and other water fairing homes. It's the only major town on Poni Island.

► ANCIENT RUINS: Most of Poni Island has been reduced to ruins, over time. Not many people live here, relative to the other islands, but there are a lot of abandoned buildings from when they apparently used to.

► VAST PONI CANYONS: Most of the island is comprised of canyons, caves, and valleys filled with particularly strong Pokemon, and also a lot of fight-hungry Pokemon trainers. Most of them will want to fight you as soon as they see you, since they are there mostly to train, but they will back down if you tell them you're not a trainer. Though, at that point they will strongly urge you to go home, because it's too danger for anything other than the strongest trainers.

► ALTAR OF THE SUN: A matching altar to the one found on Ula'ula, except this time dedicated to a legendary Pokemon of the sun. If you play some magic flutes here at the right time then apparently a giant lion might show up, but there's no way to be sure.

► TRIAL SITES: The only Trial here is the Grand Trial, which is a fight against the leader's ground type Pokemon. You may also get lucky and have the Fairy Trial's kahuna deign to fight you, with her fairy types, if she randomly wanders into your path. Both of them are very strong, and are not advised to challenge for new trainers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"The potions that I make
For others to take.
I try to make sense
Of new ingredients
And see what I can take
That expands what I can make."

Most things had some use, after all, in a mixture. The question was always, 'What'?

"Ah, I see," he says after another second or two of picking the rhyming apart. "You want help finding supplies for your potions. Well, that we can do. The dog has a nose for finding all sorts of things. My own dilemma is actually identifying them."

"Then let us agree
To gather all we can see.
We'll surely find
What you have in mind."

And everything else would have some use, so: win-win.

"Right now, it would be most helpful if you've ever seen a revival herb before," Childermass says, because he sure hasn't. He turns away, looking back around at the jungle surrounding them. "England has forests, but none like this, certainly not with any of these plants."

But sure. If they start picking everything, technically they'll find something. The real question is what?

"Not by name
But if the effects are the same
As the name implies
I will find where it lies."

Which apparently meant doing little different that before -- Zecora turned to the carpet of undergrowth, the better to start collecting specimens once more. Her Lucario, for all his apparent pride, moved up to help her, using the spikes on its paws to help dig.

Whereas Childermass himself isn't planning on digging too much in the dirt apart from collecting what the Growlithe finds, the exceptions being something the dog himself can't quite handle. That in mind, he looks down at the vigilant little pup and nods towards the nearby undergrowth.

"Just like I showed you before, dig up plants but don't wreck them," he says. It's been terribly easy to start treating the Pokemon like more than only a dog, the way he's talking to him like he would anyone else, but it's also been pretty surprising to see how smart these creatures can be.

And that really is all it takes to get Growlithe to set back into the plant life, digging up this and that and who knows what else while Childermass supervises.

"Though if we dig up another of the plant beasts, be on guard," he'll add after a moment, towards Zecora. "They've been intent on attacking the whole time."

"I can see how that would rattle.
But my friend would like the battle."

Did that explain Lucario's eagerness to help? Actually, no -- he just wanted to help, despite his arrogant pride and combativeness.

"Ah, then he may not have to look very far," Childermass says, his tone suddenly carrying a hint of warning over the casualness of before. "Growlithe, come back here."

The dog looks up from digging, spotting the same rustling trees that his master had only a few seconds before. He growls but does retreat back to the magician's side.

Both Zecora and her Lucario looked up in that moment, and then Lucario squinted in that direction as it sought for the aura of a potential opponent.

And a potential opponent is exactly what Lucario will find.

Out of the rustling trees leaps a large bug-type, broad and the same color as the bark of the trees around them, landing heavily on the path between Childermass and Zecora and their respective Pokemon. A Pinsir, unsurprisingly adorned with huge pincers on its head, growls... gurgles? Whatever kind of sound a giant bug might make. At no one in particular, as its generally annoyed that anyone at all is digging around its home.

Lucario, almost literally radiating delight, stuck out a paw as it fell into a ready stance -- then looked over at Zecora, waiting for its command. Zecora, for her part, looked over at Childermass.

"Do you desire
To strike it with fire?"

Growlithe used fire, didn't it?

Growlithe did use fire and could end is fairly quickly, Childermass puts a hand out over where the little dog has fallen back to, at his side.

"Only if it becomes necessary," he answers Zecora, though he doesn't look away from the Pinsir. It's snapping its pincers menacingly and stomping about already, so best to keep an eye on it. "But I believe it was your companion there who was looking for a fight."

So by all means, Lucario can have this one.

"Then make it fear
Your Aura Sphere!"

That was all Lucario needed to hear. With a roar of triumph, he leaped into the air, gathered power together in his paws, then hurled a spherical blast of energy down at the Pinsir as lashes spurted sideways from the vigor and force that Lucario put into it.

He was an overachiever.

The blast hits, forcing the Pinsir back by sheer power alone, its feet leaving grooves in the dirt. It nearly topples over backward, too, but regains its balance at the last second. It stomps and roars back at Lucario, immediately charging forward once again seconds later.

It snaps after Lucario with its pincers, trying to grab the plucky fighter in its grip and squeeze.

The pincers snapped shut around Lucario's waist, and the bug practically lifted the fighting Pokemon off the ground.

"Be quick on the draw
With your Metal Claw!" Zecora called out, almost unnecessarily -- Lucario slashed out with the sharpened spike on his paw almost immediately.

That has the Pinsir dropping Lucario with a hiss of pain. It staggers back, squinting its eyes and shaking its head back and forth as it tries to shake off the strike. For that brief moment, it's wide open to attack.

Zecora might be a lot more bothered by this if she hadn't been told in no uncertain terms that this was the way of this world. So when Lucario looked her way, she merely nodded, and with a confident smirk the Pokemon hurled another Aura Sphere into the Pinsir's gut.

It makes it a fairly short fight, the Pinsir taking the second Aura Sphere directly to the middle and this time being knocked right off its feet. It struggles on its back for a few seconds, then the struggling tapers off to twitching, and then, that's it. Knock out, king of the jungle title goes to Lucario (at least until the Totem Pokemon shows up, anyway).

Childermass, true enough to his word, has kept out of it, though the Growlithe at his side looks increasingly annoyed that he won't let him rush off to join the fray. The dog shifts from paw to paw, grumbling, though when Lucario comes out victorious, the little orange and black Pokemon will give a few cheerful barks, most likely telling the other Pokemon 'good job' or something along those lines.

Lucario brushed his paws off, then lifted his head haughtily -- with one eye peeking quickly in Growlithe's direction to make sure the other Pokemon approved.

Zecora noticed this, but said nothing on it, instead addressing Childermass. "Such a strange way
For these creatures to play."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

⇨ ALOLA

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