Laughter can make anyone smile except for the guy who is the cause of said laughter.
Despite the all the resounding laughter, everyone fought their hardest to keep their eyes open and on the young clown juggling three pies while riding a unicycle.
"A Huwuck Hucwk!" The clown with a fruity afro, squeaking green nose, and powdered face gave a goofy smile as he continued to go further, seemingly oblivious to the banana peel laid in front of his path.
The laughing clown went forward and eventually the inevitable happened as his unicycle fell off the peel and all three pies threw up in the air. The clown tried to get back up, but then one of the pies he threw fell right on top of him—followed by another one—and finished by the last one. Everyone saw the clown filled with apple, cherry, and blueberry leftovers slowly pouring down his colorful get up and burst out laughing in hysterics.
At this moment, an old but happy man wearing a fancy red suit and top hat pranced into the center of the ring and pointed his cane towards the silly looking clown. "Let's give it up for Arz the Clown!"
The crowd cheered as the clown quickly tried to get back up. He made a grand bow, which was followed by a large ripping sound coming from his pants. The clown made a sheepish look as he covered his buttocks, before quickly running from the stage while more and more people laughed to the point where it became so hard to breathe.
As soon as the clown got out of the sight of everyone and the ringmaster was hyping up the next act, the flustered look of the clown instantly turned into a dour frown.
The entertainer with a frown walked into a back room and reached for a prepared towel for him.
"Ahh! Hardwin, another spectacular performance you placed out there." After rubbing the makeup off his face and taking off the silly fake afro, the green eyed, blue messy haired teen looked up to see a large muscular man that towered over ten feet tall with a bald head but had the finest mustache in the land.
"Thanks, Braum." The teen automatically responded as he started stripping his clothes. "Your performance was amazing as usual as well."
"Is something wrong, Hardwin? You seem down."
The boy sighed. Braum was always the biggest man in the circus in strength, mind, and heart. Of course he would catch it.
"It's just… I'm just a bit drained today." He lied as he put on regular clothes. "This was my last show of the day, see you tomorrow, Braum." The young man quickly left the changing room as he made his way out the circus tent.
As he passed by all the booths, he gave everyone he knew a smile and a wave before finally making it back to his trailer a little ways out of the circus.
"Ziggs, Magi, Zu, I'm home!" The clown shouted out as he walked into his trailer. He spotted a zigzagoon lying down on the couch. The sleepy Pokémon raised his head and then quickly went back to sleep after seeing who it was.
"Sleepy as ever, aren't you Ziggs?" The boy rolled his eyes as he made his way towards the sink.
"Eeeee!" A zubat came flying towards the young man with a smile on his face.
"Well, at least someone appreciates me." Hardwin sarcastically commented as he petted the zubat's head. "How ya doing, Zu?"
"Eeee!" The bat Pokémon then flew away to a specifically designed perch that allowed it to hang upsidedown.
After seeing the bat go away, Hardwin looked down on the sink. "And how are you doing, Magi?"
"Carp." The red magikarp responded monotonously.
"Ahh! Arz, your home!" A beautiful person with long blue hair hair and a surprisingly curvaceous body entered in and hugged the young man.
The boy smiled back and returned the hug. "Hey dad. How was the Bearded Lady stand?"
The older man who looked like beautiful woman laughed in a deep voice. "Funny. I think some guys even tried to peek into my man boobs!"
"Dad, you always have way too much fun trying to seduce other men… and sometimes other women." Was it weird to have a normal conversation for a son to talk to his dad about seducing anything with hormones?
"Well I have a nice body! It seems people don't really care for my beard as much as they should." He elbowed his son. "Oh by the way, they need you to clean up the donphan area. Be sure to take a mask and gloves!" The father spoke up before a loud ringing noise caught the attention of both son and father. The man took out his phone and blinked as he read the message. "Well I gotta go, your Auntie Cruelda needs to have her stilts looked at again. See you later tonight son!" The dad quickly took out a coat and left the
The boy sighed before looking to the zigzagoon. "Come on Ziggs, you lazy bum, we've got work to do."
"Zigggg." The brown and white normal type groaned as his friend pushed him to wake up.
Hardwin stood on the side as he held up the broom and looked at his phone. The video showed how the gengar was battling the nidorino. The green eyed boy was laser focused on the screen, watching as trainers commanded their Pokémon to counter their opponent.
He was so focused that he didn't notice a stream of water hitting him in the back of his head. "Hey!" Hardwin looked back to see an annoyed look on Zig's face.
"Zig!"
"I know, I know! I just had to see this battle though. It's so cool!" Hardwin complained before his Zigzagoon narrowed his eyes and went back to getting a bucket.
Hardwin sighed.
"You sigh as much as a Pokémon calls out their name." The young man looked over to see an old, portly man coming towards him with a kind smile.
"Hey Grampa Joes. Is the last show done today?"
"It's been done for the past few hours, your father's been looking for you, son, and even without him saying so, as ringmaster, it's my job to look after my family." The old man laughed. Hardwin looked up to see that it was indeed night time and he had been spending a lot of time watching Pokémon Battles.
It was then that ringmaster's tone became a lot gentler. "Now what's the matter, Arz?"
"What's the matter? Nothing's the matter. I'm doing what I'm always doing." Hardwin took the broom he was holding and suddenly found a lot of interest into sweeping the dirt on the ground.
"Hardwin Wilburg." The young adult flinched at the sound of his name. "We maybe a lot of things, but I don't recall welcoming a liar in the Quasar Circus."
The boy relaxed before looking up to the sky. "It's just… for the past sixteen years… all I've ever been is…" He slumped and looked down in shame. "Arz the Clown, the funniest clown in the region, or kindly put, the biggest loser anyone has ever laid eyes on."
"You are not a loser. Do you know how many people you make laugh?"
The blue haired boy froze and looked back at his non-blood related grandfather. "Gramps, we both know they're laughing at me."
The ringmaster paused for a second. "I get it, I get it. You're in that phase in your life where you want more for yourself and dream big. Everyone goes through it one way or another."
"It's more than that! I… I want to be a trainer!" Hardwin's eyes lit up. "I want to do something that excites the crowd and me!"
"What? You like in a circus and sometimes do death defying stunts! Isn't that excitement enough?" Joes raised his brow.
The young boy dismissed that. "You know what I mean! I've been part of the circus my whole life! I wanna-I wanna see what's it's like to be a trainer!"
"A trainer? You want to be a guy that makes other Pokémon battle each other for entertainment? You do realize that you're shifting the humiliation you're placing on yourself into pain for Zigs and the others?"
"I-It's not like that!" Hardwin reacted quickly but then quickly became silent.
"The world isn't like the circus, Arz. It's much weirder and much crueler."
"That's what you always say…" The blue haired boy muttered.
"One day, you'll appreciate being here." Joe patted the boy's shoulder. "Now, we gotta get Larry's costume ready. We don't want a mishap the last time he was shot out of a cannon."
"I'll follow you in a bit. I need to finish this chore."
As the ringmaster left, Arz sighed and placed the cleaning utensils away. The normal type of the clown caught up to his friend.
"Dang it, I can't ever win an argument with gramps." The young man clicked his teeth. "I hate how much sense he's making! But what why is my only option is to make a fool out of myself for the rest of my life?"
"Zig za za go za."
"Of course you think it isn't so bad, you help out with the other Pokémon! You're not making yourself look bad almost every day!" The boy complained.
As the two made their way, they suddenly stopped as they heard a shrill scream in the night air. The two looked at each other before bolting back towards the carnival.
In the air, Arz could hear a chuckle cackling through the air as others ran away from the sound with fear in their eyes.
He turned a corner, and his heart sank with the sight before him. "Grandpa?"
There was a group of ace trainers led by a rather handsome blond man with a hitmonchan standing right beside him with his arm stretched out.
"I want my money back you old fart! This didn't entertain me at all!" The handsome adult grabbed the old man by the collar and picked him up to meet him.
"W-Why are you resorting to violence?" The old man coughed. "There's… no… need for it."
"Because you wasted my valuable time, you old fart! I can't get a refund on that!" He threw him back into the ground as if he was something even less than dirt.
"Hey!" Hardwin cried out as he quickly went towards the ring master and glared at the young adult in front of him. "What the heck man!? That was uncalled for!"
"Uncalled for?" The blond ace trainer seemed like he was the one who was wronged. "Listen, you hillbilly, you are in my town. Whatever I say, goes, and the only reason why you and you freaks of nature are even close to this city is because my dad got bored and wanted to see what you were like."
"Oh my Arceus…." Hardwin stared at the man in front of him with shock. "I thought egotistic bigots like you existed only in movies!"
The other ace trainers gasped as the lead ace trainer slowly froze and opened a dark glare towards Hardwin. "What did you just say, hillbilly?"
"I mean, I get I probably look like a fool to you guys. But that's the thing about looks, they can change over time. You? You'll probably an idiot your whole life."
"H-Hardwin…" The young clown's grandfather figure looked on with horror towards his surrogate grandson as the ace trainer looked ready to explode like a volcano.
"That's it, you're dead! Hitmonchan! Beat him to a bloody pulp!" The blond trainer shouted, making his fighting type rush for the kneeling boy with his fist reclined. However, the fighting type quickly jumped back to avoid a pulse of water passing by where he would have crossed if he took a step forward to attack Hardwin.
"ZIG!" Zigs jumped in between Hardwin and Hitmonchan battle ready.
However, instead of feeling threatened, the bigot and his crew started pointing and laughing at the small normal type. "Haha! That's your Pokémon?! He's as pathetic as you!"
The blue haired teen helped his grandpa up and made sure he was taken away by some of the others and brought to a safer place. He then rolled his eyes at the disrespectful young man and walked beside Zig. "At least he's much better at conversations than you. I mean, can you go a sentence without insulting somebody else? Or was that how your speaking teacher told you how to end all your sentences?"
The laughing abruptly stopped as the blonde quickly went back to snarling and clenching his fist. "I'm going to enjoy denting your skull in, hillbilly! Hitmonchan, beat up his stupid rodent!"
The fighting type charged in much faster than anyone had expected, smashing a right hook into Zig and making him skip like a rock on the surface of water. However, the normal type somehow regained his composure mid air and landed on the ground with his feet sliding on the ground.
Hardwin acted in retaliation, ordering Zig to fire a Water Pulse move. The normal type summoned a condensed sphere of water that suddenly expelled water in a fast jet stream right for Hitmonchan. However, the fighting type simply side stepped the attack and with the same speed, rushed in close and threw several super effective punches that were so strong that it gave out shockwaves with each impact.
The blonde trainer smiled and laughed triumphantly. "Hahaha! You were all bark and no bite! Hitmonchan… Vacuum Wave!" He smiled darkly as he pointed.
The fighting type did as he was told, but then spun on his heel and fired the pressurized air right into Hardwin's face! The young entertainer was blindsided and knocked into the ground.
His opponent and his followers howled with laughter. "Ha! That is what you get for speaking against me!"
The young clown wiped his mouth as he slowly got back up. Zigs growled and fired more Water Pulse attacks at the fighting type, who dodged every attack that was launched his way.
"Right! Stand back up, clown! Stand so I can knock you back down all I want to hahahaha!" The blonde ace trainer laughed maniacally.
However, Hardwin still glared at his opponent. He scoffed and looked to the side. "Why do they always laugh?"
"Huh? What was that, hillbilly? Where's your sharp tongue from earlier?" The proud young man taunted.
"Oh it's still here. I was just waiting to see if you'd at least use a word longer than four syllables, you loathsome fustilarian."
The Ace trainer scrunched his face. "Low… fus… wha?"
"Careful, don't wanna overtax that one brain cell you have." Hardwin stood back up with a triumphant smirk.
His opponent appreciated that as much as a man would appreciate drinking from an un-flushed toilet. "Oh that is it! Hitmonchan beat up that stupid rodent then him!"
The boxer Pokémon cried out as he took a step forward—
"It's show time!" Hardwin snapped his fingers. Zigs moved quickly despite all the super effective damage he took from awhile ago and fired a new attack, Icy Wind, towards… the ground?
Everyone watching the battle had their eyes suddenly widen with realization. Zigs had been firing so many water attacks that the area was now filled with water. When the normal type used an ice attack, the water on the ground instantly froze and it also caught Hitmonchan's right foot and made his left foot slip due to the loss of friction.
Zigs moved into the ice, and to the surprise of his opponent, he could skate on the ice with ease! The Pokémon slid right up to the fallen Pokémon and fired a Water Pulse at point blank range.
The pressure of water shot the bigger fighting type with such force that he flew and knocked the ace trainer away and into his posy like bowling pins.
Dripping wet, and made to look like a fool, the ace trainer struggled to get back up with the look of utter rage on his face. "That's it! You're dead! I'll kill you, you pathetic piece of—everyone! Let's all take him on!"
Whether through fear or the fact they couldn't say no, all of the ace trainer's posy threw out their own Pokémon to face against the injured Zigzagoon.
The other carnival folk, and some courageous bystanders stepped forward to help, but Hardwin threw his hand back and made a stop motion to all of them.
"Are you really going to do this? You can back off right now and that will be the end of it all." Hardwin spoke out as he looked to his opponent.
It looked like a vein was about to pop on the blonde trainer as he stood up and gave a rather mean hand gesture towards Hardwin. "Don't you dare make me laugh, you low-life scum! I'm better than you will ever be! I've got money—power! I'll have my father kick you bastards out of this town faster than you can say eviction! But not until I beat you and that rodent to a bloody pulp!"
For the first time, Hardwin's expression softened after hearing that. "Wow. I… I actually pity you now. I really do hope you become a better person in the future."
"Shut up! Kill him, you idiots! Don't just stand there!" He yelled at his gawking followers.
Hardwin shook his head sadly. "You guys didn't even notice that you were still standing on the water… Zigs, finish it."
The normal type surged with electricity which froze the bullies dead in their tracks as they all realized that the attack from the Zigzagoon had caused water to cover their area. What was worse was that none of their Pokémon had any resistance whatsoever to electricity and that they were all ground bound. With almost no time to react, Zigs fired a Shock Wave into the water trail that was only amplified in shocking every one of the bullies, including the Hitmonchan and the egotistic ace trainer.
They all screamed for a few seconds before they all fell into the ground unconscious all except the blond, young man who started this all.
Hardwin looked sadly at the trainer who looked to be trying his best to stay conscious. "The world isn't like this circus… it's much weirder and crueler. I hope you know that from now on." The winner spoke out the words that were always used on him to prevent him from going out to the world. He disliked it, but he was starting to understand what his grandpa meant by that.
"I… w…" The blonde man fell unconscious as Hardwin and Zigs quickly turned back to the ringmaster.
"Grandpa!? Are you alright?" Hardwin ran up to the old man with worry in his face despite how everyone now saw his right eye throbbing from the Vacuum Wave attack from a while ago.
"I'm fine, kiddo." He patted the clown's shoulder. "You handled that brat wonderfully."
"Zig!"
The ringmaster looked down and laughed. "Of course, you did well as well, Zig."
"Yeah, how you holding up buddy? You took quite a beating there." Hardwin kneeled and petted his best friend's head with empathy and care.
The normal type scoffed and huffed with pride. Despite the pain, it looked proud, even stronger than before. Grandpa Joes saw this… and he looked at Hardwin one more time who was smiling brightly despite being injured himself.
… Maybe… the two could handle themselves after all.
The blue haired trainer raised his brow with a playful smirk. "Wow, you look horrible. You suck at dodgingGGGAAA!" Hardwin couldn't finish that insult as Zig fire another, lesser Water Pulse at the teen's face.
Everyone laughed at how the two quickly started arguing with each other. Although, a stranger would have a hard time understanding how a human and a Pokémon were talking to each other so easily despite the obvious language barrier.
"Excuse me?" Most of the carnival folks and Hardwin looked over to see a man wearing a suit and holding a case with a rather amused smile. "You, blue haired kid."
The soaking wet teen looked at his surrogate family before looking back at the man. "Umm yes? Are you that guy's lawyer or something?"
"Oh no. I was a scout actually for a Pokémon school called Battlecraft University," The man smiled as he took out a letter and handed it to the wet boy. "I was originally here to recruit the young man you defeated over there, Kyle Hure. However, your skill with a simple zigzagoon of all Pokémon didn't just defeat him, but a crowd of Pokémon! Anyone would be a fool not to take you into our school after that!"
The young boy blinked in surprise. "S-School? For Pokémon trainers?"
The scout nodded happily. "Battlecraft University is a high level institute dedicated to teach and prepare future trainers, coordinators, performers, and others with skills and tools to take on the world by storm! We are trying to scout talented trainers from all around the world and make them greater than they ever expected to be! And you kid? You've got gumption… so what do you say? Do you want to go to Battlecraft University?"
Hardwin froze. A chance to finally become a Pokémon Trainer?! That was his dream! But…
The young man turned back sadly towards the circus folks, who were all smiling at him. His own dad walked up to him with a smile behind his beard. "Arz… go for it."
"W-What? But I thought…" Hardwin looked over to his grandpa in confusion.
"Kid, we all deserve the chance to chase our dreams." The ringmaster walked up to Arz and patted his shoulder. "Chase yours. And know, whatever happens, we'll be all cheering you on every single day."
Hardwin Wilburg turned towards the scout with bright and wide green eyes. "Yes. I would love to go to Battlecraft University."
A/N: Hello and welcome to Battlecraft University! I have always loved Syoc stories, and I thought I too could include my own take on those types of stories!
If you do wish to enter, there are going to be rules. I'm only open for the first ten slots, and I'll see if I can add more later.
First we have your OC; here are the rules for submitting: I only accept PMs for your OCs. I highly recommend not using the review button to send it.
Now for the OC structure themselves. It will go something like this if you want to submit
[Re-editted to include more specific details 7/5/2017]
Name: Hardwin Wilburg.
Age: 17
Gender: male
Year and Occupation: First year and Trainer.
Profile/Back story: Hardwin Wilburg has grown up in a traveling circus for his entire life as a comedic clown doing various stunts and acts that degrade himself so that others would laugh at him and feel better about themselves. He dislikes being laughed at and dreams of one day making the crowd smile along with him rather than at him.
I recommend greatly that you make a fairly long back story/profile for your characters because the longer you explain who they are, what makes them do what they do, what their goals, what are their fears, what are their joys? What are their strengths… basically make them as detailed as possible and if you think it's enough, do twice as more details than you think is enough.*
The more detailed your character is, the easier they will be to write, so try to look up how to make characters if you are having trouble. It's what I do when I'm thinking of new characters.*
Appearance: Height 6'1, short blue hair, fair skin, green colored eyes. A medium build due to training in a circus.
Clothes: Normal ones simply include a blue sweatshirt with a dive ball logo and baggy brown cargo pants with green rubber shoes and a white t-shirt underneath.
Summer clothes: The same cargo pants, but usually wears a t-shirt and keeps sunglasses on top of his head.
Swim wear: Just shorts that are red in the front and white at the back with a Pokemon ball line on the side to seperate the two.
Winter Wear: A checkered scarf with a beanie hat and a winter coat along with boots.
Likes: Kanto based food, watching cartoons, watching Pokémon battles, training with Pokémon, playing with Pokémon, reading literature.
Dislikes: being laughed at, dislikes homework, staying still for too long, boring things for a long period of time, others being sad.
(This is the new one)
Possible Romantic interest: What does your character seek in a romantic relationship? Are they seeking one currently?
Pokémon:
Okay this is tricky. For now, you can list up to six of them. If you want the potential to capture more in the story, you can have a few Pokémon that isn't maxed out to six. I don't recommend Legendary Pokémon. And I don't want more than 2 of the same type of Pokémon, so no teams full of mudkips or something.
There is a move limit though and that is six instead of four. Also, all moves must be legal game-wise. I am aware of the Anime giving moves that aren't learnable, but to challenge you guys, don't. Check Serebii or/and Bulbapedia for list on legal moves. I got my moves from Serebii since it showed a longer option from previous games.
You must have at least one paragraph describing how this Pokémon knows your trainer and their relationship together.
Another rule, decide whether or not which pokemon appear before and during the story. Would you like some Pokemon to be caught in the story, or would you like them to be in base form when they arrive and evolve later? You should put that in so i have a better idea what to do.
Zig (Zigzagoon): This Pokémon was born the same year as Hardwin and so the two grew up inseparable from each other. They practiced stunts and dream battle plans out all through their life and they are so close, despite their language barrier, they both understand each other as if they could read each other's mind.
Moves: Water Pulse, Icy Wind, Shock Wave, ?,?,?
Zu (Zubat): Hardwin met this little guy in Kanto when he was 6 and the circus was performing near Mt. Moon. The poor thing was hurt for some reason and Hardwin and Zig nursed the Pokémon back to health. While, being nursed, Zu ended up choosing to stay with Hardwin and has helped out in the circus with various chores thanks to his echolocation ability.
Moves: ?,?,?,?,?,? (You guys should tell me your moves. I'm hiding mine to avoid potential spoilers.)
Magi (Magikarp): When Hardwin was 7, a conman sold Magi to Hardwin when he was alone. However, despite Magi strangely doing nothing of real interest besides splashing around on dry land, Hardwin has grown fond of the Pokémon and refuses to abandon him. Magi likes to stare blankly at others, only seemingly reacting to when Hardwin comes close to him. However, there is something off with that fish no one can explain…
Moves: Splash and Tackle. That's it.
And that is it. In theory, it should be longer than what you see up here.
Thank you! Bye!