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CANON AC TEMPLATE

DECEMBER 2024 CANON ACTIVITY CHECK

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• player/ooc name: RaikouRider
• character tags: Josh Devlin
• canon position: Mauville Gym Leader

Weekly IC posts for character:

SPOILER: Click to show

Week of June 2: The Messenger ft. SPIRAL's FERNANDO SILPH [break]
Week of June 9: Eggs Lost at Sea ft. EMA's Fenelle Miller [break]
Week of June 16: Dream Data: Devlin ft. MAD's Lulu Flint and MAGNETIC's howard slayte [break]
Week of June 23: Confront ft. MYRIASCOPE's Eris Halla [break]
Week of June 30: The Wrath of Registeel (Megathread/Member Event)[break]
Week of July 7: An Ashen Memory ft. KOST's Andrea Vaneau [break]
Week of July 14: Take You On ft. JAYFEATHER's shinobu fujimori [break]
Week of July 21: Collision Course ft. DYNAMO's silverio delfino [break]
Week of July 28: Red Bonds ft. GHOSTFINCH's clover matamata [break]
Week of August 4: First Class ft. APHRODITE's AIRI WATANABE [break]
Week of August 11: Paradoxes at Play ft. SNOWFALL's Roze Falkner [break]
Week of August 18: Speedy Reunion ft. JUN's Keenan Toral [break]
Week of August 25: Draconic Dominance ft. GHOST's ghost fireheart [break]
Week of September 1: Mystication ft. YUEN's Morrighan Cahill [break]
Week of September 8: Black Market Bust ft. NEWT's NIKOLA SAMSA [break]
Week of September 15: Amalgamation ft. NIKKI's illeana reyes [break]
Week of September 22: Speed Limits ft. KIMMY's paxton concordas [break]
Week of September 29: Go the Distance ft. MISTY's easterbelle flowerly [break]
Week of October 6: Q1-R ft. AERO's kyle lopez [break]
Week of October 13: Ultra Sea: JN ft. DYFALU's Nikita Sokolov [break]
Week of October 20: Where Arc Suits Collide ft. YAMS' Tempest Quinn [break]
Week of October 27: Envoy of Lightning ft. SHIV's dahlia goode [break]
Week of November 3: Terastal Terrors ft. VAPES' dirk summers [break]
Week of November 10: Revenge of the Innocent ft. RED's Montgomery James [break]
Week of November 17: It's Too Quiet ft. PILO1's Melody Miro [break]
Week of November 24: SIdelined ft. JINNJEI's Cecilia Brooks [break]
Week of December 1: Phantomias ft. LIME's Lasciel Elis[break]
Week of December 8: to be filled[break]
Week of December 15: to be filled[break]

summarize 2 plots that are in-progress and being threaded:

• 1. Envoy of the League[break]
  
  SPOILER: Click to show
  After his harrowing trials within the Prismatic Penitentiary, Josh had to live several months where he could not do what defined him as a person. He could not saddle up and zoom across Hoenn. He could not ride at all due to a severe arm injury that would end up taking a long time to heal. This was not the first time he was injured on the front lines, but it was the most severe injury he had suffered thus far in terms of how long he was out commission for. The long and painstaking recovery process gave him ample time to ponder and find his true calling in the League.[break][break]
  
  After leaving the hospital, Josh goes on a long training and rehabilitation arc to exercise his arm and get it back into shape to the point where he can one day ride his Raikou into the warzone at full speed. After his first few sessions of rehab, his first true adventure with the Raikou was with Andrea Vaneau in the Thunderhead Ruins deep in the Ultra Plant. He starts to learn of his Raikou's nature there while exploring the remnants of a Megalopolan power tower, and eventually replaces his Zeraora's Z-Crystal.[break][break]
  
  Josh's first major supply running job was during the Battle of Sootopolis, where he and his Dragonair were responsible for helping his allies, such as Mauville Captain annalise henderson , remain stocked. Following Councilwoman freya morningstar 's orders, he engages fern delaney and jayden cross , the Dragonair ultimately laying down her life to prevent the Cursed from spearing MATIAS SILPH to death; due to Zev Harcourt 's Necrozma deploying the Z-MOVE: DARKNESS THAT COVERS THE WORLD, he could not withdraw the Dragonair and prevent her horrific death.[break][break]
  
  Another supply running job took place during the Skirmishes around Petalburg. In the thread Cat Fight!, ft. jayden cross and PETRA MONROE , Josh and Petra were running supplies to John Sullivan 's medical tents when the Cursed ambushes them. Swift and Chien-Pao have a vicious battle while Josh and Jayden have a clash of ideals. Though his delivery was a success, it came at a great price: the beating that the Raikou took in battle turned the RAINBOW FEATHER inert, rendering the Raikou unable to be summoned for a time.[break][break]
  
  Josh's absolute faith in the League has been shaken in the past several months. This is best shown in the Skirmish thread Shadowed Hearts, where Aqua Kennedy disrupts his delivery of a pallet of supplies to a League base near Petalburg. His true enemy, as he would discover, was not the Rocket, but a familiar, yet unfamiliar, crazed Elite Ranger: robin coello . Still taking her Gym disqualification personally, they first team up against Aqua Kennedy . When he feels that the psychic is using excessive force, he and his Gouging Fire come to the young Rocket's defense against Robin's war crimes. He states in no small terms that his loyalty is to the League, not the people who run it.[break][break]
  
  The following threads touch on Josh's musings and wanderings on how to best serve the League:[break][break]
  
  Nothing Happened ft. Andrea Vaneau , where Josh first renounces his desire to be an Avatar/serve on AQUA.[break][break]
  
  Forte ft. Melody Miro , where Josh talks to the new Top Champion about her position, reiterates his position on how poisonous Avatarship can be, and expresses that his true fear isn't of the AQUA contract. His true fear is his Raikou changing in ways he does not like.[break][break]
  
  To Resist Envy's Allure, in which PENELOPE LIVY instills doubt in the legitimacy of his Champion Assessment while using a battle between Chi-Yu and Raikou as a backdrop. He fights through the Avatar's hypnotic stare to pitch his vision as a war courier to the Councilwoman.[break][break]
  
  Character Feedback, ft. kyle lopez , where Josh's thoughts of his loyalty to the League are on display to the late Top Champion's spirit. This is the first thread where it is revealed that Josh's loyalty is to the League's precepts -- not the League's leaders.[break][break]
  
  Piping Hot Pasta II, where Josh goes out to dinner with Navy . They discuss plans of what to do in the event of a Mauville invasion, as well discusses his intent to run for Melody Miro 's now-vacant Elite Four seat.[break][break]
  
  True Lies, ft. MATIAS SILPH , where Josh has a civil but intense discussion with the Volatile about his role in the League. He is not very happy that Matias doesn't seem to appreciate just how much Josh sacrificed for saving his life. He resigns that the two will never agree upon the roles of Pokémon; to Josh, they are friends and partners to be treated with dignity and respect. To Matias, they are but tools; means to an end to be cast aside in death when they are no longer useful.[break][break]
  
  It is also in this thread that it dawns upon Josh the likely reason why he was not selected for the Elite Four back then, and perhaps the reason why he was not considered in AQUA ASSEMBLY V: he is too valuable in his current position as Mauville Gym Leader to be promoted. No one knows the population-dense city like Josh does, and it is a city that the League cannot afford to have captured. When CIAN MAHER stepped down as Rustboro Gym Leader, Rocket pounced on Petalburg, defended only by Shalin Nariya . The League cannot afford to cede control of the region's busiest inland crossroads to Rocket. For if they did, it might pose a supply disruption too big for even the Master of Faster to solve.[break][break]
  
  Envoy of Lightning, ft. dahlia goode , where Josh meets the Commissioner in Melody's old Elite Four chamber to discuss greater involvement in the League, Josh's defense plans for Mauville, and the Sacred Ash Raikou.
  

• 2. Gym Leader Duties [break]
  
  SPOILER: Click to show
  The size of Josh's growing Pokémon army has necessitated he expand his staff. As such, there have been several roster changes at Mauville Racing Grounds. The below threads highlight changes made to other characters' employment status with the Gym.[break][break]
  
  End of an Era, where Elise Calcifet resigns as a part-type employee after getting one last run on the back of her former boss's Raikou.[break][break]
  
  Sidelined, where Josh and Cecilia Brooks discuss the fallout of some legal issues surrounding his Gym, as well as delegating future responsibilities to the new, promising hire.[break][break]
  
  Josh still uses his Gym to teach characters how to ride Pokémon, particularly Rangers that he expects will make use of his Pyroar pride. He gives several characters lessons in the following threads:[break][break]
  
  By Land or By Sea, ft. Absinthe Blackwood , where Josh teaches a complete beginner the basics.[break][break]
  
  Ridin' with the Pride, ft. Alina Hamako . While this thread does not take place in his Gym, he is utilizing the backdrop of a low-stakes Ranger mission to give Alina lessons on posture and the motions one needs to control a Pokémon mount by tactile commands alone.[break][break]
  
  Gym Challenges that have concluded within the most recent activity period (June 2024 - December 2024) include:[break][break]
  
  As It Was ft. kasper thaler [break]
  To the Skies ft. Lutgarde Dijkstra [break]
  Torrential Turbulence ft. Elaine Highland [break]
  Interrupted Kaiju Slumber ft. Hitoshi Inoue . While not a traditional gym challenge, this thread is important in showing both how vulnerable Mauville City is to Rocket attacks as well as how fiercely Josh defends the city, even while recovering from his injuries from the PRISMATIC PENETENTIARY. Ultimately, he is able to fend off the assassination attempt, keeping life loss to a minimum.[break]
  We're Up, We're Off, and Away We Go, a ground race against Genevieve Cromwell 's Arcanine. Genny shows how much her racing skills, and her bond with her Pokémon, have improved since their last meeting, and tells her at the end that he wants to see her either trounce the Elite Four or be among their ranks when the war is over.[break][break]
  
  Gym Challenges that are currently in progress include:[break][break]
  
  Fast and Spurious, an aerial race against Miyako Noguchi 's Togekiss.[break]
  Success, a 3v3 Singles traditional challenge against Althus Rex .[break]
  Vs. Mauville Gym, a 2v2 Doubles traditional challenge against Gwyar Wledig .[break][break]
  
  While not an official Gym Challenge, Josh is sparring with Eduardo Hisakawa in the thread Burning Pathos, Emotion Overwhelming. He lets the Stalwart experience his Sacred Ash Raikou's incredible speed before pitting him against four of his most powerful and rare Pokémon as a way to prepare him for his upcoming Champion Assessment post-war. Eddie wins this battle, and Josh considers withdrawing his application for Elite Four to endorse the Stalwart for the position.
  

if an avatar, summarize how you've utilized[break]the legendary/avatarship for collaborative narrative:

• 1. Sacred Ash Raikou[break]
  
  SPOILER: Click to show
  Josh has come to grips with the fact that his Sacred Ash Raikou is not a real Pokémon; it is but a construct whose strength waxes and wanes with the sync of his subconscious and his outer emotions. While not a real Pokémon with free will and a personality, the Beast is obedient to a fault, and is everything he wants it to be. It battles like a Raikou, purrs like a Raikou, and most importantly, sprints like a Raikou.[break][break]
  
  And to him, that's okay.
  [break][break]
  Josh has seen many relationships between Patron and Avatar go awry. Though it is mainly on the Rocket side he has seen Patrons control their Avatars, the League side is not without exception. The breakdown between MATIAS SILPH and Groudon as well as Laurence Anderson and Articuno haunt him to this day. He feels Swift would change, largely for the worse, were he to gain sentience. Though he has realized there is far more to the Raikou than his unmatched land speed, being able to experience that speed is still at the core of why he adores Raikou so much.[break][break]
  
  The situational irony goes beyond what I ever imagined it being. From before Meteno, Josh desired to be Raikou's Avatar above all else. Since his purification by kyle lopez and the Great One Ho-oh, he no longer desires an Avatarship: a complete 180 on the subject. He would still love to have wondrous powers to serve the League, to become the undisputed king of speed, and to truly be friends with his childhood idol. As he is now, were Raikou to offer him Avatarship, he would decline it; were the gods to pull him onto their chessboard, it would need to by force. Why?[break][break]
  
  He loves his Raikou the way it is, and doesn't want it to change.[break][break]
  
  In the thread Fang and Blade, Josh goes to Dewford's wilds with Navy to have his Raikou and Keldeo spar with Zacian. Zacian handily defeats Swift, but his efforts help push Keldeo to a draw with the Warrior Pokémon.[break][break]
  
  In another post in the Battle of Sootopolis, surface envy and hatred from jayden cross and PENELOPE LIVY keep Josh's surface thoughts and subconscious in conflict, revealing a key weakness of his Raikou to Rocket. If his outer and inner emotions are in sync, he and his Raikou can wield awesome power together. If they conflict, the Raikou will not obey him.[break][break]
  
  In the thread Amalgamation, ft. illeana reyes , Josh brings Swift and the Johto paradoxes to her lab for study.[break][break]
  
  In the thread Scavenging, ft. mint frost , Josh faces off against an Avatar for the first time since Kyle passed on his Sacred Ash Raikou. This thread in particular showcases the Raikou's defensive capabilities, protecting his trainer from being skewered by the Mercurial's feather-knives.[break][break]
  
  In the thread Speed Limits, Josh takes his Sacred Ash Raikou to paxton concordas for study, where he gets confirmation that Raging Bolt is, in fact, not a regional variant of Raikou, but its own species.[break][break]
  
  In the thread Lightning Look-Out ft. Keenan Toral , Josh lets Kee spar with his Sacred Ash Raikou as preparation for his Champion Assessment post-war.[break][break]
  
  In the Hoenn Ghost Tales thread Thundercat Blitz ft. Yuina Higashi , Josh runs into his doppelganger from Prime!Hoenn via Space-Time Distortion, While Josh himself has changed, his doppel has not. The doppel gives him insight into the kind of person he would be like as an Avatar in an alternate universe: one where the power gets to his head. This thread has significantly shaped his thoughts on Avatars in general.[break][break]
  
  In the Hoenn Ghost Tales thread Racing to the Other Side, ft. Eva Morales , Josh gets confirmation that Raikou, Entei, and Suicune fought in the Kanto War to prevent Rocket from taking over his birthland, Johto. Supporting the theory that Raikou, Entei, and Suicune indeed perished, Ho-oh's former Avatarship with kyle lopez the reason for Entei being alive, Josh proposes the idea to return to the Border to search for Raikou's spirit.[break][break]
  
  In the Skirmish thread, Shadowed Hearts, ft. Aqua Kennedy and robin coello , Aqua Kennedy brings to Josh's attention that what he sits in the thundercloud saddle of is not Raikou, and that the real Raikou would never let him aboard. He admits that what Aqua said is correct, and gets to the core of why he does not want his Raikou to change:[break][break]
  
  Fear of it turning into a form Josh cannot control.[break][break]
  
  Despite his fear of the Sacred Ash Raikou changing, he is under pressure to develop its strengths as quickly as he can. While the Raikou can hold his own against Josh's other Pokémon now, it does not possess the might expected of a legendary Pokémon. This is best shown in the thread Wait in the Fire, ft. SUNNY's Absinthe Blackwood . Though it is a bitter battle, Absinthe is barely able to overcome the Raikou with desperation tactics, even with minimal use of her Fezandipiti.[break][break]
  
  Swift the Sacred Ash Raikou's skills have been developed in the following threads:[break][break]
  
  The Quickest of Quick Attacks, ft. minerva valentine , where Josh experiences the Raikou's Quick Attack for the first time since Goodbye, Galar. It showcases just how much progress he has made since his arm injury, yet how much more work has to be done if he wants to utilize the creature to its fullest potential.[break][break]
  
  War Training ft. Raziel Beckett (as RAZZ KINGSMAN), where Swift attempts (and fails) to utilize REFLECT to ward off the then-Ranger Captain's Pawniard army.[break][break]
  
  You Can't Handle the Truth ft. Elisabeth Fiorelli , where Josh and Swift have their first battle against an Avatar. Wo-Chien killed Josh's Galarian Rapidash with Ruination, which prompted him to meld his anger with Swift's savagery. In this battle, Swift regained his lost PRESSURE Ability and used it to bring the Scorned to her knees. Lacking the instinct to kill, Josh allowed Wo-Chien and Elisabeth to get away.[break][break]
  
  TFW Prelude: Sootopolis Scenario B-3, where Josh and Rhea Armistead clashed outside Sootopolis. After watching his eldest Pyroar, the king of his pride, die in battle, the two channeled their shared anger as one and harnessed Kyogre's storm, unleashing one of the strongest attacks a Raikou could learn: ELECTRO BALL.[break][break]
  
  Battle of Sootopolis (RAID), where Josh's paladin-like personality and sheer force of will fuels a resonant surge between him and his ashen Raikou. He fully learns REFLECT to shield annalise henderson from fern delaney 's Tapu Koko's NATURE'S MADNESS.[break][break]
  
  An Ashen Memory, ft. Andrea Vaneau , where Josh takes a vacation to Johto to show the people of Ecruteak his ashen Raikou and takes him to the Burned and Tin Towers. Midway through the thread, Swift attempts and fails to use RAIN DANCE.[break][break]
  
  Shadowed Hearts, ft. Aqua Kennedy and robin coello , the vitriolic Ranger traps Josh and Raikou within the chains of her Dhelmise's Z-MOVE: PALE RIDER'S SHOT. In his moment of greatest vulnerability, he pleads with robin coello to not make the same mistake he did, openly admitting his crimes against Eris Halla long ago. He suffered immensely during his fall, and despite the girl's violent responses, he cares for her. With a prayer to Ho-oh uniting Josh's subconscious and surface emotions, Swift summoned a torrent of water, flooding the plains north of Petalburg in a great deluge, successfully using and relearning the move RAIN DANCE.[break][break]
  
  At the present time, Swift's final two moves, EXTREME SPEED and THUNDER, remain locked.

• any notes/comments: Josh's story has not ended with his acquisition of Sacred Ash Raikou or his ascension to Champion Rank; if anything, it has only grown richer and more complex. Watching him grow from wanting to be Raikou's Avatar over all else to being staunchly against the idea has been such an unexpected turn for him. Seeing his blind faith in the League not only shaken, but actively questioned, has made him a joy to write. Raikou's growing up! He's turned from the baby Josh inherited to an adolescent force of nature that will, one day, be able to take on Rocket's big guns one by one. I have some exciting plots to unveil once the new year passes![break][break]
  
  Next month will be two and a half years at Hoenn. When I first brought Josh to Hoenn, I had a vision of making him into a front-line fighter and a war hero. Some of the directions I've taken him in I could never have imagined before coming here. I look forward to seeing what he will do in the war as a courier and supplier![break][break]
  
  I never thought Raging Bolt would grow on me like it has... and it's all shiv 's fault. XD[break][break]
  
  CANON AC GYM BADGE: Please award the HOENN LEAGUE QUICK BADGE to Eduardo Hisakawa for not only withstanding a ride on his Raikou's back, but also for defeating his Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire, and Walking Wake in a sparring match. This goes well beyond the difficulty of his battle and racing challenges, and as such Josh would find him worthy of holding the Badge. ICly, this Badge will be awarded in the thread Burning Pathos, Emotion Overwhelming.

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