TESTRUN SHIT

[sadisticwarfare]

[It's a beautiful day in Ecruteak City. The sun in shining, there's barely any clouds in the sky, the birds are chirping, and it seems like nothing can go wrong on a day like today.

...Too bad someone's never been fond of peace and quiet. The bombs go off in the north of town at exactly 10:00 AM, and judging from the explosions, there were quite a few of them. Smoke billows from the Bell Tower, and judging from the citizens' panicked reactions, this definitely isn't normal.

Of course, getting into the Bell Tower is easier said than done, considering the fact that there's a building you have to go through first and several sages guarding it.]

Comments

[preybeforemeals]

[He'll recall Léa for the time being, switching her out for Alessia again; he wants something that will recognize the scent of those chemicals, if she comes across them again.

While he really wants to go charging up the stairs like gangbusters, he suspects that isn't the smartest of ideas, not when we're dealing with bombs; on the other hand, he might want to actually move his ass because we're dealing with bombs and it's possible Seth might get impatient...hmmm.

He'll cast around a bit while he's deliberating; is there anything of interest down here that would catch his attention?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Aside from the door, there isn't anything to note. The rest of the room is completely unharmed, and what few marks there are on the floor are obviously from the poor attempt at welding the doors shut.]

[preybeforemeals]

[All right, then - up the stairs we go. He's fairly quick about it, at least; it's probably a bad thing, how much he's enjoying this, but as it stands he's practically bouncing. At least Alessia is keeping up...]

[sadisticwarfare]

[The second floor is pretty bare. Like the first floor, there are stairs leading up on the other side of the floor, but most of the floor is untouched. There's no dust anywhere, but that might be because of the sages keeping the building up. Should you choose to proceed toward the stairs, you might see some more of those dark pieces scattered near the stairs.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...Near the stairs?

Okay, either this person's explosives are the most harmless things in the history of ever, they were trying to assemble them as they went, or...there's a third option he's not seeing.

Is there a window around here, and if so, is it latched?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well, there's a door underneath the stairs! Investigate?]

[preybeforemeals]

[...WOW, SO THERE IS. God, people really need to stop hiding doors in places that doors shouldn't be, in Tsukiyama's opinion, but at least these aren't made of fucking meat. Because ghoul technology is really gross.

Let's check the door out, then; if it's unlocked, he'll be sending Alessia in before him to make sure there's nothing he should be aware of, like tripwires or...the complete absence of a floor or something. If it's locked, he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[It looks like the door was locked at some point, but the lock has been smashed and is currently sitting on the floor (it's a really old lock, okay, the sages aren't really technology-savvy). The door is properly shut, however, but it can definitely be opened!

The inside doesn't have any tripwires or missing floors, but it certainly looks like something happened in here. The floor, walls, and ceiling are all charred, but somehow everything is still standing, including the door. The small window in the tiny room is busted out, however. There are more of those black pieces in here as well.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...Wow. Something definitely happened in here, yes; he isn't nervous when he enters, but he is definitely very, very wary.]

Alessia, watch the door.

[He'd really prefer to not be locked in here once his guard is down, after all.

However, with the snake keeping watch, he can look around a bit more freely; after a moment's deliberation, he'll be checking that window - it doesn't happen to look out on Bellchime Trail, does it?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[It does! You can see see the trail and if you look out the corner of the window, you can see the building where the sages are. If you left those black pieces down there, you might be able to see those if you know where to look.]

[preybeforemeals]

[He left them, actually, because he didn't see a point in bringing them; oh, look, there's the one that maimed his hand earlier...

That said, he'll definitely be picking up one of those shards now; he doesn't exactly have the time to make like Professor Layton and put the entire thing back together like a really morbid jigsaw puzzle, but is there anything else in here outside of those black shards? Chemical traces, some sort of detonation device or wiring, maybe?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well, you can probably smell the same chemical smell on the pieces, but otherwise there isn't anything else to note, unfortunately.]

[preybeforemeals]

[Hmm. Okay. So one of the bombs went off in here, that much is plain; he'll be pocketing one of those shards to take with him because who knows, maybe it'll be useful later.

Might as well check the rest of the floors to see if there's anything else of note in them; he doesn't bother closing the door behind him as he goes.]

Come on.

[And with that called over his shoulder to Alessia, up to floor three we go.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Floor #3 is... not like the previous two. Floors 1 and 2 were solid and boring, but apparently someone decided to amp up the crazy on floor 3's construction. It seems that someone finally took out the bike ramps, but the floor is much thinner in places, with only a few beams in a hatch-work pattern below to keep you from crashing down a floor. Good luck navigating your way over those thin beams! If you manage to get all the way over to the stairs though, you can proceed to floor 4!

There isn't anything else to note on this floor. All the windows are intact and there aren't any black shards around here.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...WHY]

[sadisticwarfare]

[WHO KNOWS, CERTAINLY NOT ME

so are you going to brave those beams or]

[preybeforemeals]

[Are you kidding? He's going to see if those beams support human weight first.

He's sending the damn snake.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[YOU'RE AWFUL WHAT IF IT DOESN'T SUPPORT HER WEIGHT AND SHE DIES WHAT THEN

actually you don't need to worry about that, the beams will definitely support human weight!]

[preybeforemeals]

[LOOK IF IT DOESN'T SUPPORT HER IT'S DEFINITELY NOT SUPPORTING HIM

That said, however, she looks a little peeved with him once she figures out exactly why he sent her out into crosshatch hell, so he'll just...recall her before throwing the ball over to the other side to let her out over there. No sense in having both of them on here.

Fortunately the mun literally rolled a D20 just now and he didn't utterly fail his Dexterity check his balance is still good and so are his reflexes; he's always been physically active as hell, so he'll manage to do this without making an utter fuckery of it.

So! Floor 4, you said? ...Come on, Alessia, don't look at him like that.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well if Archer can make it across this shit you should be fine!!

Welcome to floor 4! It's... well, it's uh... it's something. It looks like someone really hated stereotypical floor architecture here. There are two stairs here, but it doesn't matter which one you take since there aren't any ramps to worry about.

Oh, but you might want to check the black marks on the floor. They might look a bit like the ones a couple floors down.]

[preybeforemeals]

[jesus do the sages just hate happiness or something -

oh

oh hold on, black marks on the floor here.

They look like char-marks again, correct? Is there anything else? Shards, maybe?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Good guess! You can indeed find some of those shards towards the back there. And if you choose to look back towards the stairs, you'll find yet another door with a busted lock!]

[preybeforemeals]

[...Oh, is that so.

At least he's expecting it this time; nothing obstructing the door again? If not, he'll...again, send the snake first, because there have been a lot of places here that hate common sense in terms of architecture.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Don't worry, there's nothing different in there! In fact, it's pretty much exactly the same as the explosion two floors below. The room is charred but the structure is still perfectly fine, as is the door. Apparently this tower is made of pretty strong stuff! The window is blown out, however. It looks out on Bellchime Trail as well.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...All right, so that's two bombs that have blown but managed to not take out the tower. Either taking out the tower isn't the goal here, Seth underestimated how strong it actually is, or he overestimated the strength of his bombs. Since Riku said that Seth does this sort of thing a lot, he's presumably not an amateur; either he's unfamiliar with the tower's structure or he's actually not trying to take the tower down.

Something occurs to him after a moment; he's quick to release two of his other Pokémon, Léa and Renaud. While he normally wouldn't use the little squid Naki gave him for any sort of important task because Renaud is admittedly sort of a shit, he's the only Psychic-type he has and he's the easiest way to convey coherent messages (via telepathy, rather than via awkward maskbug-charades).

He'll send Renaud off with Léa out the window; the sages downstairs are going to be greeted with the rather...resplendent sight of a Masquerain hauling ass toward them while carrying an Inkay, but you know what, not all of our entrances can be elegant and Tsukiyama did say he would send his Pokémon if there was anything he needed, and at least the message isn't 'Come running.'

"Ensure that Ecruteak's major city centers are being checked for explosives as well; there's a strong chance that this isn't the only place being targeted."]