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]

[...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."]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well uh... that certainly is a Masquerain carrying a squid, um. The sages are quick to relay the message to one of the Jennys that has shown up since Tsukiyama entered the tower. The police will take care of checking out the other important buildings in town, thanks for the heads up! The sages thank the squid (kind of awkwardly since what is this Pokémon, we just don't know), so hopefully Renaud will relay that back to Tsukiyama!]

[preybeforemeals]

[Excellent!

In the meantime, Tsukiyama will just be taking care of checking the rest of the room; is it otherwise just like the last one?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Yes it is! There's nothing really to note outside the room under the stairs. Are you going to go upstairs?]

[preybeforemeals]

[Yes, though in the name of thoroughness he's going to check the other set of stairs first; apparently this place just likes to hide doors under them like they're expecting a Harry Potter conference.

But all right, if there's really nothing, once Renaud and Léa return he'll put them back into their respective balls and head onward and upward!]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well, there's a room under those stairs as well with a small window, but that room is devoid of anything interesting. It's still got the lock on it if you want to try to bust in.

Otherwise... welcome to floor 6! It's not quite as crazy as floor 5 with the beams but there are some new additions: bridges. They kind of sag in the middle, but otherwise they seem alright! Maybe.]

[preybeforemeals]

[On the one hand, there had better be a legendary at the top of all these stairs, given all the running he's doing. On the other, his thighs are going to look fantastic by summer if this is what he's going to be doing with himself for the foreseeable future.

That said, however...all right, he's still not exactly trusting of structures like this. He'll be sending Alessia in front of him as usual, just to make sure those bridges aren't going to collapse - she also has the general idea of what those chemicals smell like, and he wants to ensure those bridges have a natural hang to them and aren't weighted down by anything he's not going to like.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well the bridges will definitely hold her weight, but you might want to be careful towards the end there, Alessia. It might not be noticeable for a person, but there's definitely a tripwire there.]

[preybeforemeals]

[Well, thank god she is in fact a snake and therefore low to the ground. Especially since her trainer has a tendency to just sort of fall over these.

(Shut up, Alessia, that was once.)

At any rate, she will let him know by rather unceremoniously stopping Tsukiyama before he gets anywhere near the tripwire; admittedly, he damn near trips over the snake and that earns her something of a filthy look, but all is forgiven rather quickly once he realizes why.]

Oh, good girl...

[He'll just be studying that for a moment before...moving her aside and stepping over that, then. That's...huh.

He's not making for the stairs yet, just kind of standing on the platform on the other side of the bridge; once he's there, he'll just be kneeling down to get a better look at the wire. Is it...attached to anything, or just there to make one's life a little more difficult?]