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]

[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?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[It's attached to something alright! In fact, it looks like it's going under the bridge. It's kind of hard to see from this angle though. What do you want to do, Tsukiyama?]

[preybeforemeals]

[...Well. He has a Masquerain and a psychic squid.

Let's see what's under the bridge. Renaud, please don't be a shit and actually convey to him what's under the bridge, if you will.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[That's certainly a bomb under that bridge, um. It seems to be secured there by... a lot of duct tape. A lot of duct tape. The bomb itself is pretty small and the trip wire attaches to it; there doesn't seem to be any other way to set it off without pulling on the trip wire.]

[preybeforemeals]

[...shit. Now is probably a bad time to realize that he has no idea how to actually disarm these things, isn't it...

Okay, so the question of the day is whether he should leave it and risk it possibly blowing up, or whether he should actually try to do something about it and risk it...almost definitely blowing up; after a moment's deliberation, he is just going to decide that this is categorically not his problem.

Those sages are going to be greeted by the squid again, with the general message that they might want to send a Jenny or twelve to the sixth floor because we've got a live bomb up here.

In the meantime, Tsukiyama is just going to convey Alessia over the tripwire and keep moving because as far as he's concerned he still has someone's ass to kick.]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Well that'll send the sages and the Jennys into a panic, thanks Tsukiyama. Hopefully you don't take too long up there because the Jenny Bomb Squad will be showing up shortly!

(Do the Jennys even have a bomb squad? WELL THEY DO NOW, THANKS)

...But this is better than having the sages trip over the wire so...

Anyway, the rest of the floor seems to be good! The second and third bridges are pretty long, but if you investigate them you'll find that there's no other bombs there.]

[preybeforemeals]

[Tres bien, no one's going to die today!

...at least so far.

Just let him call back the bug and the squid, then. Do we have more stairs?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Indeed there are more stairs! Welcome to floor 7! It looks like your friends the bridges are back, have fun with those. This floor is also home to a brand new and super cool mechanic, warp tiles!

...Sorry in advance.

The warp tiles are those weird glowing spots, and from the look of it, navigating this room is going to be super fun.]

[preybeforemeals]

[He'll leave Alessia out with him to check for more tripwires on those bridges first, telling her to be mindful of the warp tiles and avoid them for now. There's one right there but he'd rather not hit it without knowing what it is.

So. First things first. Any tripwires in the immediate vicinity?]

[sadisticwarfare]

[Nope! This area is completely clear. There aren't any stairs leading up either, so it looks like you're going to have to brave the warp tiles to get any further.]

[preybeforemeals]

[All right, that's a little...strange. He's noted the lack of stairs, at least; that just leaves the glowing tiles all over as this room's mystery.

That means it's time for a rousing game of WHICH OF THE CHILDREN DOES DADDY LOVE LEAST while he tries to figure out what these tiles are supposed to do! He'll just be walking over to one without stepping on it, holding one of his Pokéballs directly over it; Berlouis has failed him challenge-wise recently, and he's tried to release the Cherrim twice. The stupid thing keeps following him around, so damn it, he's going to be useful today.

Onto the warp tile he goes! Let's see what that does.]