test drive!

[these_balls]

TEST DRIVE MEME


➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!


NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | and | KANTO

✭ ✭ ✭


As usual, we've created a Google Doc so you can submit your wanted characters for a big Route game ad on this month's ATP!
FIND IT HERE
CUTOFF FOR ADDING CHARACTER WANT ADS TO THE GDOC IS:
6:00 PM, EST, ON SATURDAY, APRIL 25TH!

Comments

[callbacks]

[Uh, no. Not a plan, as such.]

Well, uh.

[How does he put this.]

Saying you do manage to pull my sorta bony but not insubstantial carcass up there with you.

[The kid is pretty tall, and without god tier powers, no longer weightless. But that's not even the problem.]

How are we supposed to get back up through the first trap door?

[striderfatigue]

Oh. Right, gravity exists. [He always forgets about that. Uh shit shit what do we do now.]

Guessing cutting our way through isn't gonna work, no matter how sharp Hanzo's been lately. [Hanzo, short for Hanzo Steel, aka the best Nincada he arrived in this place with.]

Do you think going through the door down there'll kick us back up to the top? [How does that even work? Probably video game logic. Of course.]

[callbacks]

It's at least a direction. A direction better than 'wander around a single dark room in circles until we contemplate eating our Poképals for survival,' anyway.

Happiny!

[Eltee punches Dave in the leg again, then tries to tug him back from underneath the trap door. He gives up on the rope harness and goes along with it. Sorry, bro, but if he didn't get an ass cushion, then you don't, either.]

Come on, help me figure this one out. It says 'water' in goofy Poké-English but hell if I know what I can do here. Spit on it?

[striderfatigue]

Especially since we've got nothing to fry 'em in. [Just a little humor, okay, he's really not gonna eat them, jeez. There's a pause as he considers, he doesn't know, calling for help or getting his pokemon out or something, but--]

Fuck it. [Final answer.] Look out below. [Hops down. No kidding about that fall, jeez, his ass is gonna sue him for damages later, if it ever finds a good enough lawyer.

He's pulling down the rope and putting it back in his bag, once he's done mentally cataloguing the bruises.] Well, let's put spitting in the maybe column for now. [Thinking goes here.] You have anybody who knows Water Gun over there?

[callbacks]

Nuh-uh. Eltee didn't even come with Metronome, and the only other thing I've got is Bright Eyes here.

[He releases his as-yet-unnamed Espurr. It blinks owlishly in the dark, then turns its head slightly to stare off into space, thinking unknowable Espurr thoughts.]

I. Don't think it knows any Water moves.

[Dave watches it for a moment. He's still. Kind of unsure about this thing.]

You?

[striderfatigue]

[Oh, god, it's reading his mind. He can tell. That's totally what it does. He inches away a little, as subtly as he can manage which is probably not subtle at all.]

Besides Hanzo? [Gonna release him from the ball now, just in case. It immediately starts gnawing at the ground a little, scuffing it with its little insect claws. What a cutie <3] Nah, all I've got's a Furret. [Name TBD.]

Well, fuck, maybe we can fake it? [They don't have a hose down here, do they.]

[callbacks]

[Eltee takes charge of the Pokésquad immediately, checking up on Dave's Espurr first before moving on to greet Hanzo, make sure everyone's fit for the rest of this puzzle-solving adventure.

Dave, meanwhile, looks...less enthused.]

Fake it with what?

[Did Mom give YOU a hose, bro? Because Dave sure doesn't have one in his backpack.]

I mean. I can think of one thing that's, like, ninety-five percent water, but I'm mostly hoping it doesn't come to that? Because last I remember, this was supposed to be a family-friendly franchise. I don't want to be caught literally pissing on people's childhoods.

[striderfatigue]

[No worries, egg friend, Hanzo's still in the green.]

Oh, god. [He should totally have something for this, and he does not.] There's gotta be a way out of here that won't get us sued by Nintendo in the process.

[Oh, shit, he's got it. Not the witty rejoinder, but an idea! Because, while he doesn't carry a hoze in his backpack, he does have a couple cans of soda. As usual.] Stand back, unless you want sticky shoes for the next two days.

[Soda Pop saves the day again! Hopefully. Let's just. Shake it up first, you know, for maximum Water Gun immersion, and then---]

How's the hole situation looking? [Please don't let it open under them. Again.]

[callbacks]

[Dave tries, to no avail, to make out the completely invisible lines of the trapdoor in the floor before giving up and squinting at the room's roof instead. He has to bend to usher the Pokémon to one side with him so they won't be caught by either the soda explosion or the trap door. If it works.]

Eh, should be fine as long as you're not standing directly in front of the thing. Maybe hold on to me so I can yank you back just in case, I think I'm in the clear over here.

[He sounds a lot more confident than he actually is, but even as he eyes the floor beneath his feet warily, he offers Dirk a hand.]

[striderfatigue]

If I go down, I'm dragging you with me. [It sounds like a joke, but then he adds.] The laws of gravity are not to be fucked with lightly.

[So still a bit of a joke. Just more of a worry joke than a pretend to be a super villain/cliche one. But he does grab on to the hand, after a moment's thought.]

Everybody out of the splash zone? [He looks around at the assembled Poké crew, and figures that's close enough.] Alright, here we go.

[Soda Pop: deployed.]

[callbacks]

[Holy fizzy corn syrup, Batman. Dirk's ersatz Water Gun is powerful, at least, and Eltee squeaks and ducks behind Dave's leg even though she's not really in any danger of getting soda'd. The carved Unown spelling out 'WATER' fill up with the stuff...

...And, for the purpose of not getting stuck in the middle of a ruin for the rest of their suddenly natural lives and/or the duration of this test thread, the trick works. Something clicks audibly, and though Dave starts to tug Dirk out of the way, it turns out there's no real point, as they'd pretty much sussed out the trapdoor's location. These kids are all safe.

When he's sure of that, Dave lets go of Dirk and, accompanied by Eltee and the Espurr, peers over the edge of the door into the chamber below.]

You don't think these all just keep going, do you? This isn't some kind of prehistoric "It just keeps happening" joke.

[striderfatigue]

[Whole lot of peering going on. Hanzo scurries over from the corner and scuffs some pebbles off the edge of the door to what looks like nowhere. Well. Nowhere but a way out. Fingers crossed and all that.]

Trap doors to the center of the pokéworld? [He's considering it. Just that kind of guy.] There's gotta be a bottom floor sooner or later. [He just hopes that floor's not magma.]

Could go in first. [Shrug. Somebody's gotta.]