Jesse had been army-crawling around the dirty, dank, underspace of the building for so long, they could barely remember how clean air usually smelled.
... okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it did smell horrific under here, and Jesse was surprised they had managed to stifle their sneezes and muffle their coughs (and retches) and... well, not vomit.
Periodically, they heard the bombs go off. They sounded like those weird little snapper things that you threw on the ground and they popped, from where Jesse was. Maybe because they were so far above them, or far away.
Eventually, there was one final pop, and there was a moment of silence.
Then Magnus's magically-magnified voice boomed out right above them, and Jesse almost jumped and banged their head on the wooden floorboards above them. "All challengers, come to a halt! The last bomb has just gone off. We have found three of the six challengers in this time, so they are eliminated from the tournament."
There were jeers from the crowd- presumably at the losers of the challenge- and Magnus continued. "Will all remaining challengers please get the heck out of wherever they're hiding so I can announce the next challenge?"
Jesse pushed experimentally on the floorboard right above them.
There was a long pause.
Then the board was being yanked up and Magnus was blinking down at Jesse.
They squirmed hastily out of their hiding spot, Magnus grabbing them by the back of their shirt and yanking them out when they momentarily got stuck, lifting them clear out of the floor and setting them down. He wrinkled his nose at them, looking... almost a little pleased but trying not to.
"Jeez, you smell gross right now, Tiny."
Jesse may or may not have given him the flattest, most irritated really? look ever at that, his voice almost echoing in the stadium.
(They were pretty sure they saw Radar jumping up and down in excitement when they heard that, but Maya or Mevia or somebody had yanked him back into his seat before they could confirm.)
Eventually, the other challengers also convened- dusting dirt and cobwebs and who-knew-what-else off of themselves- and Magnus burst back into announcing right as Jesse took the moment to sneeze, which almost made them jump and get snot everywhere.
They hated being sick with a deep and burning passion.
"So! The next challenge," Magnus continued, either unaware of or ignoring Jesse frantically figuring out what to do with their face and the fact that they had nothing to actually wipe their face with, "is one focused around... well, actually, telling you what it's focused around would ruin it, so I'm not gonna."
Boos from the crowd, but Jesse could tell it was in good fun.
... well, they were pretty sure it was.
"Challengers will go into a locked room to be told their task. Nobody else is allowed in, along with the other challengers. If they pass, they'll be led onto this platform."
There was a platform made of rather rickety wood. It struck Jesse that it looked like the bridges in Sky City, except this one at least wasn't over a bottomless chasm full of gas.
"But if they fail, they get led off this edge and fall into this mud pit."
"Where's the danger?" one griefer yelled.
"Inside the building, dumbass," Magnus yelled back, which would've made Jesse laugh, except they were still dealing with a faceful of snot.
Jesse could see everyone in the crowd placing bets on who they thought would make it through this 'gauntlet of terror' or whatever was inside the building. Most people were pointing at the other guys; Hadrian was talking with one guy and pointing at Jesse.
Mevia looked like she was going to wring his neck.
Lovely. Nothing different on that front.
The challenge took a damn long time, apparently.
Jesse said apparently because after they managed to clean themselves up and not have snot all over their face, the first challenger still wasn't done.
The building was soundproof, bomb-proof (or at least bomb-resistant, Magnus had amended after a moment, a big enough bomb would probably still damage it), and had no windows, so nobody had any idea what was going on in there.
A moment later, there was a shriek, and the first griefer fell off the ledge and landed head-first in the mud pit.
There were a lot of groans and money exchanging hands on the people who'd voted that he'd win; Jesse was pretty sure they saw Hadrian take some money in the crowd.
Jesse stood up to make sure he was fine and hadn't broken his neck or something; to see the griefer cursing every foul word in the book and floundering through the thick black mud. It looked disgusting and germ-infested and if Jesse landed in that, they were pretty sure their illness would decidedly take a turn into "even more gross" land.
"Tiny!"
Jesse jumped half out of their skin and turned to see Magnus, who was waiting at the door of the building, grinning like a madman about to see his wildest dreams come true.
"You're up next."
They followed him quietly into the room that he had prepared for the challenge. He stopped them on a large black circle, just outside the door, and strolled across the room.
Jesse took the opportunity to take a look around the room. The room was a really nondescript one, with plain white walls and a ceiling lit by a single redstone lamp. The only odd thing, really, was the large expanse of floor was made up of an almost blinding array of gold or red rectangular tiles, so practically blinding under all the light that was reflecting off the white walls that Jesse almost had to blink tears out of their eyes, as if they were standing in pure heat. The occasional blue or black circle that dotted the floor almost looked like a black hole in comparison; Jesse stared for a bit before realizing Magnus was waiting for them to look back up at him across this expansive room and quickly lifted their head to look at him.
He clicked something- like a little clicker- and the sound of beeping went off, making Jesse jump and look around frantically, as if expecting him to go "psyche!" and just have the room blow off.
Nothing happened, and they looked back at Magnus, who was smiling broadly.
Jesse didn't really like that smile. It was terrifying.
"Under every single red or gold square," Magnus instructed, making them look up at him, "is a bomb that I just activated. Not one that'll blow you sky high- but it'll definitely hurt a lot."
Jesse stared. That was a LOT of gold and red tiles on the ground... almost the whole floor, really. How many bombs had Magnus made for this?
Actually, never mind that. Jesse didn't particularly want to know.
"So, Tiny."
Jesse looked back up to see Magnus's grin widen like the Cheshire Cat's.
"Your job is to get across the floor to the circle I'm standing on without touching a single gold or red square."
A/N: An update!
So two things. 1) Animal Crossing New Horizons is great and I might publish a small fic for the hell of it.
2) Toni42 (writer of Movie Mode) and I have a deal; every time I update October Children (or possibly the animal crossing fic), he has to update Movie Mode... or I don't update xD Love you bear, broadcasting this. :P
Please stay safe from the coronavirus. Be an introvert! Stay indoors! xD but seriously that's probably the best way to fight this right now. just stay inside as much as you can and if you do go outside, give everyone a super wide berth. Also practice good hygiene and common sense.
You will only understand the next bit if you played Animal Crossing.
I'm miles and miles away from every nook and cranny with anything dangerous in it right now, or even motivation! Bell-ease give me some motivation for something other than schoolwork (all online) now, or I'll be more bored than a dodo!
That's all for now, guys. See ya, so long, g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
