You aren't surprised at the state of the cottage. It's been several days, and what reports you've been privy to already make it clear that this place has been investigated thoroughly.[break][break]

paxton concordas and PENELOPE LIVY's time here has revealed a serpentine mask associated with the Rocket whose alias was known as 'Viper,' one that kyle lopez himself would recognize from his stint in the Ultra Deep Sea.[break][break]

The strange customer list found earlier likewise suggested some dark and shady dealings, though the full details weren't completely clear there. angelo vestri and John Sullivan's discovery of poisons in the basement likely has not made its way to HQ yet.[break][break]

Navy and Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki would have found a curiously high amount of poisonous flowers present, as well as odd mementos indicative of a checkered past in Kalos already riddled with infamy.[break][break]

Which begs the question -- what on earth can still be left to find?[break][break]

The stench of rotting flowers fills the location. The electricity has turned off. Everything is scattered and thrown apart as if a robbery has picked it clean.[break][break]

Behind the bare shop counter, the door to the greenhouse shows more dying flowers. To the distant right of you, a small kitchenette with a two-chaired table gathers dust. Its cabinets are open and empty, save for ordinary kitchenware.[break][break]

You notice the door to the garden outside has been left open. What was once a beautiful field of flowers is now nothing but a blighted ruin.[break][break]

To the distant front of you, a tucked away nook for reading is barely visible behind a winding staircase that you presume leads to the florist's bedroom.[break][break]

Oddly, a small closet door has been left open behind the stairway.

What will you investigate?

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Maybe it's natural intuition that draws you to the closet first. Maybe it's the fact that you're genre savvy. Or maybe it's just that these stories tend to be predictable, repeating cycles, telling the same plots over and over.[break][break]

Regardless, your choice of investigation is rewarded.[break][break]

Beneath the traditional assortment of things like spare linens and cleaning supplies, you step onto a loose floorboard -- one that seems like it has been pried by another curious hand, leaving it just enough out of alignment to catch your notice.[break][break]

Should you lift it, a door is revealed with a lock that has been forced open by someone long before your arrival, leading to a dimly lit staircase.[break][break]

Isn't it nice when things go as one plans?

Will you descend the stairs?

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Though you do not know it, you have the previous efforts of angelo vestri and John Sullivan to thank for your simple and straightforward entry into this secret place.[break][break]

As you descend the stairs, you see the spiderwebs left behind by SPINARAK and ARIADOS -- though should any remain, the ROAR has scared the Pokemon enough that none are present to fight you now. It is just you here, and your own Pokemon, exploring what appears to be a carcass of a life once privately lived.[break][break]

Your attention is drawn by the scent of unpleasant -- chemicals intermingled with rotting flora. The light of your torch illuminates the source.[break][break]

This room seems more like a laboratory than a basement, with shelves upon shelves of meticulously tagged and recorded vials covering the entirety of the westernmost wall.[break][break]

At the center of the room, a workbench table with various instruments suited for toxicology and perfumery awaits use.[break][break]

A peculiar subset of flower arrangements sits in the back of the room, separate from the ones upstairs. The blight has not appeared to touch them, yet.

What will you investigate?

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

In the flower arrangements, certain things become immediately evident. For one, these are uncommon flowers for typical arrangements; no roses blossom here, nor any orchid, or even carnation or hydrangea. For another, closer inspection reveals the true focal point is not the flowers themselves, but a tiny vial buried in the soil beneath.[break][break]

You are familiar enough in your line of work to know what you already suspect to be true: these are, without a doubt, poisons.[break][break]

Your eyes scan the labels underneath the flowers, and note that a curious naming system is in effect. It would match with the bizarre customer list that PENELOPE LIVY procured from her time in the cottage. It would be enough, however, to deduce the obvious: different arrangements are tied to different poisons.[break][break]

This entire place has been a front. And certain empty shelves with noticeable rings untouched by dust indicate business is, or was, booming.[break][break]

Any other time you spend here might unlock other secrets: the listed poisons organized on the wall. The scientific instruments for concocting unique blends of poisons. Perhaps, if John Sullivan has left it behind, a notebook detailing the specifics of each poison and its antidote might even be discovered.[break][break]

But further investigation would find no corpses, and no imprisoned Leaguers in a dungeon. This place is abandoned.[break][break]

There is no sign of anyone returning any time soon to change that.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Your Manectric's nose might pick up the keen scent of the others who have pilfered this room. PENELOPE LIVY. paxton concordas. Navy. Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki. At this point, it seems to have been visited more by strangers than by the room's owner herself.[break][break]

It's a quaint little bedroom, where a four poster bed commands a majority of the space, a landscape watercolour painting set above it. Across from it, a reading book has been set into the windows, allowing for a perfect view of the gardens outside.[break][break]

You find a closet filled to bursting with expensive clothing that suggest more income than a typical florist would earn. A distinct preference for dresses, skirts, and florals emerges from rifling through its contents. Some jewellery has likewise been left behind. Many, many shoes and purses.[break][break]

Vanity was evidently one of her indulgences.[break][break]

If you keep digging, you can find a few more small details. Bottles of custom perfumes sparkle on her dresser. Books of poetry rest on her nightstand table. Evidence of plant Pokemon wandering about can be found in little bits of soil that litter the floor.[break][break]

If it weren't for the basement you'd just seen, you'd think this was the standard home of a well-off, single woman.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Options aplenty arise for your Mightyena to sniff.[break][break]

Faint perfume clings to the fabric of a few clothes that can be found delicately placed in a hamper, folded carefully and thoughtfully in a tidy pile. Shoes are as easy to obtain, should the Mightyena want to sniff sandals, finer dress heels, or even some well-worn but stylish gardening shoes, which possess an earthy enough scent to work with.[break][break]

Funnily enough, she had never worn the latter while in the company of MATIAS SILPH. But it would be enough to probably confirm kyle lopez's suspicions, accurate or inaccurate as that confirmation might be.[break][break]

The trail to Elisabeth "The Florist" Fiorelli would lead out of the cottage, out of the Petalburg Woods, and towards the coast. Depending on the duration of the ability, it might lead enough to make the eventual destination obvious: the Rocket-run city of Sootopolis.[break][break]

An interesting location for a missing 'civilian', indeed.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The earthy scent of MATIAS SILPH is strong enough that it doesn't fade easily from any premises, as kyle lopez likely well knows.[break][break]

Unfortunately for him, the bedroom is not a place where those scents can be found, save for a neatly folded correspondence that sits in her nightstand drawer. A polite exchange between vendor and client, or something more, perhaps...?[break][break]

Downstairs suggests more clues.[break][break]

Against a wall where many dying and rotting floral arrangements lay abandoned, the distinct scent of MATIAS SILPH lingers heavily, as if he has stood at this spot for a significant amount of time. Given its proximity to a counter, the implied scenario appears to be him standing across from his florist for a lengthy period, which can't be particularly pleasant to imagine from the florist's POV.[break][break]

It brings to mind a scene from a childhood movie for a moment, should kyle lopez have grown up watching those cartoons.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

[break][break]

However, it doesn't take long for Kyle's Pokemon to discover another place where MATIAS SILPH's scent is highly visible: the front door.[break][break]

Which has begun to creak open.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]