Smeargle Premieregle

[indigo_league]

Over the second week of June, little art installations have gone up in towns and cities across Johto and Kanto. And by "art installations"... we mean murals. Lots of murals. Very specifically, a bunch of tricky, deceptive murals made to look convincingly like tunnels, or gates, or practically anything that would make sense in a city! Inattentive Pokemon or trainers may find themselves walking into a hidden wall, or trying to turn a doorknob that isn't actually there. Whether you find this annoying or funny is up to you to decide... but either way, upon closer inspection, there's always a signature somewhere on the mural, and right next to it a wooden box with flyers. Flyers for what, though?

On June 16th, the Smeargle Society's first ever Smeargle Modern Exhibition of Artistic Representation (or SMEAR) opens in Ecruteak City!

What is SMEAR? Well, it's a display of the kind of stuff motivated Smeargles can paint if they really put their minds to it (and possibly have human trainers on hand to help with some construction). No simple marking of territory or painted footprints for Smeargle as spoiled and well-trained as these! But it's also a capital-E Experience.

In plain words: SMEAR is a giant warehouse, with the inside separated into dozens of rooms and built into something weird and spectacular. It’s a little like an adult jungle gym, a little like an art gallery, like an escape room, like a Fairy-type wonderland, like getting lost in a Raikea...

Each room is wildly different: you might be wandering through a spooky wood, and have to climb into a Gengar sculpture's mouth to find the door to the next room. There you might emerge into the alleyway of a city from 100 years ago, and then climb a fire escape into the clouds, which you'll scramble through to end up inside a giant aquarium tank. If you can imagine it, these Smeargles have probably done it! The Smeargle Society seems to go through and lock and unlock doors every day, too, so your experience won't necessarily be the same as your friend's! (Or even your own previous visit, if you come by more than once.)

There are also bonus puzzles scattered through the rooms. What kind of puzzles, you ask? Well - these are also just about anything you can think of, but here are some examples you might stumble over:

• A maze big enough only for your very smallest Pokemon. But while you can see your Pokemon, they can't hear you - you'll have to wait for a different trainer to enter the blocked off other side of the room and guide your Pokemon through it!


• A room with dozens of doors. Most of them are traps, doing things like splattering you with (non-toxic, Pokemon-safe) paint... but one is correct!


• A room full of still life paintings and pedestals. To unlock secret doors behind the paintings, you need to reproduce the still lifes on the pedestals... by having your Pokemon pose and pretend to be apples or bananas!


• Come up with your own!

What do you win for solving a puzzle? If you're lucky and nobody's claimed them all from that particular hiding spot yet, you might find a little ticket. Bring it to the gift shop when you make it to the end of the experience, and one of the intern Smeargles will paint you a little souvenir portrait of one of your Pokemon!

Or maybe you're very unlucky. Whether or not you’ve had success with the tickets, maybe you've gotten desperately lost. Please help, where's the way out?

Either way, once you make it to the end, there's still more to do! There's that gift shop that was mentioned earlier - it’s full of postcards, artbooks, Smeargle plush toys, special seals for Pokeballs, and little knick-knacks hand-painted by Smeargles. Every afternoon, there are painting classes next to the gift shop - geared toward any of your Pokemon that can hold a brush, actually, but there's nothing stopping a trainer from joining in! And every weekend, a lucky few who seem particularly appreciative of the art will be offered a complimentary Smeargle egg.

What if you're far away? Well, while the Smeargle Society can't provide free rides themselves (they blew through all their membership dues and fundraising putting this together)... there are plenty of Flying-type trainers who took one look at the flyers and signed up to fly for UBird. They're only interested in going to and from Ecruteak, to take advantage of all the visitors, but it should be easy enough to get there and back for a nominal fee!

Find the IC log here!

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