[ti]closed[/ti][C][S] Ante Up

Josh nodded along with Alicia's long-winded opinion about the series' side games, occasionally peeking at his cards and tossing them into the muck, along with a small blind and big blind with every orbit. "I...didn't care for the human-as-Pokémon concept. I did enjoy playing as Raikou, though. I hope Raikou comes to UNOVR soon," he mused. If Alicia could connect the dots to Josh's bringing up a Pokémon racer, she would know exactly why.

Even after three orbits, not even a low pocket pair, suited connectors, nothing playable. The only interesting hand involved the player on Alicia's left going broke after their Kings were cracked by a flopped full house. "Oh, Puzzle League! We should trade handles and play online. I played in a few online tournaments for that game. Some live ones, too." He had fond memories of making the top eight in the largest live tournament in North America six years ago.

Was he going to get a racing aficionado once all the framework was down? One competitor was a start; hopefully more will follow. "Let's exchange friend codes. I don't accept long distance DMs from people not on my friends list."

Indeed, the Johto Beast was Josh's favorite Pokémon. "I love all three of them, but especially Raikou. When I was a kid, I dreamed of riding the fastest animals in the world. Sadly, they're not strong enough to carry even the most lithe human, and even if they were, their flexing backs would kill your spine so fast." Such was only one of many issues with riding a predator. They were not built to be beasts of burden, unlike horses or even large dogs. Instinct was powerful, and could kick in on even the most domesticated big cats. It was a mistake a would-be rider would only get to make once; with how strong and fast they were, a horrible death would be all but inevitable.

This was a video game, though. Once equipped with a saddle, even the most vicious predator would be wholly obedient to commands through leg and reins. Strength was often handwaved in favor of the Rule of Cool, too; it all came down to size and body shape.

"Got it. Looking forward to it," he replied. Because he could not take messages in-game out of the game, he would have to commit the letter and number sequence to memory. It might take two or three logins just to do that. Thankfully, UNOVR wasn't so large that it didn't suffer from routine server congestion.

A couple orbits later, Josh looked down at suited Broadway cards. No way he wasn't playing these. "Raise," he announced, but it was an unusual sizing: a minimum 3-bet. Was it to disguise the strength of his hand?

With Alicia requesting to be dealt out, the saloon's staff would request she pulled up a different chair next to the table if she wanted to observe the game. If she were to comply with that request, she would return to Josh scooping up a small pot. Apparently no one had action enough to call a 3-bet. Disappointing, but scooping up the blinds helped. Unfortunately for him, he would bleed that win away, again card dead for some time.

"I am," Josh answered. "I always dreamed of riding big cats. And Raikou's the fastest one out there. Could you imagine it? It would be like... riding a living lightning bolt." Would it be overwhelming? Absolutely. Would it make him sore beyond belief? Absolutely. Would it be worthwhile? Hell yes.

"Sadly, they aren't," the blonde answered. "It was one of the first things I looked into. You see, Alicia, I don't care whether my favorites are strong or weak. I just want to succeed with them. There are other mighty fast legendary Pokémon already loaded into the game, though." As they would find out later from their trip to Mistra, Zapdos were exceedingly fast. Riding one would be both a challenge and a real grind to not only get the raw level needed to craft a saddle, but to build up the relationship for the bird to agree to wear one in the first place.

After all, legendary Pokémon were fickle.