[ti]quest[/ti]The Waking Hours

Did you know that studies show you can replace up to 75 percent of your sleep with Deep Dive VR if you set your settings a certain way?  It's results were still in the process of trying to be replicated, and the magazine it was published in hadn't gone through proper peer review procedures, but that didn't matter enough to stop Orion from willfully wanting to believe in it.  He'd been doing it for a while and hadn't noticed that many changes to his waking hours.  Either way, Orion was burning the candle at both ends on this night, working with his Tauros to try and clear some of the ruined roads for people to safely ride in with their Pokemon.  The ping caught his attention as he was in the middle of taking a breather and wiping digital sweat off his virtual forhead.  

Laguna: Hey.
Laguna: Come to the Dunes if you aren't already on your way here.
Laguna: I got this strange quest.
Cayge_Match: Say less, be right over

"Oi, Asterion Change of plans bud."  He called out to the bull playing china shop with rusted metal frames.  The black furred creature flipped one last fucked up Ford Focus before turning to face it's master.

"NO MORE BREAKING?" it drawled in a low guttural grunt.  

"Break more later, gotta go catch a friend.  Drop your horns and lemme hop on."  Orion closed the difference, and with the aid of his obedient bull quickly hooked an arm gently around the base of the horn and heaved himself over the creature's thick neck.  "Remember the Dunes?  We're heading that way bud."

"WHY?"  

"Adventure's with Blue."

...

Orion soon found himself cresting the dune, squinting about before spotting Laguna on the ground.  "What's this strange quest you fou-"

A loud bang in the distance cut him off, his gaze instinctually darting to the direction of the noise as a strange light crested over a distant dune and exploded in a flurry of strange colors and lights that seemingly pulsed as it suffused through the air.  Another bang, and this time Orion's eyes could perceive a small shimmer in the inky black as another projectile took flight, crested in it's parabolic ascent, and BAM, another trippy lightshow of pulsing alien colors.  Orion's jaw dropped in awe as soon the whole night sky seemed to be filled with this strange dancing light, as if it were oil floating in water, staining the inky black night sky with what looked to be stars from another galaxy.  And against this strange light, a small group lay silhouetted in the distance as they too crested a distant dune.  Too small to make out, but close enough for Orion to watch as another of them seemed to hurl a glowing orb into the sky and another BOOM to suffuse the air.

"Are you seeing this too?" 

"It sure is..."  Orion breathed, drinking in the starscape before them from his vantage point.

Orion allowed Laguna to pull him from his perch atop Asterion, balling the mon as he tumbled down the dune after her.  Her frost danced along the desert dunes with a light shimmer of blue illuminating the night.  Orion, though not as graceful at first, managed to right himself on his trailblazer kicks, sparks of contrasting orange joining in the air in an ephemeral dance.  Lowering his mass, Orion managed to build up some speed and dart ahead of his blue haired companion with a hearty chuckle.

"Don't fall behind now blue!"  He would call over his shoulder with a wide grin plastered across his face.  

As they grew closer the booms of the "fireworks" were joined by...music?  Nothing akin to anything Orion had ever really heard before, the noise was...harmonious and possessed something that could be called a melody.  It rambled through the air with a jaunty sort of rhythm, something halfway between ambling and power walking.  The tones were warped, and given that no instruments were in sight Orion could only assume they were singing with voices that sounded like a chorus being filtered through a 1940's radio in reverse.  A hauntingly alien but familiar tune, abstract but nostalgic.  

As he Orion hit the bottom of the dunes he found himself grinding to a stop to eye the crowd a little more analytically.  These were...ultra beasts?  He vaguely recalled the notion of the creatures, though despite his started being the macho WWE cat he'd never actually played Sun or Moon.  Still, they looked...pokemon adjacent.  A line of Celesteela seven deep were flanked by half a dozen Xurkitree on each side.  They walked in a sloppy lock step, with the Xurkitree taking turns lobbing the fireworks into the air every seventh step or so.  A Guzzlord seemed to be the Parade leader, waddling bombastically in the front with an exaggerated otherworldly swagger whilst a veritable swarm of other beasts began to mob behind the procession with little method to the madness.   

"Whoa..." Orion found himself muttering under his breath, turning to face Laguna as she pulled up alongside him.  "What does the quest prompt say to do?  Are we just...following them?"

As they grew closer to the Parade Orion took in what they had, water, plants, corrupted Pokémon, all held aloft with some sort of reverence.  The sky continued to melt away, as if the monsters were stripping the outer layer to some mysterious deeper layer.  Soon, meteors began to streak across the sky like a glimmering lightshow to accompany the strange music.  The longer he stood there the more vivid the colors grew, a slow warmth spreading through his body like a gentle buzz.  

He imagined this is what molly felt like.

Turning back to Blue as she joined the dance, shrugging.  "Fuck it, lets trip on some alien space dust, ball out, and see where the night takes us."  Clearly the contest was on, with her cranking the drip to maximum overdrive with three overlapping special effects just to dash past him on there way here.  It was on like motherfucking donkey kong, and he was not about to be outvibed on this groovecoaster.  He would join his rival, finding a rather strange rhythm has he opened his mind to the music.  It was alien, defying human standards of music as a whole, yet it still managed to fucking slap.  Maybe it was the cosmic space dust, maybe it was part of the whole scenario being baked up in their minds by digital wizards, or maybe it reached into the human subconscious and brought the strange and esoteric to life.  Either way, once Orion found the groove, it was as if he'd never been out of the groove.  Like this melody was something he was born with, baked into the soul of his existence from the word go.  The dance that came along was almost instinctual, like his muscles were born with the choreography stitched into their very fibers.  It'd been a minute since he'd let himself get this fucked up, sure a few heavy nights of drinking would get him loose, but he'd never experienced anything like this before.  The moment the notion crossed his mind his gaze danced over to Blue, worried how she was reacting as they continued to dance.

When did she get so pretty?

Once he set his eyes on her it became difficult to pull them away, enraptured with the music, the dance, the sheer vibes.  The rational part of his brain had punched out for the night, and all he could think of was how glad he was that he'd stumbled into this with her of all people, his rival and dance partner.  Part of him knew that this was a scripted event, and tons of other people would experience this same music and this same parade, this wasn't "special." But then again, no matter how many times this procession schmoozed it across the desert to wherever it was going, this one moment in time shared between these two would never be captured exactly again.  

A percussive THUMP, broke Orion's trance as a shooting star crashed into the desert in the distance, the reverberations trembling through the sand like a bass drum.  THUMP, another star crashed to their right with a shower of sparks.  They were like fireworks shot in reverse, or perhaps return fire from space.  Another landed slightly closer, still several thousand feet away, but enough to send a small jolt of adrenaline into the fighter, sobering him up enough to show some concern for Laguna.

"Yo stay frosty blue, don't want any of those landing on you," a smirk would cross his lips.  "Can't be having anything happen to my favorite dance partner."

Orion didn't even have to wish on a star for her to take his hands in hers, pulling her closer with an instinctual tug as they joined together into one smooth dance.  There was no need to communicate what they were doing, it was as natural as breathing as they followed the rhythm of their hearts joining in sync.  The world itself around them began to melt away, there wasn't a parade or a meteor shower, the stars weren't the most gorgeous watercolor swirling overhead.  

It was just Beauty and the Beast.

Her laugh brought him back to some semistate of lucidity for a moment as have her palms a light squeeze.  "Well, l can warm these hands up for you at least."  God that was fucking corny, but he didn't care at this moment.  The two would twirl through the night, the chill of her fingers meeting the warmth of his kindler spirit, steam and sparks flying whenever and wherever they made contact.  He could feel her pulse through her fingers, aligning with his as they grew more and more in sync.  Even when he extended his arms and twirled her it was like there was no space between them.

"I don't want this to end"

Her words quickened his heart a bit, and a blush formed across his face, or had it always been there?  When was the last time he'd felt like this?  Shit, had he ever felt like this?  He would give her a quick spin before pulling his partner back, wrapping one arm around her waist, the other still holding her hand gently as he would pull her into a dip and back up, removing any space that was between them.

"Careful Blue," he would chide.  "Chanda mama could hit us with a curse any moment and make that a reality."  Another twirl and swirl as the two slid down a dune.  "Though," his eyes locked into hers, "I wouldn't mind being stuck with you for an eternity."

Ah fuck it.

Inhibitions bared, Orion was like ninety nine percent sure she felt the same way he did.  Pulling her closer once again he would go for a dip, though this time his lips would find hers as he let his passions and feelings be known.  The frost on her breath mingling with the fire on his, literal sparks flying as steam radiated off the two of them.  A single moment would feel like an eternity well worth waiting for, her soft lips pressed against his.  He would break the smooch as he lifted back up, righting the two of them before looking her in the eyes once again.

"Have I ever told you how amazing you are?"  He'd ask, unaware of the sun slowly beginning to light up the night.  "Cause you're the most amazing person I've met, inside and outside the game."

Her smile was brighter than the rising sun, and her laughter sweeter than any phantasmal melody that had heralded their journey to this moment.  Hell, the music had been part of the finale, their journey to this moment months in the making.  From their first major encounter at the school event, to declarations of rivalry in the professors lab, to shared suffering across the many events.  A mutual respect had formed into something he could no longer deny, she stirred something inside his heart that he couldn't, no, wouldn't put into words. 

It scared him shitless. 

It made his heart flutter.

His body was stuck between fight and flight, but as the light washed over him and her words hung in the air he would simply match her laughter, a joyous melody and mirth and more.  His arms pulled her closer, removing any and all space between them as he uttered his simple reply.

"I'll only get sappier, just for you."  

Leaning down he would take her lips in his once more as the scene went white, something big seemed to have touched down near them, there was probably a sick ass cutscene happening behind her, not that he'd ever know.  He was too enraptured in this moment to give a fuck.  Their hearts and breath in sync, the two confirmed their affections as everything faded away into nothing.

...

When the light faded away, Orion found himself staring into her blue eyes silently as he simply swayed gently in the breeze to the beat of their hearts.  The sky above a swirling blur of orange and blues as the morning sun crept well above the horizon.  For the first time since they'd started dancing he dared to break his gaze away and look past her to the bronze shrine that shone gently in the sun.  He paused, blinking a few times before sucking in his breath.

"Holy shit, Blue..."  he breathed.  "I think we just found the shrine of a dead legendary..."

What a hell of second date.