[ti]closed[/ti][S][C/Alkaid] Beleaguered Castle

There was no way he was going to risk riding his Celesteela out here again, especially not after the fiasco that was the race that had happened. The whistling noise had really gotten to him; and so he would make a mental note not to take them out of Ostellia—for the time being.

“Let me guess—you found me because there was nobody else, or I was the closest one nearby?” he drawled; thankfully able to keep up with the other (who for some reason had insisted riding a Dewgong on land, in mid-air of all things).

(Of course, little did he know he was going to get into a lot more adventures’ worth of trouble with this particular kid in the future!)

“I’ll know what Pokémon I want when I see ‘em,” he would quietly remark. Would it be a good idea to tell him that he’d already played this game before; albeit on a different server?

Josh Devlin

“I asked, in case you missed it—are we going to meet any Pokémon in here?” he would clarify—he wondered if the other had gotten tired hearing the constant whistling noise coming from his Celesteela because of the way that his own invasive Pokémon had acted during the race.

(It had almost driven him to madness, if we’re being honest here.)

“If you’re here for the levels, I… am actually here for similar reasons, too. More like monetary reasons, since I want to fully unlock my Tank skill tree first and foremost in case there’s a big server-wide event coming up soon.”

He wondered how the other would take the information that he’d already played this game (albeit on a different server) and was playing it again out of sheer spite for majority of the European player database making a hive-minded mistake that led to his home server’s downfall…

Josh Devlin

“Oh, we can’t catch anything? Sucks. But the experience should definitely help out with getting our Pokémon companions stronger,” he nodded as he watched the other open the door so they could go inside.

(Of course, the only ‘fully evolved’ companion he had here was the Celesteela, but that was neither here nor there.)

Once he was inside, he would then summon his Murkrow, Muninn, who would fly around them for a few moments before settling to follow him from behind, acting as an extra pair of eyes in case they were jumped.

“What about that place?”

For the life of him, he couldn’t recall anything like that existing back in the EU servers back home. It had been so long since he returned back there to check in on the ‘madness’ that had consumed most of the place.

“Is there something special about it?”

Josh Devlin

The corvid Pokémon would let out a warning caw that there was something coming—and much tempted as he was to use Astonish, that was a Normal-type Raticate and he wasn’t going to fuck this up in front of his idiot human!

So instead, he would copy what the Liepard had done and flew down low, cawing derisively all the while Taunting the other Raticate to follow him; before cuffing the Rat Pokémon upside the head with a surprise Sucker Punch!

Thankfully the Hyper Fang from the Raticate attacking the Murkrow ended up biting into thin air before a Gust of wind blew the other Pokémon away.

“But doesn’t the character select screen allow for any cosmetic additions to your… you know, in-game self?” he continued; blinking at the sight of the… huh.

What was up with the Liepard’s saddle?

Josh Devlin

Okay, wait—hold up.

“How in the name of everything unholy can a Yanmega carry someone your size?” he would blink. Sure, he was reminded of a certain something happening—a story for another day—about how someone roughly his size was carried by a Yanmega’s legs before flying into mid-air.

“Aren’t Yanmega like, really thin? Won’t they snap in half if they tried to carry you?”

But no, the confusion wouldn’t end there!

“Funny. Because I can go back and add on more cosmetics—like this,” and he would then temporarily drop the clothing he was wearing to show the other that there were a multitude of tattoos across his back, most of his arms, and even across his shoulders and chest.

“Strange how you can’t, but I can. I spent ages trying to get all of these right.”

(Because in Italy, if you were a marked man, there was a very high chance you would be correlated to the mafia. And that wasn’t safe, so.)

“I might add some more later. Maybe you must’ve skipped one of the other options on the character creation screen to change additional aesthetic looks after completing character creation, or something.”

Josh Devlin

The moment the other revealed what exactly he was going to do, he had to resist the urge to either roll his eyes, or pinch the bridge of his nose.

“You do realize, that if you age yourself down into a small child, you might get locked out of certain areas too, right?”

He’d heard word on the wind about a blonde who loved frequenting a certain saloon to play cards, and boy that would get awkward when a kid walked in and challenged every single patron in that particular saloon to a card game and not be taken seriously.

He then remembered something else.

Hoisting the top of his clothes back on (so that most of the tattoos were hidden from sight except for a pair of wings that were angling upwards on his neck) he then asked the other his next question.

“Why didn’t you choose the ‘Teen’ age slider when you first made your in-game avatar, then?”

Josh Devlin

He would then give the other player an affectionate sort of eye roll.

“Idiota, I meant that remark for your card-playing pasttime. Plus they might not serve you beer or any adult drinks at the bar after you change your avatar,” he drawled, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Back on his original server, most of everyone who played unsurprisingly chose the ‘Adult’ age for their characters—there were a few running around as ‘Teen’agers, and there was even a niche part of—he couldn’t remember if it was the British or the Spanish side of the EU server—who chose to play as stodgy old ‘Senior’ codgers.

Not a single person apparently wanted to be stuck as a ‘Child’ because of… settings, he presumed.

“Lead the way.”

His Murkrow would circle around them; before giving him the signal that everything was clear—for now.

Josh Devlin