[ti]private[/ti][C/Shalin] Fae Play

As Shalin was returning to Birchwild from the Noonlight Shrine, she received a direct message from Alicia Westfield , laced with silliness. She cross-checked the coordinates she was given; it seemed they were right at the entrance to the Whimsical Woods. It was a place that was not the easiest to leave other than by fast travel, what with its layout being largely non-Euclidean. Responding to it, she let Alicia know where she was:

DIRECT MESSAGE> I'm a ways out - had to run some errands at the Noonlight Shrine. You'll see a new Pokémon of mine. Be there as quickly as I can!

She wasn't kidding either; she was gonna get there fast. Within a few minutes, the Gardener would sight a familiar Pheromosa shooting across the land, zigging and zagging out of control in large part due to being taken out of Ostellia. The super-speedy roach seemed to not want to obey her, his antennae serving as reins going flying out of her hands in the middle of a sharp turn. The bug-type at last slowed to a stop quite the distance from Alicia, the girl catching her breath as she recalled the Invasive Species.

Shalin at last managed to grab Nymris' antennae, making sure not to touch their tips. She found out the hard way that grabbing onto them by the very ends triggered the Pheromosa to buzz her. "I'm okay now," the greenette answered Alicia. "Getting better with communicating with him, too. I found out what caused him to buzz me; it's grabbing onto his antennae at their tips. So I have to hold them a little awkwardly to steer him. It's still fun, though! He's... breathtakingly fast." The bug-type smiled widely, proud of being able to bring Shalin on a thrill the Invasive Species would never have been able to dream of otherwise.

"So I've heard there's something out here. An Instance called the Wing Dungeon. Been here a while, but no one seems to have completed it. Is that what this is about?" she asked, though it seemed like Alicia had a destination in mind already. Assuming they could reach it easily, what with the woods' zone markers being shuffled.

Shalin gulped upon hearing that Venex lashed out upon being released outside Ostellia. With stingers the size of swords, the Naganadel was truly a dangerous species to have go berserk. She smiled upon hearing the Pidgeotto's comment. "It'll be interesting to see how much it has to do with flying. Or this game's equivalent of it, given its limitations here," Shalin mused as she rode alongside Alicia, her Pheromosa under control... for now.

It seemed Alicia was looking for an aimless adventure, though finding this Wing Dungeon sounded fun, too. "We can work on both! I'm sure getting to the entrance will be a puzzle all on its own. I think I want to switch to a more reliable Pokémon, though." Sliding off her Pheromosa's wing, the explorer clicked open a different Poké Ball, this one containing a Galarian Ponyta inside. It may have looked strange seeing the saddle in a much more... ordinary position, given what Alicia had seen before.

As soon as she sat astride the psychic-type, a tutorial screen popped up, this one much clearer than the last one she glimpsed when she first rode the Pheromosa. "Aha, so this is what the prompt is supposed to look like! Alicia, you got any Pokémon you are trying to learn to ride with?" she asked. Perhaps they could both get their riding training done together!

Shalin covered her mouth upon hearing Sylvene's quip. To her, it was just a game, but to the Pokémon, this place was as real as the world outside UNOVR was. "This will actually be my first time seeing the riding tutorial," the greenette pointed out. "When I tried going through it with Nymris, it was what's colloquially known in the glitch hunting community as pixel vomit. Common on older consoles from before I was born, it's the game reading non-graphical data as graphics. This is often accompanied by a game crash as a result of reading unintended data as code and executing an impossible instruction."

The tutorial provided very basic instructions on how to control a mount's speed and direction. "It's gonna feel a bit different having actual reins to hold than Nymris' antennae," Shalin remarked as she held the Galarian Ponyta's reins. "Reynir's definitely a lot more stable, plus I don't have to worry about my hands sliding down to his tips. I found out that's what triggers him to buzz - touching the tips of his antennae directly." It made sense; they were highly sensitive body parts, and her grabbing onto their tips had to overload the poor Pokémon's senses. "Admittedly, now that I know when it's coming, buzzing is really fun!"

Once Shalin had full control over both speed and direction, boost moves notwithstanding, she squeeze Reynir's sides and held his reins steadily. With a cute whinny, the psychic-type chased after Nushi, letting the more experienced navigator lead the way.

Shalin smiled at Alicia's understanding of the inner workings of video games. She had taken deep dives into game code herself, and found reading documentation of others' work fascinating. "Yep, that's how it usually shows up. As a fellow coder, you know the saying: garbage in, garbage out. Data validation is important, but developers on old hardware didn't have the space to do so. Remember, Super Mario Bros. had to fit within 128 kilobytes."

In the modern age, games were pushing a terabyte in size. It was hard to imagine all the limitations developers had to put up with to make a quality product with. Nowadays, that console's entire library could easily fit on a flash drive. "When we're not in so much danger, maybe I should give Nushi a try," Shalin offered. "I have a lot more experience with riding Pokémon." She, of course, didn't consider how much of a maniac Alicia likely perceived her as. That offer might not have gone over too well.

"Will keep a sharp eye out," the greenette nodded as she spurred Reynir onward to try to keep up with the Veluza. The psychic fish was just too swift, making her scream, "Wait up!" as she guided her own psychic-type in pursuit.

As much of a marvel as modern technology was, ancient technology was equally marvelous, if not more so, for those familiar with it. The lengths developers went for just to save a few bytes of memory was marvelous, though it was a lot easier to justify when the device in question only had 8 kilobytes of RAM. "Honestly, playing a game of the same series from every console generation is one of the best way to get an appreciation for how much technology's advanced," the greenette suggested before Nushi warned what kind of ride she was going on. Shalin turned toward the Veluza before responding, "Never know until you try!"

Reynir wasn't the fastest of equine Pokémon, even as a Galarian Rapidash, but it was impressive just how fast the Veluza could swim. With psychic powers at his employ, she only could daydream of what other kind of wild maneuvers he was capable of. Now was not the thing to dwell on it; she and her partners needed to focus, for there were some mischievous fairy-type Pokémon about to make things difficult for the teams of Pokémon and rider. "Stay focused and take good mental notes," Shalin reiterated.

It seemed like Nushi wasn't outright opposed, though it would take a bit more convincing before the psychic-type would let Shalin saddle up. Their concerns were valid, too; Shalin had shown she struggled with incredibly high straight-line speeds. It was so strange; she could handle her Pheromosa's vibrations but not an expert sprinting Pokémon?

All of a sudden, Shalin's surroundings faded to white, much like they did when entering a loading zone that moved underground to the outside world. If Alicia could hear anything within the pocket dimension, she would have been able to hear the rider screaming for her, and the greenette's mount whinnying in fright, galloping endlessly down one path of the repeating four-way intersection. Faster and faster she rode, the terrain repeating endlessly. As cool as it was to be able to zip through the forest at speed with her Ponyta, the real problem dawned on her:

How would she get out?