[ti]scenario[/ti]Wishes of Unusual Resilience

Torino carried her egg everywhere.

The DNA had called to her inside Cygnus's carriage, and afterwards she felt compelled to advance it into a full egg immediately. It was like the stars themselves were egging her on, pushing for this starchild to be born as swiftly as possible.

The stars had infinite patience, of course, but sometimes the pull of gravity would streak one to earth with surprising haste.

"I did not know about this place!" Torino said, as her snow shoes crunched on the silvergrass floor. "The plants are so bright!" She stroked one of the stalks with care, expecting it to be sharp. But no, moonlight had worn the blades smooth, and there was only the slight cold of touching wild metal.

A distant breath of wind set the hanging dreams clattering, and the metal tags set off a windchime chorus of wishes. Torino's heart soared, and she knew she must join them!

The grove had no center. No bowl, altar, or physical 'shrine' sitting and waiting to be worshiped. Every stalk here was important. Torino picked an iron tag from the ground and held it one-handed. "How do I wish?" she asked. There was no pen that would write on the metal. No clear way to make her dreams known.

Torino looked around at the grove and set her stance wide, egg tucked under one arm. "I will be back, Dreamplace!" she said, and strode off into the grassland in search of a pen.

As a person born with a silver spoon in his mouth, many would assume that Arthur didn't need, perhaps did not deserve, any sort of wishes. But life was a series of wants, no matter how much of it was already granted in one way or another. He was not satisfied with life, but to know exactly what he wanted to wish for, well, that was a harder question to answer.

Nonetheless, the place, appearing on the map, drew him in despite the dangers, because he was aiming to unlock some trainer titles, and one of them involved shrines. This didn't look like one of the shrines he was supposed to visit though - if anything, there didn't seem to be any shrine at all. A shrine in the making? But it was discernibly special from its surroundings, because there was a clearly defined line when the stalks of grass were of a different color, like something magical washed over them. Well, it was not just the color, but their stature, and yet they bend slightly to the wind, letting themselves get rattled like bamboo.

It is said that if you write a heartfelt wish in iron, hang it from a sturdy stalks, and ring a bell of purest silver, that an all-seeing creature will bend the future for you.

Or so the pop up window said. Indeed, when he looked around some more, there were thin iron tags scattered all over. It reminded him of what people in the military wore, not that he had ever been. Much of his knowledge was from media, really. Gou, who had been riding on his shoulder, jumped down and let his feet touch soil. The silver grass, sharp as it looked, was gentle and considerate. Koro, on the other hand, stood too short - the stalks were past his head, but that didn't stop him from hitting his antennae and playing music that he felt fit the mystical scene.

Arthur turned to his Pokemon, ❝Any idea on how to write something on a metal tag?❞

<Perhaps your dragon's claw would be sufficient.> the Kricketot continued to improvise a tune, letting the notes get carried by the wind.

<His claw will cleave the tag.> the Chimchar was trying to scratch a tag he picked up, but his own claws left barely a mark - too light to feel like it was worth much of anything.

❝Yeah, we'll need something smaller. Some kind of mineral pen...❞ he thought of how only diamond was strong enough to cut diamond. Perhaps they didn't need such a precious gemstone, but it had to be harder than whatever this thing was made of. Maybe with his Kindler class, he might be able to handle something heated?

If nothing else, it felt nice to settle here for a while. Maybe someone else would come by, also lured in by the promise of wishes.

<< Party >>

          

squeezing myself in here lol

A stormy moon rumbled its discontent above the shifting steppes.

Far below, carving his way through the grass with his one free arm, was Big Bee. He had an egg held in the crook of his other arm. The shell was speckled, like flecks of foam across a sea of black coffee. "Good night to be out!" he said optimistically.

Bee pulled aside another sheaf of thick stalks, and had to shield his eyes from the captured moonlight. "Ah! What the hell!" The glow of the irongrass was unnatural. On a night with a shadowed moon, nothing in the Steppes glowed as brightly as this little grove.

Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the stolen moonlight. He could feel the glow soaking into his skin, and catching strangely on the shell of his Cosmog egg.

Behind Bee swam an ancient creature, its opal-patched skin gleaming. Odyssey, his Relicanth. "A night of uncommon dark...and portent..." Odyssey said mystically.

Bee's feet caught on fallen metal tags, and he picked one out of the clattering floor. "Wish tags?" he asked, turning one over. It was blank iron on both sides. "Good timing, I've got plenty to wish for." He picked up a second tag and used the sharp edge as a pen to carve a message into the first.

I wish for Cosmog to grow up big and strong!

A simple message, sure, but a sentiment echoed often by expectant parents. When in doubt, keep it simple.

Odyssey floated beside him, peering over his shoulder. "What would you wish upon this fresh-faced world?"

"The tag? I want my little guy to grow up strong! Just like Jam did."

"A nameless form, taking shape inside its light-less shell..."

"Are you saying I should name it now? But I don't know if it's a boy or a girl! I guess legendaries are usually genderless...but there's usually a gender vibe, you know?" Bee picked up a third tag, and scratched a message into the second.

I wish I knew what to name Cosmog

He hung both tags up on a high irongrass stalk, and watched as their flat, spinning faces caught the glow the moonlight glow.

For those that wish upon the stars, a silver bell awaits your hand.
And for those that throw wishes away, know that the stars are always watching you.

Once your wish is writ and hung, there is one more step: to ring the silver bell.

It is said that the bell will sing but one note —for that is all you need to call the all-seeing creature— and that once it sings, the bell will lose its voice and flee to the far reaches of the Steppes to hide itself in shame.

Find the bell, restore its voice, and ring the pure note.
Torino Alicia Westfield Respiro Kyukon Rose Garden Big Bee

Rumors really did have an insidious way of spreading around the area—

One such flashed across his screen one day while he was meandering around the Surge Steppes, trying to figure out a way to get his Grookey back.

(As it was, the only clues he had were that the scene of the crime was over at Ostellia, so he would have to investigate there, but the question is, who could he go with?)

He would eventually be drawn to the place as well; seeing that there were several others that had approached as well; drawn by the lure of writing down a wish…

The only problem here was that there was no readily-available writing implements—not even a quick scroll through the in-game store inventories showed such.

“That’s going to be rough,” he muttered to himself once he’d seen several of the wishes that had already been hung up on the—

Wait, wait, hold the fuck up, who wrote that?

‘For a winter that never comes.’

He would immediately pop open his menu and send a message to Polaris, asking the Frenchman if he knew of any other players on this server that had also been on the European server, and would close the menu out while he found a slab of metal long enough to write on.

Did the language of the wish matter?

Maybe… if there were any other players who had a language overlay turned on, they would immediately figure out any foreign text.

(Which was hilarious since his own in-game language was set to French, not Italian.)

Quick as a flash, he would summon his own Vulpix, who would look up at him curiously; he was holding the metallic slab and trying to figure out if there were any rocks or stones strong enough to make a dent on the metal.

‘What are you doing?’ an unfamiliar voice would catch his attention, and he would very nearly drop—

“Leanne?” he would quietly ask the Vulpix, who would nod his way.

‘Yes, that’s right. You gave me that name. Can you tell me why?’ the vulpine Pokémon would ask him.

“Well… I named you… after someone determined. Someone I know, outside of here, who is quiet, yet determined not to let life knock them down.”

‘I quite like that. What are you trying to do with that piece of metal?’

“Well… the only way I can think of is to shape the metal, make it malleable enough to write on…”

‘Say less,’ was all the Vulpix would say next; releasing a steady stream of heat from her tails; which he would then hold the metallic slab close to.

This would take a while; however once the piece of metal was workable enough, he would quickly scratch words down—words that only he could understand.

[tangent=‘I wish I had more time to spend with you, love. I’m sorry if I let you down when you needed me the most.’]‘Vorrei avere più tempo da trascorrere con te, amore. Mi dispiace se ti ho deluso quando avevi più bisogno di me.’[/tangent]

His wish wasn’t for his in-game self, but for his real-life self…

‘What language is that?’ the Vulpix would ask him once the metal had cooled down enough and the words remained etched into the cold surface.

“I’ll… I’ll tell you someday. Just… not now,” he replied quietly, turning away from the Fire-type to hide the fact that his eyes were welling up with tears once again. Why was he cracking open so easily these days…?

‘Are you okay?’

“…yeah. I’m fine,” he would reassure the Fire-type, as he walked forward—the vulpine following after him as he found a place to hang his slab of metal from.

It may be just a wish, but it was an unfulfilled one… the weight of which still bothered him, even to this day.

well that took a really sad turn

Seconds after letting go of Ares' tail, Josh could have sworn he felt a handle appear in his hand, just like the prophecy read. In the real world, such a coincidence would be something he would dismiss as a folk tale. In a game like UNOVR, though, these foretold texts had weight. Meaning. Maybe they really could make their wishes come true. As if by subconscious compulsion, Josh reached for Luna's Poké Ball and embraced the big cat. The feline reciprocated that affection with a vibrant purr that made the scout's hair stand on end. "Let's go." Hoisting himself into the saddle, Josh gently reined the feline deeper into the Steppes, keeping Alicia Westfield 's advice in mind.

Ares sat in Saber's saddle, the three Pokémon scouring the Dragon's Maw in search of the silver bell. Were it not for the electric wolf's capacity to be a biological lightning rod, all three of them would have been fried. Even the aggressive, brave Charmeleon's skin tingled after the near misses that his Manectric steed absorbed.

On a cliffside near the edge of the Dragon's Maw, a monochrome panorama filling the void beyond, was a familiar face. One Josh wasn't expecting to see on his hunt.

ARAVAN ESCHER, his RIVAL.

"Look who it is," the oceanographer deadpanned as he reached for one of two SILVER BELLS near him. Clearly still distraught by their last meeting, Josh had an idea what his rival's wish would be. "I knew you wanted to be shorter, but you've got to be the smallest character on UNOVR. You... look like a comic book character in that getup."

"I never got to say it after our battle. I'm so sorry for your loss; had I known you weren't carrying any more Pokémon, I would have called the match then and there," Josh sympathized. "If you're here to battle with me, I refuse to do it here. We can square off in the Arena, where there's no danger to white out."

"The sentiment is... sweet, but that's not going to bring Enigma back from the Everworld," Aravan sobbed as he held the bright and valuable instrument in his hand. That was all Josh needed to know; he just wanted his Nihilego back. Little did he know that his rival had been to the Everworld once already, and failed Seta's trial. "But the all-seeing creature can. And that's my only hope to get them back."

Not wanting to accelerate the acoustic savant's spiral of negative emotions further, Josh withdrew Ares and offered his rival a seat on his Manectric. "Come on. Let's head back to the Sea of Grass before it gets any worse." The big cat and dog, trainer and rival in tow, ferried both of them back, Josh returning to where he hung his wish. His rival's silver blade from which his own wish had been hung was not far.

"O Great One, hallowed be thy name. I wish no more than to be made thine holy Knight of Thunder. Make me thine loyal servant; a herald of your eternal, everlasting kingdom whose reign endures for ever and ever, Amen."

"O Beast of the Sea, hallowed be thy name. I wish for the safe return of Enigma. Deliver the Nihilego from the trials of the Everworld. For their safe passage, I repent..."

Almost in sync with one another, their silver bells sounded identical loud, clear notes. Those notes were far from ones a bell would be expected to make. The bells sounded replicas of their own voices. No. The bells used their bearers' voices to power their own.. as if they spoke through their bearers to the all-seeing creature itself.