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

Maybe he’d gotten a little too emotional after he hung up the slab of metal that had his ‘wish’ written on it, because not too long afterward he realized that there was something—

Something seemingly floating in front of him, waiting for him to pull at it and make it real.

“Wha…” he would stammer, hastily wiping the sides of his eyes with the back of his other hand. “I thought it was just…”

‘I thought the same as well.’

Back outside in the real world, this could’ve been considered an uncanny case of déjà vu, however fact of the matter was that they were inside a world where literally anything plausible could be done (with some exceptions) so with some trepidation, he would reach for the strange ‘thing’ floating within his field of vision and pull at it.

Both human and Pokémon blinked at the strange phenomenon… how did this materialize into existence? Then again, there were even stranger forces at work here, so…

‘Where do we go now?’

“To the edge of the world, apparently.”

He knew that this wish of his was incredibly selfish; but realized that maybe he could… maybe he could propel this wish to happen for someone else.

Anyone else, who may happen to stumble on the wish itself and interpret it in so many ways—maybe it would be a message for them to slow down and spend time with someone that they cared about, or to take time from the world and take care of themselves.

(Admittedly, something he’d not been doing recently.)

The two would then wander through the Steppes; sticking close to the natural ‘lightning rods’ to avoid getting zapped by unexpected lightning bolts that came crashing down from the rumbling heavens above. Beyond the boundaries of the Steppes proper itself, they would come across the Maze of Marvels—and for some reason it looked like the end of this maze they’d stumbled upon would lead to a place isolated enough for the bell that they now had in their other hand to ring out.

‘What now?’

“We make the trip.”

Admittedly; it felt like they were travelling due north due to the way how much magnetic energy hung around this place; it was like the walls of the maze were shifting with each path they took. The steps echoed quietly throughout the place; and eventually they would find their way out of the shifting walls up to what appeared to be a tiny, desolate little spot that had enough space for a human and one Pokémon companion to climb upon.

“Are you afraid of heights?” he would ask the Vulpix, who’d been quiet all this time.

‘No, and why would I be?’ she blinked back.

Ah, there was the thing that set this Leanne apart from her namesake—he knew his sister was terrified of heights (imagine the terror she felt when she had to ride a plane from Italy across the world to settle down in the United States when they moved)…

“Thank you,” he would quietly reply back, climbing what appeared to be the narrowest flight of stairs that led to the ‘northernmost’ lookout point in the area.

They would eventually reach the peak point of the ‘maze’ itself; overlooking what appeared to be a vast sea of swirling clouds… who knew where those clouds led?

(Maybe into the corruption? Maybe elsewhere? Nobody knows.)

The Fire-type would look up quietly at her companion, wondering what he was thinking—

Only in isolated places like this would he allow himself the liberty of releasing his emotions. He… he tried to keep the ‘wearing of his heart on his sleeve’ part down, but never really succeeded—it was something he sucked so bad at in the real world. Maybe it was something he could never really change…

Losing the person one truly cared about really knocked everything else into a new perspective, didn’t it?

The tears were hot on his cheeks as he raised the hand that had the bell; before ringing it once, twice—several times…

There was no sound from the ringing, yet he could feel the motions of it happening.

Maybe there was something else he needed to do in order to hear the noise that signified the bell had been rung?

The weight of everything on his shoulders forced him to his knees; the Vulpix’s ears perked up in alarm as she watched his tall, stoic form collapse to the platform, and yet he still held the ‘quiet’ bell in his right hand.

[tangent=“I’m sorry, Evan,”]“Mi dispiace, amore,”[/tangent] he would audibly sob; unable to form another coherent sentence after that as the dam he’d been holding back for who knew how long burst open as the tears fell.

Raw, unbidden emotion he’d kept to himself ever since that day he’d watched the ground swallow up that piece of himself. Buried next to the one that now slept in the earth’s cold embrace out in the real world.

The Fire-type could only watch quietly as her human processed what they were going through; approaching him when she sensed he needed a stable presence beside him.

She would yelp in surprise as she felt herself getting picked up by the human with his other hand before he buried his face in her warm fur; the better to hide the grief from the rest of… from whatever else was watching him at that very moment.

#pain #hurtnocomfort #feels #mourning

It seemed that there was still one more step before the wish could be granted. The UI did not hesitate to inform him of it once the tag had been hung; ugly against the mythical landscape. Arthur stood up straight and let out a sharp exhale, alerting his Pokemon slightly, wondering what they were going to do next.

❝A bell, huh?❞

Both Gou and Koro looked up, half expectantly, half confused. Their trainer was far from a wise man, but he usually had a sense of direction. What they had been doing so far had been far from aimless. Arthur would meet their eyes, and he thought, they were small now, but some day they would be taller. They would meet his height, and he would find himself reminiscing when they were small, when the odds felt like they were stacked up against them in a world that was more dangerous than he had ever imagined.

❝We'll have to travel somewhere, Koro. I'll need you back in the ball.❞

<Very well.> and in he went, disappearing from view. Until they had a suitable mount, much of Arthur's movements were either on foot or through fast travel. His stamina was much higher in the game compared to real life, but these places were still far and sprawling.

He knew that Gou could keep up though. He had never lagged behind. ❝Shall we?❞

The search for the bell took them to an area he had never visited: a descent down a hill, leading to a cave mouth surrounded by rock and cliff. Once they had crossed through an invisible line, the air felt like it was colder, more humid, and the thundering outside dimmed before being replaced by a barest hint of water falling from ceiling to floor. There was a faintest ringing in his ears; it was too quiet for a cave, or maybe this was more of a hum? The thought crossed his mind when he saw that some of the stones here were floating in air with no strings holding them up. Out of curiosity, he plucked one out of its column and it stayed in his hand. ❝Huh.❞ he handed it to Gou for him to examine.

<Are we looking for a bell?> the Chimchar asked, letting his fingers absorb sensations of coldness and smoothness from the stone.

❝A bell of pure silver, so I have been told.❞

<How would that look like?>

Arthur shrugged. ❝Shiny.❞

The trainer's footsteps echoed in the cave, dulling the silent ringing. Glowing mushrooms illuminated their path in an oddly comforting, turquoise glow. Further away, one might even think there was light at the end of the tunnel, but the shade was unnatural, and Arthur was pretty sure they were only going deeper in.

All of a sudden, he thought he heard a child's laugh. No, a tinkling bell? A faint, faraway echo. ❝Did you hear that?❞

The Chimchar shook his head; a frown on his face.

But surely it had to be connected to the quest, to the wish. He gestured his Pokemon to take a sudden left when the path forked, and he would stop every now and then to listen. He tried to lighten his footsteps so as not to overpower the ringing, and he found himself moving, moving. Take a right here, keep going, climb up this rock face, squeeze through a crack, and another left, another, another. The lights started to blur and streak, but there was something coaxing him to keep going, to find me.

A dead end, of course. The Chimchar did not hide his despondence, but Arthur had faced such a wall many, many times throughout his many different lives. He walked to the rock, let his fingers run through it. ❝You're not going to send me empty-handed, are you?❞ he whispered.

Suddenly, a small spot on the ground to his left faintly glowed. Gou reached it first, perhaps a little too excited, and dug up the cavern soil. <Kon, look!>

Sure enough, it was a tiny bell with an even tinier chain. Arthur picked it up gingerly, and when he examined it, the clapper would hit the sides. On the first hit, it sounded like a chime, and then it exploded into a burst of light. It happened within a second or two, and the next thing the trainer knew, his hand was empty.

<Wait, that's it? What happened?>

Arthur let out a small noise, thoughtful. ❝Well, hopefully nothing bad. Guess we're done here.❞

<You mean all the way back out?>

The trainer understood the concern. They had been walking for what felt like almost half an hour.

❝I can return you--❞

<I didn't say that!> the Chimchar started to move back to where they came, but stopped to check if his trainer was following. Arthur was, of course, behind him, dragging his feet before getting into pace. Hm, if his trainer had given him a chance to wish, what would he wish for?

<< Party >>

          

It'd started at work.

An unusual stir craziness that did not oft cease Edison, he tended to be the more patient and coolheaded of all of his clan.  He prided himself on his ability to control himself, his ability to lock in and focus on the task at hand.  Yet, today as he went about running his pizzaria he could tell there was something in the air that had just gotten under everyone's skin.  Brenda and Rin were both constantly stepping out for a quick cig, Orion was constantly drumming on the vent hood as he supervised the new guy on the fryer, and even Eddie was fidgeting as he counted down the drawers for the night.  Unsure how to deal with this energy, the resteraunteur had invited his dearest cousin out for a drink or two, perhaps a smoke sesh to calm the fuck down.  His answer had vexed him,

"Nah dog, Im gonna go stretch my Virtual legs, if it's too hot to chill in the desert, might as well get some digital dessert, ya feel me?"

Eddie hadn't really "felt" him at first.  Orion's constant flaking on plans to go escape to UNOVR has become a contentious thorn in his side, striking a chord within him that he wasn't happy even existed.  His cousin had been changing a lot as of late, for the better even, it would seem.  And Eddie couldn't help but feel...left out.  So with nothing else to do, he went home and logged on himself, and decided that he would give this "digital dessert" a chance.

And boy howdy did he LOVE the wind in his hair.  

Working with food made growing his hair out a problematic endeavor, he would need to tie it up and possibly put it in a net depending on how long it was.  Despite how much he LOVED how it looked, Eddie had never been afforded the ability to rock the style.  So 3D-E had been given the longest hair he could, and he'd really turned up the red factor to match his mom's copper locks.  The tall and slender man strode through the grass, Carver the Sprigatito on his shoulder and Darby the Growlith prancing through the silver sea of tall grass.   He'd heard a rumor about this in the main hub, some sort of immersive quest prompt?  Either way, it seemed like he wasn't the first person to the party as he scanned the tags.  His eyes settled upon something in his mother tongue, frowning at the sorrow the words seemed to convey.  

Awfully personal for a videogame, no?

With pursed lips, Eddie continued to peruse the wishes until a very familiar set of handwriting danced across his gaze, the ink hardly dry.  "Huh..."  Eddie mused aloud.

"Recognize it?"  Carver asked, stretching and letting the wind dance through his verdant fur.  

"It's my cousins."  Eddie replied, gently steadying the tag to read it better.

"Great minds must think alike!"  Darby barked.

"And fools seldom differ" Carver mewled back.

"So which are we?"  Eddie asked with a raised brow, a quick scan found more art supplies, and more familiar text.  "Write your wish, pay the goodwill forward."  

Or course the man who'd been installing wheelchair ramps all around town would help set up a little art station for random strangers to paint their wishes.  With pursed lips, Eddie stared at the blank metal, brush in hand as he debated what he wanted to write.  Recalling the personal note from earlier, he would shake his head and decide he would bare his soul to these strangers but once, as a treat.

I wish I were half the man my family thought I was.

Torino waddled back into the clearing, the double-weight egg heavy in her arms. It was made heavier by the bell-voice trapped inside. Torino had never heard the phrase "To carry a tune", but if she had she would have assumed it would be something light and bright, like a strand of copper or a ribbon in her hair. In reality it seemed like a tune added about three to four kilograms.

"We have the sound," Torino said, smiling as she spoke to her restless egg. "Now we need the bell!"

Something called her to a corner of the grove where an irongrass stalk hung heavily with wishes. It was an ancient stalk, and the weight of dozens of iron tags pulled it downward, bending the strong grass with heavy hopes.

Many of the tags seemed clumped together, like strands of shining newspaper used in a natural paper mache. They formed an odd, oblong shape similar to a football or a papaya. Torino reached up and picked the metal fruit. It came away easily. "Oh! It is ripe!"

The tags on the outside formed a thick, metal skin that was devoid of any writing. "Something had removed the wishes !" Torino told her egg. "Maybe they are just old. Or maybe a monster ate the wishes!" Torino shivered at the thought.

"No. I am certain that the wishes are granted. So the words are not needed now." She smiled. That was a much nicer thought.

Torino peeled at the empty wish tags, sticking them safely onto the shell of her egg. She didn't think too much about the physics of this. It was probably magnets.

Inside the layers of wish tags was the rich, silvery body of a brand new bell! Torino pulled it out with glee. "It is a bell! Were you hiding in there? Oh do not worry, I have found your beautiful voice, and now I can return it to you!"

She looked over at her egg, which was now covered in wish tags.

CRACK

CRA-CRACK

The egg began to glow.

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. Not enough to break any grand designs. But enough to make the cards fall a little kinder.

And if our wishes are like cards then they are all shuffled together in one great deck. As another's wish is drawn in turn, your wish grows nearer to the top. More likely to be granted by the turning of the world and the kind hands of those who inhabit it.

For we are not bystanders in some game of chance, but players. The world is a game, and a game shall bend to its players.

So draw a card, play it, and may your wish draw closer to the top. For if your wishes are not made true today, then there is always tomorrow.

Grant someone else's wish.

Eddie stared at the bell in the palm of his hand, frown smeared across his face like stain from taco Tuesday.  He bounced it up into the air once again, before snatching it and giving it the umpteenth shake to test its tone.

"Fuckin hell, I don't remember any pokemon game I played having shit like this..."  Eddie moaned, oblivious the secret of the Regi pokemon from his favorite game, Emerald.  "Riddles n quests."  With no one around save his team, the façade of cool and collected genius gave way to the bastard child of a jersey accent and southern drawl.  "I mean, this shit is my bread and butter in like...my other games but I was NOT expecting it here.  Rion never mentioned riddles..."  It dawned on him that maybe Orion had never encountered such gameplay because his general meatheadedness either smashed through such mechanics like the kool aid man through a wall, or his general gameplay intuition guided him to different sorts of challenges.  A solid hypothesis, but it sat on shaky ground considering he was likely in the same zipcode as his cousin as he pondered the silver orb, and they were both likely on the same steps of the same quest.

Hrrrm, and this Bell still needed a voice.

"Do you think they want you to literally fix the bell?"  Carver asked from his spot in a nice patch of sunlight several feet away.  

"OR IS IS A MEGAPHONE?"  Darby barked, chasing a tags shadow around.  

"Excellent suggestions, lets follow them to their natural conclusions."  Eddie murmured, shifting gears vocally as he reengaged with the reality before him, and not the metacontextual hang-ups that had ruined his immersion.  "Lets start with literally fixing the bell, what would we need to do that?"  The redhead pondered.

"Probably varnish"  Carver purred,
"ELBOWGREASE!"  Darby barked once again, padding over to sit at his masters heel, his head affectionately nuzzling into the trainers shin.  

"Well, I can say I can generate Elbowgrease on command, but we're sadly lacking in varnish, or frankly any other sorts of materials that we would need to fix the bell mechanically.  So, logically that means what, Darby?"

"We..."  The dog pause, eyes crossing as he delved deep into the sand castle that was his mind palace.  "Can't fix the bell literally..."  Eddie nodded, and motioned silently for the dog to continue.  "So that must mean..."  The dog harrumphed, Eddie swore he saw the shimmer of heat radiate off the dogs ear fur as his mind literally overclocked itself.  "That it is..."  So close, yet so far.  "A..."  Eddie nodded, his hands motioning faster, partially because this bit was dragging on dangerously close to the too long to be funny mark, and he REALLY didn't have the patience to milk this to the point where it wrapped back around to being funny again.  "Metaphor?"  Oh sick, he'd even used the right word this time.  

"Exactly!  Good boy!"  Eddie exclaimed, leaning down and lavishing praise down onto the dog like a waterfall of love.  Eying this, Carver tsked and rolled off his back and strode over to the two, padding softly as his tail swished.  "So if it's a metaphor, what do we likely need to do..."  Eddie asked, turning his gaze over to the cat.

"We likely need to either find a way to simulate the ringing of the bell,"  The Cat purred, "Or perhaps the bell's voice is something else?  Maybe if you read someone else's wish into the bell you can like...breathe that wish to life?"  

"Excellent ideas,"  Eddie exclaimed, scooping the cat up in once arm, cradling him against his chest and rubbing his belly.  Carver let out a surprised chirp as he was plucked from the ground, but that quickly gave way to soft tsundere purrs as he reveled in the affection.  "Which one do we want to try first?"

"What would Eddie do..."

Orion mused to himself as he tossed the bell up and down.  "Fuckers mad smart, he'd probably science this shit, huh."  Up and down the bell bounced brazenly as Orion paced back and forth.  "Didn't he have some sorta scheme for this once...something something silver..."  His brow creased as he sped down memory lane in his mind Camero.  "Oh shit yeah..."

It clicked in his head, once upon a time Eddie had come up with some sort of get rich quick scheme that involved restoring ruined silver jewelry.  The idea was that they'd scoop old silver jewelry in mass, then using a chemistry trick involving aluminum and electricity they would restore the silver and sell it back into the market at a premium.  The plan had several problems, first of all it wasn't like silver was just growing on trees in their broke ass neighborhood, and what little they did manage to scrounge up DID restore rather nicely, they just...couldn't find anyone to sell it back to.

Horrible business plan, great party trick, better quest solution.  Thanks Ed.

He rifled through his inventory for the roll of aluminum foil he KNEW he had on deck just on the offhand chance it was time for cooking over open coals.  The surging steps had no shortage of lightning available if you knew how to coax it from the overcharged atmosphere.  So he created a nest of aluminum centered around both the bell AND his Zapdos eggs, you know, two birds one lightning strike, and went about coaxing fate along.  Using several unadorned blades of grass, Orion wove a rather tall spire of steel and staked it into the soil, a line of foil running to the makeshift coil.  Now if this worked, the electricity would excite the electrons in the aluminum and send them over to the silver, which would undo the corrosion caused by silver reacting with the oxygen in the air.  

Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for lightning to str-

CRACKOW.

Eureka motherfucker.