There was a feeling of deja vu, finally escaping that tunnel and reentering the canopy of starlight. He was not sure why that would be the case, and the feeling passed as quickly as it came, easily forgotten. Gou had certainly not noticed anything, for he was already nodding off on his shoulder, having been exhausted (or perhaps bored out of his mind) with the walk back. The trainer let out a sigh, thinking of what to do next. He thought that another notification might come soon to tell him what was next in the quest, but if nothing was going to happen, maybe he should just call it for the day--

Grant someone else's wish.

...huh. Well, there was other lore text that accompanied it, but Arthur focused on the what to do next. Well, now he wished that he had aimed higher, his wish might've been one of the easiest to grant, maybe. For all he knew, he could just get like some kind of cheap-ass item that wasn't even useful. He frowned at the thought, wondering whose wish he should try to work towards. Before he could even try to pull one for his own, there was a sudden crack, like a whip striking the air, before the wind burst in front of him, passing him by - it left a trail of purple electricity, nothing like the thunder and lightning that he could hear from the distance, and just as it came it went, leaving nothing but burnt grass in its wake.

Oh, wait, there were some lumps here. What were these? Upon examining them, they turned out to be Iron Ore, along with a note explaining what they were for. He could've sworn it felt like someone gave him coal (for being a naughty child?) but it turned out that they served some purpose after all. Specifically, to unlock an Advanced Trainer Class. Arthur raised his eyebrows, amused. ❝Well what do you know.❞ the mysterious benefactor even briefly informed them of the other requirements as well as their name, and upon reading it, he couldn't help but let out a laugh.

Gou woke up, letting out a groan. <What's so funny?>

Arthur lightly shook his head. ❝Nothing, I just thought that we've already met all the racers UNOVR had to offer.❞ even their names were formatted similarly, with a first and last name. Sure, it was possible that those weren't their real names, but really...he was pretty sure that Josh, Shalin, and Alicia must know each other. He supposed he was just meeting them all individually first. ❝I'll need to think of something as thanks, I guess.❞

He wondered if she wished for something? Would he be able to grant it? Now that the excitement had calmed down, he decided it was his turn to try answering a wish.

My greatest wish is for the herald of Johto's god of speed, Raikou. To be not his trainer, but to be his friend. His partner.

And then Arthur laughed again, because while it wasn't Alicia, it was pretty fucking close.

Gou just looked at him in concern. <You're acting weird.>

❝I find coincidences funny.❞ maybe it was fate. He picked up the Iron Ore and stored it in his inventory for later use. ❝Gou, if you were a legendary Pokemon, what would make you more interested in meeting a trainer?❞

<That's a weird question.> but he did think about it seriously. <Mm, you said that we were here for a shrine, right? Something there felt like it could have the touch of a legendary.>

❝Ohh. I think you might be onto something.❞ he pulled out his UI and used the Help Center to search for key words related to building. Eventually, he did find a snug feature that seemed to be in beta: made the game a little more like Minecraft as a little easter egg to a fan game. ❝We'll need a fighting type and a Pokemon that can cut stuff.❞

<What for?>

❝To build a shrine for Raikou, obviously.❞

<< Party >>

          

+1 Ironsmith req: "Harvest" iron ore
I lost my post :<

The grove help more wishes than one could ever grant, but Torino was determined to try.

She plucked another tag from an irongrass stalk. It was a request for a rare item. She didn't have it, but it could be found in the Misty Timberlands. She added a little dog-shaped marker to her map. "I will find it soon," she promised, hanging the tag back up.

Torino continued like this for a while, sending well-wishes, money, and items, and adding markers to her maps until each area was polka-dotted with cute dog markers. "There are so many wishes, and I cannot help with so many," she said. Not complaining, but also not happy with her limited capacity.

She picked one last tag. Starlight slid off its surface like silver oil.

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

Torino frowned. "Why does he want to be a half man? Is he too big?" She puzzled over the words. Her mind wandered, imagining a person too large to fit through doorways, breaking the flimsy wooden chairs that his long-suffering family used around the dining table. What a tragic life to live! Cursed by your own size.

"I must help!" Torino said, her heart breaking.

Her UI added a note, and she rushed off back to Briarbane. The wisher was in the Firewater Saloon, a place Torino had been before. She pushed through the swinging wooden doors. "Hello everyone!" she said, her voice and avatar a spot of bright sunshine in a dark and brooding drinking den. "I am here for the giant!"

Several regulars looked at her like she had two heads, and several others just ignored her, either set on their drinking or engrossed in a card game. Her UI was helpful again, pointing her to a non-giant man seated at a table in the corner.

Torino rushed over to him. "Hello! Are you the giant?" she asked, looking at him. "I read that you were sad because you were too big, but you look normal to me." Confused but determined, Torino pushed on, pulling her wish gifts out of her bag. "Here! These are for you." She handed him a folded 6XL t-shirt with 'I <3 Briarbane' on it, and a set of cowboy pants big enough to fit a person in each leg. "It must be hard to find clothes when you are giant," she said.

Man, metaphors were hard.

Eddie sat on his heels, squatted low in a post to constrict blood from his legs forcing it all into his head, or so Deathnote had told him at least.  He'd always been the smart Cayge, all of his cousins had something going for them.  Mac was handsome and could mix drinks like an alchemist, Gio Jr was the weed wizard, Frank could fix just about anything and Orion...

Well, most of you know him well enough to know his talents.

But Eddie, he'd always been the smart one, graduated top of his class, had scholarships lined up out the door, universities chomping at the bit to get him into some obnoxious tech degree or make him an architect but...well, he had no passion for it.  He loved his fathers shop, he loved his family, and when the time came he would likely "go for a walk in the desert" like so many other members of his family had.  If he was lucky he'd find a spot right between Aunt Helen and Cousin Alexander.  

But anyways, he was smart and that made this puzzle all the more enraging when he couldn't figure it out.  Was it supposed to be real or surreal?  Literal or metaphorical?  This land of zeroes and ones definitely skirted the line between what was tangible and not, and had he not been vexed by this puzzle he'd have fallen victim to the calming nature of this electronic Eden.  

Darby was tuckered out from all the running around, laying in a patch of grass semi adjacent to Carver, who'd spent the entire time sunbathing and snickering as Eddie flailed about with various ways to "give" the bells voice back.  He'd been half tempted to stuff them both back into his ball, but that seemed...unnecessarily cruel.  Eddie had already gotten an earful from Orion about the ethics of proper pokemon care, and he was almost certain his right hook would hurt a hell of a lot more here than IRL.

"Alright you silvery little fuck" Eddie hissed raising his voice ever so slightly as he raised it to his lips.  "This is my last attempt before I say fuck you and your stupid goddamn whimsy and I go fucking making wishes true the good ole fashioned way."  Standing up, he'd stretch and take a few wobblily steps as blood began to flow again.  Gently he would examine a tag, squinting, before raising the bell to his lips and spoke softly.

"For new friends. for Iron, and for a winter that never comes."  

He would raise the bell up, and give it a shake, a clear and resonant tone echoing through the field as his UI popped up.  Torino?  Hrrm, he'd never heard of em, but her icon was kinda cute.  He'd hung the now, suddenly silver bell next to the tag and smirked.  "Come on you two, I've got the next step and well..."  A shrug would be offered as he began to walk, the two lazy mon scampering to keep up with his long strides.  "I have an idea or two."

...

Two great discoveries had been made after leaving the field.  A, you could not swing a fucking stick in this game without finding Orion's fucking footprints holy shit.  He'd found the firewater saloon as a nice place to work on his crafting, and much to his surprise it seemed very familiar.  The stairs, the wheelchair ramp (which also had a fresh coat of paint to match Orion's most recent IRL renovations) hell, even one of the horse hitching posts was bent at exactly the forty seven degree angle from where a drunk driver had run into one of those concrete pilons meant to stop people from ramming their car into the building.  Inside was an identical copy of the layout, and he'd taken up a place in his usual drinking spot (despite Macs bar being a gay bar, many members of the Cayge Clan frequented it for cheap drinks and in familial solidarity.)  

Discovery two, the crafting minigames were fucking LIT.  He'd spent the past hour GRINDING on his creation, and the end result was a beautiful polished ring woven from a strand of that silvery iron grass all of the tags have been hung upon.  He'd been just about to go hunt down this Torino woman before he was suddenly accosted by a circus tent of a shirt and pants that could be used as a sleeping bag by a very beautiful woman with pink hair named...his eyes widened as he set his gaze upon her username.

"I'm..."  he stammered, doing his best to not check her out right here and now.  "Not a giant but if this is about those wishes well..."  He'd shake his head.  What would Orion do?  What a vexing phrase, but his charismatic cousin had a way with handling these sorts of things with all the grace of a ballerina and all of the force of a sledgehammer when needed.  "Here."  He'd offer her the ring.  "Iron, can't do shit about holding winter at bay but..."  He'd shrug as they exchanged gifts.  "I can buy you a drink and hang out if you want, Friendship and Firewater go hand in hand if I don't say so myself.  Names Eddie,"  he'd offer her a hand to shake.

"And I think you might be confused about my wish but well...thanks anyways.  I can think of a million uses for these."

As Josh and his Rival parted ways, he received a notification of a new multimedia message from orioncayge . It seemed to be a blueprint and a new quest. The blueprint made the child's eyes water. It was depicting a motorcycle that was the spitting image of Raikou, its frame even moving like one while the wheels were turning. It was a dream come true; while the actual Raikou was not likely to show up in the story, this was pretty close. Everything screamed the feel of one, and with the top speeds Orion described, it really seemed like a mechanical Raikou.

Ecstatic, the boy replied to the direct message.

DIRECT MESSAGE> Devs are about to kick off the World Event. Once that passes, let's do this. With all the destinations in and around the Surge Steppes, I can get my Zapdos chicks all grown up and ready for battle, too.