[S][O] No Stone Left Unturned

Once he’d secured a certain avianid Pokémon and was pretty much ready to take her out for a spin, who should he run into but—

“Hey, Shalin!” he would wave from where he currently stood, trying to get the greenette’s attention. “Guild-searching?” he would follow up a few moments afterward.

Of course, the general—well, the general idea of this particular guild was exploration—which he certainly liked doing—and then just. Outright. Looking into things. Because curiosity killed the Purrloin, right?

“Looking for any particular ridable Pokémon while you’re at it, too?” he would cackle a few moments later. He knew that between the two friends he had on his friends list; she was the one who had the crazier tendencies to just—stick a saddle anywhere and then take whatever that saddle was out on for a spin.

(At least she let her feet touch the ground, unlike someone else!)

Shalin Nariya

“I wasn’t even at my full power during that race,” he would wave a hand off to one side.

“I mean, what kind of a Sky Trainer am I, if I was riding an Onix during that time? Admittedly, I’d have blown everyone away if I had a Salamence or so…”

(Heh, doesn’t that remind you of something else. Winning a race, in another universe, on the back of an extremely loyal Salamence that would constantly threaten to bisect a certain idiot in half because he did strange shit and you saw it all happen in the virtual world…)

“But enough about that, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he hummed afterward.

“Well… I don’t know if an Altaria or a Starmie would catch your interest. Knowing your crazy riding habits, it might be too normal for you,” he added.

“…because Mythstar has a Swablu and a Staryu… though… riding a Honedge? Like a surfboard? Maybe?”

Shalin Nariya

“What, and constantly get jabbed in the ass because of all the spinning? The thought makes me dizzy just thinking about it,” he would admit, biting down a cringe that threatened to emerge the longer his thoughts dwelled on the subject matter.

“No, no, you don’t understand,” he would backtrack and try to explain just how riding a Honedge was technically possible—for someone of her small stature.

“You know that movie Treasure Planet? Where the hero’s riding on some kind of hover board? Think of the hover board as that Honedge. Or Doublade? Maybe Aegislash, because that’s a spectral sword and shield so there’s that.”

(Why did his mind flashback to another race, but it was a different memory… one where a certain Mantine surfer had literally taken to the waves and shown everyone how an Alolan did it…)

“You’re just as exploration-hungry as that other guy,” he would cackle a few moments afterward. “Pretty sure you know who. The guy who doesn’t like letting his feet touch the ground, considers it an absolute sin if he’s walking.”

A knowing smirk would flash across his features after that.

Shalin Nariya

Okay, now if it were possible to send gifs within messages here, he’d have done so already.

“Ugh. Sometimes I hate the messaging system limitations in the game. Can’t even send outside gifs,” he huffed as he looked at his message window options and saw that there was no option to load in outside gifs… oh, he would’ve had so much fun spamming gif replies to everyone on his friends list whenever he would send them direct messages.

“Oh, about Mythstar…” he would trail off, this mysterious grin on his face.

“What the hell, man. You’re asking if they have any kind of membership tests? They don’t!” he would add a few moments afterward.

“Why, you thought there was some kind of overly-dramatic entry task that needed to be done just to get your foot in the door? They don’t have none of that here!”

Shalin Nariya

“It’s a little bit of an adjustment the first time you come through here… don’t mind the machinery,” he would hum as he cut his way through the place—like he was already inherently familiar with the base in general.

Maybe she hadn’t noticed it yet, or maybe it was because he’d kept some of his settings turned to ‘Private’, but the fact that his guild name hadn’t displayed underneath his in-game model was rather telling.

“Look, the only guild I know that would be insane enough to do something like a dramatic entry test would be the Creed,” he whispered as they continued to make their way through the machinery that was clanking and crashing in the background.

“You know, the power-gaming centric guild out of all the three.”

Much as he wanted to join Round 2, there were a few things that didn’t fit his objectives in the game, so he’d decided to pick this guild instead.

(Mostly it was for the escapism, but who was going to believe him when he said that?)

“Oh, a little bit of a heads-up… the guild master’s not one to waste time. So… I advise to get straight to the point when you see him,” he advised her.

(For he’d learned this the hard way, unsurprisingly.)

Shalin Nariya

“He’s also rather… eccentric, if you can put it that way,” he hummed as they finally got to the door that led to the guild master’s ‘office’, base of operations, what have you.

Her remark on the aesthetic contradicting the guild’s primary objectives wasn’t missed, either. He smirked a bit before he knocked three times on the other side of the door, before gesturing for her to stand back a little as the door opened.

He hoped that she was going to be ready for the eccentricities that awaited on the other side of the door—which was mostly the guild master, known only by the in-game name ‘Cygnus’ (which, hilariously, was also the name of a constellation in the night sky now that he thought about it).

“Err, hello Cygnus,” he would announce his presence, before cutting straight to the chase, “Someone wants to join the Mythstar guild.”

He would then back away as best as the cramped space of the office would allow to let he greenette come inside the office herself.

Shalin Nariya