[ti]private[/ti][S][C/Alicia] Just One Little Flutter

Considering that a white, translucent saddle was on one of Queen Zing's wings, it couldn't have been anyone but Shalin, could it? Even among insectile Pokémon, the frequency of a Beedrill was among the highest. How could she even see when fluttering about so rapidly? Or was that the point: to embrace the carnage and chaos that came with the flighty bug-type?

"Not every queen rules with an iron sting, hehe!" the giant wasp giggled, tickling Shalin with the cone surrounding her rear sting. They both seemed to have a laughing contest, Sandy shooting a stink eye toward the girly duo. What was so funny?

At last recovering from her mess of laughter, Shalin stepped away from the Beedrill, then addressed Alicia and Nym. "She's a bit eccentric... more so than I am, even. It would still be ill-advised to be on her bad side, though. She's got just as mean of a sting as the stereotypical ones." As if goaded to show it off, the Beedrill extended the barb out of her rear, the yellow and black needle large and long. Though venom was their main weapon, even being stabbed by that stinger looked painful.

Shalin stood next to the translucent wing and put her hands on it. As she was about to sit on the seat hidden atop it, a UI message prevented her from doing exactly that:

Error> You must be at least level 9 to mount this Pokémon.

Dejected, Shalin held her head down, Queen Zing walking toward er and wrapping one of her forelegs around her to try to comfort her. "Guess we're doing this with a different Pokémon, Alicia..."

Indeed, if the Beedrill was anyone else's, the venom from that sting could have easily incapacitated her, causing her to reappear back at the last Shrine she visited. It showed the level of trust the two had with one another, even though Queen Zing hadn't spoken to her yet. If it was like any of her other Pokémon, she would sound PokéSpeech in due time.

Shalin, and Alicia if she partied up with her, would hear the ever-familiar level advancement fanfare once the Beedrill was done making her laugh uncontrollably. "I didn't know you were afraid of bees - I'm sorry," the Beta Tester apologized. "I used to be afraid of them in the real world, and have actually used her a coping mechanism to get over it. That's part of why I want to fly on her. Just one level away now..."

Shalin laughed at how prissy Sylvene grew -- even more so after evolution. "My, she sure is high maintenance, isn't she? I don't think she'd let me anywhere near her wing, anyway." Though she had been on the wings of insect Pokémon for the blistering fast frequency, she wasn't beyond seeing what a slower wing would feel like. It might have been for the best that the Pidgeot flew away. With a demeanor like that, the bird may have bucked her off for real.

"I do have a Pokémon that I can fly on as a backup. Dondon, let's go!" Hurling a Poké Ball above her and near her, the Tropius within landed. The girl looked ready to clamber between the grass-type's leafy wings and go for her first true flight on one of her own Pokémon. As fun as riding the Whimsical Woods' fae was, that didn't truly count!

"That's one thing that's neat about them!" Shalin replied, Queen Zing's compound eyes blinking as she would attempt to return the wasp's affection by embracing her with the flats of her stings. If taken positively, she would even buzz for a second or two to tickle her! "Sorry, sometimes she can be a bit too friendly," the bug trainer apologized as she listened to how her friend's Pidgeot mellowed out over time. "I want to go on a wing run so badly, but I just need that last push to get there in level. One more Instance should do it."

As if teasing her trainer, the Beedrill would let go of Alicia, crawl toward Shalin, and let her wings run. The pitch on them was so much higher than Flit's wings, an indicator of how much greater their frequency was. She looked mesmerized just watching them... until Dondon craned his neck toward her and gently bopped her. "Right! I found him on Beta Island. You'll need a Commuter Pass to get there... but I'm sure a player of your caliber has one."

With that, she walked toward the dinosaur's back and sat on one of the grass-type's wing-leaves, even though she had no intent to ride the Tropius any way except normally until she was familiar with how he flew. "You coming, too?"

Shalin laughed on the inside upon hearing Nym's quips. The Tatsugiri was quite a bit smaller, so it tracked that the shaking would affect Alicia's partner more. "Don't remind me," she replied, tilting her head down. "It seemed like Chanda Mama favored more abstract dishes. I only made dishes that I'd want to eat, and apparently that was hurting me in the judging every single round."

Shalin made room for Alicia by scooting forward on Dondon's saddle, giving her plenty of room to hop on behind her. Once she was seated, a tutorial prompt came up, which she simply mashed through the opening textboxes of. "I don't need to read this; I remember the flying controls from when were in the Whimsical Woods." There were some key differences, though; Dondon could not easily hover. He would have to maintain a minimum speed to remain airborne.

With powerful flaps of his leafy wings, the Tropius took off, only able to roam the fields outside the forest proper. The forest was too dense for the large flying-type to fly through. "This is... quite different than soaring on a bug-type," she immediately noted aloud, feeling how momentum-based the flight was. "I think I actually like the zippy, flighty ones a little more," she whispered, hoping Dondon wouldn't hear her favoritism...

"Feel you there," Shalin nodded in agreement. "And level 9 is too far away in time for the upcoming boss, I feel. So Dondon and my glitched ones are my only way to ride." As fun as it was riding Olivia, the speed at which her wings beat made it difficult to see. "I'm going to have to do a lot of training with Olivia and Sandy specifically." Hearing Alicia having similar problems with Sylvene, she tried to suggest something. "What if we caught Sylvene a big meal with the nets I brought?" Where Alicia didn't come prepared, Shalin did.

Once the Tropius reached a height just below the maximum, Shalin dove into her inventory to procure a pair of nets to catch small to medium-sized bug Pokémon in. "I've got one for you," she answered, carefully passing it to her before a reckless idea came to mind. With a grin on her face, she gripped her end of the saddle tightly while Dondon was gliding. Pulling both her legs to the same side, she slid down one of the grass-type's leafy wings and grabbed onto it.

A white trail of pixels flew from her lower body, the Tropius still maintaining lift somehow. Such was the nonsense Beta Testers were capable of. "Whoo-hoo!" she cried as the wingbeat coursed through her, Dondon's eyes shifting toward her in a confused look. The way the reins stretched looked wholly unnatural... yet she seemed fully able to control the Pokémon!

"Neither do I," Shalin answered as the Tropius began to glide, giving her a chance to converse with Alicia despite where she was sitting. "I've heard that they really don't like people who aren't focused on climbing the PVP ladder. That and once you get in, it's really hard to get out. Part of why I hopped into Mythstar myself." Between the other two guilds, Mythstar resonated most with the girl's love of the wild, as well as the love of exploring the unknown. Even on her relatively tame flight, a few white blocks trailed the Beta Tester, showcasing that sitting atop the grass-type's wing was almost certainly not intended by developers.

"I don't plan on it, hee hee!" the green-ette giggled as she spotted an Orbeetle ahead of them. "You should give it a try, too! It'll give you a lot of reach with that net!" she teased, doing what she could to try to convince Alicia to dip into Beta Tester herself. "If you don't, you might not be able to catch anything out here!"