Joshua decides not to visit the forest anymore.

  Instead, he hopefully can find another one ter. Or some other alternate source of wood.

  Jophiel seemed eternally grateful for that.

  It's about 4pm now, judging where the sun is.

  He decides to check out that thing on the map. From above it's just a blotch of… something, a brown color, not recognizable.

  So, adjusting his inventory and picking up Jophiel (turns out she actually really liked riding on his shoulders, even if she was stressed during the first time), they head out.

  Stepping out into the sun, a frigid breeze chills his body, like an ominous warning of what's to come. But the curiosity swirling in his mind proves stronger than his fear, so he doesn't hesitate taking more and more steps away from the pokecenter.

  The tall, stiff grass bends at his steps. Looking up, Joshua takes note of the sun.

  It's about past noon now, if he had to guess? Around 1, but he wishes he has something to tell the ti-

  He pauses.

  Jophiel jerks up at the sound of Joshua's rather violent facepalming.

  “God I am slow”

  “Pony?”

  “Nothing, just… realizing how dumb I can be” Joshua looks at his inventory.

  “Pony…” Her disapproving tone at his self-deprecation has a bit of skepticism, which considering she just met him is not the strangest thing.

  He isn't sure if Pokemon form a bond inherently upon ‘ownership’, but it's almost like Jophiel already has an understanding of him, strange. But even stranger is that it seems the backwards is also true, as Joshua is able to at least understand the intent of what Jophiel is trying to say despite her extremely limited vocabury.

  Joshua honestly did not even notice it at first, but he considers it a boon. Jophiel either didn't notice it either, or simply doesn't care. It might just be a Pokemon thing.

  Moving on from that, he pulls out the PokeNav. There's a digital clock on the top right that tells him it's 2:32PM, ter than he thought.

  Late…

  Now that he thinks about it… where is he going to sleep?

  Staying outside at night might not be safe, after all…

  Wait.

  Minecraft, when it gets dark…

  Joshua freezes, his gaze moving up to the sun. Unmoving to his eyes, yet shining brightly. It's comforting, a warm symbol of familiarity he finds himself appreciating more as time goes on.

  But it cannot stay up there forever.

  Eventually it must trade its pce. The sun must fall, and the moon will rise.

  His image of the sun begins to twist, ever so slightly. From an invincible paragon of comfort and security, to an almost motherly figure sting as long as she can to prolong the inevitable tragedy that comes for him.

  Like the bde of a guillotine hanging above him. Not a threat, a warning, one with good intentions but equally chilling nonetheless.

  He feels a lingering sense of dread, an almost sickly wet chill that screams at him that something is wrong.

  Joshua cancels his pn to visit the structure for now. He doesn't need to sate his curiosity.

  Instead, he needs insurance.

  He needs safety, security.

  Joshua needs a house.

  So he gets building.

  …

  Iono watches as cobblestone and wood pnks pile on each other in a secure fashion. The foundation is made of stone, and the walls are made of identically cut pnks.

  “Wow… so weird…”

  She isn't sure how this Joshua guy is doing this, or where he is, but it's strangely satisfying watching him build. With his ‘magic’, it's not taking long at all, it's crazy to think he's building a house in a single day.

  The floor is first, or the… foundation? She thinks that's what it's called. Just a yer of cobblestone in a ft ptform dug into the ground. Walls of wood came next, all melded together in a weird way without nails, but somehow more secure.

  He leaves gaps in the walls for windows, and seemingly creates a simple wooden door after staring at the weird crafting bench for a second. It snaps into pce, and he opens and closes it a few times to test it out.

  Oh. He forgot the roof! Iono quickly types a message into her Rotom phone, he's so lucky she's watching his back!

  [IonoZone: u forgor the roof!!!]

  He looks over at the message.

  Looking up, Joshua opens his inventory (it's still crazy how he does that) and selects his pnks again. He levels out the top with a basic ft roof.

  …

  Something in Joshua’s mind grimaces as he completes the roof. His Minecraft days wincing in pain at the horridly simple abomination he just built.

  “This is the ugliest fucking house I've ever made…”

  Least it's not a dirt hut.

  “Pony” Jophiel nods.

  Looking over at the mare, Joshua narrows his eyes.

  “Hey! I'm the only one allowed to make fun of my shitty builds!”

  Jophiel raises a hoof, putting it against her chest and turning away like a cssy Victorian woman who's just seen some horrid peasant. Her horn is glowing but he doesn't turn to see what she's doing.

  “Pony” She spits out.

  “...I should be pissed but you nailed that shit, good job”

  She chuffs pridefully before giving a nod as thanks, she sways her head over. The aura around her horn swayed with it.

  A group of apples float over from behind her, covered in the same pastel purple aura as her horn. She brings them in front of Joshua, who just stares surprised at the act.

  “Where did you get these?”

  Jophiel looks towards the trees, following her gaze, he grimaces.

  “You sure that's alright? I thought we agreed to not go in there”

  The unicorn raises a hoof to wave off his concern and points to her horn.

  Joshua, already kinda getting used to horse charades, nods in understanding.

  “Well don't get too close, don't know what's exactly… in there”

  “...pony”

  Joshua doesn't need a transtion to hear her unease.

  He hovers his hand over the apples and they disappear into his inventory, he then brings his hand over and pats Jophiel's head.

  “Thank you, girl”

  “Pony!”

  [IonoZone: y scared of forest? ( ′-｀) ]

  Joshua checks his inventory, he has some wood and cobblestone left. He considers making a fence, but he isn't sure he has enough.

  And going anywhere near the forest sounds like an awful idea.

  The Pokecenter is made out of mostly useless materials, unfortunately. Not much use marble has right now.

  He looks down at the stone tools he made earlier, resting in his hotbar.

  What does he need? He has shelter, food is fine for now, water?

  “Where the hell am I going to get water?...”