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There were way, way too many people near the Wishing Tree as Pythia Adler removed a wish from the tree. She had managed to hang hers up, but having to take one had been much more difficult; people were yanking and running, and twice the wishes she had been reaching for were stolen by some greedy little brats who had probably taken note of the way she had been trying to patiently pace until she could somewhat see the contents of said wish. After all; Pythia was low on both cash and patience and had no interest in volunteering her precious time to work with the filthy impoverished when she was trying to keep herself from joining them.

It took almost an hour of slowly stalking the tree before the redhead decided that this just wasn’t worth it; Pythia was ready to have her wish granted, dammit; but according to this stupid event and their stupid little rules, it wouldn’t be granted until she granted someone else’s wish, then she needed to get on it. So she finally scampered forward, her heat-splotched hand grabbing out and yanking at one of the papers on a branch, jerking it down and darting back, leaving someone who had been reaching for the wish looking gob-smacked behind her. Neener neener; if other people could do it to her, she would feel minimal pity for the fact she had done it to someone else.

Her aggressive approach – no matter the fact that it worked and finally got her one of those stupid darn wishes off that stupid, ugly tree – did her no favor. In fact, short, thick fingers opened the paper to reveal a wish that made Pythia wish she hadn’t bothered trying to get her own wish granted at all. It was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous! Who on Earth- or off it- would make a wish even remotely similar to ‘I wish someone could make friends with more of the lonely people in Destiny City.’ Okay, Mr. Rogers, first of all, you can’t WISH for people to find friends. Friends were a commitment. Like dogs, that you couldn’t take back to the shelter if they wound up being closet a**holes and destroying your couch for attention.

Not that Pythia hated people, exactly. She loved to gossip, loved to be in the know, loved to know what made people tick- but not because she wanted to be friends with them. Miss ‘Python’ Adler was of the school of thought that knowing about people made them weak; being able to peg a weakness and manipulate it was advantageous, and fun. Being able to blackmail someone was a tool, a dagger made of words. Stick it in the right place and everything about a person could topple over like a set of cards.

She slumped down onto a park bench, squinting at the stupid, STUPID wish again. “How am I supposed to grant this?!” Pythia’s voice rose in annoyance, her teeth baring as she growled at the sky. “Everything about this is so annoying!!!!!"

Pythia was bemoaning her fate, cursing her incredibly sucky luck, etcetera etcetera, when someone seemed to approach her. If she hadn't been baring her teeth at the sky she probably would have seen those shoes, first; as it was, her eyes were first graced by a mop of ginger hair much less vibrant than her own. Blue eyes. Round face. If she hadn't just left the Wishing Tree she might have immediately put the kid down as a piteous soul who just wanted a date.

But the wishing tree was a good excuse, and if this poor sucker could help her with her wish to grant... "Depends on how lonely you are." Pythia gave the other ginger a toothy smile, holding out her slip of seed packets. "What kind of arsehole would put something this vague on a wishing tree? How am I supposed to grant this? The complications and variables in this are ridiculous." What if she was physically incapable of meeting new people? What if she was one of the lonely people? Two lonely people did not make an un-lonely person. And what if she didn't want something as long-term and flexible as a 'friendly' relationship?

And, And, And- how many people was she needing to 'friend'?

Well. If both of them were eyerolling about it. There was clearly only one solution.

Pythia held out her hand, arching an eyebrow. "Pythia Adler. Your new friend. You are now up to a grand count of two friends, and I- now have one."

It was probably definitely not honoring the spirit of the wish, but if the wish-writer would have even known about this in order to complain, Pythia likely would have given them a solid dressing-down about the vagueries of 'friends' and 'more' and the definition of 'lonely.'

She herself for example, had no 'friends' (until this ginger stranger) but she wouldn't define herself as lonely.

........ Or maybe she would. Pythia was taking this wish very personally.

"Shall we go plant a tree?"

"You know what," Pythia said as she shook the hand of Emmett Mahoney, "I have a friend now, and I'm feeling lucky."

She had to say, no one had ever kissed her hand before. Weird, but cool. So she went back to the tree, waved her freshly-smooched hand at him, and blindly yanked a wish off the tree.

Her steps back over to him were sedate, and she opened the wish to look at it, yanking off the Crimson Star Charm attached to the seed paper before holding it out so he could read the wish.

Plant a tree.

Pythia wasn't crying, someone was cutting onions. "Hell." it came out a sigh. "Emmett Mahoney, you can be my friend longer than ten minutes, just because you're clearly today's lucky charm."

"Someone who knows how much a pain in the butt wishes can be, I guess." Pythia grinned at Emmett.

"I'm good for one of the festival rides. Also heard they are going to have a chili eating contest around here, and I want to find out about that too." Pythia held out a hand, gesturing to the place they were supposed to go plant their trees. "Come on, buddy. Let's plant these trees and go have some fun."