Chương 34: 34-Abode

"And this," Chansey says, holding open a door into a small doctors office and gesturing inside.

"Is our examination room, you'll probably spend most of your time here cleaning or assisting either myself or Nurse Joy with patients." Tanya nods, adding the location to her mental map of the rather small building. The pokecenter is comprised of two floors, the ground floor taken up mostly by the main room, where people bring in injured 'mon and wait for them to be healed. The remaining space is taken up by bathrooms, showers, a dual use office and break room, and the examination room.

The upper floor is reserved for the equipment needed to operate and repair some of the machines downstairs, mostly the transfer machine, but also a small local server to hold data like footage from the CCTV system and a few pieces of more specialist medical equipment. Scanning across the room, she determines that it looks no different than any other exam room she's been in. Taillow had been taken into the back for a basic checkup after their early dinner, presumably it was done here. Tanya looks at her senior.

"Thank you, I look forward to working with you for the next week." She says professionally, only for Chansey's response to be a giggle and a quick hug.

"Aw, don't be so formal! We're family!" She says, stepping away again with a smile.

"When we're in front of patients we need to put a face on, but you're sleeping in the guest room! I can't have you being like that at the breakfast table." Tanya allows a sense of vague discomfort at the familiarity to wash over her at the casual familiarity before the content of the message makes her blink.

"... We're family?" She asks, realizing her total lack of knowledge of her lineage. Chansey waves off the question.

"If you go far back enough!" She laughs, turning and leading them back toward the door to the front room.

"You know, you're exactly like how Chansey described you." Tanya glances at the nurse as she pushes ahead and opens the hospital wide door for her senior to walk through.

"Caretaker spoke to you about me?" She asks, then remembers a long unused social cue she'd learned from her salaryman days.

"Only good things I hope?" Chansey laughs again, smiling gratefully as she walks through the held door.

"The best," She reassures, then turns waves to her partner as she mans the front desk.

"Done with the tour!" Venessa looks up from the pokecare machine and nods.

"Good! Shift ends in an hour!" She calls back, then looks back to Amelia and continues as their partners approach.

"So, this old lady is a few years out of date, but she works just fine, aside from some issues getting parts." Amelia nods, tapping her finger on the top of the pokecare machine in question.

"I read that any model before 604-1-N can't be retrofitted with the improved emitters, so it's slow with ligament damage. Does your partner handle overtraining and hyperextension injuries?" The nurse binks a few times.

"Well… uh… Yes actually." She says.

"But if we're really swamped Chansey will just triage and hotswap 'mon with the longest recovery time to the central hospital, then transfer them back once they're healed while I handle the front." Amelia gives a humming nod.

"Ok…" She mutters, fingers twitching.

"Then you'd normally be capped by network bandwidth, but in Mauville that's not a problem so…" Tanya carefully keeps her face impassive as she watches the nurse's face gain an impressed focus. As much as she's enjoyed the hiking of their journey, and the hours spent planning and preparing strategies, the 'mon doesn't consider any of that to be the most important.

This journey is important to Amelia, and Tanya sees all the ways she can leverage that desire to their mutual advantage, but her attention has never drifted from nursing as the most important aspect. Traveling all around the region, shaking hands, making connections, and laying the foundation for an easy climb to however high up the ladder she wants to go. Preparation for their career in nursing is of vital importance.

And, watching her partner network and impress with casual ease, there's no doubt in her mind that everything is going just according to plan. —-- –_– —-- Tanya waves goodbye to Nurse Laura and her partner as both take their posts at the front desk for the night shift, then turns to follow their host as she turns right and walks down the street. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

They'd arrived in Mauville as the sun was well on its way down, and after the day shift concluded it's completely set, the street lit in a dull orange by the regular sodium street lamps buzzing in the quiet night. Some time earlier, the street car service had ended, leaving the tracks quiet and pedestrians few and far between while the group makes its way down the street. After a few seconds of silence, Chansey turns to her fellow 'mon and tilts her head.

"... so!" She chirps.

"Your team is fighting Wattson huh? Taillow is gonna have a difficult time with all the electricity flying around. You think you're gonna win?" Tanya takes a second to figure out how to formulate a response that sounds confident, but not arrogant. The optimal blend of each is different for every superior, but once she dials it in, it never fails.

"I think we understand the scope of the challenge, and have prepared accordingly." She starts.

"Taillow won't be playing a major role, and I believe I'm prepared to face the challenge." Chansey blinks.

"Oh… you're going to be fighting?" She asks slowly. Tanya nods, and Chansey pauses for a moment before muttering something under her breath and continuing.

"... Well I hope you don't get… I hope you win!" The human nurse coughs.

"Oh that reminds me." Venessa says, glancing down at her partner, then to Amelia.

"When do you plan on doing the gym?"

"Tomorrow morning." The trainer responds, repeating what they'd discussed on the trail yesterday.

"At least to set up an appointment if there's too many challengers, the day after tomorrow at the latest." Venessa shakes her head.

"You don't have to worry about that." She hums, coming to a stop in front of a nondescript apartment building and punching a code into a keypad next to the door.

"The pokecenter lobby TV is always on the battle channel, and yesterday they finally got enough time between battles to air commercials, so they've got openings." Amelia nods as the door buzzes and lets them into the building, from there they head toward the awaiting elevator doors. Pressing the button, the doors open immediately and the humans enter first, followed by their partners. Tanya gets about halfway inside before she realizes the… geometrical issue here.

Ignoring the wave of embarrassment and willing the heat to leave her face, the 'mon looks at her partner, dead eyed.

"Pokeball." Amelia has the decency to not poke fun or prolong the embarrassment as both humans remove pokeballs from their hips in eerie sync and both 'mon disappear in a flash of red. Inside the ball, Tanya takes less time to reorient herself than before, quickly gaining familiarity to the unfamiliar situation. Even still, almost as soon as she's gotten her bearings, she can sense the elevator doors opening, and she stumbles as she exits her confined state with a pop and a flash of light.

Tanya blinks a few times, waving off her partner's concerned gaze.

"I'm fine." She grunts, gesturing for everyone to continue moving. The pokeball is useful, and she'd rather not waste the time learning a whole new move to solve an issue that technically already has a solution. But if she gets much bigger, learning minimize is going to quickly rise through the ranks of importance. Following behind, they come to a stop in front of a seemingly random door and Venessa pulls out a key with a jingle.

"Well…" She starts as she unlocks the door and shoves it open with a flourish.

"Welcome home!" Stepping inside, Tanya makes note of her surroundings. It's… not austere. Every wall is covered in something, paintings, tables full of houseplants, wall mounted houseplants, shelves covered in nicknacks, more tables with more nicknacks. The only reason the room isn't a mess is because everything seems to have been intentionally mounted on every surface.

There seems to have been no attempt at bringing anything together by any kind of style or theme, as origami birds sit comfortably next to an office double pendulum toy and a wall mounted jigsaw puzzle is covered in sticky notes next to a calendar. Somewhere in the mess, a voice calls from around the corner.

"I heard new people, are the guests here?" He shouts, before the patter of feet reveals a Sylveon trotting around the corner.

"Ah. Hello." He says, waving a frill as if it were an arm. Tanya waves back, shouldering her bag as Amelia turns to her relative.

"You mind if Taillow hangs out in the main room? Or do you want him not to mess up…" She gestures at the room, and all the things that can be knocked over. Venessa laughs and shakes her head.

"Oh no! More the merrier!" She says, walking down the hall to the combination living room kitchen and waves at the doors as she passes them.

"Thats my bedroom, that's the bathroom, and that's the guest room, so make yourself at home." Nodding, Amelia removes Taillow's pokeball and releases the 'mon with a pop. Taillow blinks groggily from his position on the floor, rapidly gaining awareness as his head flicks between each of them, stuttering over Tanya and looking anywhere else. Before he slows down his head's movements, looking around more carefully as if trying to break down what he's seeing all around.

For a moment he just stares at a plant with its pot covered in heart stickers, before seemingly coming to a conclusion. He looks up at Amelia.

"Why are we in a… weird cave full of trash?" He asks, tilting his head and looking around some more.

"Is this a human nest?" Amelia squints uncomprehendingly, then looks at her partner.

"Chansey…?" Tanya nods, then realizes Amelia probably wouldn't want to hear Taillow insulting her relative's decor. Thinking quickly, she opens her mouth.

"I'm sorry Taillow, I didn't hear that." She says calmly, trying to impress upon him with her meaning with a focused stare.

"You were saying something? About our host's home?" There's a pause, where the bird suddenly twitches and once again looks around the room wildly.

"Well– I meant– It's great! Wonderful! I love it!" He shouts enthusiastically, flapping his wings and hopping a little ways away to look at some of the items that litter the space.

"Ooh what's that!?" Tanya nods, satisfied as she relays the second message to her partner. Crisis averted. –_– Tanya finishes cleaning the water purification kit in the bathroom sink and places the still damp container on a towel on the guest room floor. The rest of their things are either unpacked on the floor nearby or in storage with the bags inside a closet on the side wall.

Amelia had almost immediately claimed the bathroom first, then went to the kitchen to use the landline to call her mom, leaving Tanya alone in the guest room. The 'mon looks over at the computer that sits unpowered on the far wall. Finally. Picking up the manilla stock portfolio from the bed, Tanya walks over to the computer and, after struggling for a minute with the back of the chair as she hops up and powers on the machine, accesses the internet.

The computer is of significantly lower quality than the one in the library, but using the few tabs she can create the 'mon quickly trawls though everything she wants to know. No major news stories, no important emails, no major fluctuations in the stock market, and –after a bit of searching– no issues with the local gym scheduled for tomorrow. Then, only after the necessary things are done to ensure everything is on schedule, does she re-open her email and type in the address Caretaker gave her.

She stares at the empty page after the recipient, trying to draft what she should say in her head, What she needs to say is a one word sentence reporting that she's arrived at Mauville alive and unharmed. But that one sentence feels… wrong. But, try as she might, she can't determine why, So, in the end, she adds the fact that both her and Amelia are in good spirits and they've added Taillow to the team in two more sentences, then sends it off. One minute thirty five seconds later, she gets a response.

Titled simply: 'BIG SIS!!!!!' The content of the message is equally sparse, just a hyperlink requesting a video call on a popular service called Joltlink. Tanya finds that she'd clicked on the link before she'd even realized what she was doing, kicking the case fans to life with a straining whir as a black screen opens in the middle of the monitor.

After a moment longer, the screen flickers and the perfect black is replaced with the shining black of someone's massive eye, blurry and completely taking up the camera feed with proximity. A moment later the face pulls back just enough for Tanya to recognise it to be that of her sister, Chansey." Big Sis!!!" The 'mon on the other side of the screen cheers, looking off to her left and frantically beckoning toward herself.

"Boss! Everyone! C'mere! She picked up!"

"She did?!"

'Boss' calls from off screen.

"Get everyone! She answered!" There's a distant yelp and the rumbling thud of running feet, audio compression making the sound more like a distant roll of thunder as several chairs are shoved into frame before 'Boss' is the first to climb up and wave frantically at the camera.

"Big Sis! You made it!" Chansey pulls her way up next, waving just as frantically.

"We didn't think you'd be calling for another day!"

"We shouldn't have underestimated you!" Chansey chimes in as she comes into frame as well, followed by ever more siblings, clambering for space.

"You got a Taillow!? That's so cool! What are they like?"

"Taillow can break the sound barrier in a dive! Did they do it yet!?"

"When are you fighting Wattson!? We wanna watch the fight!"

"Did you see anything cool?!"

"We missed you!" Tanya blinks a few times, then sniffs slightly as she looks at all the expectant faces on the screen before trying to sort though the journey so far for all the parts that they'd like to hear. Eventually she pieces it together, and just as she's about to begin recounting everything that's happened thus far, she sees Caretaker's face appear at the back of the group as they crowd in on their side of the screen. She smiles as Tanya begins her retelling.

"Well…"