Chương 58: 58-Disruptive

"Ok, I'm going to go fill up some prescription bottles in the back, it'll take about forty five minutes. Can you hold the counter till then?" The… nurse asks as she adjusts her uniform. Amelia doesn't allow her discomfort to show on her face as she smiles and nods with perfect professionalism.

"Of course Nurse Ambrette. Leave it to me." Her prompt answer has the nurse hesitate for a moment, looking into her eyes before nodding and walking into the back room, leaving Amelia alone at the counter, the still wrapped blanket sitting beneath. It's only after the back room door closes that Amelia allows her face to scrunch into a minor grimace at the memory of the cosplayer who she's working under. Apparently Aunt Lily had something come up that meant she needed to leave for a few days.

She only gave instructions to Ambrette for three, so she has to assume she'll be back by then. Amelia has… complicated feelings about the practice of Joy cosplay to say the least.

On one hand, and on the most basic level, it looks uncanny to see someone using props and prosthetics to pretend to be a member of her family, even weirder that there are entire businesses that make it their jobs to sell wigs, colored contact lenses, and specifically formulated makeup to get the look to the standard the public deems indistinguishable. She's not sure how the disguise manages to fool people, but it does, quite regularly.

But on the other hand, some part of the Joy says it's none of her business how people choose to dress up. If they want to look like a member of the family while working at a pokecenter, then it's not illegal unless she starts calling herself 'Ambrette Joy.' Amelia scrunches her face. No. All she has to do is say nothing and the people will just say that for her– The nurse in training cuts herself off and forcibly takes a breath.

She's thought about it a bit, and one of the most selfish reasons for disliking the practice is rather petty. It's that they can take the wig off. She sighs and adjusts her blouse. Amelia Joy, is a Joy, literally since the moment she was born that's an immutable fact, a Joy who chooses to be something else has to hide themselves, else everyone they meet will assume that they're a part of their family's tradition.

Amelia has personally dealt with these issues, despite barely moving outside how her family usually does things, and though she's happy to be a part of her family it doesn't change the fact that she has no option other than to be who she is. But whenever Ambrette leaves work, she can take off the wig just as easily as she can take off any other part of her uniform, and suddenly being a Joy is a choice done as easily as flipping a switch.

Something that she chose to do at some point in her life and could just as easily decide to quit without needing to do anything more complicated than find a new job. The front door opens and Amelia straightens to attention, clasping her hands at her waist as an older trainer walks in with a six ball bandoller in hand already and an irritated expression on his face. A few seconds later and he's walking out again, unwrapping a complementary mint he'd grabbed from a bowl on the counter as he goes.

With that the Joy allows her professional smile to drop again and starts wiping down the countertop with a disinfecting wipe. How Ambrette dresses is none of her business. It's not even her fault that she feels like she needs to wear the wig in the first place. Amelia sighs.

Great grandma Mimi told stories of when she was a little girl, just on the tail end of the volatility following a large population boom where the clan ended up hiring dozens of people from outside the family to work in pokecenters in almost every major town and city for the first real time in living memory. Non-Joy nurses have been around forever, but until that point it was an extremely rare occurrence. And no one was happy, the family, the new hires, the public, the pokemon, no one.

Because they didn't trust a non-Joy to do the job. It's better now, but she's read magazine articles about non-cosplay nurses still being treated with confusion and suspicion when they stand behind the counter in some places. Which is just unfair for them. At the end of the day they are qualified nurses, so… she'll just have to get used to it.

Finishing her basic wipedown of the counter, she drops the dirty wipe into the trash and turns back to the front with a smile as the front door opens just a few seconds after the previous patient left. She then feels herself struggle to keep her professional demeanor as she sees who came in. Vibrant red hair in a high ponytail, crop top, worn bell bottom jeans, just a few years older than her.

Amelia remembers watching her meteoric rise through the gym circuit, one of the youngest trainers ever to challenge the Hoenn elite four, managing to fight through each team one by one only to barely be beaten by Drake in a near coin flip upset. Gym leader Flannery gives a slightly ragged smile as she power walks over to the countertop.

"Heya Nurse Joy! Back again!" She shouts as she waves with a pair of short, aggressive movements and leans both elbows on the desk.

"How's it hangin?" Amelia struggles to figure out a response in time, caught completely off guard by the Gym leader's appearance and casual demeanor in contrast to the sheer prestige of her accomplishments. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Good morning Gym leader Flannery." She says, noticing exactly how worn the trainer looks as she leans on the counter, hair drooping, clothes lightly stained in soot, small bags under her eyes. She looks like she's been busy.

"How can I help?" Flannery laughs even as she flinches slightly, shaking her head.

"Aww! Nurse Joy, you've known me since I was a little kid! Don't you start calling me 'Gym leader' all the time too!" She says with a smile, and Amelia is forced to silently suppress how being confused with her forty year old aunt makes her feel as Flannery continues.

"But uhhhh… while I'm here. You wouldn't happen to know how to pay… an electrical bill, would you?" Amelia is opening her mouth to resolve the confusion on her identity, but by the time she processes the Gym leader's words sheer shock has her mouth mirroring her mind directly.

"I– ph. You forgot to pay the gym's electric bill?" She asks, eyes widening in disbelief.

"H–Hey I didn't forget!" The Gym leader defends, cheeks reddening as her talking speed increases.

"I meant to pay it last week, but I couldn't figure it out, and Grandpa wasn't picking up the phone so I put it on my todo pile and then trainers just kept showing up and I know something is going on with some of them! These one badge kids keep showing up with 'mon that are not one badge 'mon! I almost lost to a grass type yesterday Miss Joy! A grass type!"

The girl, who looks increasingly less like a gym leader and more like one of Amelia's friends from school every time exams come around, leans both elbows on the counter and buries her face in her hands as Amelia tries to cut in again. Suddenly even more uncomfortable with this case of mistaken identity.

"Gym le–" She starts, but Flannery starts speaking again with a slight but dangerously emotional waver in her voice.

"I just don't see how Gramps could manage all this…" She says quietly.

"And now the police are asking me all these questions about Team Magma activity like I'm supposed to know–"" Gym leader Flannery." Amelia interrupts with some urgency, awkwardness at the situation being overridden by the fact that she should not be hearing about something like that.

"I apologize, but I'm not who you believe I am."

"Wh…" She trails off, eyes widening as they take in every detail of Amelia's face. She tries her best to look apologetic as she continues.

"My name is Amelia Joy." The nurse says, holding out a hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet y–""Oh shhhhh oot! I'm so sorry!" Flannery shouts as she takes a step back, her face quickly becoming almost as red as her hair.

"I didn't mean to– I was just so tired and that's– I mean you don't look anything alike so I– I mean–" There's a point where the red in the Gym leader's face and the panic in her voice seems to peak, and at that point it's almost like a switch flips inside her brain. Her mouth closes, she straightens from a defensive hunch to a proper upright posture, and her eyes seem to start looking beyond the walls behind Amelia into something no one else can see.

Then she places one foot behind her, spins around, and begins quickly marching toward the exit in total silence. Then she's out the doors and gone without another world. … What? Amelia is… a lot of things right now. But confused is a good start. A state this is not resolved after the Gym leader walks out the front door and disappears, nor in the following half hour of silence after that until the sliding double doors open again and her partner ducks slightly to get through.

"Ans, chanseyschansey cha… ans…" The 'mon starts, trailing off as she sees the expression on Amelia's face.

"... Chansey?" The nurse blinks, then looks up at her partner's eyes.

"This entire town is full of strange people." She says after a moment. —-- She's still not completely over the… experience that was interacting with the Gym leader of Lavaridge by the time the phone rings again. But work takes priority so she takes a quick breath and pulls the phone off the receiver.

"Lavaridge pokecenter, Trainee Joy speaking." She says promptly, only to be answered by a long few moments of silence."... Hello?" Comes an elderly voice over the speaker.

"Is this the pokemon center?"

"Yes sir. How can I help you?"

"Absol isn't drinking any water." He says and clears his throat, followed by some muffled sounds of talking from somewhere else in the room.

"He says he's just not thirsty, but the last time something like this happened it turns out he was a liar." Humming to confirm that she heard, Amelia clicks a pen and flips open a pad of paper next to the phone to a clean page.

"Alright then sir. If you believe this is a serious medical issue I recommend you come down to the pokecenter right away. Our address is–" She's interrupted by him coughing.

"Cant you just give a house call?" He asks, suddenly sounding much more feeble.

"I wouldn't want to strain myself or Absol going all that way…" Amelia squints. Protocol says house calls are for emergencies, or when someone is unable to come to a center, and the sudden 'feeble voice' is making her have her doubts on whether this man is more unable or unwilling. But in the end she can only shrug.

"Understood sir, a Nurse will be sent. What is your location?" The elderly man starts to respond, but before he can they're both startled into silence as Amelia feels the world shudder. An earthquake? The Joy places her hand on the counter, preparing to hide underneath it should it intensify. Thankfully it appears to just be a small one, a shudder barely strong enough to be felt through her legs, not even enough to knock a cup over.

She's pretty used to earthquakes, on an actively volcanic island she's used to at least one small earthquake every few months. She still remembers the big one that knocked out the transit links to her town for a solid three weeks when she was eight. As she rises up and slowly releases the table as no intensification or aftershock occurs, Amelia realizes that it's actually been pretty quiet on the earthquake front for the past long while. Guess it's due.

The Joy is reminded of where she is by the voice chuckling over the telephone.

"OhhhHohoHo!" He laughs.

"Well then, would you look at that? Old smokestack is telling us who's boss!" The old fashioned saying has Amelia smile slightly as she nods at the phone.

"Yes sir."

"Bah! No whimsy with you youngins." He says with a huff.

"Now what was I saying?"