Chapter Text
After a one-on-one interrogation session with God Above Themself, Lord and Creator of All Things, one would not typically expect the immediate next sight to be sand.
Nevertheless, that is what happened. Everything in her life was destined to be utterly inglorious.
“Are you alright, my girl?” Something nudges against her hand cautiously; she doesn’t think it’s a person, but she wasn’t about to assume.
“Gimme like five minutes and I might be able to give you an answer,” she mumbles, which she instantly regrets, because now there’s sand in her mouth. She hacks and gags until the texture has mostly faded, standing and looking at a now very concerned face. “I’m usually smarter than this, I promise.”
The thing that was nudging at her hand (a Cyndaquil, very cute) waddles back to join two other Pokémon (Oshawott and Rowlet; weird collection, but whatever), chirping. “These three,” says the man standing before her, “all decided to make their way here — rather suddenly and hastily, as if they knew you'd be here.” He shrugs. “It’s quite possible they have some form of prescience; these creatures are terrifyingly mysterious, all of them.”
The Cyndaquil chirps again. “Shaken to my very marrow,” she replies, dryly.
“You haven’t dealt with the specimens I have,” he laments. “These three are quite tame, I’ll give you, but...” He shudders at some unspoken memory. “I shan’t burden you with such things.”
The man gives her a curious look, taking her in. “You have rather... unusual clothing.” Considering they were pyjamas from the, like, week or so she spent in Alola that one time, she was inclined to agree. “Do you have an acquaintance from around here, do you know? Anywhere to stay?”
“No, and no.” And if maybe she does actually recognise this beach, sort of, because it’s not very far from her house, he doesn’t have to know.
“That does put you in rather a pickle...” He shakes his head. “Well, enough of that. Introductions are in order, I think.”
“Akari Morgan. And, please, no ‘Miss Morgan’s, I’ve had enough of those to last a lifetime.”
“Rather an odd combination of names, that; your forename would fit quite well with most here, but the latter certainly not.” He snaps back to focus. “Ah, forgive my ramblings. I am Laventon, a Pokémon Professor.”
She thinks she recognises a ‘Laventon’ somewhere in her family tree, actually... Food for thought.
“So... you study Pokémon, then?” She probably should have paid more attention to Hop’s ramblings, in hindsight.
“Quite.” He nods. “It’s an anxiety-inducing job, at times, but necessary, and I do enjoy it. More when they’re like these three here.”
On cue, the three bolt.
“Oh, blast and bother!” Akari suppresses a snicker. “Can’t you three stay still for five minutes?” Laventon turns to her. “If it’s not too much bother, could you help me round them up? They’re too fast for me, I’m afraid.”
She shrugs. “I’ll do my best.”
As it happens, her best is much better than most people here, even with Pokéballs that look like they went obsolete fifty years ago and fly differently than the ones she’d practised with in her youth. Had she half the motivation she could catch three Pokémon while barely awake, but apparently that was some divine feat here.
She was beginning to think maybe something was off, through the still half-asleep haze over her mind. Also, the stupid god phone was taking a while to process.
Laventon chatters amiably about the streets of Jubilife Village (okay, definitely off) as people stare and gossip; she’s used to it, by now, that kind of tone you only got in hushed whispers about ‘problem children’ from ‘a good family, really, I don’t understand it...’.
She tunes them out, as usual.
“This,” the professor says proudly, emphatically, and she starts paying attention again, “is Galaxy Hall, the headquarters of this entire operation.” He stops suddenly, snapping his fingers. “Oh, botheration! I need to report the recovery of the escaped Pokémon!” Sheepishly, he turns and grins at her. “I’d quite forgotten. Would you mind waiting at the Wallflower — ah, the canteen, that is — while I do? It’s just over there.” He points vaguely across the nearby bridge, and is gone before she can ask him the rather important question of whether or not she’d need to pay. She supposes she’ll just have to hope.
The cook steadfastly ignores her approach for about as long as one feasibly could before it would be extremely blatant that he was actively ignoring her, which is to say a good thirty seconds after it became just pretty blatant. She clears her throat obnoxiously.
It earns her a glare, which is completely worth it.
“Well, aren’t you suspicious,” he hisses. She raises an eyebrow. “The Wallflower is for Galaxy members only, child. Go away.”
Dick.
He goes back to ignoring her, which appears to be his only pastime because he’s not actually doing anything while ignoring her.
“Who are you?” The person who approaches her looks about her age, though no one she knows would be caught dead wearing an outfit like that. “Those clothes are, uh... unique.”
“Speak for yourself.”
He huffs. “The uniform may not be the most fashionable thing, but I won’t be mincemeat if a wild Pokémon gets me. Those things look horribly flimsy.”
Okay, so. Even casual clothes were designed to resist some pretty strong stuff; even her pyjamas could take a Slash well enough. It was a necessity of life, because Pokémon were powerful and sometimes very aggressive things. That had been standard and common knowledge for some seventy years now, if she was getting her dates right.
She was a fucking time traveller, wasn’t she.
“Look, it’s not important,” she sighs.
“If you say so.” He crosses his arms. “Anyway, if you got past the guards, you’ve got to have met someone in the village. Was it the professor? He has a tendency to, well... lose his Pokémon, and that means he has to run after them and so he’s not in his lab a good half of the time.”
“Yeah, that’s how it went. And I resent the implication I couldn’t get past the guards by myself.”
“I worry for him, really. Though, I’ve not much room to talk; I’ve been out of commission for a few days; nasty Thunder Shock, you understand.”
She did not understand, really, she’d been around a Pichu before and those things were excitable buggers that you learned to tune out after the first shock barely made it past your shirt, but she nods along anyway.
“It’s just as Rei says, unfortunately.” Both of them jump, the boy apparently called Rei letting out a small gasp and Akari doing her very best not to cuss up a storm. “I’m a clumsy fellow at the best of times, but it’s all quite alright now!” He claps a hand on Rei’s shoulder, who smiles back at the professor. “Young Akari here is quite the prodigy, as it turns out! She’ll be quite a boon to our survey work. Ah, if she decides to join, of course, I've no intention of forcing the matter—”
“Professor, you can’t just decide to make her a member of the Corps, that’s not how it works, Captain Cyllene will be furious if she hears—”
Akari coughs. “Out of idle curiosity,” she says, staring behind them, “would Captain Cyllene be the woman standing behind you two looking ready to kill the both of you?”
The woman in question’s mouth twitches slightly; angry or amused, Akari can’t tell and doesn’t care. “I would be, yes.” Rei snaps to attention, bowing stiffly, as Laventon rubs his neck sheepishly. “As for the Professor’s proposal...” Cyllene’s gaze snaps to Akari, scrutinising. “Considering her apparent skills, I’ll allow it.” She gives Laventon a meaningful look. “She’s of working age — a few years so, by my assessment. Seventeen?”
“Yup.” Rei gives her a scandalised look. “What? She’s not my boss yet, I can be as casual as I want to.”
Cyllene’s frown deepens. “We will give you room and board for the night. However, Jubilife cannot simply allow in any stranger without knowledge of their origin or skills; tomorrow, you will prove yourself a worthy asset to our efforts or lose that luxury.”
“I’ll pass with flying colours, I’m sure.”
Akari thinks Cyllene smiles, at least a little, at that. “I appreciate confidence in my subordinates. For your sake, I hope it is not misplaced.”
“Well, now that’s all sorted, would you like to join us for dinner, Cyllene?” Laventon offers. “I’m sure you’ve many questions for our visitor.”
“I prefer to eat meals in private to avoid distractions, but thank you.” She nods stiffly and walks away.
Laventon sighs, face fondly unsurprised. “Expected of our captain, that is. Well, we’ll all have our fill of food and friendly conversation between just us three. Beni!” He turns to the professional ignorer and hobbyist chef. “My usual order for three, if you please!”
“So, Professor, how did you meet... uh, Akari, right?” Rei cocks his head, and she nods.
“Funny story, that,” Laventon chuckles. “You know that space-time rift looming over us so?” Rei nods.
“Oh, good, I was worried,” she says. “Seemed about right for a nonsense hallucination, that.”
“No, it’s quite real. Has the commander in quite a bother,” he confirms. “Anyway, Akari here fell right out of it!”
Rei deadpans, “You can’t be serious,” at the same time Akari asks “I did?”. The other two look at her, surprised.
“You didn’t know that? It’s quite a thing to miss, my girl.” Laventon raises his eyebrows.
“I was busy accidentally eating sand, as you saw,” she snarks.
The professor chuckles. “Well, yes. But you recovered from that rather quickly!” He claps Rei on the shoulder. “She caught three Pokémon in quite short order, my boy; she’ll be an invaluable asset for our dreams of a Pokédex. Not a shred of fear at all, even in the face of such terrifying creatures!”
“You are talking about a Rowlet, a Cyndaquil, and an Oshawott,” she points out dryly. “Not exactly the pinnacle of nightmares.”
“Even ones as cute as those can be freakishly powerful,” Rei warns. Akari gives him an unimpressed look. “And there are much stronger out there than them.”
She’s aware of that, but it’s funnier to listen to this. “I’ll take your word for it,” she says instead.
“Does the Survey Corps really have the time to waste on such a leisurely conversation with an outsider?” The chef asks. “That captain of yours ordered ten servings of mochi just now, you know. The slow progress of that... Pokémon index of yours has her on edge, I fear.”
“Ah, but that is precisely why I can afford to entertain this meal!” Laventon grins. “I have no doubt that with Akari’s help, our progress will accelerate dramatically.”
“If you are certain, Professor.” He skulks away reluctantly. Akari glares at his back.
Laventon sighs. “Don’t worry yourself about him, my girl. He’ll come around eventually, I’m certain.”
“He’s like that with everyone new,” Rei pipes up. “Not much of a consolation, I know, but it’s something, I suppose.” He shakes his head. “You know, we’ve rather... glossed over Akari’s trial tomorrow. It’s been a nice meal, but... it’s quite the danger. It feels a bit inappropriate.”
“That’s no way to look at life, Rei! And besides, both Akari and I have full confidence in her abilities; I’ve seen them first-hand, after all.” Laventon yawns. “It’s getting rather late, I think. It would do us all some good to rest well tonight.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” Akari stands, stretching the soreness out of her muscles. “I am so goddamn tired, you have no idea.”
“I worry for your prospects, if you can feel so casually the night before such an important event.” Cyllene steps out from the canteen, frown still etched into her face.
“That’s what I do.” She’d stopped after she’d realised her efforts were never good enough; no point worrying when it didn’t matter. “I’ll do fine.”
“As I said earlier, you have room and board tonight, free of charge.” She nods in the direction of some low wooden buildings. “Your quarters for tonight — and the future, should you succeed — are over there, the first building you will reach from here. If you fail tomorrow, you will be cast out to meet your fate, whatever it may be, in the wilds. It could very well be your end. Remember that.” The captain leaves the conversation as brusquely as she had entered it.
“Wasn’t that cheery,” Rei sighs. “Good luck tomorrow, Akari. I’d hate for you to... well.”
“I could not care less if you said the word ‘die’, Rei, it ain’t happening either way.” She tosses a casual wave over her shoulder. “Now, excuse me as I fall into a coma for however long I can get away with.”