"Eeeeek! Don't move! Don't step on my papers!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry." Justin, a fellow researcher working in the same lab as me, apologised while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "But you really should organise your workplace a little better, Shannon. As a fellow researcher, I understand that this could be a little hard to achieve when you are fully diving into your research, but still…"
"I know, I know." I sighed as Xavier, my beheeyem, helped to move said papers out of the way for now. He will help put it back later when there are no more guests knocking on the doors of my office. "What is it that you are finding me for anyway?"
Justin merely pointed at the clock hanging on the wall of my office.
"When was the last time you had your meal?"
"Eh… oops?" I said guiltily as now it is my turn to rub the back of my head sheepishly. I nervously adjusted the glasses sitting on the bridge of my nose and I can feel Xavier doing a mental eyeroll in our shared telepathy link.
'I told you to have your meal exactly two hours ago before someone comes and tell you off. I reserve the rights to say, "I told you so."'
Stupid Xavier and his sass.
'I know! Sheesh! I'm sorry!'
"Yeah, oops." Justin interrupted my telepathic conversation with Xavier with a dry voice as he made a move to exit my office, a cup of steaming hot coffee in hand. "Go get a quick bite before Cedric or Aurea chews me out."
"I will! So sorry!" I said apologetically as I put my palms together and dipped my head in his direction. Justin merely chuckled before he headed back to his office.
Lancelot, my pawniard, wordlessly helped me with arranging my messy stacks of papers into slightly neater piles as Xavier and I handled the more important ones. Rogers, my breviary, squawked as he picked up any littered trash strewn on the floor and promptly tossed them into a nearby bin. Bambi, my sawsbuck, helped me push the heavy equipment back into their original position with help from Koopa, my carracosta.
"Okay, let's go for our lunch… uh, I mean dinner?" I corrected myself when I checked just exactly what time it is now.
My entire team of pokemon did an eyeroll (and why are they so in sync?!) but followed me out anyway. I greeted any researchers I can see that are still working in the lab located at Nuvema Town. This lab belongs to Uncle Cedric, who is off exploring something somewhere, so I probably won't see him until quite some time later.
I hummed a merry tune as I skipped along to the nearest eatery that I know of. My pokemon fell in step with me as they travelled along. Rogers took to the skies and squawked loudly, scaring any patrats or lillipups that may be nearby with the din he is making.
I still can't believe it. I have been reincarnated into the world of Pokemon, and I now have my own pokemon friends.
I don't exactly remember how I came to be here. One moment I was asleep, the next moment I found myself as a crying baby in the hands of Christopher Juniper and Abigail Juniper. They are my parents in this world until their untimely demise when I was five. From what I knew, they died in an air crash when the plane they were on collided into a pokemon that happened to be flying in the same airspace.
I regret never getting to know them. I wasn't the most obedient daughter when I was young, still confused and afraid of what was going on around me in this strange world. It was their deaths that sobered me up, that this is not a dream.
The Junipers, which I am now a part of, are a family of researchers. Cedric, my paternal uncle who raised me after my parents' death, was the regional professor of the Unova region until Aurea took over recently. My parents were researchers too. It was how Dad and Mum met each other.
Naturally, I became one as well. It's hard to not be one when you are surrounded by researchers all day long since young. The environment which I was raised up in moulded me to be one, and the fact that I am always curious about everything cemented the road that I would eventually walk on. The way my family is so passionate about understanding pokemon rubs off on me, and it wasn't long before I realised that I also have a good enough brain to understand all the complex things that I needed to learn to be a researcher. And so, I decided, 'Hey, why not?', and became a researcher as well.
My parents' untimely deaths spurred me to focus my studies on Pokemon Migratory Behaviour. The main cause of my parents' deaths was because no one expected for the plane that they were on to run into a huge flock of unfezant that were migrating. People expected for their migrating season to be starting at least a month later. Their migrating patterns changed without any warning, which indirectly caused my parents' deaths. When I first dug further on pokemon migratory behaviours, I realised that there was too little research done on this particular field of study. Too many researchers focused on areas like pokemon evolution, breeding, human-pokemon relationships, etcetera etcetera to be bothered to be learning about pokemon migrating habits.
My uncle is an expert on Pokemon Distribution and Biology, which ties in very closely to the field which I am specialising in. It was his influence that got me interested in Pokemon Biology as well, and it became my secondary research specialisation. It was hard trying to specialise in both fields, but I somehow made it. I passed the exams for my researcher license with flying colours and now I am a full-fledged researcher that specialises in Pokemon Migratory Behaviour and also in Pokemon Biology.
My uncle gave me his full support behind my decision when I told him my reasons for my choices, so did Aurea. Sophia, my aunt, did so too, but unfortunately, she passed away three years ago from an incurable disease. I miss her too.
I have no idea why I am here living a second time and frankly, I have long since stopped thinking about it. It's not like I will get any answers. I am fine with the way my life is. I remembered enough about my previous life that I wasn't anyone outstanding. I am a meek person that will stutter when everyone's attention is on me. I cowed and cringed at the thought of being in the spotlight and the fact hasn't changed. I am a science geek, the only one in class that thought that discussing biology and chemistry facts are more interesting than participating in the latest celebrity gossips. I am always the odd one out, the lonely geeky girl with no friends.
My life was boring. My life here still is, considering that the only thing I do day in and day out is research, research, and more research. But then again, pokemon. Things are always exciting when pokemon is involved. I don't remember much about the pokemon series. I stopped playing the game at around Pokemon Emerald. I was bad at the game anyway. I don't know how to play the game other than spamming the same move over and over again where other people crafted elaborate strategies to win competitive battles. Something about lowering and raising stats, IVs, and whatnots. The only stat that I was concerned with is to lower my opponents' health to zero since that was the only way I knew how to play the game.
I knew I would make a bad trainer, so I didn't apply to be one. I tried pokemon battling before with Xavier, and for the life of me I can never seem to command him effectively in battle. I was always too slow to catch up with the pace of the battle and Xavier always grumbled about how slow I am in giving him orders. After our 22nd consecutive loss, we decided that the two of us should stay clear of pokemon battling to not further hurt our already bruised ego. I know enough as a researcher what is needed for a pokemon to evolve. I know how to devise training regimes to put them through and help them gain strength to trigger the evolution process. It worked, as can be seen from the current state of my pokemon team. Only Lancelot remains a pawniard because his species takes a little more time to evolve and he was the latest to join us only two months ago. He is the youngest on the team, practically a baby.
Still, that means that my team lack battle experience despite having the required power. But that's fine. None of us really craves battles and we only need to know enough to defend ourselves when we are out doing fieldwork.
Xavier is my starter and I got him as an elgyem. He was my birthday gift from Uncle Cedric. Xavier's species has the ability to manipulate memory, which is a scary ability to have. Thankfully, their species don't use this aspect of their power without a very good reason. Imagine if a crook has an army of beheeyem at his or her disposal…. Urgh.
Naturally, Xavier found out about my reincarnation secret not long after we became partners. It's hard to hide that from him when he constantly invades the privacy of my mind to talk to me. Surprisingly, he wasn't the least bit bothered by it. In fact, none of my pokemon are when I told them about it. Rogers even have the cheek to scoff in my face and threw a bunch of feathers at me, annoyed at me for waking him up from his nap to tell him this fact of myself. He couldn't care less how many lifetimes I had lived as long as I feed him regularly.
"Shannon! Finally got your head out of those papers? The usual?"
Ah, it seems that had I reached my favourite eatery. I entered and spotted the owner of this place, Kolvski, straightaway.
"The usual! Thank you!" I replied cheerfully at the man who had practically watched me grew up due to how often I visited this place. The burly man laughed before heading back into the kitchen, leaving me to find a seat in the eatery. A few of the locals that I knew personally greeted me as I greeted them back. Nuvema isn't a very big town. If you lived here long enough, you will get to know most of them in time.
It wasn't long before Kolvski emerged with steaming hot meals, expertly balancing the plates on his arms as he served food to me and my pokemon. I wolfed them down. I have research to get back to.
'You will choke if you continue to eat in this manner.'
'I eat however I want- mffph!'
'I told you so.'
Lancelot smacked me on my back with his arm and I coughed out a meatball that got itself partially stuck in my throat.
'Sometimes I wonder who the trainer is and who is the pokemon here. Why am I the one taking care of you when it should be the other way around?'
'Shut up, Xavier, before you choke.'
'I say whatever I want- ack!'
'I told you so. Karma is a bitch.'
This time, Rogers is the one to smack Xavier on the back. However, Rogers used too much force with his wing and sent Xavier flying out of the eatery instead. Thankfully, Xavier didn't knock into anything on his way out.
"Shannon! What did I tell you about smacking your pokemon in my place?!"
"Sorry! It won't happen again!"
Kolvski grumbled something about 'Youths these days' before returning back to work and I glared at Rogers.
"You did that on purpose."
Rogers just squawked out a laugh before returning back to devouring his meal. Xavier floated back to us with his psychic powers, obviously displeased. Whatever food that was previously stuck in his throat is now dislodged.
'One day, I will get fed up with you guys and-'
Koopa is the one to smack him down onto the floor this time, a signal that she wants Xavier to shut up and just eat his food. Oh crap, I hope Kolvski didn't see or hear that.
"SHANNON! What did I just say?!"
Of course he did.
"I'M SORRY!"
AN: The life of a pokemon researcher in the pokemon verse is often overlooked, and I thought it will be fun to write about one. I had this idea a long time ago, just right after IJWTTTW but I just never managed to make it work until now. Hopefully this story won't bore you due to the obvious lack of battles. I had contemplated on whether I should make Shannon a battler, but I decided against it because that will derail from the core of the story. This story is about the life of a researcher, not a trainer.
In any case, hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Character and pokemon list:
Shannon Juniper, Age: 16, Female, Pokemon Researcher and Assistant to Cedric Juniper, Niece of Cedric Juniper, Cousin to Aurea Juniper
Pokemon on hand:
1) Beheeyem (Xavier), male
2) Braviary (Rogers), female
3) Pawniard (Lancelot), male
4) Sawsbuck (Bambi), female
5) Carracosta (Koopa), female
