The morning light shined over the land once again. Clouds filled the skies and casted moving shadows upon the lands, town, and guildhouse.
In the plains laid the town, in the town's edge laid the guildhouse, and in the outer halls of the guildhouse was Tamin. She leaned against the walls with her eyes closed and ears perched up to listen in on the pokemon she lived with. She heard them talk about what missions to do, smalltalk and even a little bit of dirty talk. Short sentences and replies from so many different voices, bouncing around the wooden walls.
Tamin didn't truly contemplate the ethics of this eavesdropping on others. It wasn't a matter of her knowing it was immoral but her curiosity getting the best of her, the matter was that it just hadn't crossed her head at all.
Keeping track of the many different voices echoing around provided some challenge, but the minccino had already begun committing the different voices. Like focusing on a particular instrument in a song, she could pick out an individual voice from the chitter-chatter.
A different problem that mildly irritated her was that the way she was positioned, all of the sounds she was hearing was in her left ear, making the ear feel different from her right. She actually considered turning herself around to make her right ear hear the voices and to have the appealing feeling of symmetry in the different ears. She didn't do that, as they would make her look at the wall.
"How's your drawing going?" Tamin heard Max the arcanine ask.
"Not the best, to be honest," Armin replied.
"Will you make anymore practice soon?"
"Yeah, once I get back from a mission," Armin said.
"Would you like to go on a date later today?" she heard Dewott ask.
"Thanks, but for today I'd like to try to meditate outside. It's warm and this could very well be the last good day of the year for it," Tamin heard Mienshao reply.
"So do you know what's up with that Aron?" Tamin heard a fraxure in the guild ask.
"I don't," Froslass responded.
"Ever seen her talk?"
"I haven't,"
"Okay what the heck? She has to be doing something hear,"
"Part of me wonders if she is even a guild member. She's just kind of… There," Tamin heard Froslass respond.
"Oh, maybe she's quiet because she's doing something suspicious?"
"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't."
Many different voices, many different stories. Tamin felt like a kid in a candy store, running around trying out different candies. But instead of treats, it was words and gossip. To her, they were just as sweet.
As she indulged herself in this desire, the minccino's large ears picked up something more concerning.
"Have you been handing notes to other people?"
"What? N-no of course not."
This exchange of words was different from the others, both in tone and in subject. The first voice sounded more feminine yet young with an assumed judgmental tone while the second voice sounded more masculine and spoke in a tone that Tamin could tell wasn't honest. Even though she was unfamiliar with his normal speaking an mannerisms, it was still obvious he wasn't telling the truth.
"Hmm. I shall trust you for now, but do not push my trust. I will not hes-i-tate to tell of what you have done in the past if you tell anyone of what I do, regardless of your chosen method of communication. Do you un-der-stand?"
"Y-yes. I understand, there will be no further c-complications."
At that point, Tamin's entire curiosity had been stolen by this eerie conversation she faintly heard. She shifted her posture again and focused on those quiet words. She felt she was overhearing some underworld dealing that was a far cry from the noble justice the guild seemed to offer.
"'Further complications' you say? I was under the im-pre-sion that you were not handing any notes out, so if you were not doing that then why would it be 'further' complications? Have you been naughtier than you're willing to let on?"
"Well, it's just a figure of speech, you see. Of course I have not been doing any of that- I would never. I-I'm just saying we won't be n-needing to have another conversation l-like this in the f-future, that's all. P-please."
"Un-like-al-lee, I say. This is precisely what I was referring to when I said you are not to push my trust. From what I've heard, it sounds like I'm in need of giving you another session in my…" The feminine voice saying until the tone trailed down in volume to become too quiet for even Tamin's keen senses to hear.
The minccino's curiosity was still hooked like a fish at the end of a fishing rod, "just what in the world is going on between them? Who are they even?" were questions that reverbed in her mind. Becoming ignorant to the other conversations, she sprung into action and began moving herself in the vague direction she heard the voices in to investigate.
Tamin brought herself to the east side of the guildhouse's main floor, seeing an entire hallway of personal chambers before her. Visually, each one was innocuous. She could discern that the voices were on the same altitude to her as they neither arose from the floor nor came from above and could tell which if it was coming from her left or right, basic logic dictated that it was in one of the east wing rooms that the conversation had taken place. Thus, she began walking down the hallway while right beside the doors, slowly walking down with her ears still focused to try to find a room that had sound emanating from therein.
After only but a few seconds of walking while in focus, Tamin heard the faint sound of a voice talking in a room she was directly beside. Wasting no time, Tamin leaned onto the door to rest an ear against it and listen into the room. Initially, she heard soft purring inside and what sounded to be very slight moans. She thought these could have been the same pokemon, so she continued listening in for them to start speaking.
"Ooh, you're getting much better at this~"
"Thank you, glad you're liking this more."
"You practiced with tying a cherry stem together with your tongue, didn't you?"
"As you suggested."
"Wonderful, that's so wonderful~"
"Although… can I ask why you're holding my tail?"
"Enough talking, more smooching~"
Tamin took her ear off of the door while the signs of being disturbed began to appear on her face. While this room did contain an evidentially feminine and masculine voice, these were not the ones Tamin had heard earlier. These two voices were ones that Tamin did recognize as belonging to Sebastien the meowstic and the guildmaster Espeon.
"Excuse me?" a voice in the hallway asked Tamin.
The minccino turned herself around to see that it was Rustin the meowstic who had spoken to her. The blue and white cat pokemon stood in the middle of the hallway with his paws together and a stern gaze locked right on Tamin.
"Hey Rustin. How have you been today?" Tamin replied casually with added mannerisms and getting rid of any remnants of the disturbed look she momentarily had. "It's been a bit since we last saw each other."
Tamin was a believer that effectively lying had less to do with coming up with the most plausible story and far more about how the words were told. As she spoke, she made sure she said it in the exact same tone she used in normal conversations, made sure her body language and paw movements were the same as someone trying to express a truthful story. She ensured she had standard facial expressions, and she kept eye contact with the meowstic while she spoke.
"That's my sister's room," Rustin stated while pointing towards the door.
"Oh, that's what it is, alright," Tamin said as she continued to maintain her practice of lying as well as she could. She didn't let herself stutter as she was aware that would give it away quickly. "Sorry, I just tripped up in the hallway and landed on the door."
"You… tripped in the hallways and landed on the door?" Rustin said, his voice caught between trying to decide if it wanted to be confused or serious.
"Yeah. Sorry for being clumsy, I'm still getting used to all the skills an explorer needs," Tamin said while she gave an awkward smile as though she was embarrassed. "Everyone's a rookie at some point, eh?"
Rustin's expression had shifted away from the stern gaze he once had to a face of abject bewilderment. His lips moved to form the word "wha?" without him verbally emitting any sound.
"You were leaning against the door with your ear pressed against the door to my sister's room, I saw you," Rustin said through his bewilderment. By all accounts he saw a pokemon that seemed to be speaking the truth, but he had to deal with the narrative she was telling conflicting with what he swore he saw.
"It was only for a few seconds. I heard some sounds inside, so I wanted to figure out what I was hearing," Tamin continued to say, paw expressions and all.
"So you were listening in on them?"
"Just to figure out what the sounds were. Isn't it normal for pokemon to try to investigate strange sounds?" Tamin asked, trying to look taken aback and confused, "I know it's Sebastien's room now, so I won't be doing that again."
"I… guess that's normal," Rustin said.
"Do you doubt me?"
"What? No. But… what exactly did you hear in there?"
"Just some talking, not much else," Tamin said while raising her shoulders to shrug.
"Um, okay then. For future reference, don't be listening into anyone's rooms. Even if you do hear odd sounds," Rustin said.
"Understandable," she affirmed.
Rustin turned his body away from Tamin, and turned his head a moment later. After she saw the meowstic turn away, Tamin reoriented herself as well and walked down the hallway to distance herself from him. After taking a few steps to ensure the conversation was over, a clever and prideful grin appeared on Tamin's face. "I can't believe I actually got away with that lie. A lie against a psychic type, no less. I really have refined my technique."
Although she was successful in avoiding any repercussions from eavesdropping on Espeon and Sebastien, she was unsuccessful in her original goal of investigating the strange conversation she had heard. She still sought to find the source of it, but knew she had too much suspicioun on her to investigate the area further.
Tamin went down the hallway, until she came up to one table display that caught her eye. It was a table that went up to her chest and had four portraits above it in a diamond formation. The top portrait displayed a whimsicott that was not familiar to Tamin, the two below that were of Espeon and Umbreon, and the bottom portrait was of Niot the chatot. But the portraits were not what the minccino's eyes were caught on. Instead, she gazed down on the table itself, which was covered in a white tablecloth and had several decorations on top of it. The cloth was slightly misaligned from the center and hanged off in uneven ways. While details like this would easily go unnoticed by the typical pokemon; however, Tamin had her attention immediately taken by it.
She began to start rearranging the cloth on the table, taking things off it so it would move better, and precisely folding the edges of it. The folding is what she put the most focus on; making the most keen measurements she could with careful folding, making some mistakes, correcting said mistakes, making a few overcorrections, and refining out those overcorrections to get into the perfect middle spot. Each action meticulous, each result perfected.
It was around that time that Rustin turned his head back to look at the minccino once more. In doing so, he got a direct look at her odd behavior. It took him a few seconds to simply mentally process what she was actually attempting to accomplish.
"Careful with those now, they rate high in sentimental value," Rustin announced to Tamin from across the hallway.
"I'm treating them with delicate care, don't you worry," Tamin stated, no longer having to tell bluffs to the meowstic as she was finishing up with the table. "I just need a little bit longer."
"Need? You don't need to fold that tablecloth up," Rustin said back, "just put it down."
"I know, but I just really feel like doing this. Just your typical compulsion, y'know… And~ I'm done."
"Compulsion?... Okay, I am aware this is a strange question to ask, but how often do you fold cloth like that?" Rustin said as the bewildered demeanor made a return and he stepped closer to the minccino again.
"A few times a day. I figure you could consider it a light hobby of mine, just a little stress reliever," she answered in earnest.
"Really? So you just randomly get the compulsion to fold cloth multiple times a day, and it annoys you if you fail to do that? Is that what you're saying?"
"I mean, I guess that's a way to put it to words. But you're making it sound like I'm an oddball," Tamin responded. "In fact, these past few minutes you've been questioning what I've been doing and trying to make me sound strange. For someone so high up in the guild's ranking with a high demeanor, you're seeming rather vindictive towards the guild's newcomers."
"An overreaction, to be sure. But this is all I need to know. I shall leave you now, there is another I desire to speak to now," Rustin said, downplaying the situation and avoiding the look of being offended by Tamin's descriptor.
Rustin turned around and walked away, leaving the hallway truthfully this time. Tamin spent a moment in confusion before she turned around and left the hallway as well, choosing to go the opposite direction that Rustin had traversed in.
She wasn't sure what her plan was at that point, and the suspicious conversation she had eavesdropped on had slipped its way out of her head due to Rustin's distractions. The minccino shook her paws to scatter off any dust they had accumulated from the table cloth whilst rounding the corner. The guildhouse's northern section was revealed to her eyes, she was able to notice a familiar face coming towards her: the face of a male shinx.
"Hey Tamin," he said.
"Oh, hey Locke. How's it going?" Tamin replied.
"Good, good. Have you done anything interesting today?" he said as he turned his body around and flicked his tail forward to indicate that Tamin should follow him.
"Not much, I got pestered by Rustin a bit," Tamin said as she began to follow.
"Oh yeah, he can get a bit annoying now and then. What did he get on you for today?"
"Nothing much. How has your day been?"
"I stayed up late to be hangin' with Crystal."
"Ah. Actually, now that I think about it, there is one strange thing I heard today."
"Oh?"
"It was this strange conversation I overheard between two I didn't recognize, it sounded like one was blackmailing the other. I tried to look for the source of it, but I lost it."
"Overheard or eavesdropping?" he inquired.
"Eavesdropping I suppose. Do you think there's anything I should do about that?"
"Eh, maybe just leave it."
"Okay then. But I do want to unc-"
As they were still speaking and approached one of the staircase rooms, another familiar face approached them. Or rather, the same familiar face approached them another time. Tamin witnessed Locke the shinx turn the corner and faced them directly.
Tamin was understandably dumbfounded by this, she had just witnessed what looked to be the exact same shinx approach her twice in a row. She turned her head to check beside her, and indeed she saw the first one still at her side. This new one that approached them got a focused look on his face while the one that had been with Tamin for some time got an awkward smile.
"Hunter…" the one that had just turned the corner said to him. His tone of voice was so cold, you could feel the sharp icicles poking you.
"What's going on?" Tamin asked.
"Oh well, I guess the charade is over now. T'was fun while it lasted," the one that was with Tamin previously said with an awkward smile.
"Wha-"
He jumped up into the air and did a backflip. Along the way, his body began charging with an aura of purple and black energies around it. A veil was melted away, under that veil revealed a zorua where the appearance of a shinx once was.
"Wait! Woah, what?!" Tamin explained, getting even more confused at this situation growing ever more surreal.
"You couldn't be satisfied by just tricking me, so you tried to pretend to be me as well?!" Locke shouted at Hunter.
"Calm down, man. These are but just pranks, harmless ones at that," Hunter said, his voice being kept calm despite Locke's shouting and the chaos of the situation, ironically making him the eye of the chaotic storm. Nevertheless, there was a grin on his face.
"Pranks?! No, these are more than just pranks! You have just been an insufferable, trap-triggering, berry-sucking pokemon ever and you're targeting me! And for what, cheap freaking laughs?" Locke continued to shout at Hunter.
"You're part right, part wrong, they are for laughs. But I wouldn't exactly call them 'cheap', there's a decent amount of thought that goes into impersonation."
"You are so unbelievably annoying and bad and should just screw off! I'm sure I was better than you when I were two freaking years old!" he said as electricity began crackling out of him into the nearby air.
"Can somebody please tell me what's going on?" Tamin sheepishly asked.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Call me Giritina or whatever you want. What are you going to do, hurt me?" Hunter said as he sat down on the carpet, his smile growing.
"I dang might!"
"Enough!" Niot the chatot shouted as he approached the three in the staircase room with his wings spread, "Enough, enough!"
Locke, Tamin, and Hunter all turned their heads to face the chatot in tandem. He had a notepad in one of his claws, a disgruntled look on his face, and ruffled feathers on his body
.
"Sorry about this," Tamin said to Niot, trying to de-escalate the situation and avoid getting in trouble, "I promise I didn't cause any of this."
"Can you please tell this zorua to frick off?" Locke asked Niot.
"That wasn't what I came to you for, but I do have to request that you do not shout or make threats of violence inside of the guildhouse. Remember, we have nocturnal pokemon sleeping here right now that we are most certainly not to wake up," Niot said.
"Mhm. I think my work here is done, now," Hunter said, his sly smile retaining as he sat on the carpet. Not a twinge of fear was in him for he knew Niot would now witness any act of aggression made on him.
"What did you come here for then?" Tamin said, beginning to feel more comfortable as the chaos was dying down and it wasn't looking like she would face any punishment.
"Based upon multiple factors including (but not limited to) us not fully knowing where you have been before, how healthy your lifestyles are, and if there are any health-based accommodations we need to make for you, we have scheduled you two to both have nurse's appointments with Audino in the infirmary. This is effective immediately and you will be made to attend this shortly."
"Really? You just suddenly decide to put us through a nurse appointment?" Tamin questioned, getting suspicious, "This is very little heads up you are giving to us."
"This was the decision that the guildmasters and other administrators have agreed to, so by the rules of this guild you are required to heed to it," Niot said, his tone sounding almost robotic, "After consideration, we have decided to implement a nurse check up into the process of recruiting every guild member. Consider this to be a continuation of your recruiting process to retroactively fulfill these newly enforced requirements."
"Sounds fair to me, no one wants a plague-bearer coming into the guild," Hunter interjected. "I don't even think dark types are edgy enough to find a way to justify that as a good thing."
"So you're forcing us to go to the infirmary now?"
"Provided they do not violate a pokemon's rights or the greater region's laws, a guild member is to obey by the commands laid out by their guildmaster," Niot said as he showed his notepad to them which contained the order he was describing along with his, Espeon's, and Umbreon's signatures at the bottom. "As the order is clear and explicit, you are to go now. You will be free to file a complaint afterwards."
"You sound like a lawyer," Locke commented.
"I studied law before I decided to lend my skills to work at this guild," he explained. "The decision came from both from noting my cousin's success as second-in-command of a different guild (far away, mind you) and me noting that this guild was far more moral than the noble houses that I was originally going to work at."
"Umm...okay?" Locke said, not entirely following his story or knowing how to respond to it.
"Come on now, let us not get into filibustering. You two are summoned to the infirmary, so follow me."
Locke and Tamin turned to notice that Hunter had snuck away sometime while they were focused on Niot. Not seeing a point to rebelling against this simple order, they both followed him.
Downwards into the basement, sideways into the halls and then straight forward, they reached the door to the infirmary. The door's window was higher up than Locke and Tamin, making them unable to look inside of the room through it. The door was thicker and far more heavy duty than the other doors in the guild, being able to essentially airlock and prevent germs from getting through.
Niot opened the door with a lower doorknob. As the way was opened up, they had line of sight on the room and Audino inside.
The infirmary was larger than the bedrooms were. It contained two reclined chairs with adjustable arm rests, countertops designed to match Audino's height, countless drawers and locked cabinets holding many different medical supplies and devices, and more. Across from the entrance were two well sealed doors to smaller chambers and labeled as "quarantine". Tamin's eyes swung across the room to study all that was inside of it, and one detail she found off was a rack of dentistry tools.
"Nice to see you, Locke and Tamin," Audino greeted them, "I hope that you both have had wonderful days."
"What exactly is this impromptu appointment for? There seems to be stuff all over the place here," Tamin said.
"I am adept in many different veterinarian skills. I serve as the guild's nurse, doctor, and dentist. So today will just be a general checkup."
"Ah, a medical expert. For the healthy, for the sick, for the dying, and for the dead," Locke said.
"Umm, not so much on that last part," Audino said, slightly uncomfortable by Locke's comment.
"Eh, that's fine. Not like the dead need much help anyways. I don't think they'll mind,"
"Umm… well, anyways, it would be much easier to work with you one at a time. So why don't you come first, Tamin."
"Alright," Tamin said as she stepped forward.
"Come with me, Locke. Let's leave them to this," Niot said.
"Don't need to say," the shinx replied as he followed.
Tamin went over to the closer of the two chairs while Locke and Niot left. The minccino hopped onto the chair, rested her arms on the armrest and had her tail go through a rather wide tailhole on the back of the chair. But as she did, she noticed that there were plastic arm straps present on both of the arm rests. While they weren't currently being used and lacked any mechanism to automatically snap on her, she still avoided putting her paws in the section where the arm straps occupied. The minccino immediately became suspicious on why they were present, but didn't ask any questions.
The door clicked into place and Audino came over to Tamin once they were isolated.
"I'm going ask a few questions about your lifestyle," Audino said as she retrieved some items.
"Okay,"
"First of all, how cleanly do you keep yourself? We need to know if it's possible that you're brought any germs into the guildhouse."
"Quite," Tamin replied, choosing against using many words when she felt few words would suffice.
"When was the last time you've bathed? Sorry if these are personal, they are what I've been told to ask."
"Not in a few days. My species takes dust baths instead of water baths to clean, and while I have gotten a large bowl in my room for that purpose, I haven't yet gotten the money for the right dust. I will soon enough, so you don't need to worry."
"That is reassuring to hear."
Audino had retrieved some thin metal tools and was using it to better examine Tamin's fur. She pushed the fur aside to look at the pinkish skin beneath it to see if anything was off. Tamin slightly recoiled at her fur being touched, but didn't remove herself from the chair. When she kept examining sections of the minccino's skin, she could tell that not all was right. There were thin white lines that were scattered all over her flesh randomly. It didn't take long for her to figure out what it was: it was scar tissue that rested all over her.
"Uh, ma'am, can I ask about these scars over your body?" Audino asked, beginning to get genuinely concerned for Tamin's well being.
"Oh that? Don't mind those, they're just birthmarks across my body," Tamin said, beginning to use her skills in deception once again just like what she has done with Rustin not even an hour earlier.
"Are you sure? Birthmarks are reddish whilst these markings are pale," Audino asked. "If you've been through something that has inflicted these onto you, then you are fine with telling us."
"Birthmarks are 'reddish'? I've never heard of such a thing before," Tamin said whilst faking confusion. "I suppose that could be true for some pokemon species, but it isn't for minccino."
"Um, okay then," Audino said
Continuing her inspection of Tamin, Audino came up to Tamin's paws. She could tell something was off with those immediately as well; the webbings between the individual fingers in her paw were almost entirely severed away. She could see red and pink near the center of the paw where they used to be, she could spread her fingers out far more than she could normally have because of this. This obviously couldn't be a birthmark, it was missing flesh.
"What happened to your paws?" audino asked as she grabbed the minccino's paw and felt it.
"Oh those? It was a tree climbing accident that happened years ago," Tamin said again, smoothly lying to put a lamp shade over the truth rather than a light, "I don't quite remember what happened. I think some flying pokemon might've put up some barbed wire as a rather aggressive way to defend her nest."
"Well you should be very careful with that. Watch for infections and don't stretch your fingers out too much. Your paw will be a lot more fragile, so you need to take care of it," Audino said, her voice reaching new levels of concern.
"I'm aware," Tamin said nonchalantly.
The nurse pokemon went over to the imfirmry's countertops where she grabbed a noteboard and wrote down on it, detailing what she had learned of Tamin so far. She was willing to look into Tamin's claims that the pale marks were birthmarks, but was not fully convinced at that point.
For several minutes more, the appointment went on. Audino asked many more questions to the minccino (some of which were rather sensitive) with Tamin answering them all. For anything that touched in specific information in her past, she told consistent lies to keep her history veiled. Tamin picked out lies that were believable over lies that made herself look better, even if she had to paint an embarrassing image of herself. When asked if she knew needed any form of medication, Tamin vehemently told her she did not. Beyond the questions, Audino also checked Tamin's ears with an octoscope, her throat by placing a wooden stick on her mouth, her teeth with dentist equipment, and had her take an eye test. Audino deemed her to pass all the checks and she even got above average with the eye exam, so she wrote down the rest of the information and dismissed Tamin.
During the time where Tamin was in the infirmary, Locke sat with Niot not far outside the room. The chatot watched the shinx carefully to make sure he did not wander off (as he remembered when he did in the test mission) but avoided touching him with his talons. Locke did sit still, but was awfully bored during it. His mind attempted to think of some dark joke to tell, but came up blank as his sense of humor lended itself to responses rather than unsolicited comments. Additionally, Niot secretly wrote a message on his notebook when Locke was not leaning over to see it.
Once Tamin was dismissed, Niot hurried Locke inside of the infirmary, not even giving Locke a chance to talk with the minccino before he was put inside of the room.
"Alright, your turn now," Audino said as she approached them.
"Yep. Might as well make this quick," Locke replied.
As the pink pokemon closed the distance between them, Niot held a folded up message to her. She bent down to take it, straightened herself, unfolded the message and began reading it.
"Don't be afraid to use the arm straps on him, he has continued to seem violent towards other members. Earlier today he said 'I just might' in response to someone asking 'what are you going to do, hurt me?' I believe we should use some form of restraints sooner rather than later," the message read in Niot's precise handwriting.
"...Why don't you take a seat, Locke," Audino said as she kept her eyes on the note.
The shinx walked over to the same chair Tamin used and hopped onto it. He sat with his four paws on the bottom of the chair instead of leaning against the back, though his tail still dropped through the chair's tailhole.
Audino first walked over to the countertops on the room's edge and retrieved some rubber gloves. Whilst the gloves typically served the purpose of protecting her patients from her own germs, this time it served the opposite function of protecting her body from the shinx's electricity. Once she had them on, she came back to the chair to see Locke again.
Her eyes went between the Locke and the plastic arm straps. The words on Niot's note as well as the stories she had been told of Locke harming Sebastien and Hunter were in her mind, but as she looked at the eyes of the shinx, she couldn't quite see a match. She attempted to visualize a scene of her placing Locke's front paw on the armrest to restrain him, but such a thing just seemed bizarre to do. For a few seconds she tried to make a plan in her head, but was at a loss for words on how she would explain it to Locke and could imagine him resisting in a bad way if she tried that.
"Let's start with some questions," Audino eventually said, not making any actions on him.
"Okay,"
Just as she had done with Tamin, she gave a series of questions to Locke. This time around, several questions were added on that were based around Locke's electricity abilities and his rather primal nature. Locke's answers were direct and honest without any deception behind it, but they painted the picture of a pokemon who had a squalid lifestyle rather than the refined self-care the minccino had. He hadn't taken any baths in awhile or really focused on keeping himself clean to any significant extent.
After the questions, Audino checked his fur and skin. She saw specks of dirt and other undesirable particles found inside of it, but that was all expected. What was less than expected was when she found a mark of distinctly frostbitten flesh at the part where the neck met with the chest.
"You have some frostbite. Have you gone into any particularly cold areas recently?" Audino politely asked, even though she knew the mark was too thin and too specific of an area to be caused by natural cold exposure.
"Oh that? Don't mind that, it's fine," Locke said.
"Frostbites can be serious, and you should treat them as such. I need to know how you got that."
"It was a few days ago when I was fighting some cold types," Locke said, but the way he spoke and moved his body while he spoke was off. He didn't have the deception abilities that Tamin had. "My body can take it."
Audino could tell this wasn't the truth as she could identify the frostbite as being recent and getting frostbites weren't common from explorers fighting ice types, but she wouldn't push him onto that matter. Regardless of how he got it, it was something that needed treatment.
She retrieved some ointments from cabinets and applied them to Locke's frostbitten mark. "This is the exact type of thing we had you go to this appointment for," she retorted.
After applying the skin care, the next step Audino had in mind was to retrieve more dentist tools (a set that was cleaned, different from what she used with Tamin) to inspect his teeth. Locke wasn't fully cooperative with the teeth checkup as he wasn't comfortable with sharp objects being brought near him. He leaned back and tensed up to be ready to fight back if he needed to, but the unfortunate nurse was able to be careful enough to still get a look at them. They were perfectly fine as although he had basically never cleaned his teeth in his life, he had hardly ever had any sugary or processed food that would tear away at them.
(maybe do more showing instead of summarization)
Once she was done with the dental examination, Audino went over to one of the countertops and retrieved a bowl from a cabinet. Locke watched her as she got the bowl filled up with a warm liquid that wasn't quite water. She then set the bowl onto the room's floor.
"I'd like you to come over here, Locke," Audino said.
"What this?" Locke said while he hopped down from the chair.
"This is some strong disinfectant. I'd like you to extend your claws and dip them into this for at least ten seconds,' Audino explained while gesturing at the bowl. "This practice is for sterilizing your claws to prevent them from giving infections or cat scratch fever to anyone you cut. But don't worry, this won't make your claws any duller."
"Are you worried about me cutting more pokemon with my claws?" Locke asked.
"I was requested to do this by the higher ups at this guild," Audino admitted, lowering how much accountability was on her.
"How much will this hurt?" Locke asked, not enough reluctance to stutter but the question was far from being flat in how it was articulated.
"It will hurt some, but it shouldn't be unbearable."
Locke paused and had some reluctance, internally debating whether or not to go through with it or rebel. Ultimately, he decided he had enough pain tolerance that it would be pathetic for him to chicken out of this.
He stepped forward to the bowl, extended his claws, and dipped them into the bowl. Sure enough, the heated liquid stung like hot sauce being slathered on an open wound. Locke shut his eyes as tightly as possible, and he bit his lower lip. He counted in his head, and Audino did the same. One, two, three, Locke reminded himself of what Audino's exact instructions were. Four, five, six, it was taking concentration to not pull out his claws or dip the rest of his claws into it. Seven, eight, nine, angered sounds began coming from his throat.
"Ten," Audino said. "That's enough, Locke."
Locke pulled out, feeling the relief of the cooler air come right away.
Feeling embarrassed by having his claws get sterilized by Audino, Locke asked if he was done with the appointment. Instead of being told he was done like he desired, the shinx's ears and tail dropped low when Audino informed him that his majorly unclean fur was the other issue they needed to fix.
Outside the infirmary, Tamin leaned against a nearby wall as she waited for Locke to finish. She noted that he had been taking a longer period of time then what she had spent during her appointment. She didn't think much of it at first, but as minute after minute slid into the past, she began to grow suspicious of just what they were doing inside of that room. The quarantine-ready doors and walls coinciding with how quiet they were meant she was unable to eavesdrop on them without pressing her ear against the door; which she knew was far too suspicious to actually do.
But eventually, through patience rather than forceful investigation, the minccino saw the infimiry's tough door open again and the shinx emerge from it. However, he did not take the appearance he usually did. Much of his fur stood up and was damp from not being fully dried off giving him a messy and unkempt look that appeared much differently then how he usually looked with his fur down. Moreover, his fur was pushed around both from a scrubbing brush and a towel done by Audino. He did smell notably better, though with the aroma of soap in the air and no longer the filthy smell of a pokemon who had gone through many mystery dungeons and nights in the wild without proper cleaning.
"Hey Locke, how did.. it go." Tamin said as she took notice of how Locke's fur was.
"...Hey Tamin," Locke said without answering her question.
"What took you so long in there?"
"Getting bathed in a sink and having my claws sterilized," Locke said.
"Oh, sorry to hear that," Tamin said, feeling some second-hand embarrassment. She visualized a full scene of Locke being in a metal sink, half-submerged, surrounded by white bubbles and Audino standing over him to scrub him as he had to stay still.
"Naw, it is what it is," Locke said as he did the closest thing to a shrug he could perform with his anatomy and standing on all-fours. "Anything you want to do right now?"
"Um, nothing that I can think of," Tamin said, surprised at how well he was taking it and how quickly his mood was brought up after enduring something humiliating. "I kind of just want to go back to being with myself, like I was before Rustin saw me and all this silliness occured."
"Sounds good. I'm-a go on a jog to see if that gets my fur back to normal," Locke said, not letting anything get him down, "cya."
"See you later,"
The shinx and the minccino separated again, both heading upstairs and doing what they said that would. Tamin got a chance to let out a large sigh of relief as she could finally be alone again without any pokemon breathing over her shoulder.
While the two left, Audino stayed in the infirmary. She had two papers reports, one for Locke and one for Tamin, that she wrote down to fill out every box and copy over all notes she could think of from the appointments.
Once that task was finished, Audino opened the infirmary door to see another pokemon waiting not far outside: it was Mawile.
"Hello Mawile. Came here already?"
"Yes. Let's discuss inside," she replied.
Audino stepped back as Mawile came in, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to the countertops and raised her paw out expectantly. Audino followed her over, grabbed the reports she had just filled out, and handed them to Mawile.
"Thank you, these will be useful," Mawile said as she grabbed them and turned to looking at the report on Locke.
"Some of that is sensitive information, be careful with sharing it," Audino expressed.
"I understand your concerns, but these reports will mostly be kept secret. They will, however, be very useful for me as I try to construct a psychological profile on Locke," Mawile said while she read through the reports. "A one-on-one meeting can be really helpful for learning about how someone's mind works, and I don't think I could have done this if it weren't for this appointment and your questions."
Mawile leaned against the countertop and rested her back mouth over it to get more comfortable as she read the report made on the shinx. "Restraints used: none. Compliance: Fussy. Bodily hygiene: Poor (should be watched). Dental hygiene: Okay (likely from not consuming anything bad for teeth rather than taking care of them). Allergies: None known. Current health: Robust. Weight: Slightly below average. Diet: Appears fine. Bathroom habits: Normal. Electricity: Produces a normal amount, doesn't have electricity incontinence" were some of the details filled out on the report.
"Thank you, your contributions will be useful," Mawile said as she put down Locke's report and began reading through the one on Tamin.
"Weren't you assigned to do this for your psychological profile on Locke?" Audino questioned, confused as to why she was taking the minccino's report.
"About that, I have been told by Rustin that he has seen some strange behavior coming from her earlier today, so I have some curiosity in that area as well. It could very well be nothing, but all that means is that not much will be gained from the profile. But I do not believe anything particularly negative can arise from it."
"I- I think I see."
The steel fairy pokemon continued to scan over the reports with her eyes, eager to learn all about them as she could and commit them to memory.
End of chapter 8.