"Please, just stop for a second, let's sort through this."
"There's nothing to sort through. This mission request is clear as day."
"That has to just be someone with my same name. There are lots of pokemon out there, I'm sure this sort of coincidence has happened hundreds of times before,"
*knock*
"You can't lie your way out of this. Come here, we're bringing you back."
"No you're not listening, you're making a mistake. I'm fine here."
"I will cut those lies out of you if I need to."
*Knock*
"Rustin, please. I don't want this. I- I don't deserve this,."
"A mission request is a mission request. It's our job. Now get. Over. Here."
*Knock*
"I-I thought we were supposed to be family! Aren't we supposed to protect one another!?"
"You aren't old enough to be going off on your own yet. You shouldn't have come here in the first place. Now come!"
*knock*
"Aren't I the only normal type you have? You need me!"
"Not when you faint in the middle of missions. Get over here!"
*knock*
"No! I don't want to!"
*knock*
L-let me go! I don't want to go back there! No!"
*knock*
"Sylveon- get you feelers off of me! Let me go! No!"
*knock*
"Locke! Please help me! Please!"
*knock*
"Help! HELP!"
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
Tamin bursted awake. Heavy breathing, pulse racing, mind shaking, eyes darting across the room. The voices faded like the illusions they were and the sound of knocking on her door took their place.
"Tamin! Wake up!" Niot's voice pierced through the chamber door. Aggressive as the voice was, it calmed Tamin as she adjusted to what was reality.
She spent a moment to look around the room she was in, happy to see the chamber she had been designing was still there as she left it. Her sanctuary was yet unpunctured.
"I'm coming!" Tamin called out to let Niot know she was present and ease his worries.
The minccino sat up and hopped down from the hammock she had rested in to land on all-fours on the wooden floor, then stood up to walk towards the door. She calmly unlocked and opened the door, her body language not reflecting the horrifying nightmare she had just gone endured. On the other side was the chatot patiently waiting.
"That's another guild member awake," Niot said to himself. "Wait here for one moment."
Heeding to what the chatot said, Tamin stayed in place while Niot walked over to Locke's door and knocked on that as well.
"Locke! Wake up!" Niot yelled while he banged his talons against the wooden door.
"Urgh...I'm coming," Locke said, his voice having an uncharacteristic grogginess in it.
Far slower than what his usual speed was, the shinx forced himself out of his bed and walked over to his room door. Just as with Tamin, the door was opened up and from it emerged Locke.
"Here," he said.
"Are you alright?" Tamin asked, beating Niot to the punch on being the first to speak up.
"Yeah," Locke responded, his words telling a different story than his tone and physique told. "I was just stayed up a tad too late with Crystal."
"Mhm," Niot said, "Anyways, today is a chore day, and as you two are recent recruits, I'm here to inform you about that."
"What's that?" Locke said in a tired tone as his eyes weren't fully open and he had already begun sitting again to reduce the strain on his legs.
"Bi-weekly we have a chore day where our guild members take up tasks to upkeep the guildhouse, and make this be a good living space for all of our members," Niot explained. "You will be alleviated of your need to do a mission today, so long as you do your part in tidying the place up."
"That often?" Locke asked, still waking up.
"Be appreciative that we aren't in spring when pokemon are shedding their fur left and right."
"Well, actually some of us are right now," Tamin said nervously, her body language giving far more away than it usually did as she scratched the back of her head.
"Will the guild requests isn't while we doing chores today?" Locke said, beginning to wake up more, but his mind still not being fully there, as indicated by his grammar.
"Um, no," Niot said, trying to take a guess on what the shinx meant. "Generally we have our stronger explorers such as Armin and Max take the helm of continuing regular missions whilst our weaker guild members are the ones to do the chores. It ensures that the most skilled and strong among us do not have their talents wasted."
"Now wait a second, if you be telling me to do chores, then are you sayin' I'm a weaker member here?" Locke said, almost fully awake as agitation replaced tiredness..
"Yes," Niot said in a cold and judicial tone, "now what chore task would you like to do?"
From behind Niot, Dewott walked towards the three of them.
"Eh, I think you'll get used to it," Dewott said he walked and shrugged.
"Oh, hey Dewott!"
"Ahoy there, Locke!"
"How-zit goin'?" Locke asked, now fully awake.
"Great!"
"Nice!"
"So I was thinking about getting up on the roof and cleaning that today, and I'm thinking I'll be able to clean WAY more than you can," Dewott said, hopping around a bit with energy. "Think you can match?"
"I don't see a reason why we should turn this into a competition-" Tamin said before Locke's voice overcame hers.
"I'll take you up on that bet!" Locke proclaimed, "Niot, what's the hardest job we have for chores? I'll make sure I get more work done than he could dream of doing."
"Cleaning the toilets is always the task that guild members avoid doing the most, so I would say that."
"Got it!"
The shinx turned and sprinted off.
"Aye, let the game begin!" Dewott said before he turned and ran off as well.
Locke and Niot were left at the doors to the personal chambers, looking towards where the two that had run off to. After a few seconds, Tamin turned to the chatot with a shrug.
"Let boys be boys," the minccino said.
"Yeah… strange thing is that Dewott is well within the range where he should just keep doing normal missions. He wants to do this," Niot said, perplexed by this behavior.
"Well to be fair, I'd take housework over risking my life any day."
"Ah yes, that takes us back to the point. Tamin, what tasks would you like to do today?"
"I suppose just dusting. That's what I'm best at."
"Excellent choice; taking advantage of your species' virtues," Niot complimented. "I would recommend starting with the upper story and working your way downwards."
"Understood."
Tamin split up from the scene as well, leaving Niot behind so that he could continue systematically going through the room doors of the diurnal guild members to awaken them.
Although Locke and Dewott wanted to get to their tasks as quickly as they could, they remembered that they still had to eat breakfast to ensure they were well fed for their tasks. As such, they reunited in the mess hall swiftly after initially splitting up. During their meal, Locke and Dewott grabbed and devoured food as a two-step process without any actions taken in-between. Food was forced against their guts at speeds that would cause the average pokemon to choke, both looked like they were defensive eating more so then actually preparing themselves for the day. Tamin averted her eyes from those two and their wanton gluttony, there was no other way she could have retained her appetite. The two competitive pokemon left the mess hall only a minute after they got there to rush to their declared tasks; the crumbs they left behind giving a newfound understanding as to why chore days were necessary.
Once Tamin had taken her time with her food, she quietly stepped away from the hall of consumption to walk to the upstairs room.
While the specific intent was to find things to clean, her keen eyes suddenly could notice thousands- a seemingly endless amount of small mistakes that littered the guildhouse. It was almost overwhelming to Tamin when she took inventory of just how many things seemed off, it gave her a desire to retreat back to the sanctuary of her room. But she persevered and got to work with correcting the details. She dusted surfaces with her tail and rearranged decorations with her upper paws. There was a small catharsis she could find in cleaning when she could choose what to do herself instead of being ordered exactly what to do, and for how long to do it.
Above all else, Tamin focused herself on any cloth that was present to ensure it was properly folded and arranged. Whenever she saw it, she felt a compulsion to draw close to it and begin adjusting it to make it oh so perfect. It was an area where she didn't care about the amount of time she sunk into it. Tamin didn't spend any time considering whether this behavior would be odd or not, or if there was someone witnessing her that would consider it odd.
Once she was done with the upper floor, she moved downwards to the main floor. Shortly thereafter, she caught a glimpse of Espeon walking around the guildhouse. On sight, Tamin recalled the nightmare she had that morning, even if it was a different psychic cat pokemon she saw in the dream. Remembering every last word, every last detail, it sparked her to try and ask questions.
"Hey, guildmaster?" Tamin said to catch his attention, speaking in titles to sound nicer.
"Yes, Tamin?" Espeon responded as he stopped and turned his head towards the minccino.
"Okay Tamin, don't be dumb about this. Ask your questions carefully" Tamin thought to herself. "This can't be a moment when you're stupid."
"There are just a couple questions I've thought about," Tamin casually asked.
"I'll be happy to answer you then," he replied, "shoot."
"So, if a pokemon were to run away from their parents, would it be a guild mission to get them back home?" Tamin spoke with her words coming close to betraying her, but she maintained a smooth tone throughout. Making it come out sounding like just simple curiosity.
Like her strategy had been with lying to Rustin, she believed the way the words were said were more important than the words themselves. She would rather roll with a poor choice of words than stutter while thinking of better words.
"Well, yeah. If the parents want their kid back and they're even giving some money for it, we'll get him back," Espeon explained. "It's a dangerous world out there. Especially for little kids."
"That's kinda what I assumed. But what if the kid doesn't comply and wants to go back? Would we force and drag her back?" Tamin asked to be more specific.
"Wait, did I say 'her' when Espeon said 'him'? That was not a good choice of pronouns- No Tamin! don't overreact on this. He probably didn't notice, just stay cool," Tamin thought to herself, all while retaining a normal face.
"I suppose it would depend on the case. I mean, if she's just lost- or being a rebellious brat who ran away because their parents grounded them- then we'd return them. But there might be some cases where we don't do that."
"Ah, I see," Tamin said. The answer didn't quite give Tamin all she wanted to know, but she also knew that asking anymore follow up questions brought the risk of putting her into the realm of suspicioun.
"Any other questions?" Espeon asked.
"What are the plans for winter?" Tamin asked, doing whatever was the first question that came to mind, knowing that a series of questions would be more natural than a single off-hand question.
"We'll bunker up for the season and only do high importance missions that could result in death if left unattended. So it will mostly just be the strong members going out during that time," Espeon explained. "Just try to not get stir-crazy during that time."
"If we don't have to do a mission today, are there other cases where we aren't required to do missions?" Tamin asked, this question being more genuine then the last.
"We provide 'mission leave' to certain guild members for many reasons, which means they are not required to do missions. It's given to members who can provide something another service to the guild (like Audino's veterinary skills) or if they are not well, like from being sick. Among other reasons."
"Huh. I see," Tamin said, her mind entertaining the idea of being able to stay at the guild without doing dangerous missions. She schemed out the different ways she could theoretically obtain this 'mission leave' concept, from counting her non-combat skills she could use to contribute to the guild to calculating the odds of faking illness and getting away with it.
"Is that all you have to ask about?"
"Yes, I think that's all," Tamin said.
"Alright then. I'm happy to help," Espeon said with a slight nod, unsuspecting of anything that was off. "If you think of any more questions, then I'll be available all day in the office."
"Understood. Thank you."
"You are most certainly welcome."
Tamin walked away, with Espeon doing the same to head back to his office. "Not the most reassuring words. I'll just have to keep playing it safe. I can't let my guard down. Not ever."
Tamin returned to her work with cleaning, now on the main floor. Not too long after her meeting with Espeon, Tamin took notice that some pokemon were retrieving food from the kitchen to put in the mess hall for the next meal. After seeing it, the minccino had to remind herself how much time had passed: it was already hours ahead from when she had first started with her house cleaning. She was so caught up in the activity that she had lost track of how fast time was slipping past her. After the initial moment of amazement on how fickle the flow of time could be, Tamin shifted her focus towards the mess hall so she could begin helping the setup for lunch. A few minutes later, the meal was ready for everyone and they ate.
Shortly after she began eating, Locke walked into the room on his light shinx paws to take a seat in the stool beside her. But instead of being welcoming, Tamin leaned away, for she had not known where his paws had been, and also doubted that he'd clean himself.
Right on queue, Dewott came in and took place in the mess hall directly in front of Locke with a mienfoo beside him. As predictable as the result of putting baking soda and vinegar together is, the shinx and the water type pokemon began talking to discuss their past exploits. Or at the very least they could make mundane activities seem like grandiose feats.
"So, what have ya done today so far?" Dewott asked with enthusiasm.
"Got 'em all done so far even Niot be happy with the results!" Locke replied, a slight twinge of disgust was noticeable in his face and tone, but it was overpowered by the allure of competition to prove himself as the better pokemon.
"Ah, I see I have a worthy opponent," Dewott said as though he was faced with a divine challenge, "I thought you being a quadruped would hold you back or somefin like that, but you've impressed me."
"I ain't letting anything hold me back! Bend me a hundred times, I'll never break," Locke responded, further enveloping himself in this persona of Dewott's challenger and equal.
After the short exchange, they went into a phase of eating down on their food and talking in a cycle. They discussed odd jokes and previous accomplishments as small bits of food and spittle flew out of their maws. Both Tamin and the mienfoo awkwardly looked away from them, but also saw each other across the table. The fact that they were both doing the same thing was something they recognized and took note of.
"Sho, what hash you done sho far?" Locke asked, crumbs still scattering everywhere as he chewed with his mouth open.
"I'll have you know that I got the entire roof cleaned just in the mornin'," Dewott pridefully said.
Locke took a second to swallow. "Impressive," he said.
"So given that is a lot more surface area then what you cleaned, wouldn't that mean I won?" Dewott continued to boast with a sly smile.
"Hmm. Perhaps, although the things I cleaned were've been a lot messier," Locke replied.
"This kind of goes into the reasons why I don't think this makes sense as a competition," Tamin interjected, "there's no way to objectively measure who-"
"I'll just have to clean more stuff then!" Locke interrupted.
The shinx dove his teeth into the food in front of him one more time on that meal, then quickly turned his head while jumping off of the table. A piece of food was torn off with this, which Locke carried for later as one last morsel to stuff himself with. He built up speed to shift into a full one sprint to exit the mess hall.
"Don't think I'm giving up my lead!" Dewott said while boldly raising his fist into the air.
The water type pokemon excused himself from the table as well and ran out of the room so that he could search for more chores to do. His departure was noticed by almost all.
"I...guess those two are gone now," Tamin said, slightly befuddled.
"Yeah. I don't fully understand Dewott sometimes," Mienfoo responded.
"Do you know him?" Tamin asked, glad she could get a calmer moment to converse in.
"He's my boyfriend," Mienfoo answered.
"Oh? Well, that must be chaotic," Tamin responded, confusion shifting to surprise.
"It can be hard to keep up with his antics sometimes, but he really is quite sweet," Mienfoo said. "I do often play along with the various competitions he comes up with."
"Well, good for you then," Tamin said.
"Yeah. He's not one to leave you with a dull moment. There's always some silly idea he's coming up with. We've gotten quite strong while sparring with one another."
"Sounds like he's more of a dew-it type than a dew-wott type, eh?" Tamin joked.
"Heheheh," Mienfoo awkwardly made herself laugh at the pun to be polite, but the laughter wasn't genuine and grew fainter as it went on.
"I think I heard Niot say that he was strong enough to not be required to do the chores."
"Mhm. He and I are almost even. Well, measuring in how good we can do missions. Counting all the minor competitions he's held (of which he is quite good at counting) he's ahead. Though we both expect that to change once I evolve."
"So you're the hyper competitive type as well?"
"To an extent. I enjoy the simple things in life as well, and I meditate somedays as well," Mienfoo explained. She took a moment to wipe crumbs off of her face with a napkin before continuing, "I'm glad that shinx Locke joined the guild. Not that I want to get away from him, but I'm sure he can find a whole world of activities to do with him."
"You seem like a really good pokemon, I'll admit," Tamin said, appreciating her words as well as the high etiquette Mienfoo exercised.
"Thank you, I very much appreciate hearing that."
"We might have to do something together sometime."
"If I can find the time. Even with Locke distracting him, he can still be a little high maintenance," she gave a soft chuckle. "I could do some training exercises with you if you need them. Though I'm not sure my skills would transfer the best to you since we do not share a type."
"Perhaps. Though I don't exactly feel like doing training right now," Tamin responded.
Tamin and Mienfoo continued to stay in the mess hall for some time longer to have calm discussions, Locke had gone down into the basement to search for anything and everything he could clean. Lacking the ability to handle larger cleaning implements like a broom, he used a rag soaked with disinfectant. The hallway floors had already been catered to by larger pokemon before the shinx had gotten down there. The layout of the place had become even more maze-like as certain routes were blocked by a wet floor sign and a puddle of cleaning product; but that was trivialized by Locke's expert pathfinding skills.
He cleaned rooms indiscriminately; caring more that work was done so he had it as a card to brag against Dewott with more than making sure the work was done in important places. In his ventures into random room cleaning, Locke eventually found himself in a substandard office-like room with a desk, some blank papers, writing utensils, boxes and sealed cabinets. He had not checked the room's label before he entered it. Nevertheless, he sought to clean every surface in his limited reach.
Once he was done, he took a short break to reflect on his work. "Hmm. Alright, I've been cleaning for awhile now, I should check with Dewott again," he said to himself.
While he was walking to exit the room, he tripped on a bump in the carpet he didn't notice and fell down.
"The hell?" Locke muttered to himself as he got tripped up. He was able to catch himself from toppling down, but randomly tripping was still unusual for him.
Turning around, Locke spotted a small, rectangular bump in the carpet of the room. The evidence was clear that this was the source of his tumbling.
"What's this about?" The shinx thought to himself.
He began lifting the carpet up in the room, folding it over itself to be able to see the floor underneath it like the bump was a door handle and the carpet was a door. In doing so, he revealed a large trap door beneath it with a wooden board rotated over it to force it down. It was even complete with a circular handle to pull it open.
Confusion immediately set into the shinx's mind.. He was already in the basement floor, so it could not have been an alternative entrance to the basement. He distinctly remembered Espeon saying nothing about any sort of second basement to the guild, yet a trapdoor was laying right there.
Locke thought that this might have been just another storage room, but that didn't stop the cat's curiosity. He pushed the board to rotate it out of the way. Too small to lift it by the handle, Locke went to the trapdoor's edge to make attempts to lift it up through that.
It was heavy, but he was strong. As the trapdoor came open, Locke was able to glimpse a staircase of stone descending downwards into a dark underground, descending farther down then he could see. The more he opened the trapdoor up, the more light seeped into it and revealed more of the staircase. Yet it seemed that no matter how much light he let in, the illumination could not reach the bottom. It was pure grey stone with sharp edges. There was nothing on the walls or ceilings, just a descending staircase.
Locke continued to push the door open while focusing downwards. He tried to adjust his eyes to be seeing in darkness instead of the light so that his night vision might reveal the bottom, but before his pupils could fully enlarge, he began hearing footsteps outside of the room; footsteps that were coming closer.
In a moment's decision, Locke valued his safety and staying in the clear over his curiosity. He softly let the trapdoor down, shifted the board back into its place and pushed the carpet on top of it. He did all this with barely a peep of noise. Afterwards, Locke turned around to leave the room.
As Locke opened the door to depart, he saw Sylveon facing directly towards him on the other side.
"Locke?" Sylveon asked while squinting to an extent.
"Yes?" the shinx replied.
"What were you doing?"
"Uh, cleaning some random rooms," Locke answered, not being able to keep his composure when hiding certain facts like Tamin could do. "It is chore day, after all."
"That's my office," Sylveon said while bringing his feelers up to point forwards.
"Oh, sorry. I did not realize," Locke spoke while his head dropped down a slight distance. By the tone of Sylveon's voice, he could tell it wasn't something he was supposed to do.
"It's alright, I suppose. I'll tell Espeon of this, but if you didn't know then you won't be punished for it," Sylveon said. "Although I am glad I saw you since there's something I need to talk to you about."
"What'd that be?" Locke asked.
"We have taken notice of your violent behaviors towards other guild members, and we have to ask that you cease that immediately," Sylveon said, being as straight-forward as possible. "Espeon has said that the pain of getting your claws sterilized will be punishment enough for what you've currently done, but we want to make it crystal clear that this behavior is not acceptable."
"Wait, is that what that was about?" Locke said, beginning to get a twinge of anger.
"Yes. We had Audino sterilize your claws so that you wouldn't give bacterial infections to a guild member if you attacked them in the future," he explained. "Half the reason we set up those appointments was to make sure you didn't make anyone else ill."
"What the heck? What in specific are you talking I have done anyways?" Locke said, anger increasing as grammatical skills decreased.
"You attacked Max while they were rescuing you-"
"I didn't know they were rescuing me at that point! I was in the middle of a fight against a bunch-o-wilds."
"You shocked the zorua Hunter on your first full day here-"
"He was disguising himself as Tamin and trying to trick me! He needed a lesson."
"You clawed at the back of Sebastien's neck later that day-"
"And apologized! And that was in the middle of a fight."
"And you have been reported as making a threat of violence towards Hunter yesterday-"
"He was disguising himself as me to trick Tamin!"
In frustration, Sylveon closed his eyes and put one of his feelers between his eyes to focus himself, trying to find the right words in him to say to the shinx.
"Look, I'm not the one who is making the calls here. If you have a problem, take that up with Espeon, Umbreon and Niot, they are the ones who made these decisions and told me to talk with you. I don't have a particular desire for this either, and you can believe me when I say that I don't have some kind of personal vendetta against you. I am just here to keep the guild together by making sure the rules are actually followed.
You can keep insisting you've done nothing wrong when you have a near daily pattern of violence, but the one you're harming with that is yourself. A single appointment and claw sterilization is all you've gotten now, but I highly doubt you're getting anymore warnings past this.
We have been taking care of Hunter. He is a known trouble maker and I don't fault you for disliking him. But you are not to attack him or anyone else here again. Do you understand?"
The shinx was taken aback, unsure of how to respond to Sylveon's extended speech.
"Do you understand, Locke?" he repeated.
"Hmmph. Yes, I do," Locke said, looking into his eyes.
"Good," Sylveon said, tuning around shortly thereafter. "I sincerely hope this is the last time I will have to talk to you like this again."
The eeveelution walked away from Locke, leaving him behind. Once he was away, Locke turned around one more time to look at the space where the trapdoor was located before he exited the room and closed the door.
His mind wasn't distracted by thoughts of his violent actions for very long, and it returned to thinking about the trapdoor he had seen. While Locke walked back towards the foyer, the image of the seemingly endless, dark staircase still lingered in his head. He wondered what was below him. He painted the image of a dark, sprawling dungeon of stone just below his feet in his head. He thought about this so much that he tricked himself into hearing echoes below his feet where there were none.
Meanwhile, Tamin had returned to cleaning the guildhouse after taking her share of food during lunch. Like before the meal, she had gotten rather carried away in seeking out every possible imperfection in the guildhouse that she was capable of fixing. Before too long, Tamin essentially convinced herself that she was the sole pokemon who was capable of righting the wrongs presented within the guildhouse, spiraling into an seemingly endless chain of cleaning that extended well beyond what her call of duty allowed. This crusade against uncleanliness eventually led her to the basement, where she took to the impossible task of attempting to fix the many things that bothered her down there.
Like Locke had done before, she checked room after room for what she could tidy up. Unlike Locke, however, she was not able to accomplish this without losing her sense of location and avoiding getting lost. This led her to even stranger rooms, like bathrooms that were clearly started and never finished, freezer cellars (plural), pits that were excavation areas to collect unknown substances, and things she couldn't even make a guess on.
Many rooms almost felt like an adventure with how strange they were. But then she stumbled upon one that stood above all the other ones. It was a thick door labeled as "lab". On the other side of a door, Tamin found an expansive room which contained several contraptions she could not recognize, controlled chemical flames that were active, some breakers and vials, shelves, and very well organized cabinets. Much of what one would associate with the room's label was present, and little of what one would associate with the floor above.
A desire to clean morphed into a desire to investigate. Tamin stepped further into the lab while leaving the door behind her open, getting closer to all the strange sights inside. Before too long, she was surrounded from all directions by laboratory and apothecary equipment and supplies. But what intrigued her the most were a line of glass containers that held glowing dust, each a different colored and labelled things such as "dark", "electric", "faerie", "fire", "flying", and all the other types. She stepped closer with a paw extended to take a look at the cases. But before the minccino could reach them, a female voice called out to her.
"Don't touch that!"
Stopping and turning, Tamin saw that Mawile had come into the room from the door she had left ajar. The suddenness of the voice had made her lock up for a split second.
"I promise I wasn't going to," Tamin announced while putting her paws up to show the palms and stepping back. Mawile fast approached while she had done this.
"Good," Mawile stated as she got up. "What are you here for anyways?"
"I was simply looking for rooms to clean," Tamin said, not having to lie but preparing herself to do so- just in case.
"What? The chores ceased hours ago. What are you still looking for places to clear for?"
"Hold on, what time is it?" Tamin said, her eyes searching for any clocks present.
"A quarter to three," she answered.
"It's been that long? Wow," Tamin said as she began to compute just how long she had truly been cleaning for.
"Yes. Even if we were supposed to be doing chores still, the first thing I did after breakfast was to sterilize this location. So you truly are lacking a reason to be here."
"Alright, I got it. But before I go, can I just ask what all of this stuff is?" Tamin said while she attempted to gesture all around. Although due to her location, it seemed she was gesturing primarily towards the glass storages of glowing dust.
"That? Those are type infused materials. Do you know what those are?" Mawile said, her eyes notably widened a bit, a spark lit up in her as she was interested in being able to explain these sorts of things to others.
"I do remember what I've learned, y-"
"Type infused materials are much of what they sound like: inanimate materials that are connected to the different types of pokemon. Their most potent form is the evolutionary stones that certain species (your's included) use to evolve into their next evolutionary stage, but there are weaker forms of the materials that can be put to other applications as well. The dust you see before you is obtained by grinding the materials down so we can contain them in a purer form, which we then use as the active ingredient in the flares you use. Although flares are far and away what the guild does most with these type infused materials, there are many other applications as well. Both in granting inanimate objects the properties of certain types, and even rituals to infuse living things with the materials and well. Though I believe it would be more advisable if I spared the details of those rituals."
Tamin did not verbally respond to this long explanation after being interrupted. She only stared at Mawile with a mildly annoyed expression and silence that communicated enough information.
"Sorry, I just like explaining things," Mawile awkwardly admitted.
"It's alright," Tamin replied. "So this place is where our flares are made?"
"Correct. That is the primary purpose of this room," Mawile explained. "Olivia the emolga is my main assistant and she handles most of the flares' final assembly. I carry out doing the precise measurements, making sure the materials don't have impurities, and the other technical tasks here."
"Huh...interesting," Tamin said, "I didn't know Olivia did such a thing."
"She's a… unique craftsman, let's just say that. Her personality certainly brings challenges, but she is efficient enough as an assistant.
We always take careful inventory to make sure we don't run out of what's necessary and get made what we're requested to. Even if those requests can sometimes be peculiar," Mawile said as she shifted over the completed items stored inside of the lab's storages, until she pulled out one object that resembled the flares they had, but was significantly wider to the point of being unwieldy. "Like this, for example. This 'payload flare' was something Espeon told me to make, and I still don't know what his exact idea in mind was. It's got the force of over seven flares wrapped up in it, which would create such a burst that if activated it have your eardrums shot to the point of bleeding, leave behind so much dust that you'd get into a coughing fit and you'd see a flash even with your eyes closed. I guess it's supposed to be visible from kilometers away and have enhanced stunning ability, but this is just absurd."
"Yeah, that is odd I suppose," Tamin said, not fully knowing how to respond.
Tamin took another gander around the lab. On this additional check, she saw many other color-coded materials. Fine dusts, stones, liquids, even ones carved into needles resting inside reinforced glass containers.
"What about all of that? Those don't seem to be used for flare creation."
"Oh, those. There any plenty of other applications and uses for these type materials past flares, flares are just the only thing the guild is doing with them right now," Mawile turned her head away from Tamin. "I don't want to get myself caught up in a thirty minute seminar explaining all of it right now, it'd be a waste of time and I have a bad habit of getting carried away. But I'm sure you'll eventually find out about the other stuff if you keep going the way that you are."
"Oh, alright then. Might look into that stuff myself then, might not, not sure," Tamin said as her eyes swept over all the odds and ends once more.
"Fair enough, then," Mawile said as she turned to look at the minccino again. "Now if I might change the subject back to a former topic, can I further inquire as to how exactly you spent hours straight of cleaning?"
"I don't know, I guess I just like cleaning and got carried away," Tamin said with a shrug and once again preparing herself to tell lies if she needed to.
"So you really like cleaning?"
"Yes."
"Interesting. I have also been told you have been spotted folding cloth a lot, do you have any comments to say on that matter?"
"I just like folding cloth, it's kind of therapeutic. Is that abnormal?"
"Alright. And would you say that you personally feel a...compulsion towards this specific activity of folding cloth to make it perfect?"
"I guess. Not a word I personally would have used but I suppose it could apply."
"Hmm. Few more miscellaneous questions, but would you say that you have any fear of contamination or dirt, intolerance of uncertainty, need to have things orderly and symmetrical, or have any unwanted thoughts about aggression or taboo subjects?"
"Uh… yes, kind of, yes, and maybe. What are these questions even about?"
"Few more. Do you hold a strong desire to establish routines, to be constantly checking, and get reassurance."
"I suppose so, but is that not normal? I really don't get what you're asking all of this at all."
"Good to know, good. That should be all, you should be leaving now."
"Understandable," Tamin said, not wanting to incite any ill will by being respectful, "at the top of your head, do you know how to get back to the lobby from here?"
"Take a left as you leave, keep heading that way until you can't anymore, take a right, and then keep traveling down the hallway with your head turned to the left. You'll see the lobby soon enough."
"Thanks."
The minccino calmly turned and left the room as Mawile remained in the lab. Tamin closed the door behind her as she left, then began following the instructions to get back to the lobby.
"What were those questions about? She's clearly trying to figure out something about me," Tamin thought to herself as she walked through the basement. "I need to be careful about what I let them know. If she continues like this, I can just play her game and get information on her."
Tamin made her way back to the commons of the guildhouse, finally ending her crusade of cleaning hours after the rest finished with the chores.
Above ground and outside of the building's wooden walls, Dewott laid down on a lawn chair with the shinx Locke beside him in a similar position on another chair. The competition was over, only rest remained for them.
"So, I was able to eat more food back on your first day here, and we did 'bout the same amount of cleaning, so I guess the score's two-to-one right now," Dewott said as he stared up at the clouds with his arms behind his back, his imagination making out different images in the clouds.
"I guess," Locke replied as he shifted to his side and looked at Dewott. "You're pretty good, I'd say."
"Why, of course I am. I told ya, I'm going to be the champion of this guild," Dewott said pridefully.
"I like you lots. We should do a mission together sometime soon," Locke said while arching his body to stretch around on the lawn chair.
"Yeah, we've definitely got to do somefin together like that. Let's try to make that happen tomorrow," the otter pokemon said while turning his head towards Locke, but still resting it on his arms.
"Hmm, okay. Do you know of any competitions we could do today? There's still some time today, and I think I need to settle the score."
"I know of some spots in town where we could do some parkour. Oh, or I can concoct some ultra-spicy foods in the kitchen with some fire seeds and other special ingredients. We can see who can go longer without resorting to some ice cold lemonade."
"Okay, that second option sounds really good. I'm a big fan of spicy food," Locke said, getting into an idle position again. "I'll always take a little bit of fire to go along with my folly. It's some of those inseparable pairs made for each other, y'know? Peanut butter n' jelly, purple n' black, song n' dance, foolishness n' flames."
"Now, are you sure with that? You are looking at a water type who has practiced this for a while. I'm not sure you have what it takes to knock me down."
"Haven't you ever heard that pride comes before the fall?"
"Exactly!"
The two pokemon shared a laugh with each other before settling down again, both of their moods still high.
"Man, I'm glad I have you to do this stuff with. Mienfoo would never do these kinds of food competitions with me," Dewott spoke once he was done with the chuckle.
"Oh, do you usually do your competitions with her?"
"Yeah, she's my girlfriend."
"Ah, nice. Crystal's my girlfriend, if you didn't know."
"Nice, good for ya."
"What kind of pokemon would you say Mienfoo is?"
"A very sweet one. She's got the same competitive spirit in her, but she's a lot calmer and more patient. Mienfoo practices self-discipline pretty well."
"So you're the same in some areas and the opposite in others?" Locke asked.
"Yep. In all the areas where it counts," Dewott said, smiling as he thought about her. "She's a scion that comes from a noble background, 'House of Splendor' is where her parents are from, I think we're on the county they own right now. Her mother wanted to keep her close to that lifestyle, but her father made sure she got disciplined and a liking for the simple things.
I'd say it worked out pretty well, she's open for adventure and trying out new things, I don't think anything about her is spoiled or messed up. Well, aside from what she eats."
"What do you mean?" Locke asked.
"I don't know what they did, but she's the pickiest eater I've ever seen. She can't even eat the guild's food and wastes a ton of money to get food in town. I could count the number of things she is willing to actually eat on my two paws. It's crazy because we've even gone to Audino to test her for allergies in case her body might just be rejecting it- but no- all the tests came up negative. They totally spoiled her tongue."
"Wow, that sounds annoying," Locke said. As he spoke, he recalled some occasions where he saw Mienfoo eating from a takeout box during a guild meal.
"Yeah… Oh well, I can tolerate that, she's my sweet thing nonetheless. You can't expect to find love if you can't be tolerant of some quirks like that."
"That's very true."
"Mhm. Now anyways, you ready to do that spicy food challenge?"
"Dang right I'm ready!" Locke said as he jumped up and got back down on his paws.
"Wonderful! I've waited so long to do this again!"
The two pokemon hopped off of their lawn chairs and ran back towards the guildhouse, their mouths were already beginning to salivate.
End of chapter 9.