The New Normal – 4-6 – Interlude – Shelly
Despite the hints that John gave her that he was working on a scientific experiment regarding Pokémon eggs, Shelly was still taken aback at WHAT John had truly been working on. The idea that there were still hidden, undiscovered forms of Pokémon that were just waiting to be discovered lit a fire under her, as well as almost every other scientist around the world.
Though it was tragic that many amateurs tried to recklessly replicate John's successes, only to be met with disaster and misfortune. Hopefully, now that there were new rules in place to prevent such reckless experimentation from taking place, she hoped that it should prevent many future tragedies from occurring.
Fortunately for her, she was in a position where she was able to continue her experiment under League-approved conditions.
She had sent a request to Mr. Stone asking for the expansion and construction of new facilities that would allow her a place to perform the experiment as per League-approved guidelines, and Mr. Stone was quick to accept and even provided the funds to do so. Construction should hopefully be underway shortly!
Despite the massive popularity of John's new experiment, she did not feel jealous of his luck or scientific successes. After speaking with John a few times in person, she saw that he was someone who was able to see things differently, able to connect dots that other people couldn't see or realize needed to be connected. It was a commendable ability, and something that Shelly would always admire.
Besides, she still considered herself blessed that she was able to be working on the Porygon project, despite not being at the joint-research facility. To her, it was getting the best of both worlds. She was allowed to explore new scenery and Pokémon while not feeling so stifled by the overly familiar Hoenn environment, and at the same time be able to work towards discovering more about Porygon and its potential evolution and uses.
As a Pokémon made of pure data, many foresaw that Porygon, if it could be mass produced, would have many applications in cyber-security and cyber-warfare, as well as just the general maintenance and organisation of data. That was mostly outside her expertise, as she was more interested and knowledgeable about developing Porygon as a Pokémon and as a battler.
Suddenly, her computer pinged as she received an email in her private email account. Shelly frowned as she went and read the very familiar email and its repeated proposition.
She remembered receiving the first email from this mysterious sender a while ago. It was a simple email, detailing how they wanted to better the world and how they needed a scientist to help them with their goals. It was a slightly unusual job offer, with a more lucrative salary than the one she got from Devon Corp, but Shelly's scepticism won out, and she politely declined it.
But then more emails started coming, but this time they weren't job offers. They were just simple emails asking for her professional opinion on certain topics, mostly revolving around how to improve the world. One common topic was about how to reverse the damage done by humankind onto the environment. It was an enlightening back-and-forth, and Shelly admitted to herself that she enjoyed the intellectual discussions over email, despite not knowing who exactly she was speaking to. Slowly, her scepticism began fading away.
They never moved away from intellectual topics, though the other person often mentioned how freeing it was to explore the world and see more of it. They claimed that, in order to properly understand the damage that humans were causing to the world, one needed to see it with their own eyes. At the time, Shelly partially agreed; she WAS feeling stifled in Hoenn and would have welcomed a break from the region.
But then she had a lucky break and was sent over to Indigo to as manager of the Viridian Branch office, both giving her a promotion and her wish to work in a different environment. That was exactly what she had wanted, and she very much enjoyed handling all of the new responsibilities and duties that she had been given.
And then she became the first point of contact with John and his Porygon. That, in turn, bolstered her influence within the Porygon project and she became an important researcher of the project. THAT had reignited her scientific mind and she threw herself headfirst into the work and project, becoming too busy to even think about the notion about exploring the world and her mysterious online conversation partner.
So, to see another email from this mystery person brought up weird feelings. According to their most recent email, they were beginning to start a very important scientific project, and this was the last chance to join. They never specified what it was doing, citing security concerns, but they promised that it would be extremely intellectually stimulating. Of course, a hefty salary was included.
If Shelly had been stuck as one of many simple project managers in Hoenn, she may have accepted the offer. She could see herself as being too stifled by the mundanity of her job and might have taken the risk and jumped onto this new and exciting opportunity.
But now, with her new responsibilities and projects in Kanto, she couldn't see herself leaving her job. She enjoyed it, and it fulfilled her. She saw no reason to give up such a wonderful opportunity for the unknown.
And so, without needing to think deeply, she wrote an email declining the invitation, and returned to her work on figuring out how to evolve a Porygon.
A.N. A Shelly Interlude showing that she's been spared from making the bad decision of joining up with Team Aqua! Just wanted to show that she's on a different life path now. So now, she'll just have to be satisfied with her high paying respected science job at Devon Corp! Oh no!
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