Chapter Text
Life in the Season Research Lab was becoming increasingly dull. Sienna sighed, her heavy breath shifting the thin layer of dust that had begun to settle itself over her desk. It wasn’t that the research wasn’t interesting, she mused, it was more that it involved a lot of waiting. Waiting for the leaves to change colour, waiting for the first wave of frost, waiting for the sounds of Swanna flying over as they migrated…
Sienna slumped lower in her chair, fiddling with her pencil as her eyes roved over today’s rainfall numbers. Nothing unusual jumped out at her. No torrential downpours, no sign of any droughts—everything was just as expected on a dreary autumn day like this. She filled in the last of the data sheet in scribbles and then pushed it away from her, as if distancing herself from the digits and calculations might alleviate some of her boredom.
No such luck. Sienna stood, approaching the large back window of her office to peer outside, a sudden clacking of hooves from the hallway telling of an approaching Deerling. She looked over her shoulder curiously as it entered, the green of the Pokemon’s coat giving it away as her summer subject.
She should have known, really. He was the only buck of this year’s group and had been nothing but trouble the entire time. To Sienna’s frustration he seemed to enjoy peering over the collective teams’ shoulders and getting into cupboards he really shouldn’t far more than basking in his terrarium like the rest of the test subjects.
Today though, Sienna didn’t mind. With a grunt she lowered herself on her knees to sit at his level, running a hand absent-mindedly through his coat as he too, gazed out of the window at the lab’s carefully cultivated gardens. As much as she complained about him, he really was a great Pokemon to have around. It was nice to have some company trotting along after her whilst she toiled away the hours interpreting graphs and predicting wind patterns and whatever else was on her long list of daily tasks for the lab. He would make a good first Pokemon for someone, she thought. Bold yet calm, a fieriness to him that spoke of an urge to battle, to explore the world beyond. Maybe once the year was finished, she would-
No, it was far too late to make that decision now. Sienna had made her choice long ago and it was not one that would allow her to indulge in gallivanting across the Unova region as if all her efforts in furthering her career meant nothing. It had taken years to land an internship in the Seasons Lab and it had taken longer still to manifest a fully-fledged position. As much as the childish urge gripped her, it was just that, a childish fantasy.
As if sensing her thoughts, the Deerling left her side to stand in front of her, stubby tail waggling expectantly as if waiting for her to say something. Sienna twisted her mouth, fussing the Pokemon’s face with both hands. She did love her job, she really did, but sometimes the monotony of it really didn’t suit her. If only some great storm or rare migration would pass through, she thought morosely, then that would really make things interesting for a while.
The Deerling was near purring as she scratched the fur behind his ears. He was such a pretty green, made all the richer by the various lamps and heaters of their terrariums made to simulate different seasons. Sienna ruffled his head, watching as the fur beneath shifted to reveal a rich orange. Maybe she would ask the head terrarium tech if she could assist him with maintaining them tomorrow. That might be enough of a change to keep her occupied for a while.
Wait, orange?
Sienna’s hand paused its ministrations and then retracted, the Deerling beneath her turning motionless as if keeping very still might prevent the impending admonishment.
“I swear, you spend more time out of that terrarium than in it!” Sienna scolded, hands on her hips. “You’re going to turn stripey if you keep it up, and then I’ll laugh.”
She rolled her eyes, the Deerling turning to groom its fur in what she hoped was a bashful way.
“Go on, back in,” she said firmly, giving the naughty buck a last scratch of his head before he galloped off back down the hallway, clearly not in the direction of his terrarium at all.
Sienna rose to her feet, moving away from the window to slump back down at her desk. Just as she was about to pick up her pencil, she hesitated. Why not be spontaneous? What was stopping her from being a little rebellious too? Sienna pushed her chair back and stood slowly, feeling strangely out of place. A sound of scrabbling hooves and something falling from somewhere in the distance gave her all the courage she needed to abandon her work on rainfall for the day and head towards the terrariums.
Terrariums, as it transpired, were far more complicated than Sienna had thought. She had always thought of the head terrarium tech, Matthias, as some sort of wizard for getting the Deerling to perfectly mimic the chosen season but as he explained the purposes of the various dials and switches, Sienna felt rather out of her depth. This was certainly nothing like her rainfall and air pressure studies.
“And then if you look here, this UV light is quite a lot less intense, that’s going to mimic our extended night cycles come the winter. I’ve got a reflector set up on this one and-”
“Wait, hold on,” Sienna said, now completely lost. “I thought you said that we only wanted a reflector on the summer tank.”
“Well, sort of,” said Matthias, slightly muffled from the screwdriver held between his teeth as he fiddled with some of the terrarium’s wiring. “This is a less intensive reflector, for a less intense bulb. At the end of the day it’s still going to give a smaller high frequency wave output.”
“And the sun is still the sun,” Sienna posited, handing Matthias a pair of wire clippers. “It’s still going to put out the same frequencies, even if they are reduced.”
“Exactly!” Matthias said, pleased. “Don’t know why you’re acting like you don’t get this.” He swapped the wire clippers for the screwdriver in his mouth. “It’s not like it’s all that different to meteorology.”
Sienna laughed. “Matthias, I’ve never felt so out of my comfort zone.”
He frowned, standing straight after finishing his handiwork.
“Really? I mean, I’ve never tried to figure out any meteorology I suppose.”
He considered a moment, then turned to examine the dial they had been working on.
“Phew, I am so glad that works. The hygrometers they send us from Accumula never end up working.”
Sienna shook her head in exasperation.
“You’re telling me. I had a barometer come in last week that told me we were living somewhere around the pressure zone of the bottom of the ocean.”
“Someone really ought to go over there and make sure they’re doing things right,” Matthias said, eyeing Sienna purposefully. “You know what the boss said.”
Sienna sighed. Yes, she did. A position had in fact opened up for a weather tech in Accumula town earlier that month. Initially she had brushed it off, made excuses. She was far too busy with this year’s Deerling project. Rainfall had picked up in the east. She was behind on her data. Whatever she could think of.
If Sienna was more honest with herself, the thought of moving to such a small town was the thing that really deterred her. Driftveil city, in all its hustle and bustle, suited her far more than some middle of nowhere town she hadn’t even heard of until she started working here.
Now though… Sienna looked back at her desk, the layer of dust upon it flying into the air as the summer Deerling pranced across it, knocking everything to the floor. Outside, a gust of wind detached some of the largest leaves from the trees as a shaking Foongus took shelter under their great birch tree. The seasons were changing. Maybe she should, too.
-
It had taken most of the morning simply to travel from her old apartment to the new house in Accumula. It wasn’t that the distance was particularly large, it was more that the roads were becoming distinctly rougher the further they strayed from Driftveil. Sienna swore she had almost knocked herself out when the moving van hurled her to the front after mounting an exceptionally large bump in the road.
The further she travelled, the more she felt like she was leaving civilisation behind. Roads turned to little more than farm tracks. Maybe this was one huge mistake, Sienna panicked. Maybe she should turn back now, surely it wasn’t too late to go back on her decision. A couple of crosstransceiver calls and she could be back to where she was yesterday, no harm done.
“Almost there now, miss,” the driver piped up as he spun the wheel of the van to make a wide turn, the wheels silencing as they finally hit smooth asphalt.
Sienna blanched. This was a decision that she was going to have to stick to, it seemed.
As they turned into the town, Sienna was pleasantly surprised to see that Accumula wasn’t quite as desolate as she had been led to imagine. Neatly paved streets were lined with modest townhouses, quaint street lamps standing at every corner. Children played in lushly grassed parks, their Pokemon and parents chasing after them. Somewhere in the distance she heard the soft cooing of Tranquill. Sienna took a deep breath, enjoying the scent of fresh-cut grass. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad decision.
Her anxiety spiked once more as the moving van pulled up at her new home, however. It stood at the end of a row, on the street corner and clearly in a state of mild disrepair. She had been warned that the house had been abandoned for two years now but seeing it in person was an entirely different matter. Accumula town was growing rather rapidly and houses were in demand. This had been the only home her boss could secure in such short time.
Sienna hoped it wouldn’t be too dusty. She hated dust. It made her sneeze horribly.
The keys in her pocket jangled softly as she made to unlock the front door, Sienna hardly taking notice of the voices of the moving crew behind her as she pushed open the door to her new life.
She wandered inside, feeling rather lost as her footsteps echoed strangely against the barren walls. Everything seemed as it should, if terribly empty. It was eerily quiet inside but perhaps that was just the acoustics of a bare home. Maybe it was because a vacant home just felt eerie. Sienna determinedly shook off the apprehension. There was only one way to remedy the situation, after all.
The moving crew and their Gurdurrs worked with an efficiency that rivalled Matthias after his morning coffee. In fact, their casual strength had managed to fool Sienna into believing that she would be assistance to the endeavour, the scientist feeling thoroughly scrawny after trying and failing to even budge the end of her sofa.
At the very least her efforts seemed to amuse the moving crew, whose Gurdurrs swiftly whisked away the sofa into the house, one remaining behind to pat her awkwardly on the head much to Sienna’s chagrin.
In no time at all the house was beginning to look more occupied and once all of the heavy lifting was done, Sienna waved a farewell to the moving team and began moving the last of her personal belongings into the front room.
It didn’t take long to finally bring all of her possessions inside, the front room looking far more inviting once the surfaces were lined with photos and various trinkets Sienna had collected over the years. One unforeseen consequence of having to pack up everything she owned was that unpacking it all became rather distracting. Soon Sienna was immersed in memories, flicking through photo albums and turning over old souvenirs in her hands, strangely nostalgic.
Something about it all made her oddly emotional. She hadn’t even called her mother yet to tell her the news.
Just as Sienna reached for her crosstransceiver, she heard it. A strange thump from upstairs. Then scrabbling, like the sound of clawed paws on wood. Sienna’s hand faltered, hovering just over her device. What was that?
Again. Thump. Then claws on wood. Sienna stiffened, listening hard. The landlord hadn’t mentioned anything about Rattata. The house had only been abandoned for two years, after all. And the Gurdurrs had been up there too when they took her bed upstairs. They hadn’t seem perturbed by anything.
Sienna carefully rose to her feet, not sure why she was trying to stay quiet. She couldn’t quite describe the feeling but something was definitely amiss—it wasn’t just a stray Rattata upstairs. If some Ghost-type had decided to make her attic its home she was in real trouble. She didn’t have any Pokemon to battle with whatsoever.
Sienna sneaked up the stairs, careful not to put too much weight on them lest they creak and give her away. She found herself wishing that she had taken the Deerling buck with her now, if not only for the practicality but also in the hopes that his boldness might rub off on her.
She heard it again. That scrabbling. It was close now. Ghost-type Pokemon didn’t make those sorts of noises.
Against her better judgement, Sienna called out.
“Hello? Is there a Pokemon up here?”
Silence. Sienna emerged onto the dark landing, squinting as she tried to figure out where the light switch might be. All the curtains up here were drawn, casting a dingy shadow over the upper floor.
“Hello?”
Something rustled down the hallway, making the back of Sienna’s neck prickle. It sounded like it was coming from the furthest bedroom. Sienna cautiously picked her way past her strewn things the Gurdurr had left, approaching the closed door to press her ear against it, listening.
Something shifted its weight inside. It sounded small, at least. If push came to shove, perhaps she would have a fighting chance. Sienna carefully edged the door open, hiding behind the solid wood, praying it might offer some protection if things went awry.
In the centre of the bare room atop a Mothim-eaten rug sat a child. They couldn’t have been more than seven years of age, flyaway black hair sitting in loose curls around their shoulders. They sat stiffly, facing the drawn curtains, seemingly ignoring Sienna’s presence. Sienna knew that they were aware of her.
Her worst fears confirmed, Sienna’s breaths were shallow as she pondered how to navigate the problem of finding a Ghost-type Pokemon in the bedroom of her new house. Were you supposed to call someone? Was there a protocol for this sort of thing? Maybe there was a gym leader in the next town over that could help. Sienna slowly closed the door, the ghost seemingly unperturbed by her.
Sienna let out a shaky breath. It didn’t seem to be aggressive. Maybe it would listen to reason. Maybe it would just leave on its own once it realised the house was now occupied.
She dared to open the door just a crack, peering through to watch it. It didn’t move. Sienna opened the door wider, about to say something when the creature startled, the child raising onto all fours to face her, hissing wildly.
Sienna leapt back, a frightened noise escaping her as the creature leapt onto her new bed, still hissing. The air around it twisted and warped, glimmering strangely. Sienna blinked as she nervously edged around the corners of the room, almost certain she saw something in the child’s place for just a moment.
“It’s alright!” she pleaded with whatever this strange beast was. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t know this was… your house.”
Its hackles still raised, the space around it still glittering, the creature edged closer.
“I won’t hurt you!” Sienna pleaded, showing it her empty palms. “I promise. Okay? So let’s calm down.”
Whatever it was didn’t seem too convinced. Sienna backed up against the wall, finding nowhere else to retreat to. Slowly, she lowered herself to her knees like she would when trying to tame the wild Deerling on Route 6. Reducing her height seemed to put them at ease, Sienna had noted. But then again, none of the Deerlings had ever approached her disguised as a human child, baring their teeth like they wanted to tear out her throat.
It was right in front of her now, sniffing the air in front of Sienna guardedly. Sienna didn’t even dare draw breath. The two of them were as tense as drawn bowstrings, each waiting for the other to make a sudden move.
Slowly, Sienna raised her hand, presenting it for inspection. The creature raised its head warily, Sienna willing herself not to falter. It neared, almost touching her index finger.
She blinked, and as if this had all been a nightmare the illusion vanished. In the child’s place now stood something small, dark and fluffy. Sienna watched wordlessly as the Pokemon touched the very tip of its nose to her finger and then sat down on its haunches, as if the matter between them was quite settled.
Sienna lowered her hand, completely thrown. She was no stranger to the weird and wonderful—many Pokedexes had made their way to the lab in the past—but she had never seen any Pokemon resembling this one. Much less a Pokemon that could mimic the appearance of a human child. Her brow furrowed as she studied it. Maybe a Ninetales relative? No, a Mightyena? It didn’t look like one of those either…
The Pokemon seemed to be making itself at home now, leaping back up onto Sienna’s double bed to begin kneading itself a comfortable spot for the afternoon. Sienna herself rose shakily to her feet, not quite as relaxed from the ordeal as her new housemate seemed to be.
Were they housemates now? What was the arrangement for finding an unknown Pokemon in your home? Sienna thought for a moment, deliberating, then dashed downstairs to find her crosstransceiver. If Professor Juniper didn’t know what it was, no one did.
The strange Pokemon raised its head from its place on her bed, swishing its tail as it watched Sienna go, then lowered itself back down for a nap.