Chapter 9 – The Morning After
Ryan was at Rowan's lab at half past seven.
Not because he'd planned to be early. He just hadn't slept particularly well not badly, just lightly, the way he'd slept since he'd arrived here, like some part of him was still keeping watch and by seven he'd given up and gotten dressed and gone to find breakfast at the small place near the lodge that had its shutters open and a Bibarel sweeping the front step.
He stood outside the lab now with a paper cup of something hot that was close enough to tea and waited.
Rowan opened the door at twenty past seven without looking surprised to find Ryan there. "Come in."
The lab was quieter in the morning than it had been yesterday. One researcher at a bench near the back, two screens running, the Chimchar from yesterday asleep on top of a cabinet with its tail flame low and steady. Ryan followed Rowan through to the side room and sat down across from him.
Rowan folded his hands on the table and looked at Ryan the way he always seemed to look at things like he was building a picture and had already decided to be patient about it.
"I'll be direct," Rowan said. "You scored higher on that assessment than anyone I've registered in the last three years. Not slightly higher. Significantly." He paused. "The question you answered about approaching downwind wasn't in any material I've published or distributed. The way you read the practical scenario wasn't guesswork." He looked at Ryan steadily. "You know Pokemon. Not the way someone who grew up around them knows them. Something different."
Ryan wrapped both hands around his cup. "Yeah," he said. "I do."
Rowan waited.
"I know a lot about Pokemon," Ryan continued. "Types, moves, behaviour, how they think, what they respond to. Evolutions, habitats, what they eat, how they fight. Things most people here probably haven't seen or heard of." He paused. "I can't fully explain where it comes from. But it's real and it's not going away and I'd rather you knew that upfront than figured it out later and wondered why I hadn't said anything."
Rowan studied him for a moment. "And you're telling me this because?"
"Because you're going to notice anyway," Ryan said. "And because if I come to you with something later something unusual, something you haven't seen before I want you to already know that I'm not making it up."
Something shifted in Rowan's expression. Not surprise exactly. More like the quiet satisfaction of someone whose instinct had just been confirmed. "That's a practical way of thinking about it."
"I try to be practical."
"Where does the knowledge come from?"
Ryan looked at his cup for a moment. "That part I'm keeping to myself. Not because I don't trust you you've done nothing but help me since I got here. But because the answer is complicated and I'm not sure it would make things easier for either of us."
Rowan accepted that with a small nod. "Fair enough." He leaned back slightly. "What I will tell you is this Sinnoh is not a simple region right now. There are things moving in the background that most trainers your age don't see and wouldn't understand if they did. The fact that you arrived the way you did, with the knowledge you have" He stopped. "It means you're going to attract attention whether you want to or not. From people you'd want to, and from people you wouldn't."
Ryan looked at him. "Are you one of the ones I'd want?"
Rowan almost smiled. "I like to think so." He stood. "Come to me if something happens that you don't know how to handle. I can't promise answers but I'll listen." He nodded toward the door. "Don't you have somewhere to be at eight?"
Ryan stood and picked up his cup. "Pokemon Center."
"Good." Rowan paused at the door. "One more thing. The balance on your ID. It's not a gesture it's an investment. I expect a return on it eventually."
Ryan looked at him. "What kind of return?"
"I don't know yet," Rowan said. "Neither do you. That's what makes it interesting."
He opened the door and Ryan walked out into the morning.
---
He made it to the Pokemon Center at three minutes to eight.
Joy was already behind the desk, hair pulled back, a Chansey sorting something beside her. She looked up when he came in and nodded toward a door behind the desk. "Staff area's through there. Locker, uniform, someone will show you around." She paused. "How was your morning?"
"Informative," Ryan said. "Rowan wanted to talk."
"He has that effect." She nodded toward the door again. "Go on. Busy day."
The staff area was small and practical a row of lockers, a table with chairs, a board on the wall covered in shift schedules and notes. A boy maybe a year older than Ryan was pulling on a jacket near the lockers. He looked up when Ryan came in and stuck out a hand.
"Theo," he said. "You're the new one?"
"Ryan." He shook it. "Started today."
"Good timing," Theo said, pulling the jacket straight. "We've got four trainer check-ins before noon and someone brought in a Geodude yesterday that bit half the equipment in intake. It's been a morning." He grabbed a second jacket from a locker and held it out. "Here. Joy will put you on desk first, get you used to the system. It's not complicated."
Ryan took the jacket and pulled it on. It was a little big across the shoulders. "How long have you been here?"
"Eight months," Theo said. "Started the same way you probably did no money, new in town, needed something stable while I figured things out." He headed for the door then stopped. "What's your Pokemon?"
Ryan glanced down at his belt. "Still getting to know each other," he said. "Early days."
Theo looked like he wanted to ask more but read something in Ryan's tone that said not yet. "Fair enough," he said. "Joy's waiting. Welcome to Sandgem Pokemon Center. Try not to let the Geodude bite you."
Ryan followed him out.
The morning passed in the particular way of new jobs slightly overwhelming at first, then quickly routine. The check-in system wasn't complicated. Trainers came in, handed over their Pokemon, Ryan logged them in and passed them through to the medical bay where Joy and the Chansey did the actual work. He learned where things were kept, which trainers were regulars and which were passing through, and that the Geodude in intake was called Boulder by the staff despite having a registered trainer somewhere who hadn't come back for it yet.
By midday he'd found his footing.
He was restocking the waiting area when Theo dropped into a chair nearby with a sandwich and the easy posture of someone on break. "Not bad for a first morning," he said. "Joy said you picked it up fast."
"It's not complicated," Ryan said, straightening a stack of pamphlets.
"No," Theo agreed. "But some people make it complicated anyway." He unwrapped his sandwich. "You're not from Sinnoh are you."
It wasn't really a question.
"No," Ryan said.
"Far?"
"Yeah."
Theo nodded like that was enough. "We get a few. Not many but a few. Usually they're quiet about it." He took a bite. "Makes sense."
Ryan sat down across from him. "Does it cause problems? Being from outside?"
Theo considered that. "Depends who you run into. Most people don't care. Some people care a lot." He shrugged. "Sandgem's pretty relaxed. The further you get from the cities the more complicated it gets sometimes."
"Good to know," Ryan said.
Theo looked at him for a moment. "You're going to be here a while aren't you. Not just passing through."
"Yeah," Ryan said. "I think so."
Theo nodded slowly, like he was filing that away. "Then you picked a decent place to start." He stood as Joy appeared in the doorway and gestured at both of them. "Break's over."
Ryan stood and followed him back out.