After two weeks of working at the PokeCenter, I could say that I quite disliked working at the reception. Having to keep up a smile and cheerful voice while facing everyone, regardless of their attitude, for 10 hours 6 days a week was a challenge, and after just two weeks I really wanted to change to another role.
I would say that I was a rather nice person, so when I was assigned to the reception for my first "job", I initially thought that having to act welcoming and nice to anyone coming to the PokeCenter would be easy, but it turned out that I was wrong.
Not only was keeping up a smile and cheerful tone for the "whole" day harder than I thought, but some of the trainers made it even harder, and there was more than one occasion where I had to force myself to not snap at the other party.
If Nurse Joy had not explicitly stated that I had to keep up my warm attitude regardless of the situation, or else *ominous silence*, I would have at least behaved unenthused as soon as I faced someone less nice. However, Nurse Joy had emphasized the importance of our attitude to me, and her explanation made perfect sense, at least in the context she presented, so I had to comply.
That was my justification, and I was sticking with it. Her scary smile after the or else, or the thought of all the shitty jobs I could be assigned to had nothing to do with it. Besides, her explanation was truly compelling, and I understood the emphasis they put on service after that.
According to Nurse Joy, the PokeCenter was a safe space for all trainers. It was THE place where they could rest and recover, both physically as well as mentally. Even the most high-strung, cynical, or distrustful people knew this on some level, and it was the warm as well as friendly atmosphere at the PokeCenter that allowed them all a moment of respite.
The PokeCenter was the universal/shared home of all trainers. It was not only a place where their Pokemon could be healed, but also a place where they were warmly welcomed, where they could rest without a worry, and where tasty as well as nutritious food was provided to both the trainers and their Pokemon.
It gave them a space with a warm atmosphere, and the option of interacting with others or simply keeping up with the latest news. The only ones excluded from this service were actual wanted criminals and people whose Pokemon showed signs of true abuse.
The first risked capture, while the latter risked an investigation and refusal of service. This threat alone was one of the main reasons why every trainer, even the nasty ones, treated their own Pokemon at least decent-ish. Well, aside from already wanted ones.
Still, except for them, even other hardened criminals avoided causing their own Pokemon any harm that could jeopardize their chance to stay at/visit the PokeCenter. Obviously, that only applied to the Pokemon they brought to the PokeCenter.
However, regardless of the importance of the PokeCenter's atmosphere, I was really happy when Nurse Joy informed me on Kyoday, at the end of my second week at work, that I would be assigned another role on Arcday. So, when I met up with my parents on Grouday to celebrate Mom's birthday, I was in a very good mood.
When the two found out the reason for my good mood they laughed, and Dad teased me by asking if I was not afraid of being assigned sh*t cleaning duty again, fully aware of my complaint about the work I did at the military hospital.
While Mom laughed when Dad said that, I could not help but remember Nurse Joy's "or else" before chasing off those ominous thoughts. I had done a good job during these two weeks, and despite my internal complaints, I made sure to always smile and sound friendly.
Also, it was Nurse Joy who approached me with the job transfer since I had decided to stick with it for the first month before asking if I could take up another task. Still, thinking about all this now, I could not help but think about whether this reception duty was not some kind of test Nurse Joy used to assess us/newbies.
Regardless, test or not, I was confident that I had done a good job, so I shook off these thoughts and focused on the birthday "girl". We had agreed on spending the day at Bluetiful City for her birthday, and after strolling around the city for a while, we went to eat lunch at one of the most renowned seafood restaurants in the city as well as Kanto in general.
Afterward, we went to watch a famous maritime show for which Dad had bought the tickets. The show was good enough, though since I had so many water types myself I saw nothing that really "wowed" me. Well, at least Mom enjoyed it, which was the most important thing.
The show took close to three hours, including the small breaks in between to change performers or settings, and by the end of it, dinner time was not far off. We, or rather Dad, had long made a reservation at another one of the famous restaurants in the city, which was necessary if one wanted to arrange a birthday special, so we unhurriedly made our way there.
Once we entered the establishment, and Dad told the receptionist about our reservation, a server led us to our table. When it looked like he was about to steal Dad's thunder, Dad swiftly moved to the chair and assisted Mom with sitting down like a true gentleman. Mom gave him a brilliant smile at the gesture, and once we were all seated the server handed all of us a menu.
I noticed that he gave Dad an apologetic look when he handed him his menu, but Dad waved it off to show him that he did not mind, which earned him a grateful nod from the server.
Anyway, we ordered our food, and I did not know if it was because the server felt bad about his near faux pas or if it was because the staff was informed about Mom's birthday, but the food came to our table in record time, and after tasting my food, all I could say was that the restaurant's reputation was well-deserved, and looking at my parent's expressions I would say they agreed with me.
A few moments after the server cleaned our table, a procession headed to our table while singing a happy birthday song and clapping along. There were balloons, sparklers, a cake, and naturally candles on top of the cake.
After the one carrying the cake set it on the table, and everyone wished my Mom a "final" happy birthday, the staff retreated, leaving the three of us alone once more. Mom happily blew out the candles and cut the cake before handing everyone a slice.
It tasted good, and Mom called over the server to tell him to pack up the rest of the cake. With the cake gone, Dad and I moved on to the next/final phase of the birthday celebration, the gift handout. I had struggled with what to gift Mom since she had previously told me that she did not want any additional Pokemon for the time being.
In the end, I decided to get her, or rather her Mimikyu, a few more outfits. I had found the best tailor I could find in Indigo City and gave him a bunch of high-quality fabric as well as leather to commission a set of Audino, Nidoqueen, Wigglytuff, Miltank, and Liligant costumes for Mimikyu.
I initially wanted to keep it at 2 outfits since I was not sure of more than that could be made without compromising on the quality of the costume, but the tailor found the request interesting enough and promised to do her best, so we ended up agreeing on 5 since that was the maximum the tailor was confident in delivering on time.
Naturally, those outfits were not the only thing I prepared. I also made a bunch of supplements for all her Pokemon, and while Mom was truly thankful for the supplements, she was visibly happier when she saw the outfits.
In fact, she could not wait to have her Mimi try them out, so as soon as Dad gave her the present he prepared, which was a beautiful necklace that earned him a happy kiss, we left the restaurant, naturally only after Dad paid the bill, to find a calm park, where Mom called out Mimi and had her try out the outfits I bought. Mimi was happy to comply, and we watched her model for a while.
After that, we said our goodbyes since it was already quite late, and I left for Ivory City, while they continued traveling around wherever the wind blew them. The next day I arrived at the PokeCenter a bit early and went up to Nurse Joy's office to find out where I was going to be assigned to next.
Thankfully, I did not end up having to shovel sh*t or anything else that had to do with cleaning. No, she told me that my second assignment was with the healing salve team. She did not give me any concrete timetable and told me that I would stay with that team until I had successfully completed a list of certain assignments.
I was naturally happy about not having to deal with any sh*t. As for the salves team and the tasks, I was not worried about that at all since I could be considered a super expert in those. Frankly, I was confident that I could go through that list at any moment I wanted, though I wouldn't since I had no idea what kind of job I would be assigned next.
Instead, I spent the rest of the month with that cream team, and in that time I showed proficiency while preparing the 9 ointments that were on the list prepared by the PokeCenter. There were creams to treat paralysis, burns, frost, poison, sleep/drowsiness, scrapes/scratches, bruises, and small wounds.
These were the ointments that were sold at the PokeCenter as a cheaper alternative to the ones sold at the PokeMart, and they could be used by the lower-class trainers to either treat their Pokemon completely or get them well enough to not have to worry about immediately getting them to the PokeCenter.
Obviously, I had already known how to prepare all of them. The team did not show any surprise when I showed some competence, and they allowed me to work on one cream until I showed a competency to rival some of them as far as the preparation and end result were concerned.
My little stalling aside, on the first Arcday of the new/29th month Nurse Joy called me to her office and told me that I was once again being transferred to another unit. This time I ended up with the preliminary diagnosis team. We were responsible for the first diagnosis of any Pokemon that were handed in/over for treatment.
This was real life. We had no super healing machine where you simply slotted in the Pokeballs, which then fully healed the Pokemon in just a few seconds accompanied by a few tones. No, here our team did a preliminary diagnosis of the Pokemon to see the state of the Pokemon. In most cases, our team was able to spot the problems and refer the Pokemon to the necessary treatment.
Cases where we/the preliminary diagnosis team needed to pass the patient/Pokemon along for a detailed diagnosis were uncommon, but they did happen on occasion. At least, I witnessed that happen only seven times during the two weeks I had spent with the team so far. That was not all that much considering that multiple hundreds of Pokemon had gone through our team's supervision in that time.
Anyway, it was clear that this job was supposed to show aspiring trainers how to identify some of the troubles their Pokemon might encounter. As long as they took the assignment seriously and remembered some of the stuff they learned/witnessed during their time with the diagnosis team, a trainer would be able to spot certain issues that would tell him/her that he/she had to treat his/her Pokemon or bring them to the PokeCenter.
I personally was already able to recognize quite a bit of the stuff they showed, and I even had access to the status sheet which actually showed any problems if they showed up. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the work with the preliminary diagnosis team since I found the work interesting enough, and cheat ability or not, being able to recognize these things was good and vital knowledge.
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