The sounds hit her ears like symphonies. Grunts and challenges, the dull smack of a fist against a cheek, all of it registered masterfully from her perspective. Anything that greatly opposed the normal cheeriness of her upbringing hit her reward receptors in a similar way. Oh, the novelty! Joy watched the man who suffered that latest blow hit the ground, the sound of him meeting the concrete was dull, wet. Joy wetted her lips, clutched her breast. A quickened heartbeat, a shoddy sigh. She loved this place. This underground. Truly! Truly!

Chansey, did you see that? Her eyes bore deep into the Happiny that sat upon the table. The pair were in the far corner of the garage. One of those cheap picnic tables had been offered for their services and Joy had done a bang-up with placing the cruddiest tarp imaginable over the fake foam surface. Red spots that looked close to bloodstains, holes the size of bullets; whatever color the tarp had been in its infancy was long gone. Joy loved that. She loved feeling the grit of it underneath her fingertips.

Happiny looked up at Joy with its characteristic joyfulness. Joy snickered. Covert as always, eh, Chansey?. She stroked the thing’s little ponytail. Now be good, remember, we are here for a reason. Her brow lifted, her face nodded. The words, as she saw them, transferred from hers to the mind of her other half. The Happiny-called-Chansey looked at her dumbly, smiling forevermore. Joy smiled back. It’s got it! Oh, it always knew. Joy hugged the little thing before reverting back to her assumed position.

”Welcome! Are you here to heal your Pokémon?” Joy asked through clenched teeth. The passersby would observe, sometimes nod. She would retrieve an instrument of some sort, then she would procure a plastic tub containing various pieces of what looked like organic matter. ”Let me take your Pokémon from you!”

Often, they would leave and she would sulk. It’s as if they knew her to be malicious. Joy hardly even knew what true “maliciousness” was. She thought of Bugger. And of that limp cigarette lit in her mouth. Then she sighed.

”Welcome! Welcome!” She would bite her tongue, wait, compose herself. ”Want to give your partner the flame body ability? I have the item just for it! Taken from the very Pokémon that boasts such a thing! Water absorb, too!”

That would have them flocking. Happiny was a perfect cheerleader. That’s it, Chansey. Bring them in.

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