#if this fic ever gets done and compiled. i'll... be brave and put it on a03... lol. though. Doubt.

[nursemimosa]

a preview of the first chapter of my fic series; Cadence Melody- which intends to be a retelling of the Scarlet/Violet story through the eyes of two librarians of Naranja-Uva Academy...

A sway of teal colored hair stirred on the pillow until the head it belonged to rose, groggily sitting upright. A croaky yawn and stretch, and the girl got out of bed, hoping her heavy eyelids wouldn't give in to the temptation of just a little more sleep. It was another day at her internship, and she couldn't afford to skip a day, or even arrive late. As she rubbed her eyes and headed to the restroom of her small apartment, she sighed. "I had that dream about the dress again…"

A moderate breakfast consisting of a sweet round concha bun and mocha coffee, sweetened slightly to her tastes was prepared by the young woman. She was rummaging through her workbag, a woven handbag in a splash of multicolored stripes gifted to her by her grandmother; her abuela when she noticed something was off. Just then, through the doorway, a Raichu waddled over carrying in its rounded paws, an inhaler. There it was! It must have been in her room before her orange-furred companion found it.

The woman took the inhaler from the mouse Pokemon and put it in her bag. She pat the Raichu on the head and it began to rub its face into the palm of her hand, nuzzling. She took great care to avoid its electric cheek sacs. "Thank you Maribelle, I would have forgotten this if you hadn't found it."

A Rotom phone began to ring with dulcet chirping tones. The woman answered the phone and it floated its way up to face her, the screen widening, signaling to her that this was about to be a video call. Good thing she had already made herself tidy and presentable. The screen blipped until the face of an older man appeared on the screen. "Raine. Am I coming through the screen okay?" the man's voice beamed through the screen with echo-y sound quality. She nodded and the man took a sigh of relief. "Raine, have you been staying up late again?" Upon being asked that question, the woman faltered a bit, then chuckled accusingly. "A little bit.. I have been having the weirdest dreams lately and when I wake up from them I find that I can't sleep. So to answer your question-yes and no. I go to bed early but can't seem to fall asleep.."

Their conversation continued, and Raine Cadencia; the newest intern of Naranja-Uva Academy's library made her way to work. The trek through the city of Mesagoza was brisk, with the morning air lingering on, even as the thick fog began to evaporate away. It would usually take Raine a half hour to get to the center of the city when it was as empty and quiet as it was now. The long, arduous (to her) trek up the giant stairway to the school took the wind out of her, and she found herself wishing there could be an alternate way to get up there. She contemplated on using her inhaler, but after giving herself a rest on a bench on the school's front yard, she got back up and went inside.

Raine was to meet up with her supervisor. During the first week of her internship, she was paired up to work with an older woman, and while she was assured that her new supervisor was friendly, she still didn't know what to think of her. As she was told by some of her other supervisors; the librarian known as Fabiana Melodía was a peculiarity. They had spoken several times, and Raine was sometimes rendered bashful by the woman's sunshiny, outgoing disposition. From what she had discussed with Fabiana so far, Raine had learned that she was a huge fan of comics and animated media. She was somewhere in her forties. She wore her make-up in a particular way, and always seemed to have her nails done. She also loved history books and Paldea's weekly Occulture magazine.

Funny that Raine should remember Occulture…

The older woman and her wavy pink hair, stray hairs by the plenty were bouncing along with her as she was situated in front of the Occulture collection with clown-like poise. She had been poring down the pages of one of the volumes with rapt attention, a serious expression on her face. She often muttered utterances of "Hmm"s and "I see.."s. Her cartoonish seriousness was so outlandish to other outsiders, with students and staff passing by her exchanging giggles and Raine couldn't help but give up holding in her own. Was she trying to bemuse the people around her? Nobody could really tell. In truth, this was the kind of person Fabiana carried herself out to be, on the regular.

"Rainey!" the older woman beamed upon noticing the younger woman's prescence. "You found me. I 'spose it wasn't that hard; these magazines attract me to them like flies to a Vileplume." She posed, turning around briskly, hands on her hips and looked towards Raine, who was now in front of her. She asked, "What's got ya gigglin' this early?"

Raine blinked, her face mottled with a faint pink. "N-nothing really. You must really like this magazine huh?" She could hear her voice crack when she asked.

"I love me some Occulture!" Fabiana responded. "And some manga. But that's only when I can go on break during my second gig." That's right, Raine recalled. Fabiana worked two jobs. When she wasn't carrying out her duties at the library, Fabiana was at her post at the cafeteria's register. It was curious to Raine that her supervisor took two jobs, but she wasn't one to pry. A brief silent spell followed, which was soon broken by her supervisor.

Fabiana blinked, then smiled, her face inching closer to Raine's and curioisty followed her. "Oh?" Her signature red heart earrings spun as she moved. It was hard to believe they were as light and hollow as Raine was told, they sure looked heavy.

Raine blinked even more then blushed. "W-what!? What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

Fabiana giggled. "Pardon me for starin'. It's just. You're really pretty."

Raine couldn't bring herself to words. Were they going to get to even doing their job at this point or what? "Excuse me? Miss Fabiana… um…" she asked in her characteristically soft voice.

"It kinda just occurred to me all of a sudden." Fabiana remarked. "Your skin's really clear and it looks like you take care of yourself. That's important." She said this very matter of factly. It was very apparent that Fabiana seemed to run to the beat of her own drum, bouncing off one topic to the next.

Raine was taken aback somewhat. She had always considered herself very plain, somewhat average, always blending in. Fabiana did not seem the type to take notice of girls like her. Women like her, worldly, pretty, likely to have lots of lived experience; seemed like people from another planet. Her smile beamed with bright intensity, and it took all it could for Raine not to fold by how small and meek it made her feel. "Um.."

Fabiana chuckled."It's no worries! Sorry, I tend to get distracted a lot. Ol' Feef runs to the rhythm of her own drum. The archives room needs some help since they've been re organizin' it. Why don't we pay 'em a visit?" and the two of them went off, downstairs into a concealed entranceway where students and guests wouldn't be able to see. They hauled boxes upon boxes of manila folders and old artifacts that no doubt had some significance to the academy's long storied history.

The two of them were only asked to take care of the transportation of boxes from the archives to a storage room, so when that was said and done, Fabiana gave her goodbyes to her co-workers and Raine. No doubt, she was likely heading off to "organize" the Occulture section again, or so Raine assumed.

Raine was completely unaware of how many hours had passed since the morning began. It was now well past noon and the sun was beginning to show signs of cooling down. Her shifts were considerably shorter than that of her supervisors, so she wondered if she should spend the rest of it putting back check ins, as she had grown accustomed to, or seeing if the reference desk needed anyone to cover for them while they could use a well needed break.

Just as she was about to take a step forward out to the main library corridor, a voice from below where she had stood stopped her. "You're the intern right? Could you come here for a bit?"

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Evening and a golden sunset now blanketed the city of Mesagoza with its gilded shimmer. Fabiana took a yawn, stretched her arms, and rubbed her hands and forearms, they were sore from the repeated motions of shelving ad nauseum. Her curiosity got the better of a greedy her, and she wanted to know if anything of interest was unearthed in the archive room. She went down the secret stairway to the concealed hall and found that Raine was on her knees, scrubbing the floors with a wet washcloth.

"Where is everyone else?" Fabiana asked. Her entrance was so sudden to Raine, that the teal haired woman nearly stumbled backwards into the bucket of soapy water she used to dip the wash cloth in. "Miss Fabiana! I didn't hear you come in!"

"Why are you still here?" Fabiana asked. "It's past 6:30. Doesn't your day end at 4:30?" She noted the bucket, washcloth, and a mop situated in the corner of the room.

"They're having me wax the floors, but its taking me longer than I expected to clean them up to prep them." Raine took a break from scrubbing and wiped her wrist against her forehead. Fabiana crouched down to meet her; both women heard an audible crack come from the pink haired woman's lower back as she took the washcloth and scrubbed in Raine's stead.

"You're fine with this?" Fabiana asked of her younger contemporary. "It seems like they're making you do extra work you didn't ask to do."

"It's fine…" Raine said with her soft voice. "I figured that picking up some extra grunt work would do me good… I want to make a good impression." Then, with uncertainty in her stomach, "I want to make it clear to everyone that I want this job.. that I want to be a full timer when I graduate." Her mouth trembled as she stood to stretch and Fabiana stopped scrubbing.

"I don't think this- this making you wax the floor of the room has much to do with that." Her tone was unusually serious. "I know the ladies who asked you to do this, because I've seen them ask you to take out the trash and file things past your work hours. Those aren't your duties when you clock out. They're just using you."

Raine blinked, unsure of what to say next. Something about her co-worker seemed off, like she dropped a facade. Fabiana continued, "At the end of the day, a job is a job. You should be able to go home when you clock out. You owe it to yourself to voice your feelings and concerns. It's okay to say 'no' to things."

"You're being picked on for being the new kid."

Was she really? Raine had gained a new perspective she wasn't conscious of. Fabiana had her put away the cleaning supplies, and reassured her that the archival team that was originally meant to clean the room would do it.

At home, Raine went to bed, the usually cheerful woman's stern words re-playing in her mind like a tape recording. It was true. Raine had spent most of her life as a doormat. It took the realization of the quirky beauty of the library to snap Raine to reality.

But what did it matter? Her own Pokemon didn't seem to mind, but they also didn't really see her when she was at work. Unsure of what to do the next day now that Fabiana unofficially relinquished her from floor waxing duty, she grabbed hold of her Raichu Maribelle, who was already dozing off, and joined her in deep slumber…