Infinite Joys (Chapter 2)

[Cabaret]

CHAPTER 2 IS NOW UP

Something I've been planning for quite some time, but has been postponed because I've been writing a lot for Days Like This and A Little Bit of Good. I've always wondered a lot about the topic I will be exploring in Infinite Joys, and writing about it is the most enjoyable fanfic writing experience I've ever embarked on. Review and thanks everyone for being a great community.


Infinite Joys: Prologue

You know I never knew what I was really like until I became a trainer...by which time there was a pain to be healed.
............................................

"Quick, Deloris, get over here!" said Mary Joy, leaving the contents boiling on her stove to rush to her sister Sarahs side.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation with the lovely telemarketer-...oh!Deloris Joy leapt across the room, forgetting the conversation she was having.

"My water just broke." said Sarah Joy, feeling the early signs of labor.

"This is so unexpected!" Mary couldn't help exclaiming.

Everyone looked at Mary, in which her blank expression showed she really didn't know that Sarah was pregnant, but it wasn't the time for that. Deloris had planned the guest bedroom for Sarahs pregnancy all along, having everything in it nice and refined, perfect for giving birth. Mary and Deloris helped Sarah across the room and up the stairs to the room that had been planned.

For someone going into labor, Sarah was excited. Jumpy and ecstatic.

"Oh this is so exciting, I'm going to be a mother!" Sarah quietly cheered, as Deloris got all the supplies and needs for the event. Knowing that she was going to have a child in late December, everyone knew there would be no way for her to make it to a hospital through the harsh winter of northern Johto.

"Now just lay back and relax." said a calming Deloris, who had planned her words carefully to make sure not to startle the soon-to-be mother.

"I am relaxed and ready to have this baby." Sarah reassured Deloris, brushing her locks of bright pink
hair carefully.

"Good, now I'm-" Deloris started.

"SHITFUCK!" Mary ran out of the guest bedroom-turned hospital, to attend to the burning soup that
she left boiling on the stove.

Sarah and Deloris couldn't help but sighing at their helpless sister, always forgetting things.

"....I'm going to go call everyone and tell them that it's happening, and you just...you know, be pregnant and all." Deloris rushed out of the room to round up the relatives. Almost all of them Nurse Joys.
.................

Sarah Joy was going to have a baby, adding another Nurse Joy to the world. The Joy family was filled with nurses, kind hearted and good affectionate people. Sarah was enthralled to finally contribute to the worlds Joys, or joys, she couldn't tell, all that mattered was her precious little baby girl Joy. But the father...Sarah was having a baby, no time for thinking.

"Yes, yes she was pregnant....oh no, she wasn't fat..." Deloris contacted every family of Joys in Johto, telling them to forget the harsh winter and come and be there for Sarah. For her baby.

Meanwhile, Mary was having a very deep discussion with the daycare man of Goldenrod.

"My goodness, we were surprised! Your pokemon had an egg!" the old man said to Mary, his tone very excited.

"What? This is so unexpected!" Mary replied, thankful for this new blessing.

"We don't know how it got there but..."the man rambled on, but that was all she heard.

"What do you mean you don't know how it got there?" Mary responded, puzzled.

"................"the old man hung up.

............................................

The Joys started ariving, in twos and threes. Lydia Joy with her daughter Rose, Elphaba Joy with her daughter Belle, Oliva Joy with her husband Ted, and plenty of others. If you weren't a Joy, you couldn't tell them apart. All the women wore their standard nurse clothing and had the same voice (except Trina the smoker), and practically had the same mannerisms. And the men, though very few, none of them true Joy's. All the women and girls piled into the small guest room to assist an overwelmed Sarah, while the men sat in the living room and watched football.

"Ladies please, don't worry about me! It's just that I'm having a child." Sarah tried to protrude.

"No. I've been prepared for months," Deloris gruffly said, "we're taking care of you."

The women would ask Sarah questions. The women would ask Deloris questions. The women tried to
comfort Sarah, the woman who needed no comforting. The little girls would poke Sarahs stomach, in
which Sarah started becoming annoyed.

And the men continued to watch football.

Sarahs pains finally started to set in, in which she blew a gasket. Deloris chased everyone out of the
room so Sarah could continue the process.
..........................................

Sarah had her baby December 22nd, at 6:47 am. All who remained awake sat calmly in the living room
and waited to see the baby.In the room, Deloris handed Sarah the baby. Her dear little baby, wrapped in a blue towel, it's eyes shimmering chocolate brown, little tufts of pink hair emerging from it's head. And the baby didn't cry, it simply stared at Sarah and moved its tiny had and feet. Sarah cried tears of joy, forget the pun, she was for once happy.

"Now about him, we might want to call the birth-"Deloris quietly began.

"Him?...."Deloris questioned, broken from her trance.

"Yes, you have boy Sarah." Deloris smiled at Sarah, who wasn't exactly smiling as well.

"That's not what the doctor said, he said I was having a girl." Sarah said a little louder.

"Well the doctor must've been wrong." Deloris responded, hoping that it didn't upset Deloris.

"This...." Sarah slowly lowered the baby onto the bed, her complextion having changed signifigantly.

"Sarah, rest. You've just given birth. Rest."
....................................

"Everyone, this is Sarahs baby boy."

Deloris held the baby carefully and couldn't help but smile at the words she had just said. But some of the nurses were not.

"She had a baby boy?" Elphaba asked Deloris.

"Yes, the doctor made a mistake." Deloris replied.

"Well that sucks." Olivia proclaimed.

"Why is that?" Deloris asked her.

"Don't you know? The Joy family is said to only have a one percent chance of giving birth to a girl."
Oliva told her.

"Where did you get those statistics?" Deloris said, in which Olivia just shrugged.

Seeing now that Sarah was probably upset, most of the Joys left. Others stayed for the day to see
Sarah, but she didn't wake up for 6 hours. Deloris couldn't understand why having a girl was so
important to Sarah and the rest of the family, but she kept that thought to herself. Once Sarah woke up, relatives started to see Sarah and see how she was doing.

And she wasn't very well.

"Sarah," Deloris finally decided to ask Sarah what she had named her baby.

"Hm?" Sarah responed, droopy and tired, and not very happy.

"What is his name?"

"Um...Theo." Sarah told her, looking away from the baby that she was holding.

"Well that's a perfect name," Deloris replied, "perfect indeed."

The morning sun finally had risen and shone light through the window of the bedroom, revealing Sarahs
tired and depressed state even more clearly. I'm sure you'll be a good kid Theo, I'm sure you'll be a fine nurse...

 

[AceTrainer14]

Re: Infinite Joys

I quite like this story so far. I am guessing it may be a prologue at the moment, so I'm interested to see the story that plays out. It was a very short, sweet and well written passage, but there isn't much for me to say so far based on just this one chapter. But the ending line has me wondering about what the future holds for Theo: is he going to become a male nurse, or is he going to run off and become a trainer? I think I'm going to have to read the next few parts to see what happens and give you more feedback, as I really can't give you anything helpful right now. But I love how you have portrayed the Joy family (especially the mention of Trinna the smoker, that was very funny ) and the humour with the old man and the egg was a nice touch as well. I hope to see more of Deloris as she seems like quite a good character, and can't wait for the story to continue.

 

[Cabaret]

Re: Infinite Joys

Now I finally feel fine with uploading the second chapter of this story. Edits are through.

Infinite Joys-Chapter 1

“Now I want everyone to study the theory of Paralysis Powder tonight in their text books, and tomorrow we’re going to try to create a beaker of it using the chemicals we have here in the classroom.” Said Dr.Fennel, as she looked upon her class of 14 girls and one boy. “I want you all to understand it by tomorrow.” Dr.Fennel finished as she dismissed the class.

Theo was still packing his things up when his teacher approached him. “Theo, have you been studying,” Dr. Fennel asked Theo, “You didn’t answer a single question right on the pellet exam.”

Theo had been a student at the medical college in Castelia City for just a few months now, and he was already failing. His family moved to the Unova region when he was just 8, after the Resorters War. After that, Theo was never the same. He missed Johto more than anything, and he hated going to medical school more than anything. Most of the friends he had made went off on a trainer’s journey when they were just twelve. His mother wouldn’t let him go on a journey; he had a family business to tend to. His mother was the Nurse at the Striaton City pokemon center, a full time job. She was formerly the nurse at the Azalea Town pokemon center, but when the idea came to start a pokemon league in Unova, she volunteered to become one of the new nurses and give her former job to Deloris.

“Um, sorry Dr. Fennel.” Theo said quietly, staring at the ground, his bright pink hair reflecting light.

“Look, we’re going to have an extra session tomorrow if you want to stay behind and catch up on some of your missed work.” Dr.Fennel tried to cheer him up.

“It’s ok, I’ll finish everything up tonight.” Theo looked up and quickly left the room, carrying his things.
…………
“Who does she think she is?” Theo said to himself, swiftly leaving the school’s campus. “I can handle my school work on my own.” Though Theo knew it would help if he actually wanted to do the schoolwork. He hated medical school. And why were they offering medical school to fourteen year olds? He barely remembered passing grade school. All of his friends were successful pokemon trainers, or rangers, and he was stuck dissecting an Oddish for the rest of his life.

Theo started his long commute back home, which consisted of the Skyarrow Bridge, the Pinwheel Forest, Nacrene City, and Route 3. If Theo ran it would take him about 2 hours, he didn’t. Instead, Theo had three hours of walking to succumb to. He didn’t have to walk in the mornings; his friend helped him with that. As Theo walked along the Skyarrow Bridge, he slowly let the stress of the day get blown away by the crisp Unova breeze. The sky was a bright blue without a cloud to cover it, for it was winter time. Theo’s all white clothing practically gave off light, it stood out. His bright pink hair, short and standard, was something of a unusual sight to see in Unova, and it wasn’t unheard of for someone to have ever made fun of him for it. Pidoves flocked in the air around him, often landing on the bridge to stop and get a closer look at Theo. He would simply pet each one on the head and continue his walk.

“I hope it doesn’t snow this winter. Well that’s a stupid thing to say, it snows every winter. I wonder if mom thought about what I told her, about the man that lived in Blackthorn who was a healer and a trainer, the one that won the entire Johto league. He was able to heal his pokemon on long journeys so he would always be in good shape for a battle.”

Theo walked the short path through Pinwheel Forest, trainers challenging him to a battle and him having to tell them that he wasn’t a trainer. Towards the end of the path, a kid approached him, holding a standard pokeball in the air and a stupid complexion on his face.

“Hey you, with the hair!” the boy said with a dignified smirk. “I challenge you to a pokemon battle.”

Theo observed the kid, he couldn’t be any more then 12. His short black hair complemented his brown eyes, and a sort of fake menacing look he tried to give himself.

“Listen, I’d be all for a pokemon battle, kid. But I don’t have any.” Theo stated, and continued walking along.

“What?! I don’t believe you!” the boy sounded like Theo hadn’t been the first person to turn down a battle with him.

“Why would I be lying?” Theo raised an eyebrow.

Silence pervaded the forest.

“Because you’re scared of defeat.” The boy proclaimed as he took stance in front of Theo.

“You can search me, I don’t have any pokemon. I actually just go to the-“Theo was interrupted by the boy attacking him and going through his satchel.

Theo didn’t say anything; he was surprised that the boy actually was searching through his things. The boy dug everything out of his satchel, only to come up empty handed. After he realized he made a mistake, the boy slowly backed away.

“I told you that I wasn’t a trainer!” Theo shouted at the boy, causing him to run away.

Theo slowly gathered his things, he really didn’t like getting pissed off on his peaceful walks back to Striaton. Theo looked up to find the boy standing over him.

“What do you want?” Theo said with a scent of anger.

“Can I help?” said the boy, kneeling down.

Theo was almost going to say no, but the boy looked genuinely sorry.

“Fine.” Said Theo as he gathered up various pencils scattered everywhere.

The boy was quick to gather up all of Theo’s things and put them together in the satchel before Theo had even gathered all the pencils. The boy watched Theo crawl around and receive the remaining pencils.

“I’m Keita.” The boy said, “I’m really sorry about the purse.”

“It’s a satchel.” Theo corrected him, the boy simply shrugged. “I’m Theo.”

“I noticed the text books. You’re a student at the medical school?”

“Yeah.” Theo replied.

“Does that mean you know a lot of healing methods on pokemon and stuff?”

“And stuff? No, it doesn’t mean anything, I haven’t told anyone this, but I plan on failing.” Theo admitted to Keita.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because, I don’t want to sit behind a pokemon center counter for the rest of my life.” Theo grumbled.

“You’re a Joy?” Keita looked surprised, Theo nodded. “But why would you be a nurse? You’re a guy.”

“It runs in the family. We just don’t usually have many guys, only girls. Don’t ask me to get into the statistics of it.”

“I bet you get to see a lot of cool pokemon, right?” Keita asked, but Theo laughed.

The two boys got up and noticed that the woods were becoming darker, nightfall was near.

“What time is it?” Keita asked Theo.

“It’s…6:22!” Theo yelped, looking at his watch.

“I got to get home!” Keita realized, looking around.

“Where do you live?” Theo asked him.

“Accumula.”

“I live in Striaton, I can walk with you part way.” Theo says.

As they walk, Theo tells him about the medical school and that leads into him talking about how he moved from Johto and all. Keita tells Theo about his pokemon and how he beat Cilan in his first gym battle. Theo takes amusement from the pokemon story, it sounds more exciting than anything he’s ever heard.

As they continue the walk, they continue to be watched by an unknown assailant.

 

[Necrozma]

Re: Infinite Joys

Well the plot is quite original, I can't wait to see where you're going with this. And OMG, so many Joys. xD

Anyway, keep it up! I look forward to reading more.

 

[Cabaret]

Re: Infinite Joys (Prologue and Chapter 1)

Thanks for the comment! You read chapter one yes?

 

[Necrozma]

Re: Infinite Joys (Prologue and Chapter 1)

Of course. Why do you ask?

 

[Cabaret]

Re: Infinite Joys (Prologue and Chapter 1)

No reason. I was editing it periodically.

 

[LibraSnakes13]

Re: Infinite Joys (Prologue and Chapter 1)

Good job on being original! It's not very common to have the main character be a Joy and even more so to have a SON of a Joy!
There are some grammar mistakes you might want to look over though. It's definitely not bad though and it's certainly better than other Pokemon fanfics (especially the ones on fanfiction.net). The main thing you want to watch out for is the possesive noun (Ex: "Sarahs baby boy" should be "Sarah's baby boy")
Dialogue flows nicely.
Humor is spot on, it comes in random moments which makes it funnier. I especially love the scene where you point out the smoker nurse and then go on like it's normal. Haha, I can't imagine a Joy smoking...

Good job so far and keep it up!

 

[Cabaret]

Well it looks like it's time for Infinite Joys Chapter 2. I would post a link to the prologue, chapter one , and chapter two in the first post, but I don't know how to do that. An important event happens in this chapter. An important event happens in every chapter.Blah Blah. Hopefully you'll REVIEW and stuff. I may not like the way this chapter turned out, but you should still enjoy it anyway.Advice needed.
......
Theo knew something was wrong when the sound of the nature in the wild grass was getting quiet. The animals had slowly ceased to make noise, questioning whether they existed or not. Keita had finished the story he was telling and now it was a deafening silence, as the mid December sun slowly faded and the world was now lit by the fluorescence of the moon. The two boy’s steps were even silent as they traveled home.

“This is weird,” said a confused Theo, “Usually the pokemon are using their mating calls around this hour…”

Keita nodded as a drift of cold air rushed at them, giving them harsh chills. Keita started to stagger forwards, then tripping on something hard, sending him face first into the ground.

“Are you alright?” asks Theo as he rushes to Kieta’s aid.

“Ouch, I think I’m bleeding.” Keita said as he pressed a hand against a spot on his right cheek.

Theo notices something shining in the moonlight on the ground, which he finds strange. Theo picks up the hard and icy object, and that’s exactly what it is, a chunk of ice. Before Theo can say anything, a thin sheet of ice blasts at them, knocking Theo down.
……..
“Now hold still. This will only hurt a…um…whatever.”

Sarah Joy stabbed the needle into the helpless Oshawott, causing him to give a squeal of terrible pain.

“Stop being a baby! I just gave a Basculin one of these things and he didn’t even make a sound. On a second thought, a Basculin is a fish…eh, whatever.”

Sarah quickly injected the fluid and pulls out the needle, which worsens the pain for the Oshawott to an extreme.

“Hey! Stop crying, you want me to patch it up, right? Then hold still.” Sarah said, as she wraps up the Oshawotts arm.

“Thank you so much, Nurse Joy! I don’t think I could go on without my Oshawott!” Said the little boy as he held his pokemon in his arms.

“Well then I have bad news for you. Your Oshawott has Hepatitis, he is going to die.” Sarah says, as serious as anyone could ever be.

“Wh-what?”

“You should have been checking for signs. He isn’t going to make it through the week. Hopefully the little guy goes quick and painless.” Sarah laments as the trainer gets sadder and sadder.

“Oh god!” The little boy says, crying suddenly.

“Oh my god, you fell for it!” Sarah laughs, “Your pokemon is going to be just fine, we hope to see you again!” she exclaims, and then struts through the door behind her, leaving the little trainer standing there with his mouth ajar.
…….

The moonlight was gone; there was nothing but darkness when Theo woke up. All Theo could see was Keita passed out a few feet away and thousands of pieces of ice scatted around him. Suddenly everything came back into focus, and Theo could see his environment. Everything was covered in frost and ice: Trees, grass, and the path. Theo got up on his knees, an exhausted, scared look on his face.

“Keita?” Theo questions, pushing Keita to wake him up.

“What happened?” Keita asks, slowly waking up.

“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here. It could happen again.”

Theo and Keita stagger home, while the assailant of the night slowly watches them make their retreat.
……….

Theo and Keita enter the deserted Striaton City Pokemon Center, shivering greatly.

“Theo! What are you doing home so late?” Sarah pesters him. “Why do you look like you were just hit by a glacier?”

“Because for all we know, we were.” Theo said, slumping down on one of the centers chairs. “Mother, this is Keita.”

“Hello.” Keita said, rubbing his arms to create warmth.

“Nice to meet you. Now tell me what happened, upstairs.”

Theo and his mom’s apartment above the pokemon center wasn’t really an apartment, for they didn’t have to pay for it. Theo and Keita sat bundled in blankets on the couch, and explained to their mother how they met and exactly what happened. Then Keita called his mother and told her what happened, and instead of being worried, she was angry. Apparently a son shouldn’t get attacked in the woods on his mothers’ birthday.

“Enough talk of this ice, how was school today?”

“Um…” Theo struggled to find the right thing to say.

“Come on now, what are you learning about now?”

Theo wasn’t paying attention in class today, so he had no clue what to say.

“Er…Chanseys...”

“Really?”

“Um, yeah. They are just the coolest pokemon ever….”Theo lied.

“Well I’d like to know all about it.” Theo’s mother said, clearly enjoying interrogating her son.

Theo was in a tough situation, he didn’t actually know anything about a Chansey except that they were pink and plump.

“Uh, I’d love to tell you but is that soup I smell?” Theo changes the subject.

“I’m not making any soup.”

“Then you probably should.” Theo tells him mother. She shrugs and goes to make soup.

“Your mother doesn’t know you don’t like school?” Keita asks Theo.

“She doesn’t really ask. I usually sit in my room and pretend that I’m doing homework.”

“That’s too bad. It’d be awesome if you were a trainer. Hey, is it alright if I let my pokemon out?” Keita asks Theo.

“Sure.”

Two pokemon from Kieta’s pokeballs appeared In Theo’s living room. A Patrat quickly jumped on Keita, trying to tackle him while he was sitting, while a quiet and reserved Swadloon sniffed Theo’s foot.

“This is Patrat and Swadloon.” Keita said, while Patrat tried to curl up in his black hair.

Swadloon sat on Theo’s lap, studying him curiously. Then he eyed Theo’s pink hair, and eventually found a way to try to eat it.

“AGH!” Theo’s shouted, pulling Swadloon away from his head.

“I think he likes you. You should see them in battle, they are in the top percentage of Patrat and Swadloon.” Keita smirked.

“You sound my friend, Joey, besides, you’re being too sure of yourself.”

“I KNOW they’re the best pokemon around. There’s no doubting it.”

“I never said I doubted it.” Theo shrugged.

Ignoring the fact that he had homework, Theo pondered throughout the night if he had the ability to be a trainer. Keita took excellent care of his pokemon, was Theo really able to accomplish that?

Theo would eventually doubt it one day, but this was simply the beginning of Theo and Keita’s friendship. Sure it’s corny, but it’s hard to explain it otherwise. Does Keita have a big influence on the outlook of this tale? Not really. Does Theo? Of course. Stay tuned for the next chapter of "Infinite Joys"

 

[Flaze]

Well I caught up again, I remembered that I read the prologue a couple of months back but I never thought you'd post again.

The plot is really original especially since I couldn't actually imagine a male Joy and it just makes it all the better considering that he can't even pursue training due to the fact that he's a boy. I kind of feel bad for Theo though it just doesn't seem like his mother cares about him more like she just wanted to get a girl so that she could be like all the other Joys but when she saw he was a boy it's like she thought he wasn't worth it.

Anyway I can't wait to see what happens, hopefully Theo will decide to become a trainer and tell his mother about it.