Chapter Text
The Floaroma Town Orphanage. Home to all the children who didn't have one, with hopes and dreams of one day finding a place to call their own.
Dani was one of the many children who resided there, but under much different circumstances. Her first home wasn't good to her, full of anger and violence that left her with being taken away and brought to this orphanage instead. The anger and violence she had to deal with in her original household was something the rubbed off on her, as it was all she knew for the first years of her life. She was angry all the time, likely to lash out and argue with anyone over pretty much anything, and sometimes she took her anger out in violent ways such as throwing her things around or punching a pillow. From the moment she arrived, she was marked down as one of the children with behavioral issues.
Twice in her younger years was she adopted by families who thought they could handle her. They had ideas on how to fix her problems, and thought that they would be able to handle what troubles she might have, but each time it didn't work out quite that way. She still acted out, perhaps even got worse with whatever forms of discipline they had tried on her, and each attempt had ended with the families bringing her back to the orphanage to give up the fight. They'd said she would find a good home, but that theirs just wasn't going to be a good fit for her, as she wasn't able to improve with them.
Each time this happened, Dani became worse. Her families had been so insistent on 'fixing' her that their attempts only made her behavior worse, and when she was brought back she became even more closed off than she was before, having lost trust in people for acting as though they were up for the challenge of her only to give up and bring her back. By the second time she was brought back, three families later, she had made a promise to herself to simply not trust anyone ever again. It would save her any additional troubles in the future she figured, to be prepared for betrayal in any instance.
Years had passed, and nothing changed. Dani got older, her behaviors remained the same, and each passing year made it harder for her to get adopted. The older the children got, the less likely it was that a family would want to adopt them, as most families preferred having younger children to adopt. With Dani becoming older mixed in with her long lasting problems, those who worked at the orphanage labelled her as least likely to be adopted in the house, and most likely to age out when she turned 18. This was no secret to Dani, she knew what her circumstances were, but she decided that she preferred it this way so she wouldn't have to deal with anymore false hopes of a family adopting her. She would take care of herself until she was old enough to leave and be done with it then and there.
One of the things Dani enjoyed doing from day to day was sneak out of the orphanage during the evenings. The workers had tried numerous times to stop it from happening, but she was stubborn in that she always found a way out anyways. After so many attempts, they had stopped trying to stop her, hoping that maybe her little adventures would be good for her. So long as she came back by the end of the day each time she snuck out, they didn't mind too much.
This evening seemed as good as any other to sneak out. The sky was just beginning to turn into shades of orange as the sun began it's trip to set for the day, and it was the perfect day outside for taking a walk. Slipping out through a window, Dani began her adventure for the day. She enjoyed her own town, but on nicer days like this one she enjoyed to explore out a little bit farther to neighboring towns to see what they were like as well. Today, she felt like making her way over to Sandgem Town to see what was happening over there.
Heading into town, she watched as people around her went about their day walking around. Times like these she felt a bit of peace of mind, feeling as though she was a part of something bigger than just being locked inside a sad house for lost kids. Here, she was a part of society in her own way, walking amongst all the regular people as they did their daily tasks. She stopped by a few stores for some window shopping, and used a bit of her allowance to buy some treats she would eat later in the night when she got back home. She thought to herself, this was a good choice to come wander in this town today.
She was too busy with what she was doing she hadn't realized that clouds were on the way. The orange and pink that flooded the sky was beginning to be covered with dark clouds, and the air began to turn a bit colder. She noticed when the first flash of lightening went through the sky and the wind began to pickup that there was a storm coming, and that she ought to try and head home before it came. It was too late though, by the time she'd made it to the other end of town the rain began to pour, and she realized there would be no time to get back home in this weather. She needed to find temporary shelter from this now and try to make her way back home whenever it stopped or slowed down.
It was late enough in the evening that most of the shops were closed for the night. All the doors she tried to pull on were already locked, and she wasn't going to go to some random door to knock on to see if someone would let her in. She needed to find something open quick, or she'd be a shivering mess out in this storm.
Finally, a door that worked. It was the old research building in the corner of town, which seemed to always have it's doors unlocked for some reason. The doors creaked a bit as she opened them, and closed behind her with a bit of force as she made her way into the building. She breathed a sigh of relief as she got out of the rain, feeling better already to be out of the storm. After collecting herself for a moment, she took a look around her surroundings for the first time. She had visited Sandgem Town a few times in her endeavors, but admittedly had never stepped foot into this building until now.
The room she was in was dark, no lights on at the moment. She was thankful for this as it kept her hidden from anyone who might still be here, which she assumed there would be since the doors were still unlocked. Taking a few careful steps inside, she noticed light coming from a doorway around the corner, indicating maybe something was going on in there. She debated staying at the door, just watching out the window in her little dark hiding place until the storm subsided, but curiosity made her want to see what was around the corner. Taking a few careful steps forward, she dared to peek into the room that was lit up to see what was inside.
Luckily, there was no one there. There were a few lights hanging over a large table with seats, and paperwork was scattered in a mess on the top of it. There was a whiteboard on wheels in the corner with writings on it that she couldn't make out, and a hot cup of something steaming on a computer desk on the other side of the room. After a moment of hesitation, she took a few more steps into the room to peek around at everything. The whiteboard had some kind of writings about Pokemon evolution on them, but nothing of which she was able to quite understand. Going over to the table, her eyes landed on some paperwork that talked about regional Pokemon, and how certain Pokemon have different variations depending on the environment they're in.
Caught up in the things she was looking at, Dani had let her guard down and hadn't heard the footsteps approaching until it was too late. When the footsteps entered the doorway, her eyes lifted up from the papers she was looking at to see what was there. She made eye contact with a man in the opposite doorway, a look of confusion on his expression as he looked at the soaked child in the room. They both stood frozen for a moment before Dani made a quick bolt in the direction of the front door. When she got to the doors and opened them up, she was met with a harsh gust of wind and a pouring rainstorm, thunder booming from outside. The storm had only gotten worse, and there was no way she was going to be able to leave at this point.
Closing the doors once more, she cursed under her breath and felt herself tense up. The footsteps from earlier were approaching once more, and she had to prepare herself for whatever kind of person this would be. She couldn't imagine it'd be a happy person based on the fact she'd broken into the lab and was snooping around where she wasn't suppose to, so she prepped herself for someone who would likely be angry.
Finally, the footsteps entered the room she was in, and she took a deep breath as she heard them stop not too far from her. Releasing her hand from the doorknob, she slowly turned around to face whatever was to come next for her, full of uncertainty and fear.