A Saga of Tanya the Chansey: 11

Heading back inside from yard time, Tanya finds herself distracted as she follows the line, first with idle musing on her bouts with Torchic and their brief conversation. Mostly the fight.

But musings on that new attack pattern she’s still working to decipher slowly turned inward as she starts fiddling with the incomplete equations for the ‘gravity’ spell. 

In theory making a spell that mimics the effects of amplified gravity is easy with this magic system. A simple matter of ‘grabbing’ everything in a radius and applying an acceleration vector down relative to the center of the earth, a trick Tanya managed on a small scale within the first few minutes of learning the spell’s existence.

But even the most basic testing shows conclusively that her method is a dead end. Not only because the force required to grab everything in a radius and apply a vector like that scales exponentially, but because people's native magic –or aura– will easily resist such a diffuse expression of her power. A fact that should remain true if she continues to fight opponents of relatively equal strength.

…In self defense.

Even still, she could have accepted it as a dead end to a combat viable spell. If it weren't for the fact one of the caretakers knows how to do the spell properly and it somehow manages to bypass all those flaws.

Worse, no matter how many times she sees it demonstrated, the trick to it still eludes her, made worse by the fact that Chasney is literally incapable of describing what’s happening. A side effect of the fact that the spell is inborn, –or an ‘egg move’– meaning she doesn't actually know what she’s doing.

Sitting down as she gets home Tanya pulls a training aid from her pouch, places it on the ground, and begins testing increasingly esoteric variants of the gravity spell. Tests that have led to increasingly absurd results.

For one she’s reasonably sure time travel is technically possible, if a test last time she tried this where she tried to flip around 

x = -4.905t^2

So as to use magic and manipulate t In a desperate attempt to ‘speed up’ gravity. 

Doing so Tanya nearly drained all her mana instantly, but she felt something happening when she tried it. 

Interesting as that was, time travel is even less like what she wants to happen and too power intensive besides.

Plus she was ignoring the imaginary number side of the entire thing to simplify the operation, and for something like time travel –call it a hunch– imaginary numbers are probably going to show up with stuff like that.

Still, the test did prove that she can manipulate fundamental forces directly, but trying to use magic to directly manipulate gravity would mean trying to manipulate the whole planet at once. 

Perhaps…

Tanya blinks, looking down at the ball.

It couldn't be that easy.

…Could it?

Feeling ridiculous, she saturates the area around her ball with mana, then begins forming an almost ridiculously simple equation step by step as to make sure she’s not missing something obvious.

Scope of work = m

g = (6.674*10^-11)*(5.97*10^24) / ((6.37*10^6)^2)

F = mg

m = F/g

Getting to this point Tanya pauses for just a moment, before reaching for her magic to lay a temporary change on the fabric of the world.

2m = F/g

F₁ = 2mg

Folding up the equation the rest of the way and slotting this modified value into an equation that should do nothing but waste mana, she holds onto it with a trickle of energy before, with a deep breath, feeding a healthy chunk of mana into the prototype spell.

Almost immediately the spell saturates and a good deal of the excess overflows and escapes her grasp, spilling away. 

Pulling back the flow to just what the spell requires, Tanya looks through wisps of wasted fluorescent purple energy to see the ball, unchanged. 

But as she reaches over and tries to pick it up she finds her arm suddenly the slightest bit heavier. Checking the formula and unpacking it slightly, she sees the applied force value hasn't changed with the addition of new mass. 

Regardless, the fact that anything is happening is an indisputable sign of success.

Picking up the ball and tossing it lightly to feel its heft, she has to push back a confusing mix of emotions.

Sure, satisfaction of finally getting this to function, but also a great deal of irritation at the universe for this to be the thing that actually works when other methods fail. 

Significantly more intricate methods she spent days working though of material filtering and complicated tests to only vector when specific conditions were met to save mana.

But no. It was this. Something so simple even a child could have figured it out. 

Something Tanya hadn’t even seen because she’s still shaking off bad habits from another magic system.

Sighing, she drops the ball and dismisses the equation.

As she begins unfolding the equation again an image flashes through her mind for just an instant, the most pleasurable sight of slowing that damn supersonic chicken down as gravity strengthens to the point he can barely stand.

But just as quickly as it appears, it's dismissed as irrelevant to the real reason she’s learning the skill.

Self defense.

Either way, with the breakthrough it’ll take a little bit longer before an actually workable formula. To that end she starts unpacking the overcomplicated mess that the prototype’s become, mentally pairing it down and trying to figure out how to rearrange everything so the mass variable is easier to access.

She could just substitute it as is with a variable mana input; the addition would require changing mental tracks in an awkward spot when running the spell. 

Plus Tanya’s already doing the variable mana flow equations in reverse when defining the work area.

Maybe she can…

—--

–_–

—--

It was a few hours into the restructuring, long after she'd lost track of time, that Tanya was interrupted from her thoughts by Caretaker giving a pat on the head to get her attention.

Blinking as she extracts herself from the world of numbers, Tanya looks up to Caretaker's smiling face and notices a spiral bound notebook covered in a repeating pattern of eggs and artistically rendered happiny.

“Yes Caretaker?”

Her response only seems to make the smile wider.

“Caught you snoozin’?” Caretaker asks, plopping down beside her.

“Ah no, just thinking.” Says Tanya with a shake of the head.

Caretaker gives a giggle and sets down the notebook between them, now that it's on the floor Tanya notes the glued on construction paper hearts bracketing the notebooks title in the center.

‘Comprehensive Fundamental Analysis of CFSP: Evaluating Pipeline, Financials, and Market Potential’

Tanya blinks, then reassesses her assumptions on what the thought was happening here as Caretaker flips through the first few pages of the book and to something that almost looks like an index.

Just with a lot more stickers.

“Ok, Here’s my FA! Writing human is still annoying, so I made a scrapbook!” She cheers, before launching into an overview of the table of contents and flipping to the first section.

Sure enough, it looks like a scrapbook at first glance. With pictures and selections from other texts cut out and glued together amongst a rainbow of construction paper.

 But after a moment that first impression fades as Tanya realizes the cutouts and highlighted sections of text aren't the usual fair. 

Instead of travel photos and sappy poems, its graphs and professional portraits of serious looking men and women in business suits sharing space with highlighted selections of dry legal documents and scientific studies. 

Sections are then highlighted and linked to other passages with glued and brightly colored yarn, forming a web of logic that presents one near irrefutable conclusion. 

That this stock is undervalued by literal orders of magnitude.

It took a few minutes for Tayna to wrap her head around the novel formatting, but after she does she can only form one conclusion.

Caretaker is a genius.

But as she leans against Caretaker, following along as she summarises countless hours of research and thought Tanya finds herself being incredibly disrespectful as the words slowly begin to wash over her. Replaced by the rythmic sound of Caretaker's voice.

Thankfully she’s brought out of a strange stupor as the research on the medical side of the research comes to the fore.

Blinking off abnormal lethargy with a yawn, Tanya sits up fully and points at a passage describing the efficacy of this new drug, some kind of hormone that’s supposed to prevent arterial hypoplasia.

“How certain are you that this works as well as initial trials suggest?”

Caretaker gives the question due consideration, remaining silent for a moment.

“As sure as I can be I guess.” She shrugs. “It’s just a novel synthesis of a well known FGF, only restructured into a prodrug so it can be taken orally instead of intravenously.” 

She pauses, blinking as she realizes Tanya doesn't know what a prodrug is.

“Um. Ah. It’s catalyzed in the liver?” Caretaker half asks.

Tanya takes a second to parse that, before nodding.

Organic chemistry, she doesn't know enough about that to ensure Caretaker’s investment is sound. But there's an easy way to find out.

Plus it’ll be useful to get ahead of the curve for nursing school.

“Could you walk me through the organic chemistry?” Tanya says before realizing Caretaker’s face is wavering. 

Seeing this, she puts on a smile kept in reserve for whenever a chansey is being hesitant.

“Please?” She asks sweetly.

Like clockwork Caretaker’s face runs through the expected gamut of expressions, ending on a sort of resigned, yet fond, acceptance.

“Of course Dear.” She says with a sigh, but continues hurriedly as Tanya nods and waits for her to begin explaining.

“B-But it's a bit more complica- har- visual than economics! So I'm going to need to get some books from the library. It’ll take a few days!” She says, patting Tanya on the head and gesturing back to the FA.

“How about we finish looking over this? We didn't even get to the part about the regulatory and legal environment!” She pauses, leaning closer and lowering her voice. “There was a hefty legal dispute about what statute this drug falls under in the inter-region trade laws.” 

Tanya blinks and looks back to the scrap book, interest peaked.

“Did it go to the Trade board?”

Caretaker nods.

“Twice.”

Tanya looks back to the scrapbook and leans lightly against Caretaker again.

Twice?

Now she has to know what happened.

Unfortunately, just as Caretaker picks up where she left off, a quiet voice chimes in from behind.

“uh, excuse me?” Happiny says softly, prompting Tanya to turn around and hum inquisitively.

Seeing that she’s gotten her attention, Happiny takes a tiny step forward, looks up from her slightly shorter stature, and speaks in a cautious whisper.

“Could we play catch?” She says, and Tanya has to stifel a groan. 

 But on the cusp of refusal Happiny continues, tilting her head with a smile.

“Please?”

Tanya looks at those wide eyes, then down to the scrap book, before realizing there's not really a choice here. 

It’s a perfect opportunity to network.

She gives a sigh and begins to stand.

“Alright, fine. We can play catc-” 

“She said yes!” Happiny shouts, –earlier quiet forgotten– cutting Tanya off and whipping her head around behind her to a group of happiny who all cheer and spring into action.

“Wha- Wait catch? Happiny, darling, maybe we could find a different… game…” Caretaker trails off as she  realizes Happiny can't hear her, lost in her excitement and dragging Tanya across the room closer to a quickly forming pile of pillows and blankets.

Tanya allows herself to be guided with only mild despair as she can already see a line of siblings making their way over before she’s even in the proper spot.

Catch is a new game, and one of her least favorites, because Tanya is both required to play and sometimes it takes over an hour to stop.

Happiny releases her as they get to her spot for the game to begin, immediately turning around and bouncing in place excitedly.

“Me first! Let's go!” She cheers to Tanya’s amusement just as the pile of every soft thing in the room is complete on the far wall.

Huffing a laugh at her excitement, Tanya leaves a deliberately long pause to tease her sister, who only vibrates harder, before circulating magic though her body and picking her up.

Looking down at Happiny, wigging with excitement in her grip, Tanya gives her sibling an experimental heft.

“You ready?” 

Happiny gives several excited nods, so, after eyeballing the distance and forces required, she gives a single full rotation to build up speed and chucks Happiny across the room into the pillow pile on the far wall, squealing with delight as she tumbles through the air.

As she flew, Tanya watched with psychic mana at the ready to intervene if anything had gone wrong. But nothing did as Happiny slowly extracts herself from the impromptu crash cushion, quickly assisted by two caretakers who suddenly look quite tired.

Almost immediately after the inaugural toss, the next sibling down the line runs up and stands at an eager parade rest. Though with her anatomy she doesn't really have the arm length to do it properly.

Silver linings, at least it’s good exercise.

Following the well laid out rules to the game, Tanya quickly picks her up, begins another spinning toss, and as she watches her sister fly though the air, ponders the circumstances that led to this.

It started as a completely normal request. Happiny saw a caretaker lightly tossing one of her sisters in the air and asked Tanya to do the same. 

By some coincidence of fate her siblings are significantly more durable than human children, and Tanya is significantly stronger than she really has any right to be. 

Things escalated.

She tosses another sibling, and every single chansey in the room watches her fly though the air with laserlike focus.

That’s the other reason she tries to gently discourage this game.

She gets the feeling the caretakers don't like it very much.

Thankfully after the first few throws to get a feel for it, catch doesn't require a lot of complex thought, leaving Tanya to plan for the future. 

Getting her thoughts in order she makes a note to get back to Caretaker and walk though that FA, then figure out how much time is going to be required to learn organic chemistry in an appropriate amount of time. 

An entire new field of study is going to have to be carefully balanced against her own obligation to get all her siblings literate. Add to that physical training and an upcoming meeting with her provisional partner means that things have gotten a little tight.

She’s not sure when it happened, but things have gotten busy. 

But as Tanya watches her sister sail through the air, screaming with laughter, she knows this is the correct course of action to acquire the life she wants. Thus it’s the only thing she could have done.

So she can do it.

She will do it.

—--

–_–

—--

Amelia Joy pants as she jumps into her mom’s car and chucks her backpack to the other seat while she buckles herself in. As she does her Mom watches from the rear view mirror with amused eyes.

“Did you forget what today is?” She asks teasingly.

“Nope! Don't forget!” Amelia responds a touch too quickly 

Mostly because she did forget her Mom was going to pick her up, so she can go straight from school to her first meeting with her new partner.

Amelia almost frowns at the thought, but catches herself just and time, chastising the feeling as childish. 

She’s almost fifteen! Practically an adult! She needs to trust her logic and reason, not baseless emotions.

This lingering anxious feeling is just from her worrying that her new partner is going to flake and ruin her future career prospects, that her new pokemon won't be able to handle the stress of being her partner.

Thankfully that anxiety seems to be baseless. Because this is her second year of partner meetings, and Amelia’s gotten to hear every variant of the ‘be careful with happiny, they’re delicate’ speech. 

It’s why she chose to not go down with the other kids. She’s just too… intense for normal happiny.

But her new partner doesn’t match those descriptions at all, in fact, when they were being led out of the family compound Aunt Zoe took her aside and gave Ameila a very different speech, which used a lot of complicated words to put a positive spin on an instruction to, ‘not let her push you around.’

Amelia is thankful for the concern, but it wasn't necessary. She was in control the whole time, laying down an ultimatum for the future that her partner agreed to.

The bond with Happiny isn't strong enough to get a lot out of her words, but her indisputable drive for nursing cannot be questioned. 

Just like her.

And Amelia Joy isn't shown up by someone who’s less than a year old.

With that, she opens up school bag and reaches past school work, hovering over her extra reading on pokemon training so she can…

…

So she can specialize in becoming a physical therapist! After she becomes a nurse!

Yea…

Nodding to herself, Amelia rummages around a little more, grabbing Mom’s old textbook on nursing and opening it to where she left off.

She can do it.

Amelia Joy will become the best nurse in the world.

Taking out her notepad and a pen, she prepares to take notes on the book and do the chapter quizzes.

She’ll make Mom proud.

And as she begins to study her borrowed textbook, Joana Joy glances at her daughter in the rearview mirror with unconditional love tinged with worry.

---

A/N: Guess who's coming back for round 2! It's the the nutron star to Tanya's black hole of density!

Ta-ta All!