The landing was rather choppy, the ocean, the sea? it was unclear which of the large bodies of water Alola was located within. How did they land on the sea in a plane you ask, it was a seabird, was that not mentioned? Still don't know, before your time, a really interesting variation on the craft is the Spruce Goose, the C-130 of the sea, go look it up in the Evergreen museum. Creigs plane was more of a private sized flight. Lusamine, Kakui, and Hala were waiting on the docks. Being they had different targets of interest and were all used to being in the lead, they all attempted a different greeting at the same time. It was an unintelligible mess, they looked at each other, then proceeded to say "Alola" in sync before giving the floor to Hala, who had the most say on how well the guests would be welcomed on the Island by humans, with the only higher voice being the Tapu.

  "As Kahuna, I must remind that your stay is a privilege, whether you want it or not you are diplomatic ambassadors, your behavior will be the first impression many have of outsiders and thereby determine how other outsiders will be treated." He looked at Creig pointedly "Some have shown respect by their reluctance to even come if not for the necessity of circumstance, worried that a difference of culture may inherently cause problems. The awareness of this possible issue is indeed a sign of respect, neither side wishes to force the other into taboo conduct, It also shows good form that even if one cannot fully give oneself over to the culture, they are not adverse to earning the respect of the cultures' guardians." Creig shifted uncomfortably. Hala then looked over the everyone else before locking onto N "I am curious how the all speaker will be received and will react to our land where pokemon have such a great say." Hala then sighed all the chiefly authority out of his body " I swear, you lot turned half my hair gray, I haven't recently seen the Tapu to let him know what's going on so we might be on shaky ground for the moment, I at least hope things work out, being able to talk to people who share similar hobbies to my own sounds appealing, Alola" With that Hala walked off to go rest for a while, having gotten the stressful speech out of the way.

  It was Looker who spoke next "Professor, This is where me and Anabel take our leave, we have to get back to work, take care of these guys well for us, if you would."

  Kakui nodded "Alola!, I understand, I'll look over them the best I can, no Substitute here." To which Looker and Anabel reboarded the plane to take them where they were needed next.

  "Your temporary house is in Iki village, this way please" came from Lusamine, procting everyone to get moving "N, since you'll be traveling back in Unova in a couple months, you won't get to see the permanent residence, but depending on how you find your time here we should discuss if you'll want residence or citizenship later." N just hmm'ed at that. "Aether employees will be acting as a caretaker-bodyguard as part of your security, and managing schedules and necessities. Tomorrow will be an introduction to the people of the town, the day after a tour to vaguely familiarize yourselves with where important points of the Island are."

  Kakui took over talking the rest of the walk, explaining how the school was going to work. It was lazzie-faire to Creigs' experience with school with a lot of go out and look at things, and maybe one or two full lessons a day, subject usually prompted by class interest or guest. Creig would probably do afternoon lessons, and would probably only have control over the first lesson. He would have to introduce his girth of subject and approximate how much he knew. Then re-iteration of N and Creig having after-school activities. Rosa was told she could not follow N following Hala, Nate had extra studies in law and regulation from his job.

  "Everyone else has extra studies that will better their futures, it's both frustrating everyone gets special training, and makes me feel guilty as if I'm too lazy too do enough!" came her frustrated cry.

  That made N feel guilty and helpless, he tried to put on a smile for her willingness to help.

  Creig actually had a possibly helpful thought. "The Joy clan, and/or the Rangers, neither is perfectly in line with the selling lines of Plasma, but the Joys specialize in pokemon health and have authority to confiscate abused pokemon, Rangers maintain wild areas, and the core group uses stylers not pokeballs"

  N and Rosa blinked "the Joy clan?"-"There's a subsect of Rangers?" Then everyone looked at N who had displayed lack of knowledge that was common.

  "I-I didn't know they had any au-authority in the League, but I knew of them, why wouldn't you have been taught? D-does that mean you thought the woman running the pokecenter we were at was a League employee?" stammered out a horrified Rosa.

  N had a wide-eyed lost look, a soft "Zoru" got N to reach down and pick up his Zorua, who gave him the best hug it could.

  Creig gave Ns' free shoulder a soft pat and squeeze, then addressed Rosa "This is the sort of manipulation that got half of team Plasma tagged abusive and unwelcomed, the ideals you believe in are already addressed by several organizations and powerful private interests, including Legendaries, but are not truly shared by Plasmas' inner circle, not even all the Sages are in on the true purpose Ghestis organized Plasma for."

  Rosa was nearly crying, the sheer abusiveness of it staggered belief, Ns' lack of knowledge was a strong indicator of the truth of Creigs' words. She went to N and hugged his leg (this is before B/W events, shes' ~11 if you haven't done the math). Nate was consternated and renewed his determination as law enforcement.

  A few minutes more of traveling in awkward silence later "Uhh... we have arrived at your temporary residence, just across the way is Hala, the Kahunas' house." Lusamine explained "This" she introduced an Aether employee "is Pam, in the morning will be Conner, you will meet the others tomorrow. I will also have miss Whitleys' extra-curricular request looked into" she smiled softly at Rosa. The goodbye Alolas were rather muted and unsure.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  The home wasn't an especially large affair, and seemed modified from an older time. The kitchen and living room were the same room, only two bedrooms and what used to be a pantry for personal space, and a singular bathroom, it did have a showerhead. Creig took charge of who went where, even if technically he shouldn't, the adult in him was speaking at that moment. The teen, "master" bedroom, girl regular bedroom, renovated pantry for the boy, but first, he threw his bag on the couch declaring he'd need some extra shift time with the bathroom. Pam was the only one to say anything about it, and just a quick "you sure?" which got a simple yes from Crieg. Everyone else was too in their own heads to pay it any mind.

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  Creig was the first to awake the next day, probably because he had been the least emotionally stressed. Conner was cooking and missed the creak of Creig shifting in consciousness, Creig heard him panic slightly at one of his charges "Disappearing", Creig just knocked on the bathroom door to make it known he was still around. Conner had made a thorough breakfast, Creig took toast put an egg, a couple American bacon pieces, and two small sausage links into a half sandwich, ate that and was done. Conner tried to get him to eat more, but Creig was just full stating "even if it's from goodwill I wont be bullied into gluttony" which mollified Conner.

  Nate was the next up, coming out with, why was he in the pantry, before turning to, why was Creig on the couch when he assigned sleeping. Pointing to himself it was as simple as: adult, pointing to Nate: Limited rooms, small. Nate waited for Creig to say more, then realized Creig had only ever spoken as much as he thought was needed for clarity, the fact that Nate was used to him speaking more was down to the sheer volume Creig had been explaining, all other times he tended to be completely silent. Nate then ate the volume of three breakfasts', there was still plenty of food somehow, Creig could only explain it with anime eating. The others woke up soon enough to join.

  By nine in the morning Creig openly asked when the meet and greet would start. Conner answered an unhelpful this morning when Hala gets here. That got Creig to glare at the man. When the two shift supervisors brought the other caretakers by, Creig suspected Conner had called to get an update. The supervisors, for day and night respectively, were Ut'tu and Pulli, they would also act as procurement when any in the group couldn't get something themselves. Morning and Afternoon shifts would be cooks, Conner, Raffi, Dunc, and Emei. Night shift were security, they could also help with trainer training, Pam, and Houl were the ones who would take this responsibility. Shifts would be: 3-11, 11-7, and 7-3, Conner-Emei-Houl-Raffi-Dunc-Pam. Which meant that other that weekends the shift change would occur outside of the guests sight.

  Hala eventually got there "Alola, good morning"

  Besides the response chorus from the three younger ones, Creig couldn't help but go "Alola, good afternoon", it was only 30 till midday. Did Hala need and out, a bit of understanding? "Busy Morning?"

  Hala looked at the time for the first time that day. He didn't show it but he felt a bit guilty now, he had gotten up on time AND there hadn't been many issues today, other than expected ones. The man even tried to give him an out, he had no excuse, so he just moved on as if this was normal, it nearly was! "Still haven't met Tapu, meet and greet is ready otherwise" motioning that it was OK for them to come out.

  Hala had Creig go first, He gave a crisp Alola, putting politeness first, the crowd gave a nervous Alola back. Creig could tell they weren't used to the subject of their assessment to assess them back, his sweeping analytical gaze causing discomfort, and murmurs to include: he even feels foreign, what gives him the right to judge, he's obviously the problem one. Nate was a breath of fresh air to them with a cheery Alola, they didn't notice that he judged them with a detectives eye. Nate elbowed Creig commenting on how he had made everyone nervous. Rosa came out shyly, the people decided she was cute, still looked like they wanted to reject on principle though. N was the one who they reacted to with reverence and cheer, calling him speaker.

  Other than feels, Creig gave no-one reason to denounce him, he did have to explain his faith, which most could sympathize with. It did take some mediating from Hala to get people to hear him out in the first place, but he was also the first to reach understanding from the people. Which made when Hala and Nurse Joy presented him his starter easier. He got very interested in the sandshrew from that point, he let his cold connect to it's. There was understanding. He almost didn't notice Nurse Joy handing him a note on sandshrews' info, it went into a pocket for now.

  N was surprised by how fast Creig had gotten distracted, but didn't have time to dwell on it when a pink haired person looking exactly like the one from the island approached him and Rosa. He was partly wanting to believe that it was in fact the same person, but actually looking around there were at least six ladies with the same looks here. When she got close enough he realized this one was middle aged.

  "So, I've heard about you two. one hasn't heard of our clan, the other wants to develop skills, and learn" she gave a soft smile " I, of course cannot go into detail about everything in this small meet and greet, but we've put some information together, in a couple weeks the young lady can take a test to see if she knows enough to be an assistant." N gingerly took the stack of papers, Rosa eagerly did, and almost started asking questions, before deferring to N. At first N wasn't sure where to begin though. So he went with confirming what he'd heard of so far. Nurse Joy indulged him for a time before letting other talk to him.

  By the end of the meet, everyone was convinced that N was the weirdest, even knowing his story. Creig was strange, not weird, and while he didn't revel in it, he was steeped in and accepting of it, but he knew how and how much to communicate for the most part, when he didn't, he kept thinking of questions and metaphors to get a grasp on whatever it was. Nate got to know(profile) everyone and became known for being sociable. Rosas' eagerness to learn from the nurses, and thoughtfulness towards N had the mothers wishing their children acted so well.

  Before bed, Creig and sandshrew went for an exposé of skills. The first was a little swipe of sandshrews' claws, Creig didn't immediately identify the move, it was as forgettable as it looked. Then sandshrew curled up and sheened, when playing the games Creig wouldn't have used this move, partially due to the known move limits, now there were things like range, movement, using items mid battle would be much harder, if not infeasible, or allowed?. Creig thought he might be able to teach sandshrew to assembly line produce Defense Curl, instead of doing each use individually, they would have to identify each step of the process first. The last was a cold field that caused minor condensation in a small area, the cold area being smaller than the condensation area, Creig walked it to get a feel for it. At first he thought is was a failure to activate Powder Snow, but sandshrew wasn't drawing power and there was no attempt at wind, Creig was already thinking of other ways to use this though and wondering about unintended effects. This was why he was having lessons with Kakui.