June 3rd, 11:10 AM, 1995:
Nick awoke from his nap and felt uncomfortable from the soaked and soiled diaper that he had. Thankfully, Angelina and Marsha arrived in the Nursery to check up on him. Finding out that he really needed a change. They weren’t quite used to the stench of dirty diapers as they both covered their noses for a moment.
“Time for another diaper change eh?” Marsha asked.
“Yeah, this will really go into experience for our internship.” said Angelina.
The snivy picked up the baby from their crib using her vines, and gently laid him on the changing table in the nursery. Upon further examination, she discovered that his diaper leaked through his onesie. Which meant a change of clothes along with a new diaper. She carefully removed the onesie and asked Marsha to bring it to the Laundry Room for washing.
“Sure, I can do that.” said the pikachu as she put the article of clothing in a plastic bag and made her way down to the Laundry Room. She made sure to move as quickly as possible. While that happened, Angelina got Nick changed into a new diaper and put him in a light-blue shirt for the time being. Making sure to keep his pacifier around his neck since she didn’t want to lose that. She then placed him on the ground, so he could play with some toys for a while until he got a new onesie. Sanitizing her leaf hands with sanitation wipes afterwards. She watched as the young puppy stacked some toy blocks together, then chose to shake around a toy rattle.
“I will say… this is quite an internship. After this is done, I’ll be on the path to becoming a nurse! But I wonder… could I possibly adopt Nicholas? I wouldn’t mind having a little brother since I am a single child. I’d have to ask my mom and dad though.” The snivy thought to herself with a smile upon her lips as she continued watching the pup have fun in the nursery. She decided to tickle his stomach with one of her vines, watching him giggle and laugh.
Ten minutes later, Marsha arrived back at the Nursery. She was holding a new onesie: It was black with a pink outline, with the orphanage’s logo sewn onto the front of it. It had two button fasteners on the bottom and two frontal pockets. These colors were on all the uniforms that the children donned. Infants wore onesies while other children wore a polo-shirt and pants, which were switched out for shorts in warmer weather. Winter clothing had longer sleeved shirts with proper pants.
“Here you go, a new onesie from Synthia The Seamstress. She had this one just in case something happened with the current onesie. The other one is currently being washed.” said Marsha as she handed her friend the onesie.
“Thank you so much,” said Angelina as she went over to the pup. “Just a moment, Nickster. We got you a new comfortable onesie that I am sure you’ll love.” as she laid him on the floor and removed the light blue shirt. She then put the pup in the new onesie, which was made from Mareep Wool, a very comfy material for making clothing with.
“Do you like your new onesie, Nick?” the pikachu asked him. The young pup let out a few happy babbles, indicating his satisfaction with his new onesie and how comfy it was to wear. “Very good, I want you to be comfortable after all. Don’t want you to be miserable!” Both interns spent time having fun with the young pup, playing with him by shaking a toy rattle at him and building little structures out of the toy blocks. Spending as much time as they could before lunch time came around. They’d been having fun taking care of him since he hatched a few days ago.
When the time came for the young pup to have lunch, Angelina gently picked up the young pup with her vines and carried him in her arms. Marsha followed behind her as they went to the Dining Room. They saw other children heading in the same direction as well.
“Ready for lunch, Nick? You’re getting your favorite food again!” the snivy asked. The little pup let out some excited babbles as his stomach emitted a loud growling noise that can be heard by the two. He was quite hungry indeed.
GRRROOOOWLLL!
“That’s a definite yes!” said the pikachu as she chuckled.
The two interns arrived at the dining room where Miss Marin was waiting for them. She was holding a jar of the same baby food from breakfast. There was enough left for the young pup to eat. Angelina went over to the high chair they used last time and gently placed the pup in it.
“Would you like to try feeding him?” asked the audino.
“Yes please! I’d love to!” said the snivy. The staff manager opened up the jar of baby food and handed it to her, along with a spoon to scoop some Oran Berry Puree. She gathered a small amount of puree onto the surface of the spoon, and gently moved it towards Nick’s mouth. She’d imitate some airplane noises as she watched the young pup happily eat the first spoonful. He was rather easy to feed, for the time being.
“Good boy, you got more to go! You have to finish the rest of the jar!” said Angelina as she kept spoon feeding him.
In the dining room, a squirtle by the name of Liam was finishing up the rest of his tomato soup as he saw the young pup he met in the classroom. He thought to himself for a moment, “I think it’d be the perfect time for a playdate, we can play together in the activities room! They have plenty of stuff for us to do!” The young turtle brought his empty bowl over a little table where all dirty dishes were being collected after lunch, and gently placed it down. He then made his way over to the young pup.
After a few minutes, Nick finished up the rest of the baby food in the jar and was applauded for his effort by Angelina and Marsha for being such a good baby boy. He’d babble happily in response as the young pup let out a loud burp after eating all that delicious Oran Berry Puree.
BUUUUUURP!
“Excuse you, dear.” said Miss Marin as the snivy took the young pup out of the high chair and handed him off to Marsha for the time being, who made sure to hold onto him carefully. Before they could think about anything else, the young squirtle, Liam, approached them and asked “Pardon me, but can Nicky and I play together in the activities room?” Miss Marin thought about it for a moment and nodded her head.
“Sure, I am sure he’d like that.” said the audino as excited babbling came from Nick, which meant that he was on-board with the entire idea.
“Alright then, I’ll go grab a diaper bag filled with supplies just in case,” said Angelina.
“Good idea.” said Marsha.
“Alright, yeah!” exclaimed the young turtle as he quickly ran to the activity room.
“Well… he’s certainly eager for play time,” said Miss Marin as she chuckled to herself. “I’ll meet you two over at the Activities Room, make sure the diaper bag is well supplied.” The two interns nodded in unison as they headed off to get supplies from the Nursery as the audino headed off in the direction of the Activities Room.
Once they were prepared, Marsha and Angelina made their way down to the room with Nicholas in tow. He was squirming with excitement. The snivy giggled after seeing how excited the young pup was to be playing with a new friend. Seemed rather energetic for the most part.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at their destination and went inside. The Activities Room was a place for the orphans to play with toys, color in coloring books, play board games at the tables, or even watch some educational shows on the wide-screen television that was in the back of the room, with a nice comfortable couch to sit on. Upon entering the room, Liam waved to them and ran to the small closet to grab a toy. The young pup was interested in how he was running, and wanted to try it. Once he was placed onto the ground, he attempted to get up on his two little legs, but ended up tumbling onto the ground. Reverting to his crawling position.
Marsha and Marin were quite surprised to see the young pup actually try to walk. Angelina was concerned and checked him for any injuries, there was none to be seen. This was a sigh of relief for her. The young turtle went over to him after putting down a beach ball he was holding onto. He believed by the sound of the tumbling that Nick was trying to run like he was doing. After all, he had done that before when trying to walk.
“Do you want to learn to run? Well… the first step is learning how to walk. Let me try and show you,” said Liam. He’d grab the pup gently by his left paw, getting him up on his legs. He showed him how to do it by moving the baby’s left leg forward and then right leg in the same motion. “That’s a basic understanding from what I remember, now go ahead and give it a try.”
Nick would attempt to move his legs forward and take one step forward while his left paw was being held by the squirtle, only to tumble again and go back into a crawling position once more. The snivy was happy to see someone trying to teach the young pup to walk.
“I appreciate your efforts, Liam. Maybe just leave it to the adults.” said Angelina.
“Okay ma’am,” said the young turtle as he went over to his beach ball and grabbed it. Bringing it right over to the young pup where he could reach it. “Nicky, this is a beach ball. You can push or hit it with your paws, like this.” as he stood five feet away from him and then gently pushed the toy towards him using his hands. Nicky sat down on his bottom, looked at the ball, and then did his best to give it a push with his right paw. It traveled pretty far, almost close to the blue turtle.
“Alright, that’s the way to do it!” Liam said with encouragement. “Let’s keep pushing it back and forth.” Nicky babbled happily in response as they continued playing with the toy beach ball, pushing it back and forth between each other. Angelina and Marsha kept an eye on them, just to make sure no one got hurt. Miss Marin thought to herself “Nicky’s curiosity has been helping him along in a way, the more he’s curious about… the more he learns. Though, that curiosity will have to be carefully observed. Because it can also lead to trouble as well.” as she watched the two kiddos have fun pushing the beach ball between each other.
Five minutes later… The young turtle wanted to show the pup one of his favorite spots in the Activities Room. He’d say to them, “That was really fun to do, anyways…. I got a favorite spot of mine that I wanted to show you.” as he walked over to the far upper left corner of the room. In this corner was a round soft cushion to stand on and nothing else in particular. Nick tilted his head to the left with curiosity as he crawled over.
“This is what I call… ‘The Business Corner’. It’s a perfect place to stop and fill your diapers. Almost all the young kids use this spot, at least the ones that aren’t potty trained like me.” said Liam as he giggled. Both interns chuckled to themselves, finding the young turtle’s statement to be rather funny. Miss Marin watched as the two young kids headed over to the couch. The squirtle was the first one on the couch, but the young pup couldn’t get up there. Marsha walked over and gently picked up Nicky, placing him next to Liam.
“There you go, how about you two watch some educational tv?” The pikachu said as he grabbed the TV remote and turned on an educational show about nature, with this particular episode being about the formation of rain clouds. These two kiddos sat back and relaxed as they learned about how these kinds of clouds are formed.
The female narrator of the episode gave a simple explanation of how rain clouds were formed, saying they are formed by water vapor in the air that turn into visible water drops or ice crystals depending on the weather. A moving diagram gives a detailed visual of the process. Nick really enjoyed watching this while suckling on his own pacifier.
After the show had ended twenty-minutes later, the young pup heard his stomach emit a loud gurgling sound. Which surprised him a little bit, but he knew what this meant. It was time for a potty break! Nick felt his tail hike up as he got on all fours, and let his digestive system get to work. Liam gently rubbed his back as the pup scrunched up his face and grunted quietly. It was going to be a quick moment of relieving himself of that pressure.
FRRRRRRRT! SPLORCH! SMUUUUURSH! CRINKLE!
The back of the pup’s onesie bulked up as he deposited a small mess into the seat of his diaper, letting out a sigh of relief. The young turtle chuckled as he covered his nose with left hand and gave Nick a pat on the back with his right. Wanting to be friendly with his new playmate. After answering the call of nature, the young pup sat back down on the couch as a squish sound was heard from his mushy diaper. The squirtle didn’t seem to mind the strong stench coming from his diaper because he was equally capable of producing messes like that.
“All done my friend?” said the young turtle as his lips curved upwards into a smile. Nick giggled in response to the question as Angelina approached the pup on the sofa and gently picked him up with her own vines.
“Time for a diaper change, don’t want you getting a rash!” said Angelina as she then looked at the squirtle and asked him, “Do you need a change as well?”
“Not yet! I am still clean… for now.” said Liam as he chuckled and relaxed on the couch while his new friend was carried away to be changed.
The snivy laid the young pup on a light-blue changing pad, undoing the fasteners on his onesie as she got a clean diaper prepared. One with a different pattern. She then began changing his diaper: Angelina gently took off the tapes and slid the dirty diaper from underneath, and put it in a small plastic garbage bag so it could be disposed of later. She then wiped him down with rose scented baby wipes and applied baby oil to his bottom. The rose-scent kept Nicky calm while he was being cleaned up. After that was done, she grabbed the new diaper and opened it up so it could be taped on. This one had a special pattern on it: It was a dark-gray disposable diaper with a hand holding a pink rose in the center as a wetness indicator, with two light pink stripes going down the left and right side. This was made specifically for younger children at the orphanage. It was created by a diaper manufacturer who was hired out by Lady Drevelle at a high commission price; she wanted a set of diapers with a stylish pattern that was unique to the facility. While it looked a bit girly with the light pink stripes, it’s meant to be a unisex pattern.
The snivy carefully slid the clean diaper under the pup’s bottom and secured the tapes, applying rose-scented baby powder to the front and back of it. When she was finished, she’d say to the little one, “There you go, all clean Nickster! You can go play with your new friend now!” as she cleaned her leafy hands with hand-sanitizer and picked up the pup with her vines. She’d carry him back over to the couch and placed him next to his playmate.
“Wow… you smell pretty good with that rose-scented baby powder! I prefer the Blue Ocean scent because it reminds me of the beach. Never went to one before I ended up here at the orphanage.” said Liam. Nicholas looked at his playmate with confusion as he tilted his head to the right. He didn’t know what the beach was since he hadn’t heard of such a place before. He noticed the look on his face as he giggled in response, seeing that he needed to explain that. The blue turtle said “Let me explain, the Beach is a place with a lot of sand and it's located by the ocean. Lots of people go there during the summer to relax and have fun! You can build sand castles, swim in the ocean, or even play a sport that some people call Volleyball. It’d be great if we could go one day… I’d take my favorite beach ball with me. I’m sure you’d love it too.” Nick was very curious about the beach, wanting to go there as well. It sounded exciting to him.
While both kiddos relaxed on the couch, they were given bottles of milk to drink by Angelina as she switched the television over to a show called Alphabet Avenue: a television show that taught young children important lessons such as potty training, learning to speak, the alphabet, healthy nutrition, and much more!
“Thank you ma’am!” said the young turtle.
“You’re welcome, I brought them when I was packing supplies into the diaper bag. I figured both of you would be thirsty after having fun for a while.” said the snivy. While Nicky couldn’t speak, he’d let out happy babbles to show how thankful he was for being given something to drink. Both of the young kids began drinking their bottles of milk while watching the current episode of Alphabet Avenue, which was about learning to speak. The category of the lesson was about learning to say the words of certain toys. The title card of the episode was: ‘Learning To Speak: Toys and Fun Objects!’ The main character of the show was a shiny Blaziken who traveled around with her two friends: a Chimchar and Tepig. They were known as the Alphabet Gang.
The episode went on to explain the names of many toys, one example being a Ball. The main character talked about how bouncy it was and that it started with the letter ‘B’ and that it had a “Buh” sound when pronounced in a sentence. Shortly after, the word appeared onscreen for all the watchers to see. Nicky stopped drinking his milk and tried to say the word “Ball” but it came out as incohesive babbling and sounded like “Blh”.
The snivy was intrigued that the pup attempted to speak, but had no luck. She didn’t expect him to get it right the first time, though she did find it cute. The pup went back to drinking his milk as he watched the show. The blue turtle took a moment and said “Don’t worry, you’ll get it one day. You were recently born after all, so take your time with picking up on it. Evening listening to other people talk can help.” as he went back to drinking from his bottle with his new friend. These two kiddos had forged a bond that would last a long time. While some relationships can develop at a different pace, it all depends on the individual and their personality.
A few hours later, at about one-thirty in the afternoon, the show ended with the main character waving goodbye to the audience, saying that she’ll see them soon for another lesson on Alphabet Avenue. Nicholas and Liam were sleeping on the couch, cuddling each other as they napped. Their milk bottles were empty. Which meant they fell asleep shortly after finishing their bottles.
Angelina noticed how peaceful they were and decided to have them brought up to the Nursery. She asked her friend to carry the squirtle while she carried the shiny pup. Marsha quietly nodded her head as she gently grabbed Liam. Miss Marin turned off the wide screen television, and also disposed of Nick’s used diaper in the nearest garbage receptacle before heading back.
Upon arriving back at the Nursery, the snivy gently placed the young pup in a double crib while her friend placed the young squirtle next to him. Both interns carefully tucked them in as they napped together peacefully. Like two peas in a pod, or two baby birds in a nest. Angelina believed that Liam could be an older-brother figure, since he was very friendly towards Nicholas ever since they met. It had only been a short while, but they became good friends. The pikachu switched on a night-light in the room before turning off the main light.
“Good night sweeties, sleep well.” Marsha quietly said.
“Time to let them nap.” the audino whispered.
The three of them quietly left the room, shutting the door behind them as both kiddos drifted into a dream world of their own. They both had a wonderful playdate, one that would be remembered for a long time as they developed their friendship over time. Liam had a new best friend, and Nicky had someone who could protect him from Lady Drevelle if he needed it.
