[se] daisies on your nightstand

Shaelyn's movements were graceful as she knelt among the blossoms, her fingers delicately isolating a single flower between her index and middle finger. With a gentle tug, she freed it from the earth, the stem yielding easily to her touch. She brought the flower to her nose, inhaling deeply, the sweet fragrance of the pink petals filling her senses and momentarily transporting her to a tranquil state.

As she savoured the moment, her Espeon sprang into action. The Pokémon leaped like a fox, her front paws landing deftly on something hidden in the grass. Before Shaelyn could fully process the scene unfolding before her, her Espeon began to radiate an intense white glow. The light enveloped the creature. Within moments, the Espeon's fur shifted from its usual colour to a more natural, Siamese-like colouring, complete with captivating blue eyes that looked up at Shaelyn, reflecting a hint of confusion over her new appearance.

“Caoilfhionn?” Shaelyn uttered in mild surprise, addressing her Pokémon by name. She watched, bemused, as Caoilfhionn seemed to revel in her new form, playfully sinking through her legs and wiggling her newly coloured tail with evident enthusiasm.

Only now did Shaelyn recognize that the Espeon had been enticing another creature into play, initially mistaking it for a flower due to its unusual colouring. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a vibrantly coloured Skitty, engaging in a chase with the Espeon, weaving through the grass with a spring in its steps.

As she observed their playful antics, a voice interrupted her thoughts. Startled, Shaelyn turned and found herself looking up at a tall man who had approached her. She straightened up, brushing off her clothes as she stood, and offered him a friendly nod. “It seems so. She seems to have found something among the flowers,” she replied, her eyes scanning the area where the Espeon had been frolicking. However, only a swirl of dust remained.

Noticing movement nearby, she pointed towards another unusual Pokémon a short distance away. “Look over there,” she suggested with a hint of enthusiasm. “Our region is teeming with them. Aren't you familiar with them?”

The man wondered about shiny Pokémon and traits, and Shaelyn smiled gently. “It used to be that Pokémon were either shiny or ‘normal.’ It wasn’t until an event in Sinnoh that traited Pokémon were discovered. As it’s a completely different gene mutation, it turned out this way,” she explained. “I don’t know all the specifics, though.” She knew a bit, but her knowledge on the subject was limited.

When the man said not to get started on affinities, Shaelyn chuckled. “They are quite the phenomena. The more we learn about affinities, the more questions we end up with,” she smiled. “I take it you don’t have one yourself?” It wasn’t surprising, though in Shaelyn’s line of work, she encountered more people who did than those who didn’t.

The man noticed that traits didn’t seem to alter personalities, and Shaelyn hummed in agreement. “The gene doesn’t directly affect personality, no. But it often does so indirectly. They get treated differently by their own species and others, so their personalities change.”

The man asked why he should have an affinity, and Shaelyn chuckled. “There is nothing you should or should not have. I merely wondered, as many gain one once they reach these lands,” she told him. It wasn’t just Cerynia either. Every bit of land on this continent held affinities by now, though they diminished the farther one traveled.

The man observed that Cerynia was strange, and Shaelyn nodded. “When Xerneas released life onto our lands to fight the death Yveltal spread, the lands responded to it. Ever since, our region has been… different. Thriving, but changing,” she explained. “Such a wonderful thing, don’t you think? How a Goddess risked it all to save the people here. I am glad we have something to remember this by,” she smiled, holding her hand against her chest. The tree of Xerneas and these affinities were the ways to remember what Xerneas had done for them.