Chương 12: 12-Curriculum

Flipping through her new textbook, a primer for organic chemistry, Tanya runs over everything she'd just learned in Caretaker's most recent lecture on the topic. As she does, she makes mental notes about reference texts she'll need to fully understand biology. Even this early, it's clear the book assumes a passing knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Which isn't an issue for now, but when things get more involved it's clear she's going to need to become at least passingly familiar with how bodies function.

Plus, if she's going to become a Pokémon nurse, she'll need a more comprehensive understanding of the topic given the variety of body types and natural environments her future patients will have. Tanya gives a small frown at the memory of that slugma from a few days ago. According to Caretaker they're actually made of molten rock, which doesn't work with a classical understanding of… anything. The impromptu explanation of slugma biology was quite interesting though.

As they cannot generate their own heat, requiring regular access to either an extremely hot location or high energy burnables like coal or coke. Though the residue of consuming those burnables can have their own health issues. During these 'feeding' sessions the slugma circulates all the fluid in their molten body as a sort of heat pump to absorb the heat. At all other times, to keep the heat for as long as possible, they use a combination of vasoconstriction and magic to trap it in.

Dropping their surface temperature to as low as two hundred fifty degrees while their core could still be over a thousand. Though at that point the 'mon would be near incapable of moving as their surface solidifies, and putting themselves in stasis like that can be incredibly dangerous for their health. A healthy slugma's surface temperature is something along the lines of four hundred fifty degrees at rest. Tanya shakes her head at the absurdity of it all.

Hopefully slugma biology is a rare edge case, requiring specialist training so not everyone has to learn the intricacies of rock based anatomy. She snorts, returning to her studies. But only a short time later, Tanya's interrupted as she flips to the glossary in the back of the textbook by her most managerial sister, who approaches and gives a hesitant poke. Looking up Tanya sees Happiny holding up one of the more complicated storybooks, pointing at a word.

"What's this mean?" Tanya scans over the page, then pushes aside her textbook and pats the section of blanket next to her. Ever since she'd been accosted by that mudkip, Happiny has stuck to her side like a limpet. Not to the detriment of doing what she enjoys, but whenever there's a quiet moment Tanya always finds her nearby, sitting quietly or lightly mirroring whatever her elder sister's doing, be it exercise or study.

"Walk me through where you're stuck. Did you try using context clues?" Happiny gives a tiny squeak as she plops down before puffing up in pride.

"I did! I looked on both sides of the unknown word!" She cheers. There's a pause as Tanya waits for the rest of the story. After a moment Happiny's grin turns a little sheepish and she rubs the side of her head.

"I… well…" Her eyes dart around. Tanya continues waiting, and eventually Happiny works through her emotions, dropping her gaze back to the book.

"I couldn't read those either." She says quietly. Tanya nods, pulling the storybook closer. This book is a little advanced for her, too much poetic metaphor and convoluted sentence structure, the enemy of a new reader. Still, she's learning at an astounding pace, taking full advantage of her youthful neuroplasticity. Her most managerial sister isn't the furthest along on the journey to literacy, Tanya's already had siblings pass both Matron's test and her own ad hoc cram school.

But she's well ahead of the average and even without passing the test she's already made herself indispensable, turning her natural talents to making Tanya's life easier. Almost as soon as the faster learners pulled ahead of the pack Happiny began organizing study sessions and group readings, using her intuitive skill to organize the groups by those who work best together and what pairings will learn fastest.

She's gotten so good at it that Tanya almost didn't notice when Happiny slipped control of her project from underneath her. Only seeing she'd been outmaneuvered when her sister came up one morning with different colored toy blocks destined for the different work groups, explaining her organization system, which colors need Tanya's personal attention, and who will be learning from her group both before and after lunch. The former soldier smirks.

Quite the useful little assista- The thing controlling Tanya's body prays more fervently as she floats between the sky and the ocean's twin blues. Snapping up her rifle, she fires off a shot that detonates, killing six enemy mages. She calls with a golden voice, demanding her acolytes rally round her. Yet the radio remains sile- Tanya jerks as magic pulses through her body and her sister's arms wrap themselves around her in a surprisingly tight hug.

It takes another moment for the hurried words to become clear as well.

"-orry I'll get it. I can see you're busy I just-" Blinking, Tanya tries to figure out what's going on, forcing the confusion that's suddenly clouding her mind to disperse as she realizes her sister's in distress. Scanning for threats, Tanya begins trying to extract herself from the hug for total freedom of motion to respond, but as she does her sister releases her grip as if burned. That is more than enough context for Tanya to realize the problem.

Looking down at her arms to both fully understand the scope of the threat and pull herself back to the present, she snaps her head over to her sister as she starts to stand, grabbing an arm to prevent a retreat." Wait. Just-" Cutting herself off, Tanya tries to organize her thoughts as her sister looks at her with, not fearful, – never fearful – but concerned eyes. She takes a deep breath.

"I wasn't upset-" Happiny doesn't look convinced.

"-at you. I was thinking about something completely unrelated, it made me…" Trailing off, Tanya tries to figure out how to finish that sentence. She's not entirely sure what she was feeling in that moment. The lapses in control have been happening less and less often nowadays, but occasionally memories of experiences in her past life shove themselves to the fore. Forcefully enough to feel as if she's actually living through it again for an instant, as impossible as that is.

Her downright illogical responses to these memories have already given her enough grief when it was just affecting her, but this is the first time these lapses have disrupted an interpersonal relationship. Tanya blinks, realizing she'd trailed off and her sister is still watching her.

"... React poorly." She concludes, then gestures at the book.

"My apologies, I'm behaving irrationally. Let's start from the beginning of the page and work forward to where you're getting stuck." There's a moment of stillness after her request, Happiny not moving toward or away. Then she flicks her eyes to something over Tanya's shoulder and gives an unreadable look, before going in for another hug and sitting down so close as to be squashed against each other.

But as they work their way through the book Tanya's mind is only half there, the remainder working though the newly discovered threat this character flaw poses to her interpersonal relationships. She's aware enough to see her sister trying harder than ever before to listen and learn from their time together. Hard work is not something to be avoided. Putting effort into learning is an unambiguous good. But… Tanya almost sighs, catching herself before the sound can escape. She'll fix it.

—-- –_– —-- Walking down the hallways in an orderly line, Tanya takes the time to consider as her siblings play the 'quiet hallway' game with their signature earnestness. The next meeting with potential partners wasn't a surprise per se, Tanya had been aware of it the entire time it was approaching. But as they walk down the hall to the room they'd been in once before, she finds herself almost caught off guard by how quickly that time went by.

The first meeting with her provisional partner had felt like it happened just a few very busy days ago. Regardless, it's happening now, and as her siblings approach the room they'd gone to last time, Chansey calls for everyone who already has a partner to instead follow her. Leading them a little ways down the hall and into a slightly smaller room, decorated like someone was asked to mix a daycare and corporate meeting room.

Bright colored bean bags share space with soft edged chairs and tables tall enough for a happiny to stand on one and look their partner in the eye. All clearly laid out with the express purpose for a group of people to sit and interact with each other. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Turning around, Chansey adjusts her orange hat as she explains again what they've been told several times.

Running through the meeting and reiterating if anything happens that they don't like, they can just call someone over and go back home. Tanya tunes her out, giving a respectful nod as Chansey finishes her speech before turning on her heel and scanning over the available seating, eventually picking a higher chair with a good view out the window.

Interestingly enough, the window looks out into a ground floor view of a large parking lot full of unfamiliar makes and models, all painted in shiny pastels and pleasantly boxy. A sharp contrast to the carefully manicured green of the yard. This meeting is actually taking the same slot as yard time, so she has to assume the field is empty, everyone else doing the same partner search process.

It's a shame the meeting is happening here instead of the first room, seeing a completely empty yard sounds interesting, in a 'after school hours classroom' sort of way. Tanya blinks as a thought occurs. This view of a half full parking lot is actually the first time she'd seen outside the building she'd been born in, yet only noticed now that she's actually seeing her first glimpse of the world beyond.

Not that there's anything she urgently needs from the outside world, but the fact she hadn't even noticed the absence is worthy of note. Somehow, despite her entire world being contained within less than a square mile of linoleum and its ever present smell of antiseptic, the hospital has felt at times larger than even the Sarmatic Plain.

Her musings are interrupted by the distinct and loud sound of high pitched japanese coming from a door on the other side of the room as it opens, revealing Amelia among the other eight humans who found a partner. Tanya's sisters all immediately hop up and run for their chosen human, leaving the former soldier in a slightly awkward spot as she takes a second to realize she should be doing the same.

Standing up in her chair, she gives a beckoning wave for her partner to approach before hopping down to meet Amelia halfway. As they meet in the middle and exchange greetings Tanya has to confront how awkward the entire situation is. Her opening attempt at a handshake was met by a confused stare, –a blessing in disguise considering their height disparity– followed by an awkward silence that she would really like to chalk up to the language barrier but doesn't seem to be hindering any of her sisters.

Glancing around at everyone else's almost effortless ease, Tanya sighs and makes her way back to the table, gesturing for her partner to follow. With luck the awkward atmosphere will dissipate with a little time. –_– She was wrong.

"So…" Amelia looks down at a sheet of 'get to know you' questions.

"What's your favorite color?" So wrong. Tanya tilts her head, bravely trying to power through the atmosphere.

"I don't really have a favorite. Colors can mean completely different things depending on the context. For example, seeing the red of a first aid box after seeing the red of a wound's blood is the opposite reaction to the same color in the exact same situation." She pauses, realizing the answer is both too complicated and unsatisfactory.

"In most situations I'd say I prefer purple." Amelia tilts her head, squinting.

"... Green?" She says, looking down at the neon green of the table. Presumably because Tanya had gestured downward at some point in her answer. Tanya looks down at the table, then back up to her partner and gives into her frustration, releasing an exasperated sigh. The entire meeting has been useless, aside from the very beginning where Amelia walked her through her reading list in the leadup to enrolling in nursing school.

The reveal had been reassuring in both her provisional partner's rigor and useful in figuring out what Tanya needs to study after she gets library access. She's not getting shown up by a child. Still, the language barrier really shouldn't surprise her, it's the entire reason partners are necessary after all. For some reason Tanya thinks she believed Caretaker on some level when she talked about how the 'bond between partners' would allow them to bypass the fundamental reality of language mismatch.

That lapse is both illogical and confusing; how had she allowed such blatant nonsense to bypass her usually rigorous assessment of new information? Situations like this are what happens when one allows illogical information to inform decision making. But the thing that's really bothering her is that none of her sisters seem to be having any issues with communication, despite working under the exact same conditions as her.

They're not talking about anything complex but, with a lot of gesturing and physical props admittedly, they're getting the message across well enough. She has to conclude it's the pantomime that gives them a leg up, something Tanya doesn't have a lot of experience with considering her more… reserved method of speech. Or, perhaps there is something more magical going on… But Tanya's known Amalia for almost exactly as long as everyone else. What would be different between her partner and the rest?

She keeps a mental eye on the conversations surrounding them with both her sight and magic senses, making a note to pick apart their body language and figure out where her own communication is falling short. As she does, she sees a clock indicating a little less than half an hour had passed, almost half the allotted time for the meeting. Amelia looks down to her sheet of questions again but looks up again as Tanya stands up from her spot on the table. This isn't working. Time to try something else.

"I'm feeling rather antsy with all this sitting around, would you care to join me on a walk?" Tanya says, waving for Amelia to follow before hopping down from the table and making her way over to Chansey, who looks over as she approaches, slightly concerned.

"Everything alright?" Tanya nods.

"Just fine, just thought going on a walk together would be… fun." She says after a pause. In truth, she's drawing on an ancient memory. Hazy impressions of someone she respected long ago giving the advice that'you can't go wrong with a spirited walk, moving legs make a conversation flow.' Tanya gives a ghost of a smile. She can no longer remember who told her that, nor the context to why the advice was given, but the truth of the statement has stuck with her all these years. Hopefully it'll help her today too.

Chansey looks hesitant for a moment before the flicker of an expression clears and she gives a wide smile.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" She pauses before leaning in.

"This is a special treat, you're more… responsible than your sisters. Please don't go around bragging about it? Then everyone would want to leave." Tanya nods seriously. Honestly she's surprised she's being allowed to go unsupervised. With that, Chansey straightens up and looks over to Amelia, who's hesitantly approaching, a slightly hurt look on her face.

"D- Did I say something wr-" She's cut off as Chansey opens the door Tanya's group entered with and gives a wide smile at the two of them.

"OK! The playground is that way. Head straight there, no detours! Just turn right and keep going, it'll be right in front of you." Tanya nods again before turning around, beckoning for her partner to follow, and walking out the open door. After a glance behind her and another gesture to follow, Amelia does the same, and immediately the benefits and drawbacks of this idea become clear. Upside? She was right, the awkward mood clears now that there's something to do other than stare at each other. Downside?

There's a few, and most of them stem from Tanya's anatomy. Her significantly diminished height forces a light jog to keep up with a partner sporting the downright unfair advantage of having legs larger than Tanya's whole body. But by the time they make it to the doors leading to the playground Tanya's figured out just the right mixture of stamina, mana, and pace to match her partner's stride. A balance that's almost immediately disrupted as they slow on the approach to the door at the end of the hall.

Gesturing for Amelia to open it, Tanya gives a confused blink as she realizes she's looking at the yard instead of a playground and immediately realizes the annoying vocabulary mismatch. But, looking around, she realizes another one of her assumptions was wrong as instead of being empty the yard is packed with familiar faces. Meaning only her nursery is looking for partners today.

Almost before she can ever get her bearings Tanya can feel a pulse of mana flare up from across the yard, feeling almost like standing too close to a fire without the temperature. That ball of embers and magic screams as it streaks across the yard towards her.

"RIVAL!"