Chương 15: 15-Study

Entering the library, Tanya scans across the space until she finds a familiar shade of pink hair done up in a braid. Confirming her partner is here, she starts to trot her way over before remembering herself and turning to face her chaperone.

"Thank you Matron. I can take it from here," she says with a shallow dip of the head. The Chansey giggles and ruffles her charge's head.

"You're just too cute!

"She squeals, then, after a moment of hesitant silence, continues."... Just… don't be too… intense with her alright? Humans can be competitive. You don't want her to think you're showing off and hurt her feelings do you?" Tanya blinks, mulling over the idea. It hasn't been an issue during the few times they've met since the yard. But this is their first meeting unchaperoned, so it would make sense for Matron to be worried. She smiles back with a nod.

"Thank you for the concern, I'll keep it in mind. Thankfully, it's not been an issue so far." Matron mutters something along the lines of 'of course not' then ruffles Tanya's head a little harder and steps back with a shooing motion.

"Alright then! I'll be back in an hour and a half to pick you up. Don't forget to have fun!" Nodding sharply, Tanya turns on her heel and trots toward the desk her partner is sitting at. But as she crosses the distance, her stride gradually shifts into the leaping bound her body naturally adopts when trying to move at speed. Crossing the room, she has to push past a small burst of embarrassment as Amelia senses her approach and looks over to see the former soldier bouncing like a dribbled basketball. …

If only it weren't so damn efficient. Ignoring the tiny upturn in the human's mouth, Tanya times her last jump to come to an easy stop on the tabletop then continues to ignore stifled giggles as she pulls out her notepad. Looking over as her partner controls herself with a cough, she scans over Amelia's own notebook, reading the upside down text and comparing it to her own list. After their first chaperoned meeting, they had a few more pre-arranged supervised sessions in the same place.

Now they're done and Amelia is technically free to meet whenever she wants, though to avoid scheduling conflicts they've set up weekly meeting times. Tanya's schedule is busy enough without unexpected interruptions.

"Were there any issues getting here? On the drive over?" She asks to uncomprehending eyes. …damnable language barrier.

"The study list?" Amelia asks eventually. Holding back a sigh, Tanya flips her notepad to a new page and pulls out a crayon. It takes almost ten seconds for her to mentally pull up the characters and rearrange them into words, but eventually she figures it out and begins scratching away. As she carefully focuses on the lines and slopes of the characters, Amelia watches on with amused disbelief.

"It's still so weird watching a pokemon write." She pauses as Tanya huffs.

"You're weird. You know that?" Rolling her eyes, Tanya scratches out the last character with a flourish and flips the page around for the human to read.

"No. But it's unimportant. Excellent work on the reading, have you found time to look at my own suggested additions?" Admittedly, she has noticed teaching her siblings to write is difficult. For some reason. Compounded by her own issues writing –despite having already learned the skill– means written literacy still isn't an easy challenge. But the fact her most studious sisters have already begun to break that wall proves it's merely a matter of persistence.

Mouthing out the last few syllables of messy handwriting, Amelia's casual expression firms up into something more serious as she reaches into her backpack and pulls out two books and half a ream of notebook paper.

"I did, and I want you to know you're not funny!" She says as she slams the pile onto the desk and points an accusatory finger.

"I'm not sure you knew this but I have a life! Which means stuff like school and friends and… oh yeah! Sleep!" She forcefully gestures at the pile, as if to emphasise its thickness. Tanya looks at the paper, then back to Amelia with a raised eyebrow.

"So you didn't do it?" Her partner gives a simmering glare.

"Oh I did it." She says, pointing at Tanya again.

"I studied every chapter and you'd better have read them too!" She pauses to rummage through the paper, then pulls out a rubber band bound stack of index cards, the bottom card covered in multiple choice answers to some unknown question.

"Because I wrote up some flashcards and we're running through them now." Tanya blinks, slightly caught off guard and hastily pulling relevant knowledge to the fore. She'd expected Amelia to have not gotten all the way though, assuming her growth would be limited by her age. She'd made the reading list long and advanced on purpose, intended it as a way to learn how her partner would respond to an impossible challenge. But Tanya seems to have underestimated the girl.

The 'mon grins, her expression mirroring the human's as she removes the rubber band with a vindictive snap. This will be a very useful tool in determining what degree she'd misjudged her partner's rigor.

"Excellent. Shall we begin?" —-- –_– —-- Hugging a book close to her chest, Happiny walks over to her little corner of the nursery. The library is an amazing place. Before they'd gone there and seen it in person, even having seen pictures, she didn't think there were that many stories in the world. Setting down the book, Happiny looks over to her sister as she steps forward, placing her volume down right next to hers. Standing back up, her sister automatically returns Happiny's relatively quick 'thank you' hug.

"Thank you Happiny. Couldn't have done it without you." Her sister straightens, but continues the hug.

"No problem Boss." Her mouth twitches downward as she tries to hide how the title makes her feel. She knows her sisters don't mean it in a nasty way, but the word 'boss' has… other meanings. She doesn't consider herself a Boss! Bosses tell people what to do! They organize and leverage a group's collective effort to maximise efficiency and gain a relative advantage over the market! Then divide up the dividends of that collective efficiency back to their employees!

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. And sure, she suggests what her sisters could do every once in a while, but the nursery doesn't have a competitive market! Huffing slightly and reassured in her improper title, Boss cuts the hug short, breaking off after a mere fifteen seconds of contact. Stepping back, she takes in the state of the room at a glance now that everyone's settled in, sees a developing issue and, just as quickly, puts together a solution.

"Could you tell Happiny to go help Happiny please? She's having trouble with her new book." Boss had known the book was too advanced for her, but Happiny had seen the picture of a dragonite on the cover and just had to get it. Nodding, her assistant turns on her heels to leave, but before she can leave Boss looks down at an arrangement of colored blocks –her method of organizing everything– and corrects herself.

"Actually, could you get Happiny instead? Happiny is learning arithmetic from Big Sis before lunch." Assistant gives an identical nod.

"You got it Boss." Boss has to stop herself from calling out a correction as she walks away. Instead cringing slightly and stepping over her books as she sits down in front of her schedule. Just telling people what to do is very boss-like behavior, but offering a more accurate solution is helpful, not boss-y. Once she makes up a more accurate title she can suggest it.

Scanning over her system for a moment longer, she picks up an orange colored block and puts it in the appropriate spot, then places a fluorescent green ball next to it. Looking again, she realizes to her dismay that the new board state puts more work on a few siblings than the rest, which is unfair. So she gets to work, moving pieces around and putting everything back in order. In a matter of minutes the pieces are rearranged to her satisfaction. She gives a firm nod before looking around the room again.

The scene before her is… She searches for a word, mind fluttering through a thousand variations and finding all coming up short. Thirty one of her sisters are settling into their routines, having just come back from the library. Nineteen have chosen to read their new books, of the twelve who didn't, six chose to play a variety of games, four chose to take a nap, and the final two are taking turns picking each other up as a way to train their strength. But that's just what's physically there. Boss can see more.

She sees every sister as a collection of attributes and personality traits, likes and dislikes meshing and pushing against each other. For her every attribute is a lever to pull or a restriction to work around as she carefully maneuvers everyone in a complicated dance. All so they're in the best position to help as many people as they can, and be helped even faster. … Beautamazerific. Boss nods firmly.

Big Sis says language is a reflection of reality, and she has decided 'beautamazerific' is the word to describe her feelings. At the thought, she finds her eyes drifting toward her largest sibling, closer to the size of a chansey than a happiny. Big Sis doesn't notice her gaze, her attention instead focused on her second 'pharmacology' book. Boss watches her sister jot something down on a sheet of loose paper, then narrow her eyes at some passage that's giving her trouble.

The sight has Boss pushing down her first instinct to walk over and help, either to give a second pair of eyes to solve the problem or offering emotional support if she cannot. But much as she wants to, and despite Big Sis being the only one of her siblings she's not figured out the levers to, she knows heading over won't help. Big Sis… She's laying in the grass, Mudkip standing above her, expression a strange mixture of anger, confusion, and regret.

"Hey! Get up! I challenged you to a battle! You're supposed to–" He's cut off with a wheeze as Big Sis appears between one blink and the next, one arm lifting the 'mon by the throat, the other grabbing his head fin and twisting his eyes to hers.

"A word, please." She says, voice level. Boss shakes her head, love flaring in her chest to chase away the bad parts of the memory. … Big Sis pushes herself. Ahead of everyone else so none of her sisters will ever have to be alone. Pulling both books closer, Happiny opens the cover and looks at the first page, "A Primer on Anatomy, Physiology, and Aura of Pokemon Vol: 1- Normal, Ground, and Fighting" After another moment she picks up the dictionary and moves it to the other side. But that means Big Sis is alone.

Getting started, Happiny finds her attention snapping to her sister as tiny adjustments and fidgets betray her agitation. It's no secret why she's upset. Her friend, Torchic, hasn't been coming out to fight for the past two weeks. Unfortunately Happiny can't help someone who's sick any better than the trained professionals, and she'd already organized and led a fact finding task-group which learned Torchic is still in his nursery.

Meaning whatever he's sick with either isn't contagious or isn't severe enough to be put in medical isolation. But that doesn't help the current situation, unless she can… Trailing off, she blinks a few times as the beginnings of an idea take shape. Could she? Casting her mind back to the library she calls up her memory of the calendar, then scans across her mental index of siblings.

Building a tentative list of sisters she'd trust with this hypothetical job, discarding those who wouldn't be able to keep a secret, or balk at the idea of technically breaking a few rules. … It's possible. As long as there's nothing unexpected. Shaking her head, Happiny refocuses back on the book. It would probably be a waste of effort, Torchic will have to come back on his own eventually. But…

She glances up at her sister, who's pointing at something on a page and looking toward a harried-looking Matron as the Chansey gives a halting explanation to some unheard question. Her sister's body almost vibrating on the spot with pent up energy as her face remains placid. Big Sis hates being alone. Textbook temporarily set aside, Happiny's mind gets to work on her favorite thing in the entire world. Planning