Educating Monsters (Rosewood Village Job B)

Alice Alexandria lets out a long, drawn out sigh as she expects both the best, and yet the worst. Little desks, a blackboard with chalk, multiple books, and some final advice from Dorothy on how Digimoji are written and read... It all makes Alice nervous.

But not as nervous as the fact that she's essentially serving as a teacher to these Digimon. Her first attempt at anything of this sort. One of her goals, and yet... She never imagined it be anything close to this. The green haired woman opens up her notebook, and looks through her notes, hoping Dorothy doesn't scare the equivalent of children too much, given her nature. Then again, what other duo would be suited to this job more than a human who wishes to be a teacher and her assistant?

She runs her hands through her hair as she waits impatiently outside the schoolhouse, glancing at the peaceful, beautiful scenery of this small village. After all she's been through, this is the perfect place for a break, a time to relax, and the warm, cozy atmosphere only cements that in her mind. The warm sun beams trailing through the dense vegetation and leaves, the peaceful sway of the trees... It calms her mind slightly. Either way, as a (temporary) teacher, she should do fine.

"Hey, Greeny." Her own Digimon laughs, the blonde, not quite human witch seeming fairly relaxed as well. "Don't worry 'bout it, ya big dork." Even if Dorothy seems calm now, a hint of something is in her voice, and she gives Alice a bit of a gentle shove. "You're the one with the brains."

"You're right. I'll answer any of their questions, keep things on track... But I'm a little bit overwhelmed." The green haired woman takes a deep breath, and decides to open the door and head in. After all, this is one of the things she's always wanted to do. Even if the way she imagined it wasn't with Digimon. Is it even the same kind of teaching? The green haired woman checks her bag one last time, briefly taking out her notebook as well as a secondary book with things about the Human World and some stuff on... Well, actual subjects, a smaller, thinner notebook more just for this kind of thing rather than the more expensive, black hardcover of her Digital World notes.

The classroom immediately bursts into noise the moment Alice and her partner come in, numerous Rookie Digimon cheering and making all kinds of excited noise. Not all of them are familiar in shape, with a few making Alice curious. Either way, this was no time for such questions as she heads to the blackboard, things falling silent as Alice writes her name on the board in English, her attitude as cheery as she can manage. "Greetings everyone. My name is Alice, and I'll be your teacher for the da-"

Almost immediately, she's interrupted by a Digimon that looks a little like Dorothy used to, only orange rather than purple, and with blue eyes. "Are you a... Hyoo-men? A Tamer!?" The entire classroom erupts into chaos and disorder once again, all the inexperienced Digimon immediately asking questions to both her and Dorothy about all sorts of things, bombarding the duo with things that shouldn't be answered just yet. "Who's that scary witch?" "Why's your hair green?" "Are you my DigiDestined?"

Immediately, the green haired woman whistles to get their attention, and things fall silent once again, allowing the tall Tamer to talk as she gently walks back and forth. "As I was saying, I'm your teacher, and yes, I am a Tamer." She looks to the witch Digimon in red, and laughs. "Dorothy here's my assistant and partner. Anyways, we'll be learning about..." She freezes up for a moment. What do Digimon know, on average? What should they learn at all? To Alice, it's a little shameful to be asking these questions, as a person dedicated to researching Digimon, but it's inevitable she'd have to confront this kind of thing. "Let's start with a little something." She begins to write down a basic math question on the board, something so simple that even a child could solve it. And as she expects, an answer comes from the back, the green haired woman rolling her eyes as she hears it.

"...That's six. I could do this in my sleep.~" The sole Digimon in the back of the classroom, a black and yellow insect with a sarcastic tone to its voice, chittering as if it was awoken from a nap. "Really think we're that dumb?"

"...No. I was making sure everyone was paying attention..." Alice then glares over to a Patamon that has fallen asleep completely, but decides to ignore it for now and get to something a little less boring for the group. Perhaps putting all that research to good use would be better and more appropriate, she thinks to herself. But for now, she continues. Taking out the second, temporary notebook and removing some handwritten worksheets from it, she begins to pass them around the class of about 12 Digimon, hoping for the best. "Dorothy, do you know where I left the pens?"

The witch just holds them up and tosses the bundle of writing tools to Alice before returning to the corner, where she leans on the wall with her back. "Ya know, Alice, I don't think this is gonna work. You don't really understand the difference between Digimon 'n humans all that well sometimes..." She shakes her head, quietly laughing to herself as one of the Rookie Digimon plays around with the paper. As much as she doesn't believe this will work, she admires Alice's tenacity and stubborn determination.

It isn't long before Alice states her intent with these. "...All right, everyone. Fill these out the best you can. If you all know basic mathematics as well as that little one there, this should be eas-" Suddenly, she is hit in the side by a paper plane, her glare turning icy cold as she glances towards the culprit: An Agumon which seems to be giggling almost nonstop, those surrounding him joining in on the laughter. "Really, now?"

Maybe they're more like children than she thought, Alice thinks to herself. Or perhaps Dorothy is right, and that maybe this approach is only going to... No. Glancing over to the witch Digimon, she laughs a bit herself, trying to stay cool while things slowly devolve into anarchy. "...Okay, this is just a minor setback. Nothing to worry about." Coming up with something, she smirks, and announces something to the class. "I have an amazing secret to tell you all."

"What is it? What's your secret? Tell me, tell me!" An overly excited Biyomon waves its wings around in an overly excited manner, something that makes the green haired woman smile a little more honestly.

"If you finish what's on that paper, maybe I'll tell you." Little is the emerald haired woman aware what is running through the minds of the Digimon around her as they immediately get to work, or at least seem to, scribbling on their pages without a care in the world. Dorothy, on the other hand, simply gives her Tamer a smug look, as if she knows something Alice doesn't.

Alice waits patiently for everyone to signal that they're done... Only to come to a slow realization when the first Digimon to finish comes up to the desk and shows what they've put onto the paper, the green haired woman's expression slowly becoming more and more unimpressed as they turn in their papers one by one. Not with answers, but doodles depicting how cute, powerful, or simply amazing the Digimon in question is. Some answers are written down on some of the sheets, but none are complete.

Taking a deep breath and looking down at the doodles, Alice sighs, her expression becoming one of pure disappointment. "Okay..." Perhaps Dorothy is right, and this isn't going to work. There has to be a better way to teach them, she thinks to herself, there has to be a better way to do this, given how they're all Digimon. Thinking back to her time with Dorothy, she comes up with another idea. Perhaps Digimon are more suited to an active environment. And maybe a subject they're more familiar with. She slowly takes her own notebook out of her bag alongside some notes borrowed from the Field Club, and tries to smile. "How about we learn things about the Digital World, hm? Tell me, if there's one place you want to go, where would it be?"



When no one answers, she begins labeling the four main segments of the Digital World as north, south, east and west. "Surely, you all know this, correct?" Waiting patiently for the class to respond once again, she holds the chalk in her hands. A glance to a bored and unimpressed Dorothy makes her feel nervous.

"...It's to the south." It takes a while for someone to answer, a plant or lizard like Digimon waving a flower tipped arm. Its voice is rather uncertain, now in a deeply thoughtful posture. "I think it is? Umm... Not really that sure..."

"Correct!" Alice smiles, a bit relieved. "I'd give you some sort of treat as a reward, but I don't have anything." Either way, she writes down the name of the region on the bottom segment of the circle, and puts Whitewater down as a dot on the edge. She then begins to place down and label every other major settlement, with two in the eastern quadrant. One of these is Rosewood, which she marks with a star. "Now, who can tell me what each of these regions are like? Let's start with the easiest one... What surrounds Rosewood?"

"Are you blind, miss?" The insectoid Digimon states its opinion yet again, with Dorothy finding it funny enough to stifle a bit of a laugh alongside a few of the classmates. "There are trees outside. Woods. That kind of thing." It chitters almost smugly, chewing on the pencil that was given to it every now and then. "You sure you're not in need of a new set of eyeballs?"

As much as the emerald haired Tamer wants to put this little brat in detention, she holds her tongue. "Correct. We are currently in the Eastern Timberlands..." She checks her notes, just to make sure, and nods. "This part of the Digital World is where the Village of Beginnings is, alongside jungles, swamps, a supposed lair, training ground and, well... Here. It's more or less the ideal place for a large number of Digimon without it being..." She points to Terminus. "The center of the Digital World. You all know of Terminus, correct?" A little bit of surprise comes over her as she sees everyone raise a limb, and she nods. "Good. I don't need to explain what makes it so important."

The remaining regions of the main Digital World are covered soon enough, with the Northern Prominence given a bit of a highlight as Alice briefly tells the class her experience there in the mountains and how dangerous it is, a place only for the hardiest of Digimon. The subject soon drifts to one of the more enigmatic locations, the sleepy Patamon finally waking up. "...What about the Empyrean Skies? Up there, in the clouds?"

"...I've only heard small amounts of information about there, myself... I'm not even sure if my friends have anything on it." The diagram of the Digital World now has the segmented circle, and now, a smaller circle outside it. "...We'll get back to you on that one. I've only heard that there's a city there, Luminas..." She puts a dot in the new circle, glancing over at the grumbling witch Digimon, Dorothy seemingly uncomfortable just having both places mentioned.

"The less we talk 'bout it, the better. Luminas is a trash hole." The witch makes a slightly threatening expression to Alice, snapping her fingers and leaving a spark of green light on her fingertip that soon flickers out. The entire class falls silent for a moment, gazing at her in both curiosity and slight fear. "What? Surely at least one of you guys feels the same way I do."

Not wanting things to descend into a spiral of hatred, Alice decides to change the subject almost completely, raising her voice a little to make sure everyone listens. "All right, everyone, that's enough discussion on that location! There's one more I've heard of, and I'm sure you all know about it." Drawing one last circle on the blackboard, she hopes that she can avoid things getting too out of control. "The Dark Area, known to some as a graveyard of dead, rotten or deleted data. Some say the absolute worst Digimon come from there, but... I don't think that's entirely true, myself."

" 'Course not. You're talkin' to one right now." Dorothy steps forwards as if to address the class, the witch Digimon passing Alice her broom to free both her large hands as she sets them on the desk. "Listen. The moment ya step outta line, those pompous bastards will throw ya in the garbage just for thinkin', acting, being just a lil' bit different no matter how much ya try to make it up for 'em, and once you're in the trash, there's nothin' you can do. To 'em, you deserve every single cut, every single kick 'n knife in your guts you get just for..." She stops, and snatches back the broom from Alice before returning to her corner, seeming more angry and reserved than ever, a silent glare across her face, almost as if she hates the Rookie Digimon in the classroom.

"...Well, thank you, Dorothy." The worry in Alice's voice is clear for all to hear, bringing her mind completely off track. What caused such an outburst?

Thankfully, one of the students decides to ask something, and that is enough to bring her mind back into the teacher mindset. "What about the Human World? You're a Tamer, can't you tell us a little about it?"

Clearing her throat, the emerald haired human nods, and decides to answer the question, mostly to take her mind off of Dorothy's outburst, drawing the circle for the Dark Area and its' single, solitary settlement alongside a much larger circle next to the Digital World ones, labeling it the Human World and drawing a crude map of the world on it. "The Human World, Real World, whatever you call it, is very, very different from the Digital one. I didn't really want to mention it because it's like comparing a watermelon to a geode, the two are so different that it's almost impossible to compare the two..."

Immediately, Alice is bombarded with a multitude of questions once again from the entire class, each of them more strange than the last. "Can I become a Tamer's partner there?" "What's the food like?" "What's a Digivice?" The last question makes Alice think, perhaps having been said without understanding the full implications of what's being asked. "What's it like living there?"

"Well, it's... Rather nice, if you got a good person with you. But I don't recommend finding a way there and just asking random people. You all have your own purposes here in the Digital World. This place needs you, if everyone went off to pair up with a Tamer, we wouldn't have Rosewood or anything of this wonderful place, don't you think?" Alice answers all of these questions with a single answer, and a question of her own, closing her eyes with a slight smile on her face, but a faint melancholy feeling in the back of her mind, something she can't quite be fully aware of. To her relief, everyone seems to be in agreement of her statement that they are more needed here than to run off into a dangerous, foreign world unlike what they are familiar with... For the most part, anyways.

"...Well, that's all the time we have." The green haired woman puts away her books, and smiles. "Be sure to memorize this, perhaps even copy it down." Finally having an outlet for what she's always wanted... It feels wonderful, but yet, it raised some rather uncomfortable things regarding Dorothy. "Next time, we'll be discussing the finer details of this region of the Digital World, and what makes it unique compared to the others. Not sure when that will be, but..." Soon enough, the Digimon students leave the class one by one, and Alice speaks her mind, looking right into Dorothy's eyes and turning to face her, the smile on her face soon replaced with a more worried expression. "What was all of that about, Dorothy?"

Dorothy's eyes turn to slits, her teeth bared and her tone far more akin to how she speaks to her opponents rather than her own Tamer. "...Nothin'. You won't understand, you're a human. You said it yourself, it's like comparin' completely different things." A single snap of her fingers and a green magic circle forms at her hand, her threatening behavior all the more apparent as she points it at the emerald haired human... Only to lower it and dispel the attack before she does anything, her expression and stance gradually returning to normal. "It ain't worth gettin' mad over you. Sorry, or somethin'... Yeah, sorry. I kinda broke down near the end there."