Rare Encounter: Musicians With Jobs (Job)

While they had been a little more disconnected from the digital world than most, eventually the dragon brothers had come to hear of the village. It was a new civilization built in the heart of the Eastern Timberlands, not far from the cradle of life in the digital world itself; apparently founded as a home for newly evolved rookie digimon. That news itself was enough to send the Veemon and Guilmon there right away.

And once there, it was more than they had imagined. Not dozens, but hundreds of digimon seemed to live here. Dozens of buildings were standing, still smelling of freshly cut wood, but all of them glowing on the inside with their own heat and power. And already, there was a feeling of "home" about the village that both Roy and Rex kind of liked.

Roy and Rex were dressed as they usually were; Roy wearing a black-red tunic and Rex wearing a brown-green. Simple garb, considering neither of them wore anything below the waist, but with Roy's blue and white and Rex's red and white lizard-like scales, neither felt the need for more. Their tunics made some in the village notice their origins.

"Oh, hey! You two are from El Doradimon, right?" a Monodramon called. The twins turned their attention to him right away.

"Yep, we sure are" Rex said, a little too quickly for Roy's liking, but, he supposed nothing could be done about that.

"Okay, cool. Just... you know, word to the wise. There's a few humans around here in Rosewood, they've helped build the place, so, just letting you know-"

"Hey, that's okay" Roy interrupted. "Just because we're from El Doradimon doesn't mean we don't like humans. I know we've got a bad rep in that regard, but, from us, there won't be a problem" he assured the other dragon.

"Oh, well, that's great then!" Monodramon beamed. "Hey, you seem like nice guys. I hear the Inn's kinda struggling to hold itself together with all these new arrivals. Sorry to have to ask you this, but, do you think you might be able to help out there?"

This made Roy and Rex instantly interested. "Sure, that won't be a problem!" Rex said eagerly.

"Okay great! I work there too, but, not in any noble role, I just wash the dishes, but, we were kinda short staffed yesterday so I was also helping with serving... it was kind of a mess" he finished with an awkward chuckle. "I'll show you where it is".

Roy and Rex followed Monodramon to the center of the village, where the Inn stood in all its glory. It seemed the builders had expected rather a lot of it, it was a large building with two storeys. The bottom floor was the bar and common area, the upper floors were the sleeping rooms. There was enough space for at least 50 rookie level digimon. And, it seemed, even at this hour, there was plenty of activity.

"Whoa" Roy remarked, turning to Rex. "Well, they clearly need our help, so, let's do this" the Veemon gave an eager grin.

"Hehe, yeah!" Rex agreed. As they made their way toward the building, they noticed others nearby. There was a human heading toward the inn as well. And there were his partners, one of them was a Shoutmon, and the other was a Veemon.

"Huh, that's interesting" Roy mused. Yes, in his travels around the digital world he had met other Veemon, but, never one with a twin like he had with Rex. The two of them entered after them, but didn't introduce themselves right away. First they waited for Monodramon, who would hopefully tell them what they were going to do here in their helping out.

Roy was a little confused by the other Veemon saying that their village was beautiful. He only managed to say "Um." before Rex managed to step in for his shy brother.

"Heh, we just got here ourselves" he said, amused. "And hi there, Veemon. I'm Rex and this is Roy". It was nice to encounter other friendly digimon.

It was lucky that the two Veemon could be identified as different from each other by the fact that Roy was wearing a red and black tunic, which was probably how the Monodramon was able to discern that they were from El Doradimon, as it was a common fashion from that civilization. Other than that, yes, they did look rather similar. That and the white on Roy's front extended to the tip of his tail, just like his brother's.

Monodramon then noticed Leith, who looked up at the human. He was about to answer, but then Shoutmon grabbed his paw and shook it enthusiastically. The purple dragon gave a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah, I work here" he said. "And is that so? You're entertainers?" he looked at Leith's guitar with interest. "That'd be great if you could play here for a night or so. We haven't had live music here yet, so, that'd be awesome if you could do that".

Roy and Rex were interested too. "Oh hey, that sounds neat. We love music" Rex said, beaming.

It seemed that all of them were willing to work here in the inn for the night. Monodramon was pleased. "Alright then. I'll let you guys get settled down and we can start your shifts whenever you're ready. I can get you something to drink in the meantime, it's on the house for employees".

Supposing he'd better make a good first impression, Roy turned to the human and his partners, giving a warm smile. "So, hiya, guess we'll be working together for the night" he spoke, making conversation.

Before he left, Monodramon was glad to get help from the other blue dragon. "Actually that'd be really good" he said, smiling. "After all, you Veemons have hands like humans, it'd be terrific if we had two of you doing work. No offense to your friends of course" he nodded at Rex and Shoutmon, given they had less fingers or claws to work with.

Monodramon then chuckled at the reaction to the arrival of drinks. "To be fair it's really good water. Even though it's from the river, well, the rocks make it really pure from upstream..."

Plus there was the fact that employees would not be served alcoholic drinks until the end of their shift. Monodramon had learned this as a sound policy early in the history of Rosewood.

While Leith and Shoutmon were preparing their positions for the performance, Rex and Roy were learning what they had to do in their shift in the inn. It seemed they would be tasked with writing down orders from the customers, reporting them to the kitchen, and then serve the ordered food out, as well as taking the dishes back to the kitchen. This would also seem to be Veemon's job. Rex at first hoped that the guests would be able to distinguish between the two, but that seemed less of a worry when Roy would insist on wearing his tunic even as a waiter, thereby able to distinguish himself from his fellow blue dragon without them having to say something like "That Veemon with the white butt".

Monodramon seemed glad of their preparations so far. And as the clock on the wall approached 6:00pm, he let the new temporary employees know that the serious business of the inn was about to start for the night.

"Just be nice and reliable and we shouldn't have any problems" he told Roy, Rex and Veemon. "And you guys, while I don't want to limit you as artists, could you please play easy-listening songs to start with?"

Monodramon gave a nervous chuckle. "Thanks for that. Personally I love heavy metal music, but, well, we gotta play it the safe way I suppose". Indeed, it would be an unusual move for the only inn in a growing village to suddenly put on a show like that with no warning. Maybe that could wait for later when there were more establishments that could provide for such a variety?

After the break was over and the shift started, the musicians took their places. Meanwhile, Roy and Rex looked uncertainly to Monodramon what their tasks were in all this.

"Roy, you've got the hands, so you can be the server" Monodramon said. "And Rex, sorry to impose this on you, but, you're kind of the biggest rookie level in the room, so, could you please be the doormon?"

"...Doormon?" Rex repeated, tilting his head.

"Oh, uh, well, the digimon to greet guests, and... make sure that troublemakers don't come in and... cause trouble?"

"Ohh, I see" Rex said, blinking. "Well, I can greet guests, but... what do I do with troublemakers?"

"You politely ask them to leave, Rex, come on, it's not rocket surgery" Roy said, playfully pressing his knuckles on his brother's side. Rex blinked for a moment, then gave a grin of acknowledgement. Yeah, he was big for a Rookie level. Yeah, he had trouble hurting a fly (whatever that was), but that wasn't something that had to be known to every guest. And a big Guilmon asking a rapscallion to leave would probably be more effective than a Chuumon asking the same. So Rex would probably do well as a gentle reminder that this inn wasn't open to trouble.

Then, the inn would open for the night and the employees would take their place. To the tune of Leith and Shoutmon's music, Rex would greet customers and indicate them to their tables while Roy and the other waiters would take their orders to the kitchen.

By now it was clear to the dragon twins that Leith and his partners were the real deal. Their music was excellent, and the atmosphere they made through the inn was a positive one, as confirmed by Monodramon. The digimon seemed to appreciate the atmosphere - loud enough to make an impact on things, but not too loud that would be too interrupting for those that wanted to talk.

Indeed the first song kinda made Roy feel uplifted as he wandered about, taking orders and serving meals. The quality of the food seemed to be on board too, there hadn't been any complaints yet as the main course meals began to be sent out.

Indeed, all of these ingredients put together. The positive atmosphere, the good music, the great food, it attracted many to the establishment as the sun set and the evening rounds began in full.

But of course, the bad arrived with the good. About an hour after the sun set, two more digimon approached the entrance, a Kokatrimon and a Digmon. They sneered down at Rex, who nervously fumbled at the reservations.

"H-hello, can I help you?" he asked, trying to be professional. Although the Guilmon's outfit of a shirt and dinner jacket didn't really impose much authority here. Maybe the human practice of wearing pants would have been something he could have learned?

"Yeah, you can help us by putting those stupid papers away and just let us in already, BA-HA-HA-HAA!!" the Kokatrimon cheered.

"Ah, sorry, if you don't have a reservation, we can't let you in" Rex said, shaking his head.

"Oh that's fine, if there's no room we can just get rid of one of the walls and sit down there" the Digmon said, casually. It was at this point that Rex really didn't know what to do here. He was clearly unhappy at being threatened. He hoped help would come from somewhere.

As the altercation at the front of the inn played out, much of the regulars sighed and shook their heads. Even though Rosewood had been built with noble ideals and good intentions, there were still those within the Timberlands that hated its existence and just seemed to want to cause trouble wherever possible. And it seemed at this moment, the fact that some Champion level digimon decided that bullying the rookie level doormon just made them exasperated at the state of things.

Rex meanwhile tried to keep things peaceful for as long as he could, but as he caught on to the fact that these digimon did in fact want a fight, he didn't know what to do. But thankfully he was quickly backed up by Shoutmon from the inn band.

At first the Guilmon just stared with his mouth open, he hadn't yet heard of trash talk that potent. For a moment he glanced at Roy to silently ask if he should say anything against the statement of the f-word, but, given that Shoutmon's fearsome language against these unwelcome intruders made them pause was a tick in the right side of the ledger for Rex, that tough talk could prevent bad things.

Then Veemon stepped forward and spoke a more erudite and polite sentence, and to Rex's surprise, made the two rude digimon seem to rethink their methods.

"So, uh, we're sorry about all that" the Digmon said, his stomach growling to show his motives here. "Could we please make a reservation?"

With that said, Rex glanced at Veemon and Shoutmon with awe. Their tough talk had stood down a duo of Champions. Maybe he and his brother could learn from this kind of assertiveness?

It seemed that this would be how it was with these digimon. Used to getting their own way through threats and bluster, coming up with so much resistance kinda shook them into realization that they couldn't get their own way so easily here.

This left the dragon twins with a valuable lesson. While yes, they should always try to be nice, sometimes, the situation warranted threatening not to be so nice. And maybe that way they could be more effective in their jobs? Rex certainly thought this much. Of course he still would avoid attacking another digimon if he could help it, well, maybe pretending to be threatening could be as effective as Shoutmon had demonstrated just now?

Other than that event, the rest of the night seemed to go along a lot more peacefully. Rex politely kept those digimon without reservations waiting until a new seat could be found for them, Roy continued to serve meals from the kitchen, and the music seemed to play on. Yes, it was a long night, but, as the minutes ticked past, Roy and Rex felt a little more in touch with this village - what it was built for, what it was going to be. It was fulfilling in some kind of way.

Before long, the time approached closing time for the inn. After then, the bar would be closed, the meals would cease being served, and the patrons encouraged to either go to bed or keep quiet in the common room. And following that would be the end of their shift. Roy and Rex wondered how they'd fared tonight.