Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by WaywardK
Raw
GM
Avatar of WaywardK

WaywardK The Most Paradoxical of Beings

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

The gate between the worlds was about to open up like a predator’s hungry maw. In preparation, several Penguinmon busied themselves around a large bonfire, preparing for the arrival of their would-be saviors. Their little village on the back of KingWhamon was going to welcome the chosen humans to the Digital world and they knew they needed the place to look as festive and non-threatening as possible. According to their King, humans were not so easily adaptable to a change in dimensions as some digimon might be, and would need to feel comfortable or may end up hurting someone.

It also helped, of course, that their partner digimon were already here, for the most part. They knew of the arrival of their partners, and the strange fog that has been plaguing the Archipelago, but they were still yet aware the two were connected. When sovereigns of the Digital World called to you in their mysterious way and lead you to the Son of the Sea and his waiting forest you generally didn’t ask questions. Some of the partner digimon had to be given a shove by some playful pranks here and there, but they were all going to end up here by the time their partner’s returned. The partners that had arrived by now were all told that their partner’s may be apprehensive at first, and to try and be as welcoming as possible. The Penguinmon prepared special huts for each partnered pair that the digimon were welcomed to decorate.

A lone Penguinmon wearing a crown stood at the outskirts of the village, seemingly immune to the excitement. He stood guard at a dock built onto KingWhamon’s side directly across from a similar dock on a neighboring island. Some of the digimon expected to show up for the arrival had not yet made an appearance. The crowned Digimon seemed to frown, his thoughts full of unwilling ignorance. Had his beloved subjects become consumed once more by this Dark Ocean? He dared not leave until he was for sure, anchored as he was by his resentment for this invader. Centuries spent on keeping his home safe, and now a force too scared to show its face was threatening that safety? The Son of the Sea longed for the day his wrath would be carried out by his chosen.




Across time and space in another world was a racket of loud voices and dinging metal. Many customers sat around in booths and in chairs as food was shuffled out of a noisy kitchen by staff far too keen at switching their facial expressions from anger to glee at a moment’s notice. One particular waitress was dealing with a particularly rude customer at the moment when her phone would start ringing. Peculiarly enough, she was for sure it had been on silent. Had she tried to turn it off, hang up, or otherwise ignore it, the ringing would not cease.




Chains rattled and swayed as they struggled to hold a large dummy whom was currently taking a beating. Sweat dripped off a young girl’s brow as, blow after blow, she took out her frustrations. She had become lost to time, training by herself here as she sometimes did. The gym was cheap and if she came at the right time, it was all to herself. Loneliness was something she was used to, whether or not by choice. So it would only seem right the ringing of her personal phone would be a welcome distraction from her current state.




A soft beat accompanied by the soft sounds of rain hung in the air like a sweet-smelling perfume as a young man poured over his books. Dreams of a better world gave him his drive, but the slog of studying he was going to have to put himself through seemed intent on burying his dreams. Every way he turned it seemed like his teachers were intent on flushing him out with asinine questions pulled from text book captions and increasingly nebulous interpretive essays. If he did not pay attention to the most minutia of detail he’d find himself closer and closer to failure. As if purposefully trying to divide the attention he needed to pay, a ring from his phone suggested a break.




A dark room, illuminated only by the light of screens, was suddenly filled with the sound of ringing. A young man of small stature lay in bed, shaken begrudgingly awake by the cacophony. Naps were always hard to come by when you lost hours at a time to your creative spark. The ringing seemed to ping off of every electronic he had, suggesting the same person was trying to reach him in as many ways as possible. Somebody cared that much? Since when?




Small orbs of light floated through the darkening sky towards a young girl’s bedroom. Like fireflies they flitted about, playing with each other as their soft glow painted abstract pictures in the sky. They would be impossible to miss as they drew closer and closer. The young girl in whose bedroom was in question found herself drawn to her window, transfixed at these floating lights that seemed to belong to a forgotten dream. Their glow was almost hypnotic, and would surely lead her to trance had her phone not began to ring in her hand.




As each of the perspective chosen found themselves alone, answering an unknown call, sparks of static electricity would seem to permeate the air. Reality would seem to fade momentarily to fog. A familiar sound of ocean waves would slowly take over for the incessant ringing in their ears, and a blinding radiance would leave them briefly alone in a world of light. Scents of an ocean breeze, the popping sound of fire wood, and the feeling of soft ground beneath their feet would soon replace all sensations they had before as they would soon find themselves, separated, in small rooms with walls made of straw.

Outside voices died to a whisper as they had seen flashes of light from each perspective hut. Were they here? Was it time? The village square ground to a halt. Tables of food, torches, and hanging tapestries awaited, a small festival of celebration held for the arrival of these few chosen awaited them outside. A king stirred beneath it all, relieved that the reception would soon begin.

Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Potemking
Raw
Avatar of Potemking

Potemking Command Grab / Bottom Text

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

The revelations involving humans and partners left Herissmon feeling more cocky than ever: He knew there was more behind being banished than just him being hungry. The poor souls back at the village were just part of a bigger plot to push his destiny forward! The elder always spoke of humans, but admittedly the spiky-digimon never thought he'd get to see one with his own eyes. He thought of them as folklore, almost. Yet here he was, shipwrecked into destiny, and even getting his own little house to boot!

Anyone who had dealt with Herissmon's short but lively presence since arriving would know just how 'above it all' he seemed to be. Confidence soaring to new heights at the idea of being important enough to have to show a human the ropes of this world. It was truly a fitting thing for a 'hero', as Herissmon liked to tote himself as around the fire before heading back to work on his hut in private. It needed to be fitting for someone like him, which meant it needed a few very important things.

First of all, duh, food. All heroes needed food. Second, it needed prime decorations and Herissmon knew nobody better for the job than himself. None of the other supposed partners of the arriving humans seemed like the type to be usable for the task. He needed someone that knew his taste. Who knew he was right, and could make this home into a masterpiece. And who better for that than the 'mon himself? He invested his time in the most important thing he could think of adding:

A statue of himself.

He had dragged a log into the hut, which left an insulting and nasty drag trail in front of the other huts due to a lack of consideration. But after he got it inside his abode, he made use of it. With his claws, he tore into the log and carved it to the best of his abilities. Shreds and remains of the wood could be seen scattered inside the hut, the source material itself becoming an impressively dinky-looking statue. To most, anyways. To Herissmon himself, he considered it a masterpiece. And he wasn't about to take any other opinion on the matter.




For a person who thought she didn't have much structure in her life, Reina was becoming painfully self-aware of how predictable her routine had become lately. Wake up, work, train, sleep, repeat. Most meals came from her workplace, either eaten while on delivery or taken with her to the gym, like she'd done tonight. It was a small place, not exactly a large dent in her budget even if it did only have basics for equipment. The only notable thing it really had was a dirty but usable boxing ring, which she'd found herself in more times than she could think to count. Boxing specifically wasn't a forte of hers, but the footwork involved was valuable to her own goals. And she'd learned how to effectively throw a punch in there, too.

Like the punches she was throwing now, her gloved hands bashing against the bag in front of her with pent-up aggression that needed to be vented. As easy as the delivery job usually was, nothing ticked her off more than being blamed for the damn kitchen being slow. If food didn't come out on time, she didn't get out the door on time. Some punks didn't understand that though, and she paid for it by the tip money not coming in. Throwing hands over it would cause too many problems, and besides, where else would she get such flexible hours? Even if the boss got pissy over 'I don't feel like it' being her reasoning behind showing up, there was always some other fool to take the shifts. Probably not the best for her finances, but she had a tendency to not think that far ahead.

Huffing in frustration as she ceased her assault on the bag in front of her, the chains holding it up offered a few empty jingles that echoed through the empty gym. Evening wasn't really an active time for this place, between the early afternoon scene and the fact the owner was a pretty old dude who locked the place up tight in the evenings. She was a 'good ol' regular' according to the old stinker, and her routine in coming here before closing lead to him making a spare key to the front door.

She brought an arm up, raising her hair from her eyes as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, barely getting a look at herself in a nearby mirror due to the darkness of the room. She could faintly make out her figure though, and spot the white stripes on her otherwise black nylon pants she wore during training. With just her black tanktop on, she almost looked like she had no torso in the dark, simply seeing her light-toned arms in the mirror, along with her head.

"Spending too much time alone makes you think of some weird shit." She muttered to herself, trying to disregard her own thoughts on her figure. Another distraction quickly aided in this, hearing her phone ring atop her waist jacket over on a nearby seat. She raised a brow, uncertain of exactly who the hell would be calling at this hour, but she figured she'd at least take a look. At worst, the boss lost his late night delivery guy and needed someone to cover. A few extra bucks wouldn't hurt at the moment.

Phone picked up in one hand with her jacket in the other, Reina only grew more confused by the fact there was no identification for the caller. Not deterred by this, she answered the call swiftly with a mellow "Y'hello?" Expecting some sort of spam call she could perhaps play along with for a few minutes to pass the time.

Unfortunately, this hadn't been the case at all.

An excessive ringing played out in her ears, causing her to wince and nearly drop her phone on the ground. "The heck is this?! Some kind of prank to blow out people's eardrums?" She vented aloud. As if that wasn't disruptive enough, a crackling in the air brought with it a shift in her hair, which she quickly panicked about by tucking her jacket under her arm and bringing her hand up to brush that hair back down. "Okay, loud ringing's one thing but this--" Her view shifted through the general area, uncertain of where the gym went. This was like some absurd horror stuff out of Silent Hill, and was about the last straw before she expressed her concern in a less dull and irritated tone: "--This isn't normal!"

The fog wasn't even there anymore. The ringing stopped, leaving her in what felt like a dreamless white void of momentary silence. Sounds of waves drifted in, along with shifting trees and the crackling of a bonfire. All strange, at least until things started fading back into view.




After a job well done on his statue, Herissmon had went to reward himself on his hard work by washing his claws, and then getting some food. However not long after choosing something to bite down on, he was brought to a full stop with his mouth gaped open before partaking, due to a bright light emitting from the hut he had been inside of. Hastily, he shoved the food back on the table, standing more attentive in case the humans, particularly the one coming out of his hut, ended up being a threat of any kind.




Reina's mind was running wild as she appeared inside the hut. An audible "Wuh?!" escaping as she tried to gather herself to figure out where she just ended up. Her first action were to take in her surroundings: Noting the primitive straw walls and bedding that honestly looked pretty comfy all things considered, as well as some weird piece of wood. Glancing at it, it looked like some sort of really weird statue of an animal. She picked it up, not to look at it, but to instead wield as a weapon in case whatever was outside proved to be unfriendly. Hard to trust whatever was out there directly after being abducted like that, right?

"Am I running along with this too calmly?" She pondered to herself, with slight concern. She wondered how much regard she had for her well-being if she could just accept being transported into some primal-looking hut. Though thinking too hard wouldn't solve anything, so she decided to push aside the leafy door to the hut to get a good solid look at what the hell was going on around here.

The brightness of the fire caused her to raise her arm to block it, allowing her eyes a little time to adjust before lowering it to her side. As she took in the sight, noting the strange creatures, the food, and the odd decorations, she felt her arms limp, the statue in one hand almost falling to the ground. Complete and utter shock rocked her features, mostly an agape mouth which might've been a little too comparable to a certain creature amongst the crowd that seemed to be staring at her in particular with a similar expression.

"What is this?" She questioned, not being able to pull out threats or more questions to try and quell her confusion. Just answering that one would be a good start. This looked like the middle of a village of... Sorts. And she was surrounded by freaking penguin-things, among other abnormal creatures. If she was less stunned by the whole situation, she might've started swinging out of fear or anger. But this moment of confusion gave the creatures of the village a moment to celebrate, or for their own good, explain things. Now.
2x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by CleverUsername
Raw
Avatar of CleverUsername

CleverUsername Warning: Puns Abound

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

"...just unacceptable!" ranted the red-faced man. "I demand to speak to a manager!"

"I'm very sorry for the trouble, sir!" replied a flustered waitress, bowing repeatedly in apology. "Can I offer you a free dessert for the trou-"

"I don't want your damn dessert! I want to speak to your manager!"

"Yes, of course, sir! I'll go get him right away!" She scurried off quick as she could, disappearing behind the Staff Only door to the kitchen area, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. It had been a busy day, and with two employees out sick today, she'd been saddled with extra tables. Some customers didn't appreciate the extra few minutes it took for her to deliver their food. And some, like Mr. Angryface back there, were being very vocal about it.

"Trouble, Abby?" came a familiar voice. Abby looked up to find the manager himself standing over her. Despite his looming 6'6" height and very muscular build, he was a kind man, speaking softly and only using his Death Glare when absolutely necessary.

Abby sniffled. "Just that guy at table 15. He asked very politely to speak with you about his wait time."

"I see." The manager smirked, which drew a smile from Abigail as well. He was a very professional man, never letting customers see him frown. Even so, he knew how some people could be. "I'll take care of him, then. Your order for table 7 should be up, by the way."

Abigail opened her mouth to thank him, when very suddenly, her phone began to loudly ring in her pocket. The manager raised an eyebrow at her. "You know phones aren't allowed on shift."

"I'm sorry, sir! I... I could have sworn I left it in my bag."

"Well turn it off and keep it out of sight for the day, hm?" Giving her a pat on the shoulder, he walked past her and headed for the dining room, leaving Abby to puzzle over her phone.

She was sure she'd left this in her bag. She always did! And hadn't she turned it off, too? How did it get into her pocket? She frowned down at the screen. "Unknown Caller: Unknown Number". She rolled her eyes and hit the End button.

Only for the caller to immediately call back! "Huh??" She hit End again. Once more, her phone immediately began to ring again! She hit the End button three more times, and every time, the same unknown caller was immediately ringing her again.

Now she was getting freaked out. Who was doing this? And how? She slipped through the kitchen and into the break area, away from the rest of the staff, and stared down at her pbone once more. It was still ringing... and she was starting to get the feeling it wasn't going to stop. She bit her lip nervously, but she could ultimately see only one way out of this. Taking a deep breath to steady herself... and then another one... she finally hit Accept and put the phone to her ear. "...Hello?"

...Static. There was nothing on the other end of the line but static. And then, suddenly, the static was all around her! Like a wave of energy, it washed over her, making her hair frizzy and her senses... well, weird! Suddenly, she felt like the firm tiles beneath her feet were giving slightly under her weight, and the sounds of a noisy kitchen were gradually washed away by the growing sound of crashing ocean waves. The lights around her were suddenly so bright... bright enough that she couldn't see at all! "Oh god, am I having a stroke? Is this what a stroke feels like?!" Even her own voice sounded distorted, like she was hearing herself through a very old, crackly phone line. And just when she thought she might actually pass out...

It stopped. The lights were no longer blinding her, the odd wave of static had passed, and her phone had gone silent. However, something else had gone with it; namely, the restaurant! No longer was she in a poorly constructed supply closet turned into a break area. Now, she found herself in a small but cozy room, with walls made of... straw? It looked like a straw hut! Sure enough, the floor beneath her was straw as well, firm enough to hold her, yet soft enough to sink slightly beneath her feet. "Wha...? What just-"

"BOO!"

"EEEEEEEEEK!!" From above and behind her, there suddenly appeared a strange and very-up-close upside-down face! Abby almost literally leapt out of her shoes, going stiff as a board in sheer fright! Much to the curious creature's amusement.

"Aaaahahahahahaha! Oh, oh my gosh, your FACE!" the little creature laughed, hovering in the air and slowly turning right side up. "Oh man, that was PRICELESS! Ahahahahahaha!"

Abigail pressed her back against the far wall, eyes wide in fear and confusion. Mostly confusion! "I- Wha- Who- Where- I don't-" she sputtered helplessly, a dozen questions all clammering to be spoken at once. Finally, she managed to get one out: "What is happening?!"

The floating creature suddenly rushed toward her again, pulling its cheeks out to show its fangs while its tongue wiggled about in typical "Ooga Booga Booga" fashion, prompting another scream from Abigail and sending the creature once again into a laughing fit. "Hahahahahahaha! Oh, oh, my sides! My siiiides! Ahahahahahaha!" It finally managed to stifle its laughter long enough to grin at her - not the most reassuring thing, given the circumstances. "Oh man, they never told me you'd be such a scaredy cat! You're already the most fun I've had in years, partner!"

"P-Partner?!" she exclaimed, finally at wit's end. "What are you talking about? What is going on? And who are you?!"

The creature tilted its head at her. "Wait, you don't know? They didn't tell you? Ha! That's even more hilarious! Well then! I guess it's up to me!" The little creature puffed out its chest and "stood" in the air with a very fancy-looking posture. Or maybe just a patronizing one. "First off, my name is Impmon! I'm very powerful, very important, and best of all, I'm your new partner!"

"What?! Partner for what?!"

Impmon shrugged. "I dunno. For... whatever! We're partners now! So I guess we're gonna do the kind of stuff people with partners do!"

"That... That makes no sense! And you still haven't told me where we are!"

"Well that part is, uh... kind of hard to explain. We're in the Digital World, see. That's the simple part."

"No it isn't! What does that even mean?"

"It means the world around you is digital!" Impmon seemed to think that cleared it all up. Abigail clearly did not.

"What... You mean, like, inside a computer or something?"

"What? No! Pay attention, okay? I don't know what a computer is, but we're in the Digital World, okay? Di-gi-tal. The word 'computer' isn't even in it!"

Abigail blinked a few times. That... didn't help her at all. But she could... maybe go along with it? "Okay... And, uh, what exactly is the Digital World?"

Now it was Impmon's turn to blink. "It's... you know... the world. Like, this." She made a motion to indicate the entire area around them. "This hut, the stuff outside, outside in general... I dunno how else to explain it. It's just... the world! ...Well, okay, it's our world. You humans don't usually come here, so I guess it's not exactly... Huh. Okay, uh... Think about your world, but... digital?"

Abby just stared at her, then took her own head in her hands. "This is insane. Am I dreaming? I must be. How else could this possibly- YEOWCH!" She jumped back as Impmon gave her a firm pinch on the side, grinning all the while. "What was that for?!"

Impmon snickered. "Well, you said you thought you were dreaming, so I pinched you! And guess what? You didn't wake up! Hahahaha!"

Abigail went wide-eyed again. "So wait... You're telling me this is real? But that... None of this makes any sense! How did I even get here? Where is here?"

"That..." Impmon went quiet. "...Uh... You know what, it's probably better that you ask someone else. I totally know it, of course, but someone else could probably explain it better." It was a complete lie, of course, but Abigail was in no shape to call it out. Besides, she did need some explanations.

"Hey, by the way," Impmon added, suddenly floating up close again. "What's your name, anyway? I told you mine, so you have to tell me yours now!"

"Huh? Oh! I'm, uh, Abby," she amswered, taken offguard momentarily by such a casual question. "Abigail Muren is my full name, but everyone just calls me Abby. Nice to... meet you, I guess?"

Impmon gave a big grin and nodded. "Mhm! Nice to meet you too, Abbymon!" She took Abby's hand and gave it a friendly shake!

"Wha? Oh, no, not Abbymon. Just Abby."

Impmon paused again. "...Just... Abby?"

"Yeah."

"...Humans are weird." Shaking it off all the same, Impmon floated up to rest her elbows on Abby's shoulder. A literal shoulder devil! "Anyway! Let's head outside! I think they were planning to throw you guys a party or something!"

"A party? ...Wait, 'you guys'? Are you saying there are other humans here?"

"Well there're supposed to be! I bet we find out if we go outside!" Despite her teasing, Impmon did have a point. Abigail was unlikely to get any more answers in here. So, taking a deep breath, she nervously took hold of the knob on the door and pushed. The door slid neatly open, and she stepped outside, her mischievous new partner happily floating along with her. Who else could be here?
1x Like Like 1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Diamond
Raw
Avatar of Diamond

Diamond

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

Moments before the little lights appeared in the air outside of her bedroom window Lumina was set on completing one task and one task only. That was to brush out her long, glossy blue hair. It was a tedious, though necessary bedtime routine of her's that her stylist taught her to do. She had to be careful not to force her brush through the hair because that could cause strands to break off. If she encountered any knots she was to undo them gently and only with her fingers. It was a huge pain in the butt but ultimately this routine was the key to her lovely locks more so than an expensive product was.

As she was finishing up she noticed something moving outside of her window. Immediately suspicious, since she was on the fourth floor of the apartment building, she grabbed her phone and slowly approached. She couldn't help but let out a small gasp at what she saw next. To her delight there was a group of what she was pretty sure were fireflies playing outside. Lumina's eyes lit up as she watched them. Their lights were beautiful against the dark color of the sky. They were free without a single worry in the world. She almost wished she could join them. What if she could simply turn into a beautiful light and lose herself in the night sky? What a simple and easy way to live that would be.

But the longer she stared at the lights the more she felt like she was forgetting something. A memory was lurking at the edge of her mind, trying it's hardest not to be forgotten...

She hated when this happened.

During the years she spent recovering from her, let's say "difficult" past, memories would often resurface like this. Most of the time they were memories of things that had happened to her during the dark years before she was able to start healing. Her therapist explained that her mind had purposefully locked those memories away because of the pain they caused her, but now that she was in a safe place she needed to learn to confront them. And confront them she did, successfully and at her own secure pace. Now these kinds of resurfacing memories were only rare occurrences. But once in a while a memory that resurfaced was not one of trauma but rather one that had simply been filed away so that she could focus on surviving life in general. In other words, not all memories were bad. A simple concept but it took her awhile to realize this.

This memory she was trying to remember did not feel like a bad one. But what was it? Lumina narrowed her eyes in thought as she stared out her window. Didn't she have a dream about light or orbs or something?

Before she could recall completely her phone started ringing. She silently looked down at the screen. An unidentified number. But she had just recently moved into her apartment and was getting ready to start college. It was very possible that the number had something to do with either of those things, so she answered the call.

Lumina wasn't even able to get a "hello" out before the air around her started to crackle with electricity. She shivered and looked around fearfully as a fog started to somehow roll into her room. Soon all she could see was fog! What was going on here? And then it happened. The familiar noise of ocean waves. "Wait, that's it... I..." Lumina was blinded by light and when it finally faded so too did the memory of the dream she was almost able to recall...

When Lumina regained her senses she found herself in a small room face-to-face with a large floating mass of quivering flowers. There was something dark blue sticking out of the top of this flying flower pile too. From the way it moved she was certain the blue wispy thing at the top of the flowers was actually a flame, but that couldn't be right. Then suddenly the flowers started to talk in a soft, mature female voice.

"H-hello...! It's nice to meet you. My name is Ghostmon... uh...umm... I decorated the room as nicely as I could to make you comfortable. I hope you like it."

Lumina blinked slowly before looking around the room. It was true, the room was decorated with great care. There were flowers bordering the wall edges, soft straw bedding in the middle of the floor where she was standing and even some incense burning. The place looked and smelled nice. She looked back up at Ghostmon and addressed her as calmly as she could. "Ok... "Ghostmon". But where am I? And what's with all the flowers? They're pretty but there is no way you are an actual ball of flowers...I think."

The flower float shrunk back. "You didn't know? You're in the Digital World. I'm... I'm your partner. But you're right, I'm not made of flowers. Sorry, sorry! I didn't want to scare you right when you entered our world. So um... we have to work together so I guess I will take the flowers off... but remember I'm here to help you. I won't hurt you!" The Digimon sighed sadly as she started to take the flowers off of her body. This human had no idea how long it took for her to make herself this presentable, and yet she was right. Ghostmon was not a mass of flowers and they would have had to know that eventually.

Lumina stared wide-eyed as this dark blue ghost-flame-creature emerged from the flowers. She could feel adrenaline kick in. 'I need to run. I need to get out of here! If I don't I...' Though her body shook her eyes slowly drifted down to the flowers that Ghostmon had taken off. They were stacked neatly in a pile to the side. That was hardly aggressive or destructive behavior. Ghostmon's voice and demeanor also suggested a shy and gentle personality rather than anything harmful. 'If I don't run I... what? Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion? She looks scary but she doesn't act it. Ghosts don't exist anyway.'

She took a deep breath to steady herself and then looked back up at Ghostmon who, at this point, was frowning worriedly at the human. "I..." At first she couldn't find the words and her voice wavered. Ghostmon flinched too when Lumina started talking, as though expecting something terrible to be said. Lumina tried again, this time with a calmer voice. "My name is Lumina."

Ghostmon perked up. This was going surprisingly well. "Hello Lumina! I'm happy to meet you... welcome. There are others waiting outside that would also like to meet you. When you're ready we should leave the hut and join them. If that's ok, I mean!"

"What?" Lumina squeaked. Last she checked she was wearing only a nightgown. She moved around to check herself out and that's when she noticed that, strangely enough, she was in her favorite outfit. She even had her black bow headband on. At no point in time going from her room to this hut could she have changed outfits and yet she must have. At least that meant she would be able to meet people comfortably.

'This is insane. I'VE gone insane. But what choice do I have now...?' She closed her eyes, stood up straight and stayed still for a few seconds while she gathered her nerves. Ghostmon crept forward but Lumina opened her eyes back up before she could get too close. "Fine. Let's go then, I guess."

"Y-yes. Ok! Let's...do that." Ghostmon turned and floated towards the door but instead of opening it she just phased right through.

Lumina paused mid-stride to comprehend what she just saw. "No..." She mumbled, shaking her head. "Ghosts don't exist." She reassured herself as she opened the door and headed outside.
2x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Digizel
Raw
Avatar of Digizel

Digizel The Knight of Bui / Challenge me if you dare! >3

Member Seen 2 hrs ago

"Hmph...stupid porcupine," the yellow dinosaur-like Digimon grumbled as he continued to claw at the ground in front of the various huts dotted around the area. Mere minutes ago, he had been inside his own hut, puzzling about what the heck these Penguinmon expected him to do. While he was within the walls of the space he and his supposed partner were given, he had heard some kind of annoying grunting and the sound of something dragging along the dirt. When he'd come out to investigate, there it was: just a small but long trench leading through the area. When he followed the trail to its source, he noticed a familiar, silvery-quilled back disappearing into one of the nearby huts, a log being dragged through the doorway. His eye twitched at the sight, but ultimately decided against making a scene about the whole ordeal. At the very least, it meant that that boastful Herissmon had gotten his own dumb log instead of saying how he was "too important to do such a menial task" or something along those lines.

Now, Agumon found himself digging at the damaged earth, attempting to get it to look as closely to how it did originally as he could. The patchwork was rough--one could easily tell that the earth had been shifted around, but at least the hole was getting covered. "Thinks he's so freakin' important and great. Like he's something so special...."

The irony was completely lost on the little lizard.

Instead, he dove into his physical labor, preferring this over trying to figure out how to decorate a room probably. Though as he continued to plow away at the dirt, he couldn't help but wonder how Blucomon was doing in his own hut...or if he even was in his own hut. Well, for now he supposed it didn't matter. He resumed his focus on his work, deciding to consider this a form of physical endurance training.

As he worked, however, his mind continued to wander again. He started to think about this task of theirs...and just what kind of person this partner was going to be.



Rain continued pounding on the window of the room. As the constant beats resounded through the room, Hideaki Saitou found himself seated at his usual spot--his desk, with books piled up on one side and papers on the other. On the other side of the desk, directly across from where he was seated, was the computer monitor he consistently used for research purposes. However, at the moment, the monitor was off and the keyboard had been unplugged and tucked away neatly into the topmost drawer beside him.

Directly in front of Hide was a pair of books. The first, a large, beefy textbook was open to approximately the halfway point. The notebook lay open beside it. His right hand carried a mechanical pencil, neatly filling out the paper with notes transferred beautifully from the paragraph he'd just been reading from the book.

However, the tedium was certainly starting to wear him down, little by little.

After a particularly lengthy paragraph caused him to reread it four separate times, he finally let out a frustrated sigh, leaning back in his chair. He looked back at stack of text and notebooks lined up neatly beside him. He still had an entire other subject to attend to after this one was finished. He was more than happy to put in the work, but this was simple tedium at its finest. Was there anything he could-

Suddenly, a light in front of him nearly blinded him as the monitor sprung to life of its own accord! Hide squinted at the screen as he tried to get readjusted to the new light source while simultaneously reaching to turn the monitor back off again. In his confused state, a sudden ringing broke the weather-centric ambience in the room, actually causing him to jump slightly in his seat! He reached down to the pocket of his uniform, quickly pulling out the phone and peering at it. Just as he was pulling it out, he received a few different notifications from a few different sources, all mentioning that the sender was unknown, and that there was no message previews. But most pressing, of course, was the actual phone's ringing itself, with the typical "Answer" and "Decline" buttons on display.

Deciding that his mind was already starting to wander as it was, he figured that this was as good a time as any to break for a few seconds. After all, maybe this was exactly the simple, short distraction he needed to refocus his mind. He answered the phone, bringing it up to his ears. However, just as he began to speak, he stopped as static filled his ear. "Wh-?" he started, but was soon interrupted as electricity began to suddenly crackle all around him!

Hide pulled the phone away from his head immediately, but it didn't matter. The electricity was already circling him, apparently bringing some kind of dense fog with it!? What in the world was going on!? He opened his mouth to call out to his family...but it was quickly drowned out in his ears by the sound of...wait. Was that...the ocean?

His eyes widened as something flicked into his mind, like a distant memory he had long since forgotten. Ocean waves, darkness...and a friend? No, it wasn't his friend. It was someone else's friend. There was a hand...or was it a claw? No, that didn't make sense. Surely it was a hand. A deal....

And then, just as suddenly as the ringing had begun, it stopped, and the fog around him faded. However, when he looked up...he did not recognize his surroundings, and he was now seated on some sort of bedding, rather than the desk he had been working at moments before.



"Finally...." Agumon muttered as he patted down the final bit of dirt in front of his own hut--one that happened to be adjacent to Herissmon's. He, of course, had left the bit in front of Herissmon's own hut completely untouched. Next time he saw that hedgehog punk, he was gonna-

Suddenly, there was a light emanating from behind him. His eyes widened and he spun around on his heels so that he could face his hut. A bright light shot from within...before finally fading away. Agumon couldn't help himself; a grin formed on his face and he immediately stepped through the leafy doorway and back into the hut!

What he expected to see, he wasn't really sure. But the human in front of him...didn't seem all that special to him. He was taller than himself, and the Digimon around him, but he looked...awfully frail. So wait a second....

"You're...my partner?" Agumon said aloud, tilting his head a bit.

The yellow dinosaur Digimon stood there, puzzled for a moment, looking at Hide quizzically.

Meanwhile, the human was just getting his bearings, looking around him. It wasn't long before he noticed the leaves shifting aside...and a small, yellow dinosaur with a verdant, judgmental gaze scanning him up and down.

Then it spoke.

Hide jumped back in alarm as this dinosaur spoke to him. "P-Partner?" he repeated, in a tone that utterly betrayed his own confusion.

"Well, I guess I can't be picky." Agumon said, crossing his arms. "But you can consider yourself a lucky one, to get partnered up with the strongest Digimon around!" He paused at that. "W-well, y'know, with...obvious exceptions."

Hide simply continued to stare dumbfoundedly at this new arrival. However, something seemed to dawn on him rather quickly.

"Oh...I see." Hide said, letting out a sigh of relief. "This must be a hallucination. Or maybe I fell asleep and I'm in some island paradise or something." He shook his head. "But I don't have time for this. I need to get back to work." And with that, he immediately allowed himself to climb back into his bedding, laying his head down and closing his eyes, as though ready to drift back to sleep. He wasn't sure if that's how this worked or not, but it was worth a try.

"W-wait a second!" Agumon exclaimed, quickly rushing over to his bedside. "You can't fall asleep, we've got important things to do! A-apparently! Look, I dunno, just...." He reached his claw out, grabbing hold of Hide's hands, causing the human to jump a bit once more. Those claws felt awfully real.... And then he was suddenly tugged, bringing him right out of bed!

"H-hey, wait a second, little guy!" Hide called out as he desperately fought to regain his balance.

"Don't call me 'little guy,'" Agumon grunted, shifting a quick glance behind him. "My name is Agumon." Then, without another word, Agumon pulled on Hide's arm, half-dragging the poor human out of the hut, Hide still stumbling behind him.
2x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by XxFellsingxX
Raw
Avatar of XxFellsingxX

XxFellsingxX Your Own Portable Ninja Friend

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago

On Kieran's phone, the video 'Quiet Time ~ lo-fi hip hop to sleep/relax to' abruptly stopped to give way to a persistent ringing. The boy's eyes opened slightly as he fumbled for the device underneath his pillow. He brought it up to his face and stared at the screen for a moment, his vision still too blurry and his mind too hazy to understand what he was looking at. He shook his head a couple of times, as if physically trying to shake the sleep out of himself. When he looked back at the screen, he realised that not only did he not recognise the number, the first few digits indicated it wasn't even local.

Probably just a cold caller, Kieran thought. He tapped the decline button with his thumb before sitting up, phone still in hand. Besides the light from his mobile and his computer monitor, the room was completely dark. Kieran glanced down at his phone again. The top of the screen read 21:30. "Crap!" he said aloud, the last remnants of sleep completely leaving him. He'd promised he'd promised he'd join one of his friend's gaming streams at 20:30! He quickly clicked on one of the chatting apps and began texting a (grammatically questionable) apology as he got up and started making his way over to his desk. He almost tripped on the pizza box in the middle of his room, causing him to accidentally send the message before it was complete.

"Shitshitshit!" Kieran hissed to himself as he started texting yet another apology. However, before he could send this one, his friend had already responded.

Hey don't worry about it Retrogue typed. You seem really frazzled are you okay?

Kieran sighed aloud. yeah just overslept he responded. still a little fuzzy

The stream's almost over anyway. If you want we can voice chat after? Give you time to fully wake up lol

Despite himself, Kieran smiled. that'd be nice thanks

His friend then finished off the conversation with a smiling cat emoji and a heart, which caused Kieran's smile to widen... only to immediately turn into a scowl once he realised what he was doing. He sat himself down on his desk, placing his phone just next to the keyboard. It was then he realised how odd it was that his computer screen was still on. If he'd been asleep for over an hour, shouldn't the monitor have gone into sleep mode? He also noticed that there was a pop-up in the corner of his screen, informing him that, only a minute or so ago, he'd received an email with a glitched address and a blank subject. Likely just spam, but he opened his emails anyway just to get a better look.

Aside from the email telling him someone had messaged him on chat while he was offline, this was the only email he'd received today, and unlike the former, it had somehow avoided the dreaded fate of all random emails and hadn't been automatically sent to the junk folder. Kieran's cursor hovered over the email for a moment, his curiosity and common sense currently having a argument about whether or not opening such an obviously suspicious email was worth it, when a small ping! resonated from his phone, causing him to jump.

What now? he thought. He grabbed his mobile and looked at it, only to relax immediately when he saw who it was.

Everything okay? Texted you half an hour ago but you didn't respond The sender's name read 'Mum'.

fine. just had a nap Kieran texted. how are things?

Good! We just ran into some people from work so we might be back later than expected. Hope that's okay

of course Kieran wrote before adding, bout to be on voice call with rogue

Tell them I said hi

Kieran suppressed a chuckle. i will mum have a good rest of the night

You too! Love you x

Kieran was about to respond with a 'love you too' when his phone suddenly went off again. The same number from before flashed across the screen. "Seriously?" he said once he'd gotten over the initial shock. He hit 'decline' and placed it back on the desk... only for it to immediately start ringing again.

He was really starting to get annoyed now.

He hit 'decline' once again. It started ringing barely a second later, causing him to throw it onto his bed. He placed both his pillow and blanket over the top, hoping to muffle out the sound until whoever it was who was trying to call him gave up and left him alone. He certainly hoped this wouldn't go on during his call with Rogue.

When he returned to his computer, he discovered that a new glitched email had been sent to him. Same address, same lack of subject, but even more eerie, the time stamp indicated that it had been sent at exactly the same time as that second call he got... and now he looked back at that first email, he also noticed that that likely had come in at around the time he had been woken up. Was this some kind of prank? Had one of the guys at school somehow got ahold of both his number AND email address and sending him weird messages just to freak him out? That seemed like a little too elaborate for them, especially if their goal was just 'freak out the weird loner kid from school'. More likely, he was getting targeted by some sort of weird company that was trying a little too hard to sell him something. He looked at the latest email again.

Well, he did have an anti-virus on his computer. If this thing has malware or spyware on it, his computer would likely detect and stop it before anything too bad happened. Worst come to worst, he might just have to reset his whole computer, but he had most of his files backed up somewhere so... "What the heck?" he muttered to himself, his curiosity getting the better of him at last. He clicked the email.

The ringing on his phone stopped.

Kieran was just about to breathe a sigh of relief - that ringing had really been grating on his nerves - when his screen suddenly went completely white. A pale haze started to seep out from the screen, filling the room within a matter of minutes. Kieran abruptly stood up and took a step away, assuming his computer was about catch fire or explode or something, but he realised quickly that this haze was neither hot steam or smoke, but cold mist.

The light from the screen became brighter, and Kieran was forced to cover his eyes as his whole room was illuminated. Somewhere, very distantly, he thought he could hear waves lapping across stone, even smelling something akin to the salt of the ocean. Against his best instincts, he felt himself being pulled forward, towards the source of the light.

When the room dimmed again, the screen had returned to normal. A pop up appeared on the screen, obscuring the contents of the strange email by saying that call was coming in from 'Retrogue'.

However, Kieran was nowhere to be found in the room, and thus, was unable to answer.


It was difficult trying to focus on celebration when a aura of dread and uncertainty permeated from even the ground you walked on. It was hard preparing festivities for your would-be saviours when you didn't know who they were, what they looked like or if they even ate the same food as you.

None of this was made any easier by the fact that one of your so-called saviours had dismantled your decorations again because he insisted on chasing every new Penguinmon he came across in an attempt to pull them into a less-than-comfortable bear hug. The current victim in question had unfortunately almost fallen over during the chase, allowing the blue dinosaur to catch up to them and pick them up.

"Wow, you're pretty fast!" Blucomon said cheerfully as he seized the bird digimon in a vice-like grip. "None of the Penguinmon in my old colony were nearly this quick!" He plonked the Penguinmon down on the ground. "I should know! I was always 'it' in tag!"

"You don't say..." The poor Penguinmon wheezed before falling backwards.

Blucomon started scanning around for his next target when he noticed a bright light coming from his hut. His pinkish eyes lit up. "Ooo oooh! That's me, that's me!" he said, practically jumping up and down with excitement before making a mad dash towards his hut. He was so focused on getting there as he passed - and almost bumped into - the other humans as their partners lead them out of their respective huts. However, if they had any reaction to almost being run over by a small blue dinosaur, Blucomon didn't notice. He was much too excited to meet his new best friend forever!

... wait, were you allowed to have two best friends forever? Second-best friend forever? Joint best friend forever? Hmmm... he'd have to sort the details out with Agumon later.




Kieran only narrowly managed to avoid falling on his ass once the light engulfing him faded. He stumbled back, arms still shielding his face, and waited for a solid minute until he was sure it was safe to uncover his eyes. He was no longer in his dark, computer-lit room, or in any room he recognised. Instead, it appeared to be some kind of wooden hut. It looked new and decently well-made, but aside from a battered cot in the corner, was completely empty. Kieran wasn't sure if he was just projecting or not, but the whole place felt a little sad, lonely almost...

Kieran shook his head. Focus! he thought to himself, and turned his head towards the door. Other than his immediate surroundings, he could hear people outside. None too close or heading in his direction, just walking around and talking to one another. There was nothing hostile or too concerning in their tones, though he thought he detected a hint of urgency, like they were hurrying to prepare for... something. Beyond the voices, he could also still hear the sound of waves.

He took a couple of step towards the door, planning to peer out so he could scope out where exactly he was so he could formulate what to do next. However, he was only a foot or so away from the exit when he heard rather heavy footsteps rushing towards his position. "Shit!" he hissed to himself, taking a step or two away. He looked in all directions, not sure whether he should attempt to defend himself or simply locate a hiding spot. It didn't matter either way, as neither seemed to be an option here. The cot was too small to hide behind and he doubted throwing it would act as little more than a distraction. Still, he found himself backing up towards it as a something came barrelling through the doorway at top speed. Kieran had barely any time to register what it was before it launched itself into the air, seemingly with the intent of colliding with Kieran's torso, which would have likely sent both him and it flying through the wall had the boy not managed to - thanks to years of being considered an easy target in dodgeball - sidestep the attack. The creature went straight through the wall of the hut, leaving a large Looney Tunes-esq hole in the structure.

"Ow!" Kieran's would-be attacker exclaimed before adding, in a whiny voice, "Heeeey, why did you dodge?"

Kieran approached the hole, putting his fists up unconvincingly in front of himself. "What do you mean 'why'?! You lunged at me!" he half-shouted.

A small face peeked through the cavity, causing Kieran to let out a small yelp in surprise. It looked somewhat reptilian, though the upper half was coated in something akin to ice. Kieran stared at the creature for a moment while it looked back at him, its eyes giving him a look akin to a kicked puppy.

It took him a moment to realise that he knew this creature... well, sort of. A few months ago, he'd had a dream about it, and after waking up, had vowed to recapture its likeness in his art. Sadly, his attempts to draw the creature had been fraught with dissatisfaction and frustration, as nothing he put to paper seemed to compare to the vivid idea of the creature he had in his mind. Eventually, he'd abandoned the sketch, and the memory of the dream had corroded until he only had the vaguest recollection of what he'd seen. Now, with this creature staring back at him, he couldn't believe he'd ever forgotten about him.

"Blucomon?" Kieran said, before he could stop himself. The dragon's eyes widened and he hopped through the hole in the wall and waddled towards him.

"You know my name!" it exclaimed with excitement.

"Well, sure I do." Kieran frowned. "You told me, remember?"

Blucomon blinked, tilting its head to the side. "I... did? When?"

"Errr.... when we met last time? You know... during the snowstorm?"

The dragon looked him up and down. "I don't think I've ever met you before," it said. "Though..." He took a step forward and sniffed the air. "You do kinda smell familiar."

Kieran felt his heart sink. Even in my own dreams, I'm not important enough to remember, he thought to himself. His face must have betrayed his sadness, because Blucomon's face briefly flickered with concern before speaking again.

"What's your name?" the dragon asked.

Kieran didn't speak immediately, not sure if there was any point since he'd already told the dragon before. If he'd forgotten it before, he might just forget it all over again. However, Blucomon's puppy dog eyes made him feel he couldn't just stay silent. "Kieran," he muttered.

Blucomon nodded, and for the first time Kieran had known him, his expression became oddly serious. He took Kieran's hand in its icy claws. "I'll remember it this time," he promised.

The boy looked at him for a long moment, before turning his head away. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Oh!" Blucomon returned to his previous excitement. "That's right! You should come along! I'll introduce you to Agumon!" Without waiting for his response, the dinsoaur started leading Kieran towards the exit of the hut.

"Agumon? Wait... hold on!" Kieran's protests were in vain, as Blucomon looked a lot stronger than his small stature suggested, and he had already been dragged out the door before he could do anything.
2x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by King Cosmos
Raw
Avatar of King Cosmos

King Cosmos

Member Seen 7 hrs ago

Akeno stepped through the front door, another day of squandering her parents’ tuition money at the expensive private school they insisted she attend coming to an end as she dropped her bag to the floor carelessly. Taking off her shoes, she added them to the line-up of other footwear that occupied one side of the hall as she made a note of which other pairs were already present. The shoes her dad wore to work every day weren’t there, as expected, and her brother’s shoes were of course away at university along with him, meaning it was just Akeno and her mom in the house right now. “I’m home.”

“Welcome back.”

She called out a greeting in Japanese and heard a responding call from deeper within the house confirming her mother’s presence, something which provoked neither pleasure nor displeasure from her. The thought of being alone with her mother wasn’t exactly enticing, but it didn’t hold the same kind of dread that it once did a few years ago; without her father there to act as a mediator the two could sometimes get into some heated arguments, depending on how stubborn they both were feeling that day, but recently it had seemed like they weren’t butting heads as much as they used to. They hadn’t really had any big fights since the one back before she started high school and Akeno was starting to think that they had both just expended so much of their energy towards each other during that argument that they had now found some kind of equilibrium; one where her mother would just be subtly disapproving of her life instead of saying it out loud and Akeno would quietly judge her in return.

Picking up her bag by the straps with one hand, Akeno walked towards the kitchen and poked her head around the doorway to make sure that her mom was there before retreating upstairs to her bedroom. As she entered the room she tossed her bag onto a chair in the corner before flopping back onto her bed to stare at the ceiling, allowing herself a few moments to relax and decompress before she started to think about everything she still needed to do today.

Dinner probably wouldn’t be for another couple of hours yet, prepared for around the time her dad would be arriving home from work, so she had time to kill before then. Her next lesson at the dojo was tomorrow, not tonight, so there was no need to worry about getting her stuff ready. She still needed to work out today, but that could wait until she was feeling less lethargic. Then there was the ever present spectre of unfinished homework; turning her head to the side she could see the open textbook on her desk from last night, still open to the page with the math assignment that was due… tomorrow? The day after?

Akeno stared in the direction of her desk for a few moments longer before coming to a decision about what to do. The temptation to just keep laying there was strong but she sat up before she could put things off any longer and stood from her bed. She stood on her toes and reached her hands above her head, stretching her body out like she was trying to touch the ceiling before letting the tension drop. Walking over to her desk she saw that things were still exactly as she had left them last night; her textbook still open to the same page and the paper she had torn from her notebook still half filled with equations she only half understood. Akeno let out a sigh as she took it all in before reaching over and grabbing her controller.

She dropped into the seat in front of her desk and hit the buttons to turn on her console and monitor; as things began to start up she settled into her chair with one leg tucked under herself and made herself comfortable. A few matches online would pass the time and it had been some time before she had last played anyone seriously.

Before she could open a lobby or start a match, her phone began to ring. Reaching into her pocket she retrieved the device and swiped a thumb across the screen to accept the call and pressed it against her ear without checking to see who was calling; only a few people had her number anyway and if it turned out to a scam caller she could just hang up. “Hello?”

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line as Akeno joined a match and was taken to the character selected screen. She moved the phone to her shoulder and tilted her head to pin it in place as she used both hands on the controller and let a few more seconds pass; when there was still no response she paused with her cursor hovering over a character before pulling the phone away from her ear to check the caller.

Unknown.

A jolt passed through her fingers and Akeno dropped the phone in shock as it suddenly started to spark and crackle with electricity; it continued to emit short sparkles of static as it hit the carpet and Akeno kicked it across the room to get it away from her. Standing from her chair, she placed the controller on her desk just before it too began to spark and the image on her monitor began to distort and warp and turn to static fuzz. “Dammit.”

Was this some kind of power surge or maybe an electrical storm? Nothing like this had even happened before, not even when a hurricane hit, and Akeno didn’t know what to do. Even less so when a white fog seemed to rise up out of nowhere to obscure her vision and the last thing she saw before everything went blank was the static distortion on her monitor twist itself into a shape that looked strangely familiar. Spiky hair. Big head.

Green eyes.

----

When the fog cleared, Akeno found herself in a… hut.

It was the only word she could think of to describe the small, shoddy construction of wooden boards, nails and bits of rope that she found herself in. There were gaps in the walls that let the sunlight in, at least letting her know that it was daytime, and the ‘door’ was nothing more than a tarp hung from the top of the entryway for privacy. It was also cramped; the ceiling was barely taller than the top of her head and between the bed of roughly nailed wooden frames with a straw mattress, a few miscellaneous boxes and herself there was hardly any room to move.

However, none of that was as important as where she was or why she was here in the first place.

She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair.

Okay.

Okay, fine. The last thing she remembered was that weird electrical surge, her phone spitting sparks at her, her monitor turning to static and then… she passed out? Everything went white and the next thing she remembered was being here so… she passed out.

And now she was either dreaming or she had been brought here. A tiny wooden hut with a sand floor and, she looked closer at a blackened patch on the wall next to the door, burn marks all over the place.

Akeno collapsed onto the bed behind her, landing heavily on the wooden frame and threatening to collapse the whole thing. As she did so she felt her back hit something solid and heard what sounded like a pained gasp coming from underneath the pile of straw. She spun around, kneeling on the ground next to the bed as she quickly brushed aside the mound of straw to reveal something strange and yellow and furry that looked like an oversized plush toy of some kind. She stared at it and large green eyes stared back at her.

They blinked.

“Eh, hi?”

Her back hit the wall of the hut as she sprang back from the creature, letting out a curse as her head hit the wooden boards before regaining her composure and reflexively falling into a basic karate stance. The… thing stood up within the bed, stray straw falling off of its frame as it raised its hands and held them up as if to placate her or ward her off. “Hey, hey, hey! Th-there’s no need for violence here or… whatever it is you’re planning on doing. We’re all friends here. I hope.”

Akeno continued to stare as the thing reached up to brush as the back of its head in an embarrassed gesture. “A-and I wasn’t hiding under that straw, just so you know. I was just, urm… sleeping. Yeah! You caught me in the middle of my nap. Seeing as how this is where I live and all.”

Slowly, Akeno let her arms drop to her sides and her body relax as it became evident that the thing in front of her wasn’t going to attack her. She stood up straight before slumping back against the wall behind her to lean against it. Her hand brushed through her hair again and she scratched at her scalp as she tried to process everything that had just in the last few seconds. “Where am I?”

The creature, too, lowered its arms; apparently satisfied that Akeno wasn’t going to attack it either. It seemed to ponder her question for a few moments as it scratched it chin with one long claw before answering. “Where? Oh, err, well, this is KingWhamon’s village.”

Right, that answer wasn’t very useful. Maybe she should have been more, or perhaps less, specific. “Okay… and where is that?”

She received only a perplexed look in return, as if she was asking something as obvious as what colour the sky was. “On KingWhamon’s back?”

Letting her head fall back against the boards, Akeno bit down on her frustration and tried a different approach. “What are you?”

This question seemed to have been the one the plush toy was waiting for, as its face lit up with excitement and it answered eagerly. “I’m a Digimon.”

The Digimon ignored the blank look on Akeno’s face and continued to speak with a fervour that seemed to have replaced its earlier hesitation. “You’re a human aren’t you? I’ve never seen one in person, at least I don’t think I have, but you have to be one because they said you’d be coming soon and you just appeared in the middle of my room like that so I figured you were one of them. I’m Pulsemon by the way; what’s your name? H-hey, where are you going?”

Akeno pushed herself away from the wall and brushed aside the tarp as she stepped out of the hut and into the bright light beyond as Pulsemon scrambling over the bed frame to follow close on her heels. Somebody around here had to be able to explain things in a way that made sense.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by WaywardK
Raw
GM
Avatar of WaywardK

WaywardK The Most Paradoxical of Beings

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

As the chosen humans seemed to file out of their huts one by one, the throng of Penguinmon that made up the village began to gather around them. Mumbling quietly to each other, the denizens of KingWhamon’s village started to excite themselves. Whispers of “saviors” and “they’re just… kids” moved in waves across the crowd. They didn’t mean to be so ominous, possibly intimidating depending on your composure, but the growing whispers were growing louder as they had no clue how to conduct themselves in this situation. Were they inching closer?

“ENOUGH! Give our guests some space! You guys have work to do don’t you?”

A deep, gravelly voice shushed the Penguinmon, but seemed to emanate from nowhere in particular. The various digimons moved out of the way and turned to look at the bonfire in the middle of the square, stunned quiet, with a few of them whining quietly in protest at getting back to work.

“That doesn’t look like you’re preparing a celebration.”

Disappointed, the Penguinmon dispersed back across the square to various odd jobs such as cooking some vague substances resembling cartoon meat or hanging decorations between various trees, some palm. The disembodied voice was still nowhere to be seen.

“Humans! Approach the fire!” it shouted again, this time unmistakably coming from the fire’s direction. The partner Digimon would seem to recognize the voice and urge their chosen toward the fire in excitement. As they would approach the fire, the various humans would see a pile of stones next to its base, not quite touching the coals. Its placement seemed… off, considering the rest of the area around the fire seemed neat and tidy. Not only the fire, but the whole square was fairly neat and tidy for a bunch of huts on a grass floor. “Go on then, sit.”

The voice, much more prominent next to the fire, seemed to be referring to an assortment of stumps, chairs, benches, and more encircling the fire. Each seat seeming more out of place than the next, ranging from office chairs to couches. “Go on, get comfortable! We have much to discuss before the festivities in your honor are to be partaken!” The voice no longer seemed to be shouting. Looks of confusion, exasperated questions, and outright denial would likely rouse the voice from its hiding place.

“Right, damn, y’all haven’t seen me before.”

The out-of-place pile of rocks would shake for a moment, rolling on top of each other and re-arranging themselves into a vaguely humanoid figure before yellow eyes would open with a craggy smile. “I’m Gotsumon! I’ve been tasked with being your tour guide and source of information for this wonderful journey you’re about to go on!” Gotsumon seemed to crack like bouncing pebbles as he moved and looked between each of the chosen. He suddenly began to frown, somewhat concerned. “O-oh… you’re… younger than I was expecting.”

KingWhamon chose such young humans to fight the threats of the dark ocean and other secrets held by the archipelago? Surely not… was the threat not so dire to the Sovereigns as to choose more than just a smattering of children and young adults? Gotsumon’s face, as hard as it was, seemed to betray his thoughts to the other Digimon whom also might begin to worry.

Gotsumon made it known to the partner Digimon prior that he himself had once been the partner of a human a long, long time ago. The way Gotsumon always spoke of humans seemed to paint them in such a mature, heroic light. Stories of valor as human and Digimon worked together to gain higher feats of power, digivolve to mega, combine their strength, and take down enemies hell-bent on taking over entire regions. The humans in his stories always seemed so self sacrificing, intelligent, and wise. Of course they would be to Gotsumon, up until now he had only ever seen adults be chosen to fight on the digital world’s behalf. Before him stood teenagers, barely young adults.

The Sovereigns made their choice, however, and it must be respected. Gotsumon forced a smile. “Okay, well, first off. You all probably have several questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.”
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by Potemking
Raw
Avatar of Potemking

Potemking Command Grab / Bottom Text

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

"Alright, outta the way! Mooks stay in the back of the crowd!"

Herissmon, having regained his composure after the initial shock of human exposure, was now practically shoving himself through multiple Penguinmon to try and get to the human that stood higher than them all. His spikes brushed against their backs, causing a slightly annoyed but harmless scatter as he proved his obnoxious nature once again by managing to get to the front. It allowed him to get a better look at this 'human'. Pretty tall! Didn't look terribly strong, but compared to him, who did? With arms crossed over the hair on his chest, he looked up at his supposed partner with confidence. "I see you brought my regal statue!" He commented with a smirk, knowing anyone 'fated' to be partners with him would have great taste.

Reina, still absolutely taken aback by the situation, stared down at Herissmon silently. Her eyes somewhat more visible from his angle down below, what he saw could cause just about anyone's blood to run cold. A lot of people had different resting faces, but Reina's in particular was a resting death glare. Half the reason she hid them behind her hair was because she scared the hell out of customers, and to a further extent, just unnerved folks.

For a moment, Reina looked at the statue, and Herissmon backed up slightly, a drop of sweat visibly going down his face. Watching her gaze go between the statue and him left an edge to the situation, but she was in reality just having a doubletake between the weapon she'd grabbed and the creature in front of her. "Huh," She reacted to the comparison, holding the statue in both hands for a moment now that she'd taken into account it wasn't just something to bash someone with. "I do kinda see the resemblance."

Calming a little, Herissmon laughed away his nervousness and nodded. "Riiight? It's the splitting image of me!"

"Yeah, the splitting resemblance of--" One hand left the statue, as both of her arms fell to their sides, not sensing any danger at the moment. "--Whatever the hell you are. How about explaining that?"

"Right!" A wide-eyed look of shock came over Herissmon's features. "You don't got a clue what's goin' on!" Shifting his posture slightly to look more heroic, he decided to explain what he definitely remembered and hadn't at all ignored from before. "Let's see... Eh, well, a pretty important Digimon brought me and you here to be partners! Because--?" Herissmon fell quiet for a moment, not being certain on that detail. Had they mentioned that? Drat...

"Digimon?" Reina repeated, head slightly tilting. It sounded like something weird she'd see commercials for on T.V.

"Digimon are-- Well, me, Herissmon. And them," Herissmon gestured to the Penguinmon, who were now keeping a fair distance from Reina in particular. "And those are Digimon with the other humans!" A claw brought Reina's eyes over to the humans exiting the other huts, bringing a realization she wasn't alone here. Unfamiliar faces, the lot of them, but at least that meant she wasn't alone? Nobody seemed to be particularly getting violent, so maybe keeping calm was indeed the right move to make.

Not really having her question answered, she took what she could get at least. "So you're a bunch of creatures that look like you jumped straight out of a cartoon and tack 'mon' at the end of your names? Okay."

"What's a 'cartoon'?" Herissmon questioned, uncertain if he should be insulted or not.

Reina simply shook her head. "I'm the one that got kidnapped here, you're answering my questions." This logic absolutely conflicted with what little common sense lingered in Herissmon's skull, but was delivered in such a way he wasn't sure if he should exactly question it. Instead, he lingered silently on the idea of kidnapping for a moment before trying to back out of the conversation. "O-Oh yeah, well, I'm not the guy with all the answers, for that you'd want--"

The shout from behind Herissmon startled his quills straight upwards, and even Reina flinched, taking a step back as the weird penguins started backing away further. At the request to approach the fire, Herissmon looked up to Reina with a nod. "There's the guy now. He'll fill ya in on whatever you need to know! C'mon, uh, whatever-your-name is!"

"Reina--"

"Renamon?!" Herissmon interrupted, seeming shocked. "I've seen one of them before, you look nothing like that ACK!" He was interrupted as Reina jabbed his nose with her finger, the boop completely throwing him off for a moment as she corrected him: "Reina. No 'mon': Just. Reina."

Herissmon turned to face away from her, seeming to not enjoy having his defenses breached. "Huh. We were told humans would have weird names, so I guess it checks out." He nodded to himself as confirmation, stepping towards the fire. Reina, no less confused, followed after him not having much else for a plan. If one of these weird cartoonish things brought her here, then when was she getting sent back? It felt unreal, but at the same time the warmth of the fire as she got closer felt the complete opposite, even with the wacky setup around it.

Refusing to sit, she instead leaned over the back of a couch: Bent forwards and resting her head atop her arms, not exactly welcoming company. However, as Herissmon looked between her and the couch, she shrugged and watched him climb up to sit below her. Having recognized most of the creatures so far as seemingly harmless, she instead took aggression to the mysterious voice that kept beckoning them, as the bombastic mysterious entrance B.S was starting to grate what patience she had. "Hard to honor someoen you freakin' kidnapped," She spat in irritation. "Stop with the theatric crap and show yourself!"

"H-Hey!" Herissmon glared up at her. "Don't ruin a good entrance! That's one of the most important parts!"

Reina looked down in momentary annoyance, but was more alarmed by the moving stones around the fire. Palms pressing against the back of the couch, she stood a bit taller and eyed the strange sight until Gotsumon was fully formed. And the introduction provided was quite possibly worse than Herissmon's, the idea of introducing yourself as a 'tour guide' to who she assumed was a kidnapped group of individuals AND saying they were about to partake on some sort of journey? What the actual hell was that about?

"Yeah, plenty of questions." Endless, possibly, Reina figured she could ask the bundle of pebbles an infinite amount of questions at this point. But the first thing that crossed her mind was; "Like what kind of 'journey' are you expecting a kidnapped person to go on? Not exactly feeling very honored by that." It was, perhaps, a mistake to allow Reina to open her mouth. She had a bad tendency of leaving bad first impressions, though in this instance she felt pretty in-the-right about being rude about it given the circumstances.

Herissmon, both conflicted by Reina's outburst and a little uncomfortable with the idea of this being against their will, looked towards Gotsumon with both curiosity and an expression of concern that marked Reina's words as more than a little discouraging or worrisome. It was clear that he also needed the full picture to understand things better, at least simply sitting to hear out the more knowledgeable Digimon instead of having an outburst of his own. Perhaps in a way, it was a good sign. Herissmon's willingness to consider her words legitimate showed perhaps a little blind faith, but faith nonetheless and a lack of bias towards his own kind. And Reina's own aggression and lack of fear, even in such a foreign environment, showed bravery, if admittedly a lack of restraint or censor. Who wouldn't be mad or terribly confused upon being scooped into a whole new situation, after all?

It was perhaps not the exact first reaction desired, but beating around the bush wasn't Reina's style whatsoever.
1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Digizel
Raw
Avatar of Digizel

Digizel The Knight of Bui / Challenge me if you dare! >3

Member Seen 2 hrs ago

Hide finally recovered his balance as the small, anthropomorphic reptilian creature pulled at his hand, half-dragging him outside. He emerged from the leafy doorway, and he could see a large number of other strange, albeit non-reptilian this time--instead more closely resembling penguin--creatures wandering around the area. That area, apparently, being some kind of...festivities perhaps? But the boy hardly noticed the winged creatures starting to gather around him. His attention was definitely down on the yellow one at his feet, tugging on him. More specifically, the claw that he felt wrapped around his wrist right now.

Hide had always considered himself to be an animal person; his parents always considered pets to be a distraction, so it was rare for him to get the opportunity to actually interact with them. But these claws and skin texture felt awfully...real. He could even feel the tips of those claws poking into his skin a bit, scratching them lightly. Following that observation, he lifted his gaze and realized that he was not alone. There were other human beings leaving their huts, each one being greeted by or attended to by a small creature just like his own. The boy blinked at the sight, wondering why he would include strangers he'd never seen before. It made him start to question something.

Was...was this actually a dream? Surely his subconscious wouldn't have created other humans with neither faces nor clothing that he had ever seen before. And he had his doubts that he was actually creative enough to dream up all these various creature designs.

But if this wasn't a dream, then did that mean that he was being kidnapped? No, that couldn't be. He was alone in his room at the time, and the house had all kinds of security measures. There's no way he could have been kidnapped so easily. So then what was this? But more importantly, what--no, who may be the more accurate term here if these creatures were as sentient as they seemed--were these creatures all around them? There was a large variety, although the penguins were clearly in the majority. Speaking of which, they really were starting to crowd around the two of them....

"Hey, move it!" Agumon grumbled as he tried to approach and push past the group. However, he was admittedly a bit nervous around them. Water-based Digimon tended to make him nervous for some reason, though he would never actually admit it out loud. But it certainly wasn't going to stop him from acting tough around them. "Make way for the best human-Digimon duo you'll ever see~"

Digimon. There was that word again. Hide was completely silent as he contemplating everything that he was seeing and hearing. But what really caught him was another word he would hear getting whispered around here and there.

"Saviors...?" Hide mumbled under his breath, but was quickly cut off as a loud voice suddenly sounded throughout the area.

"Yeah, see?" Agumon added, smirking a bit. "Told ya you should've just left him alone." He then turned his head up to look at Hide, pulling on his arm with renewed vigor. "C'mon, kid, you heard the mon."

"'Kid?'" Hide repeated. He had to admit, being called that by someone so much shorter than himself was was rather embarrassing to say the least. However, he did not protest as he was brought forward, well aware that, if he was in any kind of trouble, it would simply be better to play along and hear them out. He could always potentially negotiate with them later if need-be. Or, judging from the behavior of some of the other humans, mediate and hope to keep everybody involved level headed....

As the two approached the seating area, Hide looked around, but was unable to quite identify the source of the loud, authoritative voice that was commanding the group. He watched one girl in particular move to stand behind a couch, and her porcupine-like creature "partner" was seated right in front of her. He could tell from her demeanor that she was probably going to be quite the...abrasive one, so if he was going to have to help keep things cool in these discussions, he might want to be near her. He moved to sit on the leftmost side of the couch, although he did give a wary glance toward the spiny Digimon beside him. If that Digimon greeted him in any way, he would hesitantly and very nervously return the greeting, quickly moving to face forward, but keeping an eye on him out of the corner of his eye.

Agumon, meanwhile, had stepped up beside him, seemingly content to just stand next to where Hide was seated, seemingly in a bit of a reverse situation to Herissmon and his human partner.

Hide's eyes widened, however, when the stones nearby began to wobble and shift around...soon forming yet another creature entirely! This one was also greatly different from the creatures he'd seen up to this point. This one seemed to be be composed entirely of stones of various sizes and shapes, with two knowing eyes gazing out at them from recesses on what could only loosely be described as a stony face.

Wait...did he say "younger?" Hide knew that listening carefully to this guy's words was going to be very important, so he had kept his gaze firmly on the strange stone figure, but that caught his attention. While he knew he was young in the grand scheme of things, he found it strange to be considered young. Although if they were looking for "saviors" he supposed it made sense that they may have been expecting adults or something.

However, before he could voice any of his own questions or concerns, there was a loud, abrasive voice from behind him and to his right. He glanced up and over toward Reina, and couldn't help but wince slightly at her rather...forceful approach. Although he supposed he couldn't blame her. He was rather concerned about his own situation as well. But it seemed like he was much better at containing it, at least.

"Wait," Agumon said, looking up toward the human girl. "Kidnapped?" He looked back at Hide. "You were kidnapped?"

"W-well," Hide replied uneasily, rubbing the back of his head. He desperately searched for a better word for it. However, when nothing came to the surface he hesitantly nodded. "I-in a way. It was certainly unexpected and I don't recall ever agreeing to be brought here. In fact, I still don't even know where 'here' is...."

"Wait, what's the deal?" Agumon grumbled, turning to glare at Gotsumon, arms crossed across his chest. "You brought them here against their will? Are you kidding me?"

"T-to be fair, I don't think I'd say it was 'against my will,'" Hide corrected. "I never said that I didn't want to be here. I was simply...never told. That said, I certainly don't appreciate it. Though at the moment, I'm more concerned about the 'where' and the 'why' before the 'what' myself. I-I'd rather know if they had a good reason for doing this. And I might be more comfortable if they told us where we were brought, too."

Agumon was clearly not happy to learn that Hide had no idea what was going on at all. If these humans had been kidnapped or something, he was going to have some choice words. He himself knew that this was all for a good reason. But surely the powers that be could have at least talked to them first, after all.
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Diamond
Raw
Avatar of Diamond

Diamond

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

The soft shifting noise of fabric settled as Lumina moved the hanging cloth that acted as her hut's door back into it's place. When she turned back around she saw not only Ghostmon waiting for her but also several small purple bird creatures staring at her. Lumina froze in fear. She could feel her blood run cold as these strange birds slowly but surely started to come closer. This was not a good scene. They were whispering ominous things about saviors and children. Not to mention that them edging closer to her was starting to make her feel claustrophobic. Her eyes darted over to Ghostmon who seemed completely fine with the situation. She was even giggling at the birds a little. That at least made the situation seem less dangerous, but not any less creepy. "Ghostmon what..."

Ghostmon gasped when she saw the fearful and stressed expression on Lumina's face. "Oh, Lumina, I'm sorry! This must be awfully surprising to you. Don't worry, these are Penguinmon. They're Digimon like me and they're the Digimon who live in this village." She smiled, thinking that would explain everything.

"Digimon? But what is a Digimon?"

"What? You don't know that either? Digimon are the creatures who live in the Digital World. Where we are now." A worried look came over Ghostmon's face. How could Lumina not even know that much? It's as though she wasn't told anything at all about coming to the Digital World. But that couldn't be. 'Maybe she's a bad listener? She doesn't look like that type but looks are deceiving!'

A deep gravelly voice made the weird bird things disperse. Lumina immediately started to look around for the source of that voice. It sounded almost familiar, but she didn't know why. Still, she was thankful to the voice's owner for making the birds back off. So when it beckoned her and the other humans to approach the fire she did so, though slowly and only after she saw Ghostmon's gentle confidence in the request. As she walked over she looked around at her fellow humans. Earlier she had briefly realized that there were other humans but was too distracted by the Penguinmon to worry about it right away. Now that she had a moment she noticed that they all seemed to be around her age and were accompanied by Digimon of their own. She would probably be able to assess them better once they were all by the fire. 'But why is there a group of us here? Just what is going on?' She thought with a frown as she trudged ahead.

When Lumina and Ghostmon got to the seating area only two other human-digimon duos had gotten there before them. Or at least, Lumina assumed the creatures with them were digimon. There was a girl standing behind a couch with a porcupine looking creature actually sitting on the part of the couch in front of her and a boy sitting on the other side of the same couch with a small dinosaur standing nearby. Because she does not know them Lumina instinctively avoided sitting next to these people and creatures. Instead she chose to sit on a tall tree stump with one empty seat between her and the leftmost side of the occupied couch where the boy was sitting. After sitting down she folded her hands and stared straight head into the fire, waiting with a practiced patience.

Ghostmon floated quietly to the left side of Lumina and also waited patiently. At one point she did glance over at the other humans and digimon. A faint blush started across her face and she floated closer to Lumina's side, as though trying to use the slender human girl to block the others from seeing her. This attempt at concealing her image wasn't working very well but Lumina didn't seem bothered by Ghostmon's attempt either way.

However, she was somewhat bothered when the pile of rocks near the fire suddenly assembled it's self into some sort of rock creature and called it's self Gotsumon. "Excuse me?" Lumina softly blurted out after Gotsumon introduced himself. She then blinked when he commented on how young she and everyone else was. 'Those Penguinmon called all us humans kids, huh?' She looked down at her lap with a puzzled look. That's right, she is eighteen. But she hadn't felt like a kid in years. Technically, she wasn't anymore.

Meanwhile, Ghostmon was far more concerned about the conversation about kidnapping going on. She looked from the human girl to the human boy and then to Lumina. "Lumina...is that true?"

"Huh? Oh, yes I suppose so?" Lumina had been listening to the conversation this whole time, despite probably looking as though she was lost in her own thoughts instead for a moment there. "I never agreed to come here. I wasn't physically able to say anything at all before I was whisked away here. At first I thought I had gone insane." She winced at her own words and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Now that she said that out loud she felt more scared than before. She was already plenty scared about this and had been fighting herself almost this entire time to stay calm and composed. "I still worry that I might be unstable and that this is some sort of hallucination. But if it's not then the next answer is that I've been kidnapped...right?" She opened her eyes again and gulped as a shiver went down her body. She still wanted to stay calm. Panicking here wouldn't do anything and she was about to get answers. Those answers could help her greatly.

"No..." Ghostmon put her hands up to her mouth and stared down at Lumina with a sympathetic and worried expression. She then spun around to face Gostumon again. "Gostumon... KingWhamon wouldn't kidnap humans, right? And not ones so young! R-right...?"
1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by XxFellsingxX
Raw
Avatar of XxFellsingxX

XxFellsingxX Your Own Portable Ninja Friend

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago

"Agumon! Hey Agumon!" Blucomon's shout sent several Penguinmon scattering before he and Kieran had even emerged from their hut. Many of them had already been victims of the ice dragon's crushing hugs and had no desire to be subjected to a second. Thankfully, though, Blucomon wasn't interested in them at the moment, and was instead leading Kieran towards the fire in the center of town.

Kieran, for his part, had given up trying to resist Blucomon's pull and was instead taking a moment to admire his surroundings, particularly the many strange creatures that populated it. The penguin-like creatures - seemingly the main residents of this little village - were simple yet adorable, with an appealing purple, yellow and red colour palette. He also noted three other humans besides himself, two girls and one boy, all of them older than him and each with their own little monster companion. They were all sat by the fire and engaged in conversation with an small stone golem, and each of them seemed... less than comfortable with their current situation. The oldest of the group, a tough-looking girl accompanied by a grey and yellow hedgehog creature, seemed particularly disgruntled and didn't shy about letting the rock monster knowing it. The other two humans looked calmer, though not without their concern.

Blucomon didn't seem to notice the tension within the group and, upon reaching the fire, suddenly let go of Kieran's hand and attempted to grab one of the other assembled creatures, a yellow dinosaur, into a bear hug. "Agumon! Agumon, look!" he said, attempting to grabbing Agumon with one arm and point at Kieran with the other. "This is Kieran! He's my human, he just arrived and he's really cool!"

Kieran felt his face beginning to flush as Blucomon essentially forced the spotlight onto him and quickly grabbed for the hood of his hoodie, pulling it over his quickly reddening face. "Errr, hey," he said, trying to make his voice sound lower than it was. "I, err, hope we're not late or anything..." he muttered. He put his hands in his pockets and quickly shuffled over to one of the empty seats.

Blucomon looked at the gathered humans with a huge grin on his face. "Which one is your human, Agumon?" he said, looking at each in turn. "Oh wow, they all look so cool!"
1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by King Cosmos
Raw
Avatar of King Cosmos

King Cosmos

Member Seen 7 hrs ago

If Akeno expecting things to become clearer once she was outside, then she was going to be sorely disappointed. Upon exiting the hut she found herself almost immediately surrounded by more strange creatures; not green and spiky this time, though Pulsemon was quick to follow at her heels, but blue and squat with menacing beaks all pointed her direction. The… bird-things, almost a cross between a penguin and a seagull, didn’t seem bothered to have a stranger like her suddenly appear in their village; if anything they seemed excited to see her, murmuring to themselves and slowly closing in on her.

The word ‘saviour’ appeared more than once.

Before Akeno had a chance to feel truly threatened by the creatures, ‘Digimon’, an unseen voice called out from somewhere to get them to disperse. They did, grudgingly, and Akeno let herself relax a little. As the birds began to go back to whatever tasks they were doing, Akeno was directed to approach the fire; her and the other humans, who she could now see at various points around the village, each looking about at lost as she and each accompanied by what must be other Digimon. She stepped forward, towards the fire, and Pulsemon deciding to finally step out from behind her legs to jog in front of her and lead the way. “Y-yeah. Right this way! Gotsumon can explain everything.”

Akeno followed at her own pace, deciding to stand like one of the other girls had with her arms crossed even as Pulsemon hopped into an office chair by himself. His feet didn’t even come close to reaching the floor, so he swung them back and forth instead. She looked around the campfire, at the other people; none of them looked familiar, though Akeno wasn’t sure if she expected them to be, and none of them looked to have much in common with each other. A few girls, a few boys, a mix of ethnicities; the only common trait among them was the fact they all seemed to be within a few years of her own age. The Digimon that accompanied them were all different as well, unique; they were the only unique ones so far, with every other Digimon she had seen being one of those penguin-gull things.

Until the piles of rocks next to the fire rose up and started speaking to them at least.

She’d expected that the voice would belong to another Digimon, but Akeno still managed to be surprised by Gotsumon’s appearance. The shock wore off quickly, passing faster than it would have on any other day had she seen the same thing; the bar for what it would take to shock her now was steadily rising higher and higher. There was already a talking orange dinosaur and a ghost made of blue fire sitting in the circle with her, why not a pile of rocks? That said pile of rocks would appear disappointed in them however, judging them for the same youth that Akeno had noticed, was something she definitely hadn’t expected though. Why would their ages be surprising? Weren’t they the ones who brought them here?

Closing her eyes, Akeno pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand; despite Pulsemon’s claim that Gotsumon would be able to explain everything, so far he was only producing more questions.

Akeno mostly stayed quiet for the proceedings that followed; allowing the other people who were here to ask their questions while she thought things through. The conversation quickly turned towards the topic of their kidnapping and how they were brought here against their will, which was valid, but wasn’t going to give her the kind of answers she wanted. It was interesting to see that most of the Digimon that were paired with them were just as unaware as they were however; Pulsemon had mentioned that he’d been told about her arrival, but it seemed like these creatures were almost as clueless as they were at the moment.

Feeling eyes on her, Akeno looked down to see Pulsemon looking up at her uncertainly; he seemed to have questions, like the others did, but wasn’t sure if he should ask them. She shrugged in response, not sure what else to say other than to confirm what the others were saying; the last thing she remembered was coming home from school before being surrounded by fog and waking up here. That probably meant abduction, though how they had done it and where they had brought her were a mystery.

Raising her voice, Akeno spoke up into the mix of voices. “Maybe you should just explain everything from the start. Like, what you are, where we are, and how you brought us all here.”
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by WaywardK
Raw
GM
Avatar of WaywardK

WaywardK The Most Paradoxical of Beings

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

They don’t remember agreeing? How odd.

The crowned Penguinmon that had recently been keeping watch of the mainland across the water had waddled in behind the humans, staying far enough to keep out of notice. The Goddess had said the dreams were sent, so they must have simply passed them off as a product of a good night’s sleep. Human unconsciousness has always been nebulous to Digital Lords who’ve had to enlist the help of humanity, it was hard to make sure people knew what they were agreeing to. Then again, it’s the heart’s choice, not the head’s.

Kingwhamon’s apparition gestured from behind the humans, briefly catching Gotsumon’s eyes. There was a glance shared between them, one that carried the understanding that these humans had not, in fact, been kidnapped. Gotsumon has regaled Kingwhamon of his adventures with humans before his arrival on the Archipelago. The rocky guide for this new generation of humans had dealt with human panic in the digital world before, Kingwhamon had every faith that Gotsumon could handle this.

Musing to himself, Kingwhamon wondered which would cause more emotional distress, the knowledge that their human hearts longed to cross the threshold of worlds, or the fact the island they were on was in fact a Digimon.




Gotsumon looked between the increasingly confused humans and Digimon as the word “kidnapped” started floating around. Amazingly emotive for a pile of rocks, his expression seemed to soften like a compassionate parent consoling their ignorant child’s misplaced fear. Reina was the first to receive Gotsumon’s kind gaze, an unnerving juxtaposition of calmness to her frustration and anger.

“You’ve not been kidnapped. You had to agree to come here in order to cross the thresh-hold between worlds.” Gotsumon paused for a second, looking over at Akeno with a nod to acknowledge her suggestion as an appropriate path.

“For a human to come to the Digital World their heart must agree or else the transference of consciousness is not possible. Most humans will remember it as a dream. The gods of this world reach out to the human world for souls willing to heed their call, usually because us Digimon can offer a way in which they can accomplish something for themselves as well.” Gotsumon held a certain gravel-toss (gravitas) as he spoke, making it hard to interject but easy to listen to.
Gotsumon looked from Akeno towards Kieran and then Hide. “Most humans agree to come here because they seek to fill a hole in their heart. Adventure and heroism tends to lend itself towards those who seek self-discovery and fulfillment.” He turns his gaze back towards Akeno. “So when we called for help, something within you heard us.”

The chosen’s guide drifted from a knowing expression to one that was noticeable more concerned. “Though I’m afraid the other end of the bargain isn’t all about self-discovery and soul searching.” Gotsumon became somber of tone and seemed to shrink within himself, recalling traumatic experiences that lead to those standing before him in the first place.”

“We’re in trouble. Digimon keep disappearing and coming back… changed, catatonic, and despondent. A dark ocean that seems on the very edge of this world and the next takes them, a dark fog obscuring them from this existence into the next on our islands, and then returning to us husks of what once were our friends.” Gotsumon shuddered, sending a cascade of clicks and clacks down his body as his stones rattled and quaked.

Gotsumon at this point spoke quietly, just above a whisper. “Humans aren’t affected by such digital phenomena, so we needed to ask for help.” Gotsumon looked down, gathering some courage and then looked back towards Reina, the human Gotsumon had already decided to put his full faith in. “If you truly do not wish to help, the Lords of our Archipelago can send you back home.”




Towards where the Apparition of Kingwhamon once was stands a different penguinmon, keeping the same watch the apparition had. The trees on the adjacent island gently shifted in the wind and the dense undergrowth behind them betrayed no movement or advancement. The last of the penguinmon still hadn't returned from trading with a nearby village. The sentry shifted from foot to foot in discomfort, flicking his gaze from left to right repeatedly as if expecting danger.

The chosen were here now! There was nothing to be scared of! With the arrival of humans always came evolution and heroism as Kingwhamon explained! Right? So why was this penguinmon so worried? Something just didn't feel right. Could KingWhamon feel it too? The sentry looked back towards the heart of the village were the humans stood listening to Gotsumon before the facilities. KingWhamon's Apparition had slowly
waddled amidst them it seemed.





1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by Potemking
Raw
Avatar of Potemking

Potemking Command Grab / Bottom Text

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

Reina's rotten mood didn't prevent her from letting the others speak their piece on the matter. She obviously wanted agreement, if anything just to make her own reaction justifiable, and while she found the wording some of the others used to be odd, the consensus generally seemed the same even though there was a lack of energy. You figured people got more pissed about things like this, but it caused Reina to take a moment of silent grumpy self-contemplation as she stood there. Only Akeno's request through the mixture of voices sparked her to nod, glaring at the pile of pebbles as the target of this interrogation.

Despite her bravado, she couldn't exactly lash out in a situation like this. Instead she listened to Gotsumon: Eyes fixated as there was nothing more important to her now than an explanation. The mentioning of a dream brought her back to thinking on her own experience: Her glare shifted down to Herissmon, then the statue of the weird little hedgehog. Slowly, pieces started coming back as her anger cooled somewhat. A dream? She could remember a dream. It was faint, but so weird that even though she disregarded it, it clung on in her subconscious. Gotsumon sparked that dream-- Now revealed as more, most certainly a discarded memory on her part, back into the forefront of her head.

Herissmon glanced back up at Reina, but found himself sweating nervously. "You, uh, look happier?" He commented on the smirk appearing on Reina's face, seeming to recall something important to herself. Gripping the couch with one hand, Reina took the approach of hopping over it and landing on the cushions rather than walking around it. Her landing bounced Herissmon upwards slightly, but he landed beside her just fine as she rested the statue between them, lounging her arms over the back of the couch.

"I don't remember agreeing to nothing, my heart doesn't do the thinking." She remarked, but the fact she'd sat down was probably the best sign she could give that Gotsumon had gotten her to relax a little. "But, uh," She added awkwardly. "Now I'm interested. So I guess I'll hear you out." Her words brought some relief to Herissmon, who sat to listen and see if he could pick up any more information of his own.

While Herismon shook in honest fear at the idea of Digimon being reduced to husks of their former selves, Reina kept quiet during Gotsumon's explanation. Still lounging lazily, one might assume she'd lied through her teeth and didn't actually care at all. But as cartoonish and weird as Gotsumon was, the emotion from him felt genuine to her. That fear. The somber feeling of mentioning the fate of his friends. While she was still grasping at the idea all of these creatures were real, that one aspect gripped her into this being reality in some form.

But, what was she to do? Reina was a toughie, sure. But this sounded a bit out of her league? Usually she only stepped in if an ass or two needed kicking, you know, practical problems with practical solutions? But this was a huge problem by the sound of it. She didn't bother shooting the others a gaze, their decisions didn't impact hers right now as she eyed the flame in thought. Going back home was a serious consideration for some, perhaps. It might've seemed like the only smart decision, actually. But the distress Gotsumon seemed to actually feel, and a gut feeling-- To put in a corny manner, perhaps a feeling from her heart, tethered her to his side.

"Alright already," She said as she popped off the couch, standing to her full height. Clenching a fist, it swung out and smacked into her other palm, The girl invigorated by the rock-creature's plight. "I could just leave, but then I'd have that sad pebbly face burned into my dreams every night." Unable to just be nice about it, but Reina expressed that she was in nonetheless.

Herissmon sprung from the couch as well, seeming ecstatic. "Hmhmhm! Just what could be expected from the partner of a hero like me!" He gloated, patting Reina on the leg as if a royal steed towards his goals of heroism and fame. He wouldn't comment on the fact that he was shaking a little from the idea of being reduced to a husk, but with her sudden outburst he couldn't just sit there and look weak. "Whatever's causing this mess doesn't stand a chance!"

"But wait," Reina had a sudden thought, crossing her arms and looking between Gotsumon and Herissmon. "If you guys are affected by whatever this is and we aren't, how is this spike-ball supposed to help? Is he going to keep making horrible statues until he scares the ocean away?" At that moment, both Reina and Herissmon's eyes went back towards the statue on the couch.

And within moments, Herissmon lashed out verbally. "I thought you LIKED it!"

"I do," Reina admitted, picking it up. "But like... As a weapon. I was just going to hit someone with it."

A hint of red could be seen on Herissmon's face, little clawed arms trying to cross with a ha-rumph of frustration. "Well a weapon crafted by me could surely strike down anything." He nodded confidently, all the while Reina was actually curious to test that theory, as the statue was fairly solid all things considered. Such banter at least helped to lighten the mood a little in the face of all the danger.
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Digizel
Raw
Avatar of Digizel

Digizel The Knight of Bui / Challenge me if you dare! >3

Member Seen 2 hrs ago

"Huh?" was Agumon's intitial response as he heard his name getting called. He quickly realized the identity of the voice; it was one he'd heard plenty of times over the weeks lately. He finally turned his attention away from Gotsumon and back to the approaching dragon Digimon behind him...another human in tow. However, this one seemed a bit less resistant to being pulled along. He had to admit, though, that was actually kind of impressive, given that Blucomon was so cold to the touch. However, he knew that he didn't have long to himself; he braced himself as the icy dragon stepped up to him...and sure enough, those arms wrapped around him, and he felt his body getting pulled up against Blucomon's body, virtually getting crushed up against that cold torso!

"Ngh!" Agumon grunted, wincing at the strong and freezing cold grip. Despite that, however, he endured the bear hug until he was released, causing him to take a deep breath to recover. However, he made sure to keep on a tough demeanor, as though nothing about that had bothered him at all. He felt Blucomon grab onto his arm and he followed his gaze up to the human partner that Blucomon had. He definitely seemed to be different from his own partner. This one seemed a bit more casual and carefree, while his seemed to be more...pristine for lack of a better word.

"Uh...right. Mine?" Agumon replied, turning and jutting a claw up onto the couch beside him. Between himself and Herissmon sat Hide. "That's my partner...uh...." He paused at that, putting a claw to his muzzle. He had just realized something.

He didn't even know his own partner's name yet.

Meanwhile, Hide sat in his spot, a bit more relaxed by the way the conversation seemed to be headed. He listened carefully to everybody's own words, nodding toward Akeno with a smile in particular. However, he was taken a bit by surprise by Gotsumon's explanation....

"A dream...." Hide repeated under his breath. Now that he mentioned it, Hide did remember that strange dream he had had recently. It had been bothering him at school the next day, but it had been getting in the way of his studies, so he'd dismissed it by the end of the day. He closed his eyes and attempted to recall the dream. It was fuzzy, but he could picture the scene once more...or, rather, the lack thereof. He recalled nothing but darkness all around them, a creature not unlike the ones standing around him...but most importantly....

Waves? His eyes opened again, a bit wider this time. Of course...the waves! Then...was this the location he had been in that dream? The distant sound of waves certainly seemed accurate enough, now that he was focusing on that aspect of it.... And now that he was thinking about it, he definitely had agreed to something. He couldn't quite recall the specifics, but it was in there somewhere.

That made him relax a bit more. He could feel a bit more comfortable knowing that he had made an agreement in the first place. Even if this was a bad idea, at least it had been one he'd made himself, willingly.

He turned his attention to the girl again, who'd taken the time to practically fall into the seat on the opposite side of the hedgehog, and listened to her own words of agreement. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit to himself, knowing full well her type. She wanted to agree...but just needed that excuse. A moment later, he looked down, bringing his own hands to his jaw and took the time to think.

"This is...difficult," he answered after a few moments. "After all, we only have your word that things are working how they are. But if I run on the assumption that you're not lying to us about anything, then it would explain a lot of things. And aside from the obvious science-fiction nature of this entire thing going against everything common sense would dictate, I can't think of anything that contradicts anything you've said." He also had to admit, that he'd been keeping up with the demeanor on Gotsumon's surprisingly emotable expressions. He seemed genuine enough, at the very least....

Agumon seemed to be relaxed as well, though Blucomon's distraction had likely been the cause of it more than Hide's words. He looked over at his human companion, but was...admittedly completely lost. Luckily, though, it had been just the distraction he needed that he could avoid admitting he didn't know his partner's name. He then looked over at Blucomon, then over at Gotsumon, before finally back up at Hide.

"Well, I dunno about this whole human con-chess-ness thing you guys are talking about, but whatever the problem is, I'm sure we can handle it just fine." Agumon said with a grin, crossing his arms. "And, kid, you don't have anything to worry about. With me as your partner, you'll be totally safe!"

His confidence seemed to help assure the human boy, although he certainly didn't know this little guy very well. Something about his attitude made his argument somewhat...compelling. Although admittedly, he would want to see this so-called combat prowess for himself before he made that decision.

"Well...I'm still not sure if I should be making this decision with so little information, but..." he said, looking toward the Gotsumon again, finally lowering his arms to his lap. "If you guys are really in so much trouble, then it would go against everything I believe in to turn you down just because I'm a little bit skeptical. I'll stay and help, I suppose."

Agumon grinned at that, giving him an approving nod. However, his gaze quickly turned to Herissmon, who was already playing up his hero role again and let out an annoyed sigh. "Ugh...there you go again," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Herissmon, you're not any more special than anyone else. In fact, I bet anything that I could beat you with an arm tied behind my back. Even if you had a weapon like that."

Hide, who was directly in the middle of the two, chuckled nervously, looking between the two Digimon, but ready to say something to intervene if he needed to.
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by King Cosmos
Raw
Avatar of King Cosmos

King Cosmos

Member Seen 7 hrs ago

They chose to come here, because some part of them heard the call of the gods of this world and responded to them? A subconscious desire or seeking some kind of fulfilment. That description was aggravatingly vague and yet… it felt right. Pulsemon was still looking up at her, now having turned around in his chair entirely to stand in the seat and lean his arms on the backrest. He was smiling. “Hey, that’s right! I was sure I’d never met a human before but you were still familiar somehow. It’s because we met in a dream!”

Did they? Akeno had felt it too, that strange sense of familiarity at seeing Pulsemon for the first time, but she couldn’t recall even now. The only thing she could think of was that dream a week or two ago when she fell asleep in the car; she couldn’t remember anything about it, but the feeling of it had stuck with her nonetheless. It had felt like… loneliness. Desperation. Not her own, but someone else’s.

Akeno looked into Pulsemon’s eyes, but couldn’t see anything like that loneliness now; if anything the Digimon looked happy. And yet…

Letting out a sigh, Akeno reached out and placed a hand on top of Pulsemon’s head, resting it there and feeling the short fur against the palm of her hand. The Digimon looked surprised, unsure of what was going on, but didn’t move away or stop her from doing so. Green eyes. A beach. The ocean.

She wasn’t sure about any gods, but she felt confident about the fact that she’d responded to someone's call. She was certain of it.

Even so she pulled her hand back.

“This… it’s a lot. You’re asking for a lot.” People were disappearing, coming back catatonic and they had no idea what was going on. Yet they wanted them, random teenagers and young adults who weren’t even sure why they had been picked to help them, because humans were supposedly immune to whatever was affecting them? A few of the others around the fire surprised her by agreeing almost immediately; even the girl who had been most aggressive at first quickly came around, jumping over the back of the couch in front of her to show that she was set on staying. Akeno couldn’t bring herself to do the same, not when she was still adjusting to this crazy situation, not without knowing what they were really being asked to involve themselves in, what they were up against. She knew how to fight, how to defend herself, but Akeno didn’t think of herself as being all that strong; if anything knowing how to fight just let her understand her limits better than most people and she knew she wasn’t a hero.

“What is it you’re asking us to do exactly? Find out who or what is doing this? Then what?”
1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Diamond
Raw
Avatar of Diamond

Diamond

Member Seen 3 yrs ago

A quiet exhale escaped Lumina's lips as she listened to Gotsumon talk. She paid careful attention to what he had to say and closely studied the expression on his rocky face. He seemed genuine and was clearly experienced in dealing with humans. Still, the fact that he was implying that they all agreed to come here and simply didn't remember doing so bugged her. If not for the fact that she remembered having a strange dream his explanation wouldn't sound so plausible and she would think that he was trying to gaslight them.

The light from her eyes dimmed slightly as they drifted to the side. Lumina took a minute to think about it. The details of that dream were coming back to her. The sound of the ocean that she heard in that dream made a lot more sense now, but almost nothing else did. In her dream she was in a tunnel and then a cavern. Basically, it did not look like this island at all. In that cavern she talked to a tall robed figure, someone she at first thought might have been Gotsumon. Although his voice kind of sounded like that person's he was way too short to fit the bill. Then there was the matter of those orbs. She had wanted one of those orbs for herself, but she didn't know which one to pick. The robed figure offered to help her with that. Admittedly she remembered that she was going to take that person's offer of assistance but she never got to officially accept or decline before she woke up.

Did her heart really answer for her? Her heart, the heart that she couldn't get a confident answer out of for anything years prior?

'Those orbs... are they the "self-discovery" and fulfillment that he's talking about? A way to fill the hole in my heart? Ridiculous. It's not that simple.' She sighed as she sat back up and cleared her mind of it's inner conflict. Her attention perked up slightly when she heard that small yellow and green digimon mention meeting the girl standing near him in a dream. She was pretty sure she didn't meet Ghostmon in her dream.

Lumina looked over at Ghostmon only to find the blue whispy digimon looking down at her folded hands. She looked sad and worried. Lumina's expression softened as she realized that Ghostmon must be thinking about the dark ocean. It made sense. That description of the dark ocean was mysterious and chilling. She wouldn't wish that kind of a fate on anyone. "Ah shoot..." She mumbled under her breath.

"I need to know that too." Lumina looked over at Akeno before quickly looking back at Gotsumon. "How are we supposed to contain an ocean or fog or whatever?"
1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by XxFellsingxX
Raw
Avatar of XxFellsingxX

XxFellsingxX Your Own Portable Ninja Friend

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago

Blucomon loosened his grip on Agumon, his gaze following to where the other dinosaur was pointing until it settled on Hide. Blucomon blinked before a wide grin spread across his face. "Wow, he looks so mature!" he said. He let go of Agumon completely and began to bounce up and down on the soles of his feet, both excited and obviously not really paying attention to the conversation going on around him.

Kieran, on the other hand, was listening, though didn't seem keen to interject. When 'Gotsumon' - as the golem-like creature was called - mentioned the dream, Kieran merely nodded. He'd remembered that previous dream very clearly when he had encountered Blucomon in the hut, as well as how it ended: with Blucomon asking where they wanted to go next. Kieran hadn't been able to answer back then, but thinking on it now, he might have chosen to stay in that dream for just a little longer, to spend some time with Blucomon in that strange world. Assuming this was the same place, it seemed he was getting his wish.

That being said, he still wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't just another dream. For all knew, he may have never woken up from his nap, and was still peacefully asleep within his bed. After all, if a strange fantasy world really did exist, why would anyone pick him to be one of its saviors?

He turned his glance towards the other humans who had supposedly been summoned. He didn't recognize any of them, but they were all older him, at least eighteen or over, and while their response to the call to adventure was mixed, to say the least, they at least were curious enough not to refuse outright. Perhaps they would make good saviors, but him? Kieran slumped slightly in his chair and let out a small, dejected sigh.
1x Like Like
↑ Top
© 2007-2024
BBCode Cheatsheet