Fish of Oblivion

Digimon- [The Uncanny Frontier]

Though Groundramon was hard-pressed to dislodge or land any substantive blow upon her, it wasn't long before Delta realized that her own position in the fight wasn't much better.

Though the Diatrymon leaping up onto the beast to savage it had certainly drawn its attention away from the girl it had been about to devour, the beast's thick hide held firm against her assault. Though oily blood leaked from split scales, the damage to the flesh beneath was shallow at best, and it was simply the force of the jaws clamped onto it that kept the beast's aggression on her; as time ticked on, her options diminished down to losing this particular battle and being thrown bodily aside by the dragon’s thrashing, or taking the initiative to break off.

Under the circumstances, however, she didn't have the option of disengaging. The moment she dismounted the beast, it would likely make for the girl again, and Nora's hail mary to save her from its jaws had taken a visible toll upon the puppeteer.

She clenched her jaw, feeling the joint creak to near-breaking point as the beast roared with pained fury once more. No, as risky as it was, maybe she had to take a chance. What the beast possessed in strength was compromised by a deficit in intelligence; if she could maintain its aggression while dismounting and pull it away, she could buy enough time for the girl to get away and for Nora to recover the strength to help her keep the situation under control until more agents arrived. With Homura nearby now, they probably wouldn't be too far off themselves; she just had to buy them a little more time.

Moving as fast as she could to deny Groundramon any opening to retaliate or swat her away, she released her jaw’s grip on the beast’s hide before propelling herself off of its back with a mighty kick that managed to jolt the Perfect away slightly. Landing upon the ground with a crash, her keen eyes narrowed to cut through the debris that had been kicked up by the dragon’s thrashing; though she’d previously been unable to see anything but a blur as it attempted to throw her off of itself, she was able to see for a good distance around her in spite of the low visibility. Still no sign of Homura; shortly after rendezvousing with her and Nora, he’d left to find a vehicle he could use to grab any interlopers from the battlefield. As her vision swept across the scene of destruction, however, he was nowhere to be seen. As before, it was just her, Nora and the gi-

... Hold on. Was that-
—
Nora’s crow stared as the girl’s form changed into something a fair bit larger, and far, far more familiar to her.

Aw, damn it all, she thought, almost lowering her bow in shock. We’ve got another one.

She would’ve cursed audibly if that wouldn’t have consumed her shrinking pool of strength. In fact, there was a suspicious amount of digimon now in the area that she didn’t remember sensing. No. No way. She refused to believe it-

There was a light behind her. Nora didn’t even need to look to know it came from the other human she’d spotted when she first arrived. The crow and scarecrow kept their expression carefully neutral, to avoid wasting the energy, but one thought crossed her mind.

I’m going to need a smoke after this. Hell, probably two.

The ground under the Groundramon cracked, catching its leg, and Nora took that as her cue to fire a cluster of arrows upon the lizard-like digimon. Most were deflected by the scales, but one managed to snag a crack Delta made, and one caught the beast in the eye. It seemed everyone else had chosen to take advantage of the distraction as well, raining attack after attack onto the Groundramon. A shockwave knocked it further off-balance before a hail of fire caught it across the face. Then thick thorny vines tore across its hide, followed up by a blast of concussive force from Delta as she snapped out of her brief lull. Individual attacks alone couldn’t do much, but their combined force was starting to crack its tough exterior. Finally, the scaly armor broke, and the Groundramon howled before its legs gave out. At that moment, it no longer seemed like a predator but rather a pitiful creature, incapable of causing anyone harm.
—
With a series of deep, laboured breaths, Groundramon tried to lift itself back up, growling in frustration against both its assailants and its pitiful state; but a moment later and it found the strength beyond it, the pain of its wounds and the suddenly-apparent weight of its body bringing it crashing back down to earth one last time.

Damn it all, was this how it ended? Brought low by mere grubs and reduced to prey for the very morsels it had made to feed upon?

If it were more than a beast, it may have offered a dark laugh at the bitter irony of it all. But as it were, as its body gave out under the assault of the assembled Adults, it just offered them one last defiant roar; which became distorted before fading out entirely with feedback that sent static through the air as it collapsed into a sea of green fractals that dispersed outwards like an emerald blizzard. As that cleared, naught was left but a strange, soon-fading glow- which cooled to reveal a green egg.

Nora sighed and moved to collect the egg. It’d have to be sent to somewhere that could take care of whatever would hatch now. If there was one good thing about working for DATS, they were pretty good about finding such villages and towns in the digital world. It was no longer their responsibility. Though, speaking of responsibilities...

She looked over the group of digimon. Some, she noticed, had vanished - probably cleared out after Groundramon died. But the rest.... Where to even begin?

Digimon: The Parallel Visage

Hey sorry, kinda dropped the ball here. I had every intention of posting by now but a lot of things just kept getting in the way, but I'll try and get something of a post up for this as soon as I can.

@metanoia

No worries, life runs us all over in turns. If you want any help drafting or coming up with something, let us know and we can lend you an ear?

Digimon: The Parallel Visage

If you had told Dante that he'd died on his way home, all odds were that he'd believe you.

As the sounds of voices nearby pulled him out of sleep, the world washed over him like lukewarm water, and his body felt light and devoid of strength. He didn't feel pain, but that was little comfort; all over, he felt as if something had taken him apart like a careless child taking apart a model and then, just as thoughtlessly, reassembled him and thrown him to the side. Something had clearly happened, but it was impossible to ascertain what. His mind was blank, short-term memories floating idly beyond his reach; the past few hours existed in a blur, the last thing he recalled being Harumi telling him she'd left something precious at a friend's before she caught her cold.

As that fell into place, however, things began to come back into focus. He remembered now. It had been a crisp autumnal day with no urgent work to do, and so he'd been out. Dad had been called into work and mum was looking after Haru, so he'd volunteered to go pick up what she'd left behind; it was only a few miles up the road, after all. Something had conspired to hold him up and so he'd elected to take a shortcut back, go through the woods that offered a shorter but more uncertain path home-

Something clicked. He blinked, mustering all of his slowly-returning strength to pull himself up into a sitting position and look around. He was surrounded by trees, so perhaps he wasn't dead after all- he couldn't place himself, but it was simple enough to assume he'd passed out somehow and ended up in a part of the forest he didn't recognize. Perhaps he'd tripped and hit his head? He doubted he'd have lost his footing so easily, but without the certainty of recollection he could only assume that or an ambush by his sister's cold amidst the chilly winds of the fading day. It didn't seem massively likely, but considering the circumstances and the limits of his memory, it wasn't impossible.

Neither explanation accounted for what he saw among the trees, however. He didn't recognize the clearing, but that much made sense. Dad wasn't a particularly solemn person despite his affectations otherwise, but he had warned him that the forest- this particular forest, anyway- was ever-changing and treacherous, and it had been years since he'd been particularly deep into it. But not only was he not the only person in the alcove- even in his addled state, he could make out two girls and a handful of other prone figures- but there was something distinctly inhuman floating in plain sight a short distance from them.

One of them seemed to be little more than a ball with wings. The other looked like... a clione? It certainly looked like the sea slugs he'd seen in his mum's old nature books, but it was far too large and airbourne to boot, notwithstanding the fact that it seemed to be talking to the ball. Parsing sounds was still a struggle but there was no mistaking that the two were communicating verbally, nor the sheer volume of the ball's apparent voice.

He raised his hand to his head, feeling around to confirm that, no, he hadn't hit his head after all. No telltale lumps or jolts of pain, and no blood as he pulled his hand away. So he wasn't dead, and he probably didn't have brain damage. But in that case-

"What the hell is going on?" He coughed out, almost involuntarily, as the waking fever dream before him unfolded.

Digimon: The Parallel Visage

Not quite done with updating these guys but might as well shove them up so they're out in the open:

Human Character

Name: Dante Jones-Yasuragi

Appearance:


Age: 13

Gender: Male

Personality: Risk-averse and non-confrontational, Dante is unusually reserved for a lad of his age. He tends to keep to himself and away from situations that would entangle him in group dynamics; which, combined with a pronounced stubborn streak and a smart mouth, makes him come across as difficult and unwilling to work with others.

Though certainly not a social butterfly, this is largely unfair to Dante. Though perhaps a bit too reserved for his own good, he is the way he is not out of any sense of malice or sense of superiority, but a deeply-ingrained sense of caution and responsibility instilled into him by a difficult life. Though he tends to avoid other people and their problems if he can help it, that side of him often compels him to get involved anyway. Though he'll often rationalize it as 'just trying to do the right thing', he's certainly not the most pragmatic individual, regardless of how he tries to present himself.

Brief Bio: It'd be remiss to say that Dante's life has been full of tragedy, though it certainly hasn't been an easy one.

He and his twin sister were born to young parents; a young English man and a Japanese international student, only a couple years after their graduation. Despite a decent financial situation and plenty of support from their families, things weren't easy for them; Dante's parents genuinely loved each-other and their children and did all they could to provide, but they themselves had issues to work out that often forced them into a difficult balancing act. As of this, whilst they had the care and resources they needed, he and his sister had to learn to take responsibility for themselves at a fairly young age; helping out with cooking on nights where the family was worn down or short-handed, running extra errands and chores when the need arose, and doing their absolute best to stay out of trouble so that things didn't get any more difficult for them.

Things picked up significantly two years ago, when after some needling from Dante's aunt and her partner, his parents started seeing someone about their issues. Whilst things were still difficult at times, the improved psychological health and a handful of job changes and promotions lead to a significantly less demanding and stressful home environment, even by the time Dante and his sister entered secondary school. That lead to its own issues, however. Whilst they had a handful of friends from earlier in their life, the move to a bigger environment in secondary school was a difficult one for them; they didn't quite know how to interact with such a large number of class and schoolmates. This lead to some bullying at first- it was hard enough fitting in without the bonus of being mixed-race in a otherwise mostly homogenous environment-but between a handful of growth spurts and more or less retreating into themselves, they managed to make it a survivable environment; just one no less difficult than before.

Sovereign Connection: Xuanwumon

Equipment:
- Shoulder Bag w/ contents:
* Empty 500ml Bottle
* Telescopic Umbrella
* Notepad
* School Pencilcase
* Nintendo Switch Lite
* Smartphone (Somewhat slow and outdated)
* Wallet

Miscellaneous:
- At 5’5”/165cm, he’s fairly tall for his age.

Main Partner

Digimon Species: Dracmon

Appearance:


Gender: Male

Digivolution Line: Kuramon -> Tsumemon- >Dracmon -> Sangloupmon -> Astamon -> ???

Personality: Owing to the influence of a ‘funny old man who speaks to himself’, Dracmon is significantly more high-minded than you’d expect of a Digimon whose kind is largely considered second only to Keramon for wanton mischief. Though far from immune to the various foibles of adolescence, he’s almost disarmingly polite and helpful, and scarcely ever raises his voice or curses. Though certainly not above being a smartass, that much seems to be as much deliberate mischief as he’ll subject most people to; and though he can be extremely glib about matters, it never usually seems to come from a place of malice.

This belies the fact that Dracmon has what can only be described as an intensely morbid worldview. Though he’s as guarded about his exact circumstances as he is about the rest of his background, he seems to have knowledge and awareness of the world beyond what you would expect of a Child of his seeming age, and is all too happy to expound to others the pointlessness of worrying about particulars in the limited time allotted to them. Life is a brief, uncertain dance on a stage left ever uncertain by the whims of beings beyond mortal knowledge and comprehension, and if you spend it fretting over every step you- or someone else- might take, it’ll be curtains for you before you know it. While this does somewhat explain his restraint in tormenting people, it in turn means that individuals who act out of line with this worldview will soon find just how high-minded he really is. While most people, regardless of how morose they can be, will just be subject to varying degrees of smartassery, once Dracmon finds a suitable target he’ll come up with some truly inspired pranks to bring them down a peg or two and make them measure up to the absurdity of reality.

Equipment:

Attacks:
- Undead Fang: Bites the foe with its fangs.
- Eye of Nightmare: Hypnotizes the foe with the wicked eyes in the palms of its hands.
- Pico Darts: Throws a gigantic syringe at the opponent, draining their blood.

Miscellaneous:

Digimon: The Parallel Visage

Hey there! I'm interested if this is still being supported. Question - what purpose does the 'feral digimon' on our sheet serve? I understanding RPing our tamer + partner, but I'm not sure what this third-party digimon is for.

@Slamurai

Hi!

This is very much still happening, we're just working on collating ideas and getting characters written up in-between work and other life responsibilities; last I checked in with RBY, we're aiming to have the formal thread and an opening post up next week?

As for feral Digimon, they're allied Digimon that'll be encountered over the course of the journey? Like Leomon and Ogremon from Adventure or Bokomon and Neemon fron Frontier, albeit with more potential for long-term relevance depending on how things develop.

Digimon: The Parallel Visage

Alright, third time's the charm. Let's do this.

Digimon- [The Uncanny Frontier]

The initial attack had worked to cut the creatures off from escape - one was flung to the side from the blow with the tail, the other - the other had been holding a digimon. It had fallen during the chaos, but rapidly got back up on its feet.

"Blazing Fire!" The little digimon cried, pelting the monster with sparks and embers that made it lower one arm as a shield. The little digimon spoke again, words that it neither cared to nor could understand, not before it was attacking again. The dragon lowered its hand to block the Terrier Tornado, snarling and swiping at the little digimon.

Large ears whipped against his body as he spiralled backwards through the air. “Rrrr…” Terriermon growled, clenching his teeth in the most ferocious manner he could muster through his little body. He wanted to look and make sure that his trainer had made a run for it, but there was no time. The big bully was going to need a lot more of his attention than he had hoped, “Blazing Fire!” He bolted, again.

But as the small flames fell upon the beast they merely charred its scales as their oily-slick surface dispersed them. The flames danced thinly but otherwise left their mark undamaged, and the dragon simply hissed in contempt. These constant interruptions and futile struggles were becoming increasingly tiresome, and as it felt one of the morsels trying to run away that frustration approached the limit- and broke through it with a fierce roar.

Giga Crush!

And with its front arms slamming down, a fissure trailed after the fleeing one, not big enough to fall in and be lost, but more than enough to catch their ankle. Feeling the specific rhythm of their escape break down into a panicked stumble and then a tell-tale slam into the ground beneath them, it allowed itself a moment to look for the Terriermon- and as the tell-tale green fire gave their position away, it made its move.

While the dragon’s claws were powerful, bolstered as they were by the pistons it had accrued upon evolution, they weren’t its primary limbs for burrowing. Those were the limbs located above the beast’s shoulder blades, and their power came not from mechanical adaptation, but pure muscle. Strong enough to tear through Huanglongmon ore and whatever other stones and crystals were put before them, they bore something so vast through the ground with frightening speed and ease.

And with the full force behind such an ability, it slammed one of those arms down on Terriermon.

The little horned digimon’s body crushed to the ground. He felt crunches throughout him, and everything went dark. All Terriermon could think about was Ryan. He had to open his eyes to save her, but there was too much pain pulsing through him. He thought he could hear her voice, but he was certain she had gotten away. She had to have. He promised himself she wouldn’t get hurt. He promised himself. “r… y…” And, with one more stretch of consciousness, reassuring himself that Ryan was safe, Terriermon felt himself slip away into small pixels.

The dragon lifted its paw and brought it to its mouth as it approached the human, raking its rough tongue over the data spots left behind. The small digimon’s remains were... slightly fulfilling, but tasted nowhere near as good as the morsels here did. It spared the D’arcmon-like creature one last glance and then seized it in one hand. Even if it were a digimon conscious and capable of speech, it had no words to spare for its new meal. Instead, it brought them closer, stretching its jaw to fit them between its sharp teeth-

-and froze.

Its eyes darted about as its jaw trembled, and it became clear: it had not chosen to stop. Something else had forced it to stop. And, as its vision strained to peer over its shoulder, the answer became clear: there was a scarecrow, around the same height as the two teenagers, both stick-and-straw arms raised and aimed at the draconic digimon. Despite the painted face, the scarecrow was clearly grimacing, pushing all the energy it had into this feat of somehow keeping the monster’s jaw from slamming shut.

“Delta!” the scarecrow shouted before falling to one knee. The beast turned, a distorted growl rising in its throat-

“Mega Dash Impact!”

Which became a startled-cum-indignant yell as something new still came hurtling towards it from just out of the range of its vision, lunging from the cloud of debris it had kicked up to crash into it with the force of a runaway Trailmon. Tightening its grip on its hard-won morsel, it swept a claw in the direction of the scarecrow before it turned to confront the latest pest to interfere with the hunt; but as its eyes narrowed with a fury against the light and the bruise and punctures left in its side by the attack, it saw nothing but dust.

A split-second later, however, it did feel something simultaneously stab into and snap shut like a serrated vice about the muscular flesh of its shoulder. Unable to see their assailant, the beast let loose a strangled roar, instinctively loosening its grip while trying to reach for the digimon now giving it so many issues. Those on the ground, however, would see what appeared to be a creature halfway between a ratite and a theropod doing their best to savage the far-larger creature, a jaw-like beak locking tight onto the base of the arm holding Ryan as it responded to their target’s movement by digging the metallic claws of its talons deeper into the beast’s flesh.

The scarecrow seemed to see its chance - the beast snapped at the quick Champion now, while its claws were pried off the human, letting her fall to the ground. The scarecrow glanced at the other human, who looked out of it, while a plush crow descended from the forest canopy and alighted upon her shoulder.

“Get back to the start- of.. the...” The scarecrow’s voice trailed off as she looked behind them, where the dragon had cracked open the earth to emerge from its burrow. She seemed to be doing quick calculations in her head, shoulders slumped and plush bird looking despondent. “Actually, stay down. It mostly detects movement.” She sighed, drawing an arrow with a smouldering cigarette speared on its head. “By the Host, if they knew this is what we were gonna die for... Derision Crow!” And she raised the plush crow, who laughed with far more confidence than she demonstrated a moment ago. It didn’t wipe the stiff resignation from her pose, nor the fact that the running raptor-bird hybrid was merely distracting, not damaging the massive lizard digimon.

Digimon- [The Uncanny Frontier]

As the draconic digimon pounced upon the strange D’Arcmon-like creature who had so generously and obliviously offered themself up as their next meal, it had dimly expected an experience much like that of the other strange beast from before. Digital prey was hardly unsatisfying, but as their taste lingered the dragon’s ravenous hunger deepened; there was something about these creatures that spurred it to go beyond and eat its fill.

That rapture, however, was disturbed as something moved with breakneck speed into the path of its attack; and as its jaws snapped shut, what was torn from the creature before it was not the intoxicating meat of before, but something more mundane.

The beast ran its tongue over the torn flesh to confirm, and as it dissolved into code in its very mouth, it growled and narrowed its eyes to focus its struggling vision upon the being that had put themself between it and its meal. Once the sudden obscuring light about their form faded, there was no mistaking the wounded Renamon for anything else, nor the severity of the wound left upon them even as the attack forced them to revert. So it wasn’t alone in this strange space. The other Digimon seemed to have taken an interest in the creature it had tried to snap up; perhaps they had been stalking the creature themself, and wasn’t content to let their prey go without a fight.

A low sound halfway between the growl of a prehistoric beast and the rumble of an engine rolled out from its jaws, challenging the Renamon to take what it had claimed-

"Pinewood Pummel!!"

In the past, the beast had been hit numerous times by trees as it rammed through the vegetation, with them falling upon it as they were bent and snapped from their trunks by its rampage, but they had done little but tickle its thick hide. This managed a little more than that; this time the splinters of wood that came flying at it from a distance came with sufficient force to embed themselves between oily scales and sting into the flesh beneath.

With speed unbecoming of such a vast form and sufficient force to kick up a dense cloud of debris with the tremorous impact of its claws against the ground, the dragon turned with a snarl towards the interloper. This digimon was... different. It was reminiscent of an Ogremon, but something about its coloring and proportions were all wrong. It snapped its jaws in irritation at the new digimon, only to then register something large and heavy hitting the ground nearby, past the not-Ogremon. Yet another digimon.

Bloodlust briefly abated, instincts superseding the beast’s desire to gorge upon the strange meat of the D’Arcmon-like creature. Regardless of the alluring flavours still dancing upon its tongue, this was wholly too much of a struggle for such a meagre meal. Were it more desperate, it’d be happy to tear these other digimon to shreds and feast on them after setting upon the peculiar morsel. Was it desperate yet? It closed its eyes, focusing on the minute tremors of the ground and smashing its tail into the ground to kick up further debris and dust for cover. What else was around?

There. To the south. At least two moving forms that seemed unaware of its presence. And though it couldn’t be sure, the way in which their movement disturbed the ground beneath them was much like that of the D’Arcmon-like creature.

Without a single moment of hesitation, its second set of arms stretched, flinging the log off towards the Renamon and D’Arcmon-like entity through the debris cloud. The others could have them, provided they were willing to scrape their pulped remains off the ground and the tree’s bark. Both sets of arms flexed before it began to dig.

By the time the dust settled, the Groundramon had left only a massive crater of a hole in the middle of the trail.

--

For a digimon literally made to burrow through bedrock and caverns, the real problem was digging deep enough to prevent collapse before it reached its prey. The path had already begun to collapse behind it, and the lizard-like monster adjusted itself. The sources of the vibrations had yet to move away, and it picked up speed, readying a charge-

Behind Riku, Ryan, and Terriermon, the ground exploded in rock, dirt clumps, and dust. The earth shook, and a fissure, maybe 12 meters long and 4 meters wide, now blocked the trail from the rest of the city. One well-muscled arm swatted at Riku as if he were little more than an insect. Another curled behind Ryan and Terriermon as an enormous jaw snapped at the two.

Digimon- [The Uncanny Frontier]

can i join

@AZTEC811

We are still open! Feel free to write up a character sheet for consideration,@RBYDark and myself will get back to you when we can?

Digimon- [The Uncanny Frontier]

@RBYDark, is this anything like the game you were running five years ago? Asking for Briza.

@Mole

Oh shit, Briza lives!

Good to see you alive and well; like RBY said, PV might be a while and we're shameless character recyclers ourselves, so if you want to jump in with Ryan you're more than welcome! We have a lot of awful awful children on the way that I'm sure she'd 'love' to meet 😄.

Regardless, it'll be fun to talk again.

@RBYDark

And speaking of, here's a relink to the Discord for any newcomers or fresh applicants? Gonna keep the invites temporary so do prod me if you find it after the fact!