Introspection and Instability [Hunt]
Oct 10, 2016 22:46:15 GMT
Post by Scout Evans on Oct 10, 2016 22:46:15 GMT
Well, this is certainly an interesting turn of events. It's not the first time he's been knocked unconscious, but it's the first time he's been...conscious for it? Wait, no, that doesn't work. Uh. It's the first time he's been aware of the fact that he's unconscious. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's in a digital world within a digital world? Like Russian Nesting Dolls. Except with explosions and acid. ...Hm. That'd be the concussion setting in, then.
How had he gone down again? Right. That 'Paratrice Head' thing had scored more hits on him than he could handle, and that combined with the fall as well as damage he'd sustained as SkullGreymon had been enough to knock him out of the fight. Really, he was lucky it hadn't killed him. Not that he was...sure he could die in this place. Ugh. Shouldn't've gone with Arresterdramon for a sustained fight. Speed is no substitute for durability, it turns out.
No, but seriously, where is he? He's suddenly aware of the fact that he can move, but it's still dark and--...oh. Right. His eyes are closed. That explains a lot. He opens them slowly, wincing as a bright light hits him directly in the face. He's...lying on his bed. Good. That explains a lot. He sits up slowly, wincing as the pain from the battle shoots through his body. Oh come on. He can't get a break even when he's dreaming? Gah.
He peers out of the window and is...only slightly surprised to see that he can see the world outside his physical body through it. MetalGreymon moving in to defend him from the enormous monster that had felled him so easily. Of course B would do that. He never considers his own safety, throwing himself into dangerous situations to protect those that can't protect themselves. But he does it for Scout constantly. Not because he thinks Scout is incapable, but because the two formed an unlikely bond after spending so much time together, starting as reluctant acquaintances and then moving through to friends, then...what are they now? Family? Family sounds right. Scout doesn't want to see MetalGreymon get hurt either.
Scout becomes aware of something glowing in his pocket, and retrieves his D-Scanner. Rather than one of his totems, the words 'Ultimate Evolution' are displayed in bold black characters. A beam of light shoots out of the device and out through the window, apparently passing into the real world and causing B to digivolve to his Mega stage, a powerful humanoid warrior wielding two swords. ...He looks pretty badass. What happened certainly raises a lot of questions, but he's not sure this is the time to ask any of them.
“I don't think it's the time for much of anything,” GAH. Who said that? ...Who...what. Scout's eyes fall on an action figure-sized Arresterdramon standing on the edge of his desk, looking right up at him. “...So! Concussion it is,”. Arresterdramon sighs, tail swishing through the air, “You're...okay, yeah, you might have a concussion, but this is as real as it gets. For being a dream-within-a-digital-world-within-a-digital-world,”. Scout glares at the tiny entity, “Stop adding more layers,”
“You're talkin' to yourself. You're askin' yourself to stop adding more layers!” And...yeah. Tiny OmegaShoutmon is sitting atop his computer's screen. Double sigh. Scout considers what the hallucination is saying for a few moments, “Yeah, you're right. You guys are just...extensions of me, right? I mean, I guess you influence my personality a bit, but...what is this?”. Arresterdramon offers the weak explanation of, “Introspection, I guess,”
Scout goes quiet again. He knows some people have had spirits that seemed to almost have a life of their own. Able to talk, project themselves as holograms, able to move around. But other than SkullGreymon, none of his totems had ever shown any sign of being able to do more than influence minor facets of his personality. They certainly never talked to him. “Introspection about...what?”
“GOOD QUESTION,” No. Shut up Tiny RizeGreymon. And get off the ceiling. “IT'S PROBABLY YOUR MIND TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO REACT TO DANGER LIKE THIS. YOU'VE NEVER COME THIS CLOSE TO GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED BEFORE,”. Well, that's true. In fact, h-- “You've never really lost before, either. Not as a Digimon at least, and not so badly that you've been knocked unconscious,” Tiny Agunimon sitting on the bed. Sure. Scout rubs the bridge of his nose, “Okay, this is...getting to be a bit of a mess,” You're telling me. “Are you gonna tell me how to jump back into the fight and help B and those other kids, or...?”
“We are,” Arresterdramon answers, “but it's not going to be easy for any of us,”. Scout peers out the window again, watching as B narrowly avoids a blast of red acidic...goop. “It doesn't matter, if I can help, then it's worth the risk,”. “Very selfless,” Agunimon chuckles, “but isn't that the line of thought you were following when you changed into SkullGreymon earlier? Even knowing that the last time you used it, you almost killed a bunch of people?”
“I...that's different, right? SkullGreymon is just...a fluke. There's just something bestial about him because he's a beast spirit,” Scout tries to defend himself. “Naw. Arresterdramon and RizeGreymon are beast spirits too. There was something dark in SkullGreymon the first time you used him. Corrupt. It got flushed out, but he's always gonna be wild. You had no way of knowing that though,” OmegaShoutmon presses, “What're you gonna do if the next spirit you get is just as unpredictable?”
“I'll... just have to deal with it as it comes. That's all I can do, and I trust B to stop me if it goes too far,” Scout looks down at the D-Scanner in his hand again, finding that the screen has changed to static, and a crack has inexplicably developed down the side of it, across the green 'flame' symbol. “What if it's not enough?” He doesn't need to look around to identify the wheezing gasp as the voice of a presumably-tiny FlaWizarmon. “You guys are just parts of me, right? You've seen the same TV shows I have, then. 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. If this...big threat thing grows in power, it could threaten both worlds. We all knew the risks when we came in here. I'm ready to risk my life to stop it, and I think the others are too,” Or not. Haven't been listening to Elliot's internal monologues, have you?
The crack down the D-Scanner spreads across the face of it, causing one of the buttons to shatter into...uh. Pixels. Of course. “So what do I do, how do I wake up?” You're asking yourself how you wake up from being beaten unconscious. Of course. Good idea. “You're still a Digimon right now. Me. You need t'get an infusion of energy,” Tiny-BigAgumon? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? And get off the damned lampshade! “And even if you wake up, you're gonna need more power than you had before if you wanna topple that giant an' actually help the others take down this D-Reaper thing,”
Well, that is what they've been hinting at, right? “Right. A new power. But...how? I don't exactly have time to go find a cave filled with ancient totems right now,”. BigAgumon snorts, “You don't need to. We can give you the power y'need,”. Scout can't help but laugh a little at that as well, “Is this a 'the power was inside me the whole time' thing?”. Agunimon cuts in, “Kinda. Not really. You need to accept us as being part of you. All of us,”. There's a terrible groaning from the door that should lead into the rest of the house. It shatters as something impacts it, and the sight of a single skeletal digit poking through causes Scout to recoil in fear.
SkullGreymon. He'd been wondering when he'd show up. “But he's--” Arresterdramon holds up a tiny hand, “He's part of you, like we said. Part of us. Your fear is just of...you. Everyone has a dark side, it's just that yours happens to be able to manifest. You can't shy away from it, you've just gotta embrace it. If you accept him, he can't hurt you anymore,”. No promises about anything else though, of course.
Scout remains silent for what feels like hours before starting to slowly creep forward towards the skeletal finger currently occupying half of his bedroom. Hesitantly, he reaches out with a hand and places it against the bone, wincing as he feels just how cold this thing is. Jeez. Why'd one of his spirits have to be a skeleton? Bones are terrible.
“Can't exactly say we got the tremendous development we were hoping for,” Agunimon quietly comments, “but maybe it's enough for now. You've taken the first step towards accepting that you're more than just...smiles and bad jokes. And there's more to us than just being part of you, Scout. Makes sure you remember that,”. Scout takes a deep breath, opening his mouth to say something, but just ends up nodding. One by one, the 'Digimon' change into spheres of orange light, moving to the center of the room and coalescing into a single sphere until only BigAgumon is left, “Just try not to screw up, huh? You've got a lot ahead of you, and I'd hate for our journey to end so soon,”
He joins the others, the orb of orange growing brighter than ever as it emits a powerful ray of light that touches his seemingly-damaged D-Scanner. It isn't repaired exactly, but it sort of...reformats? The casing shatters, revealing a new one beneath it. Rather than black and bright green, it becomes dark red and black with golden highlights, including some letters in Digicode on the side where the flame symbol had once been. The orb then transforms into a totem similar to the others, albeit with a golden base rather than a grey one. And unlike the others, there's no real sign of a Digimon form on it, instead some sort of...odd double-bladed sword with a sun-shaped grip in the middle.
Scout reaches out and grasps it, catching a glimpse of a a giant armored dragon warrior with metal wings and the sword present on the totem. He takes a deep breath, and steps through the open door.
[Never been quite so unhappy with a hunt before, but...jeez. At least it's out of the way. Apologies for quality.]
How had he gone down again? Right. That 'Paratrice Head' thing had scored more hits on him than he could handle, and that combined with the fall as well as damage he'd sustained as SkullGreymon had been enough to knock him out of the fight. Really, he was lucky it hadn't killed him. Not that he was...sure he could die in this place. Ugh. Shouldn't've gone with Arresterdramon for a sustained fight. Speed is no substitute for durability, it turns out.
No, but seriously, where is he? He's suddenly aware of the fact that he can move, but it's still dark and--...oh. Right. His eyes are closed. That explains a lot. He opens them slowly, wincing as a bright light hits him directly in the face. He's...lying on his bed. Good. That explains a lot. He sits up slowly, wincing as the pain from the battle shoots through his body. Oh come on. He can't get a break even when he's dreaming? Gah.
He peers out of the window and is...only slightly surprised to see that he can see the world outside his physical body through it. MetalGreymon moving in to defend him from the enormous monster that had felled him so easily. Of course B would do that. He never considers his own safety, throwing himself into dangerous situations to protect those that can't protect themselves. But he does it for Scout constantly. Not because he thinks Scout is incapable, but because the two formed an unlikely bond after spending so much time together, starting as reluctant acquaintances and then moving through to friends, then...what are they now? Family? Family sounds right. Scout doesn't want to see MetalGreymon get hurt either.
Scout becomes aware of something glowing in his pocket, and retrieves his D-Scanner. Rather than one of his totems, the words 'Ultimate Evolution' are displayed in bold black characters. A beam of light shoots out of the device and out through the window, apparently passing into the real world and causing B to digivolve to his Mega stage, a powerful humanoid warrior wielding two swords. ...He looks pretty badass. What happened certainly raises a lot of questions, but he's not sure this is the time to ask any of them.
“I don't think it's the time for much of anything,” GAH. Who said that? ...Who...what. Scout's eyes fall on an action figure-sized Arresterdramon standing on the edge of his desk, looking right up at him. “...So! Concussion it is,”. Arresterdramon sighs, tail swishing through the air, “You're...okay, yeah, you might have a concussion, but this is as real as it gets. For being a dream-within-a-digital-world-within-a-digital-world,”. Scout glares at the tiny entity, “Stop adding more layers,”
“You're talkin' to yourself. You're askin' yourself to stop adding more layers!” And...yeah. Tiny OmegaShoutmon is sitting atop his computer's screen. Double sigh. Scout considers what the hallucination is saying for a few moments, “Yeah, you're right. You guys are just...extensions of me, right? I mean, I guess you influence my personality a bit, but...what is this?”. Arresterdramon offers the weak explanation of, “Introspection, I guess,”
Scout goes quiet again. He knows some people have had spirits that seemed to almost have a life of their own. Able to talk, project themselves as holograms, able to move around. But other than SkullGreymon, none of his totems had ever shown any sign of being able to do more than influence minor facets of his personality. They certainly never talked to him. “Introspection about...what?”
“GOOD QUESTION,” No. Shut up Tiny RizeGreymon. And get off the ceiling. “IT'S PROBABLY YOUR MIND TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO REACT TO DANGER LIKE THIS. YOU'VE NEVER COME THIS CLOSE TO GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED BEFORE,”. Well, that's true. In fact, h-- “You've never really lost before, either. Not as a Digimon at least, and not so badly that you've been knocked unconscious,” Tiny Agunimon sitting on the bed. Sure. Scout rubs the bridge of his nose, “Okay, this is...getting to be a bit of a mess,” You're telling me. “Are you gonna tell me how to jump back into the fight and help B and those other kids, or...?”
“We are,” Arresterdramon answers, “but it's not going to be easy for any of us,”. Scout peers out the window again, watching as B narrowly avoids a blast of red acidic...goop. “It doesn't matter, if I can help, then it's worth the risk,”. “Very selfless,” Agunimon chuckles, “but isn't that the line of thought you were following when you changed into SkullGreymon earlier? Even knowing that the last time you used it, you almost killed a bunch of people?”
“I...that's different, right? SkullGreymon is just...a fluke. There's just something bestial about him because he's a beast spirit,” Scout tries to defend himself. “Naw. Arresterdramon and RizeGreymon are beast spirits too. There was something dark in SkullGreymon the first time you used him. Corrupt. It got flushed out, but he's always gonna be wild. You had no way of knowing that though,” OmegaShoutmon presses, “What're you gonna do if the next spirit you get is just as unpredictable?”
“I'll... just have to deal with it as it comes. That's all I can do, and I trust B to stop me if it goes too far,” Scout looks down at the D-Scanner in his hand again, finding that the screen has changed to static, and a crack has inexplicably developed down the side of it, across the green 'flame' symbol. “What if it's not enough?” He doesn't need to look around to identify the wheezing gasp as the voice of a presumably-tiny FlaWizarmon. “You guys are just parts of me, right? You've seen the same TV shows I have, then. 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. If this...big threat thing grows in power, it could threaten both worlds. We all knew the risks when we came in here. I'm ready to risk my life to stop it, and I think the others are too,” Or not. Haven't been listening to Elliot's internal monologues, have you?
The crack down the D-Scanner spreads across the face of it, causing one of the buttons to shatter into...uh. Pixels. Of course. “So what do I do, how do I wake up?” You're asking yourself how you wake up from being beaten unconscious. Of course. Good idea. “You're still a Digimon right now. Me. You need t'get an infusion of energy,” Tiny-BigAgumon? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? And get off the damned lampshade! “And even if you wake up, you're gonna need more power than you had before if you wanna topple that giant an' actually help the others take down this D-Reaper thing,”
Well, that is what they've been hinting at, right? “Right. A new power. But...how? I don't exactly have time to go find a cave filled with ancient totems right now,”. BigAgumon snorts, “You don't need to. We can give you the power y'need,”. Scout can't help but laugh a little at that as well, “Is this a 'the power was inside me the whole time' thing?”. Agunimon cuts in, “Kinda. Not really. You need to accept us as being part of you. All of us,”. There's a terrible groaning from the door that should lead into the rest of the house. It shatters as something impacts it, and the sight of a single skeletal digit poking through causes Scout to recoil in fear.
SkullGreymon. He'd been wondering when he'd show up. “But he's--” Arresterdramon holds up a tiny hand, “He's part of you, like we said. Part of us. Your fear is just of...you. Everyone has a dark side, it's just that yours happens to be able to manifest. You can't shy away from it, you've just gotta embrace it. If you accept him, he can't hurt you anymore,”. No promises about anything else though, of course.
Scout remains silent for what feels like hours before starting to slowly creep forward towards the skeletal finger currently occupying half of his bedroom. Hesitantly, he reaches out with a hand and places it against the bone, wincing as he feels just how cold this thing is. Jeez. Why'd one of his spirits have to be a skeleton? Bones are terrible.
“Can't exactly say we got the tremendous development we were hoping for,” Agunimon quietly comments, “but maybe it's enough for now. You've taken the first step towards accepting that you're more than just...smiles and bad jokes. And there's more to us than just being part of you, Scout. Makes sure you remember that,”. Scout takes a deep breath, opening his mouth to say something, but just ends up nodding. One by one, the 'Digimon' change into spheres of orange light, moving to the center of the room and coalescing into a single sphere until only BigAgumon is left, “Just try not to screw up, huh? You've got a lot ahead of you, and I'd hate for our journey to end so soon,”
He joins the others, the orb of orange growing brighter than ever as it emits a powerful ray of light that touches his seemingly-damaged D-Scanner. It isn't repaired exactly, but it sort of...reformats? The casing shatters, revealing a new one beneath it. Rather than black and bright green, it becomes dark red and black with golden highlights, including some letters in Digicode on the side where the flame symbol had once been. The orb then transforms into a totem similar to the others, albeit with a golden base rather than a grey one. And unlike the others, there's no real sign of a Digimon form on it, instead some sort of...odd double-bladed sword with a sun-shaped grip in the middle.
Scout reaches out and grasps it, catching a glimpse of a a giant armored dragon warrior with metal wings and the sword present on the totem. He takes a deep breath, and steps through the open door.
[Never been quite so unhappy with a hunt before, but...jeez. At least it's out of the way. Apologies for quality.]
