Clearing a head (Seph)

One of Darian's favourite foods after living in Japan for so long had to have been the various noodle dishes available. And what was one of his first destinations after returning to Canada, obviously a noodle shop. Darian and Gabe, holosuited of course, had managed to find a quaint little noodle joint in the Shibuya 104. Darian ordered his favourite, while Gabe himself ordered two noodle dishes to go and was double fisting them.

Turning to leave, Darian caught sight of a little girl who looked a little distraught. It wasn't exactly his business to get involved so he thought little of it. He figured maybe she had gotten into an argument with her parents, who could quite possibly have been one of the people in the store. As they walked past her, casually strolling towards the exit, Gabe spoke,

"So we heading to the Digital World anytime soon? It's been a while."

"Eh, I don't really see a reason to. We've got all the supplies we need from Terminus. And nothing's blowing up lately." Darian responded, his voice although hushed, could most likely be heard by someone in passing.

Darian had grown accustomed to keeping an eye on his surroundings over the years, so he wasn't caught off guard when he noticed the little girl that they passed seemingly get even more distraught after Gabe's mention of the Digital World. This actually worried him, kids could go through some trauma and survive mentally sane, but if she was freaking out after hearing the words Digital World...that place could do some serious damage.

"Hey Gabe, hold up."

Darian turned to take a quick look at the girl, noticing that she seemed to be undergoing some sort of internal peril. Deciding not to be too obvious about the Digimon thing, just in case she was freaking out about something entirely different, he approached and said,

"Hey there, are you alright?" in the softest voice he could muster so as not to scare her further.

Right, Darian was technically an adult now. If he were in this girl's place he'd be a little weirded out by some random dude coming over and talking to her as well. But still, something seemed off about this girl, like something had taken a part of her and broken it into several smaller pieces and she just couldn't find the will to put it all back.

With the mention of a secret, he decided that he would pry just a little bit more before he would leave it. There's one thing he could say in order to figure out if this was Digimon related or not, and if it turned out not to be he would wish the girl all the best and be on his way.

"Listen, while it's good that you're protecting your secrets, if this secret, and the reason you seem so unhappy, is because you ended up in a different...world not like ours. Then trust me when I say he and I are probably two of the best people to talk about it with." Darian prodded, oddly reminded of the time when he got sucked into his computer all those years ago.

"Yeah! This guy ended up in my world all bright eyed and bushy tailed and now look at him." Gabe stated, unknowingly revealing his actual Digital lineage.

Darian realized that Alice had all but figured out that Darian and Gabe both had an understanding of what the Digital World was when she seemed to become a little bit more comfortable with explaining things. This was good, if the girl ended up in the Digital World and had a traumatic experience, she probably wasn't feeling the greatest right now.

Darian's suspicions were confirmed when she mentioned the place known as the Dark Area. He feared for her sanity almost immediately. What was this girl doing in the bloody Dark Area? The only memory Darian himself had of the place was of the time that he fought Despair in his castle of darkness. It was a place for high leveled, horrifying Digimon, yet a child ended up there by falling through a computer.

"Wait, the Dark Area?! Woah!" Gabe announced surprised.

"Hold on. Were you hurt!? Are you okay!? How in the world did you get out of the Dark Area!?" Darian questioned, suddenly even more concerned about the mental health of this little girl.

Gabe was immediately concerned by the fact that the portals seemed to be sending the newer kids directly into places like the Dark Area now. That was strange to think about, almost everybody from back in the time that Darian became a tamer, including Darian himself, had at least been dropped somewhere peaceful and not dangerous, mostly the Village of Beginnings and Terminus.

But the Dark Area? That's insanity.

Darian on the other hand listened intently. While he didn't exactly know this little girl, he has always found himself "defending" those weaker than him for what seemed like literal years now, so instincts had kicked in. He hadn't met too many of the younger tamers, thanks to the fact that he was always running around getting blown up by Megas and Super Megas (and at one point, had the entire Terminus City Security Force going after him), but that was beside the point.

"Well, you seem like you're okay. Just a little troubled. It's good that you met this Marshall guy." Darian stated, attempting to figure out what a Coro was but wasn't able to figure out the full name of the Digimon just via Coro, "It's always good to meet other Tamers. Useful to have people to get you out of a pinch." he stated, wanting to will this girl into knowing that if she did ever end up in the Digiworld again, to make as many friends as possible.

"So uh, how did you end up getting pulled into the computer? Do you have one of these, or something that looks a little different but like this?" Darian questioned, reaching for his hip and pulling out his D-Tector, showing the little girl his Digivice.

Darian sighed when Alice had mentioned that the portal opened after she had been playing with her brother's Digivice. It was hard to confirm, but that could possibly say that either she was sucked into the computer, or she just thought so and her brother just had the portal upgrade for the Digivice. Either way, not taking care of your Digivice and leaving it in the possible clutches of a little girl, that was frustrating to think about.

But this did confirm a couple things. A: Her brother was definitely a tamer, which could mean there was another young kid getting involved in the Digital World, and B: If the portal wasn't created by the Digivice, then this girl could also in fact be a tamer. Which, seeing as how it didn't look like she had a Digivice, could mean trouble.

"Well, um, first of all, should probably not touch that device again. Your brother may have a portal function on his, which could be what caused this to happen. Also, did you meet any Digimon that tried to stay with you there? Or perhaps find an egg? Get a device of your own?" Darian questioned, trying to narrow down the little girl's predicament.

Gabe on the other hand interjected with,

"I mean, to be honest, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask us. We'll answer as best as we can."

(Apologies for the lack of posting. Work life balance has been barely balanced.)

Darian sighed slightly when Alice explained that her brother didn't have a portal device in his Digivice. That must mean that she had that ever present luck of being chosen to get involved with the Digital World. Which, while Darian had no issue with it, a girl so young didn't seem proper to be pulled into that mess, especially into the Dark Area.

Despite asking her to ask him questions, he was unprepared for the barrage that she laid into him, despite their simplicity.

"Um, a Digimon is a creature that's..sort of spawned on the Internet. But they're real creatures. They have their own world that's pretty much as big as ours." he explained, "And about them following you, um, sometimes people are just chosen. Weird as it sounds. I don't even think there's any requirement, I was just a normal teenager coming home from school when I was pulled through the computer. A Digimon that's meant to meet its partner will meet its partner. Easy as that."

Gabe was the one who interjected for the last question, being the resident expert on the actual Digital World.

"Sometimes the Digital World can temporarily merge with the human world. This often occurs when either new tamers are being chosen, or when Digimon try to pass over into the human world. That would be why you can sometimes pass through accidentally without a portal or train." he explained.

Darian noticed that she seemed to be uneasily staring at her bag but thought nothing of it. To be honest, he figured he could just be making her nervous as constantly glancing away from someone was usually a sign of discomfort. Maybe it was time for him to leave soon?