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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 3, 2018 18:08:17 GMT
Things were, in a word, bad. Leith had gone from being a normal American kid to a new Japanese immigrant/college student to in an inter-dimensional transient in just the span of a few short months. And yet somehow, despite this, the young man was happier at this point in time than he had been before (though not by much). The wounds of giving up his family and old real world life almost completely still stung like they were fresh, but at least for once the decision was his to make, not forced upon him. This was little solace, but it still mattered.
The young Tamer hadn't given up the human world completely, though, and that was for a couple of reasons. For one, he only really had one other digimon-aware person he could truly call a friend - Adrian Boriker - and that young man lived in the real world. But the other, more pressing matter was his little sister, the only family he wasn't entirely ready to give up. For that reason, once per week, Leith traveled by Trailmon back to the real world through the Shibuya Train terminal, which hid a secret platform for taking humans (and digimon) to the other world and back. By returning home, Leith's digital devices like his watch and (more importantly) phone functioned correctly again, which let him check if Skye had sent him any messages during his absence. After all, Leith knew there was still someone out there who targeted him personally, and there was every chance that person could come back and seek after his family, too.
The young man had to go above ground to get reception, so he did. Most people only saw nothing special, probably: just a 19-year-old boy dressed in as much black as he could fit on himself, including black sneakers, black jeans, and a Megadeth T-shirt (obviously black). Even the thin frames of his glasses were black, and the shoulder-length curly brown hair really sealed the look: this was a metalhead. Besides this, only two things really made him an unusual sight. One was his skin tone; he was, after all, a caucasian in Tokyo, though Leith was starting to find that was more common than he had originally expected. More significantly, adorned on his left wrist was a black and blue D-3, strapped to it by a specialized digivice cradle. Secretive as the digimon-aware usually wore, Leith thought it was beneficial to wear his in plain sight. Those who know nothing wouldn't recognize the device, and those who did know would be able to mark him as a Tamer on the spot... assuming they were so observant.
"Jesus. I need to unsubscribe from a lot of stuff. I didn't realize how many of my e-mails were junk," the young man mumbled as he stood up straight and began a spree of deletion. Perhaps it would have been more comfortable to lean back on something, but the guitar case Leith wore on his back made that inadvisable. "Alright, guys. I think Skye's been quiet." The 'guys' Leith was speaking to were Veemon and Shoutmon, the two digimon hiding in Leith's digivice. "I think we might as well go back."
"Are you sure you don't want to visit?" Veemon asked with some concern from within the device.
"Extremely," Leith shut him down.
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 3, 2018 20:48:41 GMT
On his way to the Shibuya Train Terminal, Alan found himself pushing through the streets of Tokyo once again, frantically looking from his cell phone, to the buildings and signs, and back again, in order to establish a sense of direction, a task made considerably more difficult by the throngs of people surrounding him. His entire outfit looked much as it did before, but now with one bonus feature: his backpack now appeared to be sporting an ivy cap of the same grey color of the bag itself. If someone were to take notice of this, and if someone were to fixate for long enough on this cap, they might realize that there was something off here. That cap is staying right in place, on the heavily-slanted top of a backpack, while the backpack's wearer walks through the city.
Luckily, no one cared to be that observant. After all, they rightly had better to do than ponder the precarious position of someone's hat, for example, making sure not to walk straight into any obstacles. The backpack shifted its weight ever so slightly, and from behind, Alan heard a forceful, loud whisper.
"Do you even know where we're going?" said Levi, the Veemon from the other day
"Levi, I assure you that I know where I wish to end up. I just need to make sure we're actually going there," Alan responded, to Levi's audible dismay. He didn't appreciate the groaning, but he found himself unable to argue with the sentiment. "Look, I don't know if you've been expecting me to show you around the human world or whatever, but I can't stress enough that right now, we both might as well be worlds apart from our own. That said, uh... what have you been thinking?"
"It looks like the inside of a bag," droned Levi, louder this time.
Alan began to laugh, but wasn't really in the mood. He felt terrible about keeping someone he met less than two weeks ago in a bag like this. In fact, he could tell Levi would likely be more suited to leading the way, even when neither of them knew the directions, but-
"You gotta keep Digimon a secret..." he said to himself, in a high-pitched, mocking voice. Even this made him feel no better. Those people back at the mall ran away when Levi so much as tried to talk to them, after all. He admittedly didn't react much better himself.
Eventually, Alan found something to say. He lifted his head up, and spoke with a confident tone.
"I'll tell you what I think," he found a small pocket in the crowd in which to stop and turn his head back to Levi. "I think that this world doesn't have enough cool people in it." Finally, he had managed to raise both of their spirits. "Maybe we should go look for some in Akihabara."
With newfound determination, Alan pressed on towards the terminal.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 3, 2018 21:12:12 GMT
Well, Leith at least thought to use his phone while he could, so he stopped at the bottom of some stairs down below to lean his shoulder on a wall and play some games, check the news, etc. After all, these were luxuries he didn't have in the digital world. Even though he found out his digivice could store and play music (a feature he used extremely liberally), he was almost completely unplugged besides that. Rosewood Village was, after all, quite the new and rural town, and he was only staying in a cheap room in the inn at that, playing sets in exchange for room, board, and a couple bits. Already it was a better deal than he had ever seen in the human world as a musician.
"Yeah, we're done here. Let's just go back," was how Leith signaled he was finally calling it for real this time. After depositing his phone into his pocket, Leith rejoined the flowing crowd into the station. Hopefully Chiaki isn't trying to reach me. Crap, I forgot the time I'm gone seems a lot longer to her than it does to me. Hey, at least she has time to- While the young Tamer was in his head, he wasn't paying much attention to the flow of traffic. That was why when it slowed, he accidentally bumped into someone in front of him, someone with a pretty stuffed backpack. "Oh! Uh, s-sumimasen," he tried to apologize, and the confidence with which he spoke suggested he didn't really know the language all that well. At least that was one phrase he didn't need his digital interpreters for.
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 3, 2018 22:53:06 GMT
"Gah! Ow!" Levi shouted as he forcefully kicked the back-facing part of the backpack, both to potentially retaliate against whatever bumped into him, and to get Alan's attention. "Warn me next time before you bump into something while I've got my claws near my f-AH!"
Alan wasted little time in checking his immediate surroundings for obstacles, then spinning one hundred and eighty degrees to follow up on the stranger's apology with an "it's fine!" Eyeing him up and down, Alan couldn't help but notice the bountiful Metal Gear™ being proudly displayed, including the guitar case. "Oh, hey!" Remembering that he was now walking backwards, he stepped to the side to gradually turn himself back to walk next to this unfamiliar person, while gripping his backpack's shoulder straps to keep it in place.
In a city like Tokyo, what are the chances I find two, err, three, err, four people I could potentially befriend? Wait a minute.
Suddenly, Alan become more aware that he had just moved to start a conversation with this person. On what grounds? Megadeth's a big name, sure, but... I can't name a single song of theirs from memory. I could ask if he's in a band, but I'm sure everyone asks. I play the drums, but it's not like I have reason to believe he wants to hear about it.
Perhaps, he thought, I can salvage this.
With that, he made a valiant attempt to gradually alter his body language, hoping to imply that he only moved over to move out of the way, and allow the man to walk faster, if he so desired. However, he now found it considerably more difficult to remember what his eyes and hands did when they weren't doing anything in particular. Of course he couldn't remember when he tried; that's why it's called acting "natural." He spent a few more seconds acting "natural" in silence as he began to check the signs to make sure he didn't miss whatever line goes to Akihabara.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 3, 2018 23:19:00 GMT
When kicked, Leith responded with his own, "Ow!" though someone was pressed too tightly against him for him to really get pushed back, making it hurt still worse. "Did you just-" Leith almost demanded, but he thought better of it. Alright, friend. No need for trouble. I can let that go. Besides, I remember the last time I pissed off someone like him... it didn't go well.
So Leith tried a different approach. Any other time, the young man would have gladly left well enough alone, but he already knew exactly how he managed to get kicked in the stomach by a backpack wearing a hat. It didn't exactly take a genius, after all; it simply took a Tamer. So instead of leaving well alone, the young man kept by Alan's side and tried to engage in conversation. At first he kept it casual, with the softball question, "So, you're American, too? I always think it's a relief to meet others here. I haven't really mastered the language yet." But right about then the area got a little less dense, safe enough that Leith felt comfortable holding up his digivice plainly for Alan to see and proposed, "Let's talk honestly here. Your backpack already blew your cover by kicking and screaming."
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 4, 2018 1:02:58 GMT
Alan could not be more grateful that someone else had started the conversation. The tension, of which Alan was often acutely aware, slowly began to diffuse, like air being gently let out from the end of a balloon. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm American, and... me, too. I keep telling myself I'm gonna learn the language, but chances are I'm not gonna be motivated until not knowing it causes me considerable trouble."
Except, not all the tension was going away. Every minute they spent walking was another minute where Alan slowly grew more confused. Had this person truly not noti-
"-blew your cover by kicking and screaming."
Alan began to respond before he had even began to process what the young man had said. He turned his head towards him, beginning his next sentence with the first words to come to mind: "Man, I-"
At that point, Alan completely cut off his speech, as he found himself face-to-face with another digivice, but the tension balloon, which had been slowly deflating throughout the conversation, completely popped. He quickly turned his head away for a loud cough, turning it into a big "HA!"
"Thank you! I was beginning to think you'd never bring it up! I was getting worried that you were just gonna leave me wondering! Oh, hold on!" With that, Alan reached into his pocket, while continuing his banter, with some of the initial overexcitement taken out. "Not to imply I was doing it on purpose, of course. It was just so obvious, that if you didn't bring it up I would have assumed you were planning something! Got it!"
With a small flourish, he took his own digivice out of his pocket and tossed it a little ways into the air. It was white in the center with blue grips, and at the top of its arc, the D-3's gold outlines glinted somewhat in the light. Alan caught it as it came back down, acknowledging that it was an incredibly risky move, and he couldn't bear to think how it would look if he had missed the catch. Regardless, he held it up for the Tamer to see. "Sorry about that. I guess I was just happy to find someone else, who... um... So! This!"
He prodded the face of the digivice with index finger a few times, his smile fading, signaling that he wasn't quite as pleased at the question he was about to ask.
"...What does it... do?"
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 4, 2018 1:26:09 GMT
Oh, that's great. No, really, this is what I needed. I was hoping exactly for meeting yet another spaz of a Tamer today. Unfortunately, Leith's impatience probably showed on his face. "Are you telling me you really marked me from the start, but you still didn't wanna say anything even though you're still so new to the game you don't even know how these work?" At least the young man kept it consistent by being annoyed in his tone of voice and word choice, too. "And you're just... walking around town with a whoever-the-fuck in your bag. That's... dude, really-"
"Leith, calm down!" Despite the public nature of the area, Veemon simply couldn't let his partner go on scolding a stranger like this. So from within the digivice he piped up, "It's OK to be stressed, but you're just being a bully now." To Leith's credit, he let that shut him up real quick. It seemed he was able to take responsibility for his actions when they were pointed out to him, at least. So the young man took a deep breath and managed to right himself.
"...Right. Second try. Hi. I'm Leith, and this is a bad place to talk about this. If you want me to make your life easy and explain things, follow me." Leith then proceeded to walk toward a closed-down platform... and hop down onto the tracks. After that he jogged for a little under a minute to a secret door, outside of which a special scanner recognized the digivice he held up to it and so open for him. That led Leith to a lift that would then start taking him very, very far underground.
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 4, 2018 2:51:29 GMT
"Oh. Oh. Oh! Oh, I'm sorry! You're right! How rude of me! Why don't I just fuckin' GOOGLE it!?" Alan took a deep breath. In, out.
"...I didn't know you were a Tamer, if that's what you're implying. I just assumed you had noticed there was someone in the bag. That's why I didn't say anything. But if you think I'm stupid, or if you think I'm just an asshole, then... congratulations."
He lightly bit his lip.
"...You figured it out."
Alan stood by as the stranger was calmed down, and listened as he introduced himself. His name was Leith.
"Right, okay. I'm... I'm Alan, and this... " he gestured to his backpack, acknowledging that they were still out in public. "...is Levi. He told me people who don't know him call him Veemon. Thank you. I'll follow."
Alan knew that Leith's remarks were by no means completely uncalled for. He felt as if he was wasting Leith's time, or, perhaps... interrupting something. And so, he felt it necessary to add:
"I know you've likely got a lot of irons in the fire, but... I don't know who else to turn to." Growing quieter still, he put his head down. "I mean... I guess I should have asked Adrian when I had the chance... "
He followed Leith through every turn, focusing only on not losing sight of him, and nothing else, not even stopping to question why they had to walk on train tracks. Eventually, they boarded the elevator.
"Oh, is this a long ride? I should..." he took a water bottle out of a pocket on the side of his backpack, and started taking sips every few seconds. "You know, with the air pressure and all... um... you can come out now."
Levi, up until this point, had been forced to simply listen and wait through nearly everything that was happening, so when he was given the go-ahead, he freed his head from the bag, practically shouting everything he's been wanting to say. "Daaaaaaamn! I thought I was the emotional baggage here, huh! Who died?" Levi quickly moved his head back and forth as he removed the bag from himself, then frowned.
"I don't care if I'm killing the mood. It was a terrible mood. Alan was being all cool for a second there, and then he went quiet again! The self-loathing was way more stifling than that bag!"
More silence, and blank looks. He began to walk over to the side of the elevator, and take a seat.
"Rrrrr… fine! What I'm saying is, if you're gonna hate anyone, hate me and get on with your lives! Please!"
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 4, 2018 18:33:57 GMT
"Can we all please just calm down?" the voice inside Leith's digivice once again pleased. "Leith, are we on the elevator?"
"Yeah, we're clear. You want out?"
"Please."
"Deal. So... Alan? Veemon? Heh... You know, I've actually met two other Veemon in this whole thing. One's a little guy called Rex. Real nice guy. You'd like him. I like him, and I hate everybody. The oth-"
"-Will you stop showboating and get on with it? It's cramped in here!" That voice definitely wasn't the first one Alan had heard.
"...Right. Sorry. Realize, guys." Leith held his wrist up where there would be space for emergence, and as the screen glowed, two light blobs shot out onto the floor. The light then took a second to form shape before turning into colored pixels and, eventually, fully formed digimon. "These are Shoutmon and Veemon. No special names. That might get confusing since I imagine you, 'Veemon', aren't in the mood to get all buddy-buddy with me right now."
At least the other guys were more sociable. Shoutmon casually raised a hand and have a small wave while Veemon, Leith's stepped forward with a big grin, outstretched hand, and exclaimed, "Heya!" in a real friendly way. There was nothing really distinguishing about Veemon, but Leith's Shoutmon was an unusual case: there were no nuts, bolts, screws, or any of that on him because he was made of flesh and scales, not metal, unlike Adrian's. The only real inorganic thingw about him were armor plates on his forearms, feet, and torso that looked removable and the green headphones he wore around his neck.
"Alright. I'll try my best to explain the digivice. It-" Before Leith could get one useful word out, though, the elevator doors opened. This led to a sight Leith with which was well familiar but Alan was likely not: a train platform, except less than half of those waiting to catch a train were human. There were digimon of fairly varied size walking around, too, casual as could be. Sometimes there were digimon chatting with humans, or some just waited completely alone. In any case it was a highly diverse crowd. "-Oh, uh, just a heads up: there's like no cell reception down here. By the way, how do you know Adrian? You mean Adrian Boriker, right, with the Shoutmon?"
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 4, 2018 20:16:52 GMT
Alan was still taking one final sip of water when Veemon and Shoutmon realized, only catching sight of them when he lowered his water bottle to put the cap back on. The sudden addition of two more to the previous "crowd" within the elevator caused him to jump, spilling some of the remaining water, and choking on the bit of water he had not yet swallowed.
"I'm all right," Alan managed, between coughs and hacks. "I got some on my jeans, but it'll dry." He couldn't be mad. A good jolt was exactly what he needed at that moment. He could hardly remember what he was beating himself up over!
Alan bent over to shake Veemon's hand, making sure to keep his legs as straight as he could while still reaching. Most people don't like it when you kneel or crouch to interact with them. "Pleasure to meet you!" Respecting Shoutmon's apparent comfort level, he simply gave a "nice to meet you, as well," from where he stood. He didn't take notice of any irregularities in Shoutmon, since he had never actually seen what Adrian's Shoutmon truly looked like. Finally getting a look at Shoutmon's face, Alan observed his relatively large mouth. That explains the burger thing, at the very least, he thought to himself. Alan was silently patting himself on the back when he looked between the two Veemon. I bought the ivy cap to help Levi remain somewhat subtle when looking out of the backpack, but it turned out to be more of a useful investment than I thought!
Nodding in response to Leith's comment, Levi remained sitting against the wall, not speaking for the moment. Although he had never seen another Veemon before, he had known that other Veemon existed. I coulda sworn they said we were somewhat rare. Huh. Note to self: don't trust your teachers when they tell you how special you are. However, that wasn't the reason he had been silently observing. More interesting to Levi was the way Alan had been behaving. No more than a minute ago, Alan seemed about ready to dig a hole to hide in, if they hadn't been in a metal box suspended in midair. Now, despite having choked and spilled water on himself in front of new acquaintances, he was all "buddy-buddy?" Levi wasn't quite sure if this meant anything, but he took notice. He had been making these kinds of observations over the course of the past week, keeping them somewhere in the back of his mind.
Then, the elevator doors opened, and Alan, picking up his backpack, quickly moved to the outside of the elevator, not wanting the doors to close again. He held his arm back over the space between the door and the doorway, assuming that this elevator still worked the same as any other one. The first thing to come to Alan's attention, of course, was the majority of the commuters at the station, but he didn't want to be caught staring, so he spent most of his time examining the architecture and signage of the station, with only a few occasional sweeps across the crowd. "Wow..." he mouthed, aware that part of him was telling him he was acting childish. Alan didn't care. Government suits can assign maturity levels to arbitrary numbers all they wanted. To Alan, he might as well be a child. A respectful child, he hoped. Returning his facial expression to a resting smile, he turned back to answer Leith's question.
"Ah, right, Adrian. I never got his last name, but would it be rash of me to assume there's only one Adrian who was hanging out in Shibuya less than two weeks ago with a partner named Shoutmon? We met at the mall. I, uh, was an... 'ignorant civilian' at the time, until those two just up and left me at a McDonald's to go chase this guy around the mall," he gestured to Levi, who tipped his hat, in lieu of any bonus commentary on the matter. He was simply intent on listening to Alan.
"By the time they had caught him, we had already seen each other. They were about to send him away, but we ended up finding common ground. We both came to this city for approximately the same reason, which was..." Alan gave Levi another glance. "...because we felt like it."
Levi noticed that Alan had conveniently left out the part about the "hostage situation." That was fine. It was more convenient for everyone that way.
"The next time I tried to reach for my phone, I ended up with the digivice in my hand, instead. My phone had been simply moved to the other pocket, but it seems I won't be needing it that much at the moment. Ah, well, cell phones are for boring places!" he said, with a grin. "Anyway, that's how I ended up yet another Bearer of the Unkeepable Secret."
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 4, 2018 21:04:03 GMT
The first person Leith spoke to wasn't Alan this time. It was Veemon. "Why is it always the goddamn mall? Like, that's the third time, and I heard about a fourth, too." Veemon shrugged. Leith shrugged. By their responses, they probably weren't shocked at the story. Maybe in another age they would be, but - though they sure didn't feel like it - this group had a little experience now. "I doubt you met a different Adrian in Shibuya with a Shoutmon. That guy's pretty much my best human friend." For once, then, as Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon stepped onto the platform with the new kids, he went out of his way to pay a compliment, even if it was also partly a tease. "You're sure taking this better than I did. You didn't even ask why I have two partners."
"Don't, by the way," Shoutmon advised, "It's a long fucking story."
"Do you have to curse so much?"
"You never call Leith out when he does it! Why's it always me?"
Maybe this was a bigger problem these two had before, if Veemon's response was any indication. "...you're right. We talked about this. I'm sorry." At least the two made up quickly; Shoutmon extended a fist, which Veemon met.
"So, the digivice. It works like... uh... I dunno. Apparently you can buy some programs in the store, but mine's always just evolved to suit my needs. I only ever actually bought one thing for it."
At least Veemon was there to be at least a little more informative. "The digivice is a human's connection to his digimon. Through it, a digimon's human partner can share some of their energy to help the digimon digivolve. That's when a digimon changes form. For example-"
Leith grabbed Veemon's arm. "-I don't think that's a good idea."
"Flamedramon should be fine," Veemon countered. That seemed to satisfy Leith, because he then took his hand back. "Veemon, armor digivolve to-" The screen on Leith's digivice turned crimson just then, and out from it shot fire. This fire encircled Veemon like a cocoon, seeming to require nothing to keep burning except the air. Leith and Shoutmon wisely stepped back as the cocoon began to expand like it was a balloon being inflated. By the time it was done it had a radius of over six feet. Only at this time did the balloon of fire burst and safely dissipate into sparks that, when they fell, did not ignite. -Flamedramon!" Where Veemon had been standing, a 6'2'' armored lizard was in his place.
And through it all, passersby hardly batted an eye.
"Armor digivolution like that is a little different but not really. It takes a special item to pull off. Don't ask me how to get it, because frankly they're as temperamental as digivces themselves."
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 4, 2018 23:07:46 GMT
Alan chucked at Leith's "compliment." "Hey now, don't give me too much credit. I was as freaked out as anyone else, I just wasn't scared of the Digimon. It was more that I was scared of myself. I couldn't understand why I wasn't scared of 'em. In fact, I still haven't figured it out, but... eventually, I decided that rather than tearing my head apart with that question, I should just accept it, and just appreciate that they exist in the first place."
That's what I tell myself... so why does part of me refuse to believe it? It's all real, it's all here, it's been here for nearly two whole weeks. It's not a dream, and it's no, it's not a freaking coma.
Alan snapped himself out of this line of thought. He hated when he got like that.
Leith began to attempt to explain the digivice to Alan, who raised an eyebrow when he seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. Leith had earlier expressed bewilderment that Alan had not yet figured out his own, after all. Veemon decided to pitch in with what they knew, and Alan made sure to pay attention to every word.
"'The digivice is a human's connection to his Digimon...'" he repeated. He thought for a second, looking down at Levi, then stifled a laugh to himself. "Is... is that why mine hasn't been doing anything!? AH!" Levi had delivered a swift punch to Alan's leg. There was a bit too much force behind it for it to have been playful, and so it was considerably painful. He could practically feel the sparks flying from Levi's gaze. "Ahaha... sorry. I deserved that. It was a pretty insensitive thing to say." But I did have to check at some point. How can you know where your boundaries are if you don't ever step over them?
Veemon then thought it prudent to demonstrate digivolution. "By all means!" he said, gesturing for them to go ahead.
At first, Alan was watching closely, but luckily, he observed that Leith and Shoutmon, the two who were used to seeing this happen, as well as Levi, who also might know a thing or two about this, were stepping back as a precaution. Before he could follow their lead, the flames began to expand, causing Alan to jump back in the nick of time, with a reactionary noise eerily similar to that of a particularly well-rounded plumber from Italy doing a backflip.
Flamedramon was, to put it simply, pleasing to look at. Standing eight inches above Alan, the relatively-armored bipedal dragon exuded an aura which, to him, could only be described as "pure confidence." Knowing that this monster, Flamedramon, on top of everything else, was kind, made him feel somehow safer, despite Flamedramon also being the only immediate threat to his health at the time.
...How long have I been standing here? He shook himself to get himself to move. Even if I didn't really mean it, I did sorta insult Levi a few minutes ago. I don't think my... whatever I'm doing is helping. He looked around to find where Levi was standing, and he found him, having a laugh to himself behind him. It was a relief to see him in good spirits, but...
"No. Way."
"No... way... what?"
"This is hilarious."
"I... I don't understa-"
"You were positively enamoured."
Imagine, if you will, the sound of glass shattering.
What.
Alan took a step towards Levi, but immediately backed off. I don't want to make an actual scene that people might care about here. And besides...
He clenched his fists as hard as he could.
...Levi was right. He was also stronger than him, but right, nonetheless.
Alan turned back to the dynamic trio to speak his technically-honest thoughts:
"That... is awesome, and I'm glad I got to see it. Thank you for demonstrating."
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 4, 2018 23:45:40 GMT
Well... that's not Leith expected this to go. From a new kid, he expected respectful awe and maybe a little bit of fear, which he definitely got. It was the other emotions he wasn't expecting. Is he... oh, my god. I think he is. Now that was something Leith had to shut down real fast. "Alan? Alan!" Leith shouted, trying to get the young man's attention. It seemed to be no use, though; the initiate wasn't going to snap out of his love daze except on his own time. Yes, Leith could tell; Alan wasn't making a good effort to hide it. That is fucking disgusting.
Even more embarrassing, Flamedramon could tell, too. At first, he couldn't think to do anything about it. Good thing he was reptilian, else the blood rushing to his cheeks might have been visible under the would-be skin. He took his helmet off and leaned in like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what, at which point he gave up and stood back up straight. Then... he took a step closer to Leith, a subtle, subconscious hint.
Shoutmon was quite literally rolling on the floor laughing.
As Flamedramon stepped closer, it was Leith's turn to feel uncomfortable. I mean, I'm into weird stuff. Who isn't? But... shit. I don't think I could even think about that with my partner... or literally anyone. I mean, maybe it'd be best with someone familiar, but- You know what? New thoughts. New thoughts are good. I like new thoughts. Unlike Alan, Leith was an expert at playing his emotions close to the chest. When similar feelings started to creep up on him, he managed to shove them down and keep them there without letting it on. "I think you made your point. You'd better devolve before you wear your body out." Only after did Leith think, Could I have possibly chosen worse phrasing?
"Actually," Flamedramon countered, "I don't feel as tired as I usually do at this level. I think my body has gotten better at holding higher forms. I kinda wanna try and see how long I can keep it; if it's a while, I'll use it more often in the digital world."
Come on, man. I know you're not oblivious.
Shoutmon was still quite literally rolling on the floor laughing.
"So that's digivolution!" was how Leith finally changed the subject. Just then, he was saved by the bell - or, rather, the whistle. A train started to pull into the platform, only it wasn't any train Alan had ever seen before. This was a Buffalo style Trailmon, and as his whistle blew he made an announcement.
"NEXT STOP TERMINUS CITY! I AIN'T STICKIN' AROUND FOR LAYABOUTS, SO BE QUICK OR BE STUCK!"
Finally, Shoutmon sat up and quit laughing. "Aw, crap. I hate this one."
"Well, too bad. We're in a rush." The young man seemed to dislike this thing as much as Shoutmon did, but as Shoutmon got up and made a run for the 'train,' Leith explained, "I know it sucks to be left alone at this point, but I really gotta go. That digimon takes people to the digital world. If you got nowhere to be, maybe you should come, but otherwise I really gotta take off!" Leith then took after his red digimon running as he unshouldered his guitar bag, and the blue digimon in turn took off in pursuit. Hopefully Alan wouldn't notice what a nice view his physically fit form was from behind.
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Post by Alan Pantell on Oct 5, 2018 2:42:32 GMT
Alan correctly guessed, when he looked over, that Shoutmon would be rolling on the floor, laughing. "At least I made someone happy," he growled, through clenched teeth."Tch. And Levi. And- hey, wait a minute! Flamedramon was..."
His severely shaken brain was beginning to catch up with events. "He was flattered! He was riding that!" He took a break from shouting to bang his head against a wall for that one.
When Levi strikes back, he strikes back hard. He had taken Alan's somewhat-hurtful joke, magnified it, and hit it right back. Consider him avenged seventyfold. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd rather be the hated one.
"You! Conniving! Bastard!" Alan shouted, able to feel his blood boiling. Never before had he felt this much shame, all at once, and yet... it was an improvement. This was more of a sharp pain, while most of the self-inflicted emotional pain he had tried to deal with previously was dull. Slowly eating away at him. Now, he finally had someone to be angry at other than himself. Slowly, however, that dull pain was coming back. This... was still mostly his fault. But by the time he had realized it, it was too late. He started walking back towards the elevator, ready to break down again.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Where do you think you're going?" Levi broke from his smug expression, and ran up to Alan.
"Back to the hotel. I blew it. I freaked him out."
"You blew I- DAMMIT, Alan, you're getting on that train!"
"I... what?" Alan turned his head to look at Levi. He was serious. "If he sees me as a creep, I wouldn't want to-"
"I'm trying to HELP you!"
With that, Levi ran around to the front of Alan, pushed way off of the ground with one foot, and kicked him with considerable force, directly in the stomach. Alan covered quite a bit of distance, soaring through the air and through the door of the train. He may have been light, but it was an incredible display of leg strength by Levi, who came sprinting on shortly after.
Alan hurt all over now, and couldn't quite believe he wasn't dead. Nevertheless, something was distracting him from the pain, namely, its perpetrator. Alan pushed himself up, renewed hatred in his eyes.
"Stop, stop, just, STOP beating me up!" For the first time, he made an attempt to hit back. "If you're just going to do nothing but be abusive, I can't-"
"It's about time you fought back."
"So it's my fault that you keep attacking me?"
"That's not the takeaway. That was all on me, and you finally picked up on it." Levi walked over to Alan's head and helped prop him up on the seat. "I've been watching you for the past week. If someone does you wrong, you just assume it's your fault because there's a chance it might be. If you can't figure out why it might be your fault, only then do you fight back. Like when Leith was chewing you out earlier. But then you regressed. I thought I had you with that Flamedramon thing, and then you started moping about again. When I told you about the Digital World, you said you wanted nothing more than to see it. Well? What's wrong?"
Alan couldn't handle being forced to listen to all of this at once. "Sh.... shut up."
"I will not. But I appreciate the sentiment. Listen to me. I am not going to kick you again. The next time you feel like you did something wrong, and someone else wronged you because of it, I want you to remember what it was like to be kicked in the stomach. I want you to feel the rage you showed me just now. At the very least, I want you to remember what it was like to feel the need to take control of your fate, with nothing holding you back. You run on spite, so you need to keep supplying it."
Satisfied that he had explained himself, Levi then turned to Leith and company, who had attempted to ditch them. Staring directly into Leith's eyes, he simply stated exactly what he meant to:
"We're coming with you."
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Oct 5, 2018 3:15:38 GMT
"I don't think he's comin'," Leith supposed as he watched the new Tamer's body language. "Can't say I blame him; I only went because the hothead wouldn't shut up until we did - not thatI regret it, I mean."
"I know you had a bad time."
"We literally almost died."
"But you said you don't regret it!"
"That is also true."
Leith turned around and started to look for a few free seats, then, as did Flamedramon, who put his helmet back on so he wouldn't have to carry it. Shoutmon, however, was the one who watched outside a little longer, which is how he was able to witness the scuffle. "Whoa, whoa, shit! Guys!"
"What?" Leith turned around just in time to see he was in the path to get flattened. Seeing the young man wouldn't have the reflexes to react, Flamedramon reached out for his partner's arm and tugged, which got him safely out of the way and, unfortunately, meant there was nothing to break Alan's fall except the floor. "Mother-!"
"Get off him, asshole!" Shoutmon summoned his mic stand from thin air, but before he could swing it Levi had backed off. Even then he was still tempted, but Flamedramon wisely put himself between Shoutmon and the incident so they could watch it play out. Other passengers on the Trailmon seemed a little wary and so backed away from the scuffle. "Shit, Leith? I know we used to fight all the time, but at least we weren't... that."
"Eh... not often," the young man couldn't help but correct.
"You dumbass!" This time Shoutmon was scolding Levi, not Leith. "You listen! I used to fight with the crybaby and the boy scout all day every day, but you know what? That's not how you treat your partner. Digimon hitting humans ain't teaching a lesson, buddy; it's being a goddamn wuss!" Shoutmon then stepped forward and attempted to whack Levi right in the head with his stand/battlestaff.
Nobody managed to stop Shoutmon from making his attempt on Levi, but before the fighting could escalate further, two things happened: first, the Trailmon whistled again and growled, the vibration of which passengers could feel at their feet. He screamed, "YOU ALL BREAK IT UP BACK THERE BEFORE I THROW YOU ON THE PLATFORM AND RUN RIGHT OVER YOU!" Second, as the warning came, Flamedramon again stepped between the two digimon and stared each of them down. He didn't even have to speak to make his meaning clear: the next person to throw a blow would have to deal with an armor ultimate level digimon.
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