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A Call to Adventure (Carlos)
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Oct 22, 2018 22:55:58 GMT
The square was packed and bustling as usual with many students going home for the day and others making their commutes. This time of year the sun was already setting over the Tokyo skyline, the sky orange with a comforting glow. Trevor usually spent his evening around Hachiko Square on a bench to read his chapters for class. The noise didn't bother him and the presence of the Hachiko statue brought him peace. That story used to make him cry so much as a kid. Even today it makes him tear up a little.
Today, however, his mind also drifted to this strange device that one day appeared in his backpack. He took it out once more and examined it in detail. Why didn't it work? The screen was in pristine condition and there didn't even seem to be any wear on the grips. Faulty battery? He turned it over and saw no place to remove a battery, not even screws holding it together. Was it a prop? This was all too weird. Who gave this to him and why? Normally this sort of thing wouldn't get to him so much, but he felt a connection with the device that he couldn't quite explain.
He highly doubted this toy had anything to do with the strange happenings supposedly going on. Though he hadn't seen anything personally he had heard the rumors. Supposed sightings of mysterious creatures in the nearby forest that were typically just seen as mad ravings from a crazy old man. He shrugged slightly and kept looking over the device "What kind of secrets are you hiding...?" he muttered to himself, twirling a pen in his hands. No one he asked knew about it either or would rather not talk about it, thinking it was some kind of game people were playing. He wondered if it was some kind of secret test of character. An artifact that would activate for a chosen person. He laughed lightly to himself at the cliched nature of the idea, but he'd be lying if he said that wouldn't be really cool.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Oct 24, 2018 23:03:13 GMT
Early evening in Hachiko Square. Around this time of the day most students and young adults would now be getting out of school and their respective jobs, and would probably be heading back home.
Of course, the young white haird man pushing his way through the crowd carrying many shopping bags was no exception, even if his past day had involved less working or going to college and more going on a food shopping spree. About ninety percent of the content of said bags were various different types of packaged food, cans, vegetables, and many more.
In Carlos' defense, he had only just now been able to take a well deserved break from the whole Digital World adventuring business, only to discover that his fridge was startingly empty, something of a common occurence ever since Dio had appeared into his life. Said partner was now (as per usual) lazily chilling on the man's backpack, his holosuited cat head peeking out from the open backpack and staring at the surrounding crowd with a rather bored expression.
"How long till we get back home?" He yawned, pawing at the back of the man's head.
"Soon enough." He replied somewhat annoyed, glancing back at the holosuited mon. "You know this would be quicker if you helped."
"Yes, I'm sure a cat carrying a bag would be complete inconspicuous" He replied in a rather sarcastic tone.
Carlos though about the possibility of telling him how trained cats could feasibly do much weirder things, but he was too tired to care. Right now, all he cared was taking a break, even if it was a short one, seeing how his appartment was still some ways from there. Glancing around, he noticed an empty bench somewhat close to the Hachiko statue. As he made his way there only then did he noticed the young man, possibly on his teens sitting on it, though Carlos didn't change course and instead continued his approach to the bench.
"Hey, mind if we sit here for a moment?" The man asked, looking at his many bags and then back at the teen.
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Oct 25, 2018 0:39:11 GMT
Trevor looked up at the man who was definitely different from most people he's used to seeing around the city. He noticed the amount of bags they were carrying with them and immediately scooted to the side of the bench "Oh yeah, sure! Fine by me." he said. He still had the device out and continued to inspect it as the other man approached.
Sometimes he would look away from it. For a second he was confused why the man said 'we,' but then noticed the cat hanging out in his backpack "Aw, what a cute cat. Well behaved too from the looks of it." he said with a smile. He refrained from petting it, not wanting to accidentally startle it. "So, do you want any help with some of those? I can help carry them for a bit if you want. I live at the dorms, so I don't have anywhere to be right now." he offered.
While he waited for an answer, he was still musing over this device. "Odd question, but do you have any idea what this thing is? Someone must have slipped it into my backpack or something a few days ago and I've been trying to figure out how it works. There's no battery case and I've pressed pretty much every button on it but it's not working. Normally I wouldn't worry about it but there's something about this I want to figure out."
He thought for a moment and sighed "Sorry, I shouldn't bother you with weird questions when you just want to get your groceries home." he rubbed the back of his head with a nervous laugh. "My name's Trevor, by the way. Trevor Hirano. Nice to meet you."
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Post by Carlos Rey on Oct 30, 2018 23:06:21 GMT
With a relieved sigh the man didn't so much sat down as he let gravity do the job of getting him in the chair, carefully leaving the bags full of goodies by the side.
"Thanks dude, you're a life saver." Carlos thanked the teen, though immediatelly had to do his best to suppress a laugh at his comment. Dio? Well behaved? That was a new one.
"Ha! That's what Dio would want you to believe." He'd comment back with a chuckle, the cat simply giving him a dirty look before jumping out of the back, sitting more comfortably on the bench in the space that was between Carlos and the other human. If he'd chose to pet him he wouldn't mind or care. He had gotten somewhat used to it ever since his partner picked that holosuit, so as long as the other human didn't have his hands dirty with mud or icecream (like many of those annoying kids in the park usually have) he wouldn't make a fuzz about it.
"Nah I'd feel bad, sides my place its a bit far from here, gotta take the train and everything. Appreciate the gesture though!" He shook his head, not wanting to be much of a bother for a random stranger on the street, even if they were the ones offering. That said he was more than willing to look at the device the other boy needed help with.
"I'm not that technological savvy but sure, let me take a look-" He froze up for a moment as soon as his eyes came in contact with the small plastic device: a digivice. Suddenly this day had gotten a lot more interesting. "...huh." Was all he could muster in his surprise.
"Aaactually, I think I'm going to take you up on the bag offer, we can look up that thing on my place." He said, getting back up from the bench as if a sudden wave of energy had washed over him, taking even Dio by surprise, who'd quickly run up the man's back and sit into the backpack once again.
"If you want to come along, of course." Carlos clarified as he turned around to face the teen once again, really not wanting to seem too suspicious, though that was probably a lost cause by now. Suddenly he remembered something rather important, and he extended his hand to Trevor. "Right, sorry about that. I'm Carlos Rey, my pleasure."
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Oct 31, 2018 1:20:14 GMT
Trevor smiled, glad that Carlos had a chance to sit down and rest for a while. He knew full well the pain of getting groceries so far away from home, so any opportunity to take a break was more than welcome. He gently pet the top of Dio's head before softly scratching behind his ears. They didn't seem so bad, despite Carlos' words implying he could be a bit of a troublemaker. He liked animals and wished he could keep a pet at the dorms. Such is life, however. "Hey, I know what it's like to have to carry around a bunch of bags all day. A chance to take a breather is never unwelcome."
He would have accepted that Carlos would rather not bother him with the bags, appreciate his concern even. However, when Carlos spotted his Digivice, his tune swiftly changed. Almost too swiftly "Looks like you know a lot about it already judging from how fast you changed your mind the second you saw this." he said as he looked a bit suspicious.
Still, Carlos still made sure this was Trevor's choice whether or not he wanted to go with, which eased the tension a little bit. "Yeah, I'll come along. You've got me curious about this thing even more now." he said with a grin. He took his hand and shook it firmly "Good to meet you, Carlos! Now let's see here." he knelt down and picked up a couple of the bags, making sure they were secure with no loose items "Alrighty, there we go..." he muttered as he stood back up "Right! Lead the way, Carlos." Trevor would proceed to follow Carlos, taking care not to bump into anybody or drop the bags on the way. The trains might be a bit of an issue, but he was sure they'd manage.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Nov 11, 2018 13:52:14 GMT
While Dio did not pay much attention to Trevor (other than a rather content purr as he scratched him behind the ears, of course), he couldn't help but glance back at the teen as he showed his digivice. Suddenly this random kid on the street had become a lot more interesting. Further more, he was rather quick to notice Carlos obviously knew more about the device than he tried to let on.
"What? N-no idea what you mean!" Carlos stuttered back, trying hard to act natural and failing miserably at it. Deep down he knew his paranoia was unfounded, that nobody else but Trevor would be listening in to whatever he had to say or really cared how unnatural he acted. Regardless, he wanted to get out of there ASAP, before the Men in Black or something would show up to take him away or something for speaking more than he should have.
"Anyways yeah, let's be off now!" He proclaimed, continuing his way to the train station and hoping the teen would follow. The trip back to his place was relatively uneventful and quick, and not longer than at most 15 minutes later he'd be standing in front to the door to his appartment, searching his pockets for the key. He'd soon unlock the door, and after opening and going inside.
His appartment had been recently cleaned up some since last time, the tiled floor was shiny and with the faintest hint of smell of cleaning products. So of course Carlos dropped the bags and backpack right next to the couch without much care about maintaining order, too tired from the walk and focused on what really mattered. Meanwhile Dio simply jumped out of the backpack and sat comfortably on the couch.
"Make yourself comfortable." Carlos offered Trevor, taking a seat himself on a chair close to the dinner table. "Seriously, you might want to sit for this. Now, before I begin, I want you to be one hundred percent honest with me about something."
His expression became a lot more serious than it was before, as did his tone. He shot the teen a piercing glare, before asking, "You didn't steal that thing from anyone else, correct?"
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Nov 11, 2018 23:33:12 GMT
Trevor chuckled at Carlos' attempts to act natural after being caught about this, though he let it go for the time being. There was a tenseness to the atmosphere all of a sudden, like everything about to happen from here on out was going to be very different from what he was used to.
When it was time to head out onto the subway, he nodded "Yep, let's get to it!" he said as he stepped in. Crowded subways...he was no stranger to them, so he adjusted himself to get comfortable regardless of that. Trevor accepted that this was something important that needed to be explained somewhere a little less open to the public, so he kept any question he might have for later.
Thankfully it wouldn't be that much later as the fifteen minutes passed without a hitch. Carlos unlocked his apartment door and brought him inside. "Wow, man...nice place. Smells like you got some cleaning done not too long ago." he said as he took a look around. He placed the bags he was carrying down next to the rest of them before he listened to Carlos and took a seat.
The next question caught Trevor completely off guard "Whoa, whoa...no! I didn't steal this from anybody. I said it just...showed up in my backpack one day and I meant it. I thought someone must have planted it there or something, I dunno..." he said. "Look, I don't steal. For one, that's wrong, and two, my dad would kill me if I ever did anything remotely criminal." he took a deep breath and calmed down a bit "Okay...what are these things? Clearly they're super important or rare if you're asking me if I stole one...so...let's hear it. What have I stumbled on here?"
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Post by Carlos Rey on Nov 27, 2018 23:27:59 GMT
"What, this place?" He turned to Trevor, chuckling at his appartment being reffered to as "nice". "Well, I try to keep it presentable, my roomate wouldn't let me hear the end of it otherwise." He cocked his head to Dio, who seemed to give him a glare for all of a second.
Regardless of that however, Carlos had to do his best not to smile at Trevor's sheer shock over being called a possible thief. It only took a second of hearing his reaction to believe his innocence. The man shook his head, and said reassuringly
"Aight don't, I trust you dude. Sorry, just wanted to be absolutely sure, cause this whole thing is...kind of heavy."
Now came the moment of truth, the one chance he had to explain things to him whilst trying not to sound like a mad man. Easier said than done, really.
"Ok...where to begin." He said, scratching his chin for a moment, deep in thought."So...ever heard of parallel universes?"
"Imagine if you will, that this world was connected to another, but despite this you can't really see or interact with it. A place that's constantly shaping itself and twisting around by our advances in technology. Something of a virtual world, or a Digital one." He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to make this thing sound as less insane as possible, which was no easy task. He was visibly shaking a bit, clearly nervous over this whole thing.
"What if I told you: that little device? Is your personal key to open a door to that place...and bind you to something else on the other side?"
He paused for a moment, coughing awkwardly as he let it all set in, and letting Trevor come up with any questions he might have, before continuing,
"L-look, I...know this is sounding like complete madness, or a bad Matrix knockoff or some New Wave Age bullshit but...I can prove it." With that he got up, taking his own Digivice from his left pocket. "I know all this because I have one too...and that's not the only thing I have." With the press of a button the black cat resting on the couch would suddenly begin to glow, his form changing and shaping into something else entirely.
The devilish impmon that now sat cross legged on the couch simply waved at Trevor, with a rather smug grin.
"That's Dio's uhm...real form. He's from the other world and its what we call a..." He sighed a bit, before finishing with, "...Digimon."
"Sup human."
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Nov 28, 2018 1:14:44 GMT
Trevor didn't really know what to think as Carlos did his best to explain what the deal was with these little devices. He only smiled slightly as he went on, wondering if this was some kind of game and someone had given him one of the devices as a weird invitation to join in like some exclusive club. Though the more Carlos spoke, the more serious he seemed, that this was more than some made up thing.
He looked at his Digivice "A Digital World? Key? To be honest this is starting to sound like some chosen one plot right out of a video game or anime..." he said with a light chuckle. "It's a little hard to believe this even though it would be..." he paused when Carlos pulled out his own Digivice and pressed a button that caused the cat to start glowing. The cat suddenly turned into a small purple creature that he had never seen before "...cool." he finally said.
"Whoa...whoa, okay. Is this really happening? This isn't some kind of fancy hologram tech is it? Or was the cat part the hologram? This is crazy." he looked at his Digivice "This is actually all real, isn't it? There's a whole other world out there that...I have access to? And you're telling me there's someone out there like Dio...for me?" instead of totally freaking out or being apprehensive about the whole thing, he looked positively giddy "This is amazing! Something like this and I'm involved in it? I seriously don't know what to say."
He took a few deep breaths and calmed down a bit "A-alright, alright. Wow. So...there's this whole other world out there waiting for me, huh? Where...how do I even get there? Mine doesn't really seem to..." his digivice started to beep and activate "Oh hey it's...actually working now. Let's see." he looked over it and saw a screen show a surprisingly detailed radar "A radar? Now where's that pointed?" he looked out one of the windows and saw the arrows shift slightly "There's two arrows...one points to the train station and the other is at...Shibuya River?" he stepped away from the window and looked at Carlos "So what, I just take a train? Is it really that easy?" he asked.
He looked at Dio "Sorry about not saying hi. Uh...hello there Dio. Good to meet you." he said with a smile "Digimon, huh? Well you're certainly different than anything else I've ever seen, save for maybe some characters in games." he said. He was excited. Really excited. What would his Digimon be? Something similar to Dio or something entirely different? "The only problem is...how can I even make time to go on adventures like that? I mean I'm a pretty diligent student and get my work done quickly, but that's a lot of back and forth between these worlds."
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Post by Carlos Rey on Dec 4, 2018 20:38:02 GMT
"Pfheh, yeah of course I'm real, does he look like someone who can even afford a hologram?" Dio said, smugly, flexing the (non existant) muscles of his arm.
"You try earning enough money to feed two mouths." Carlos rolled his eyes, but didn't say much else to him, instead turning back to Trevor.
"So yeah, now you're "in the know", as they say. And yeah, everyone with these devices has something they are connected to in the digital world. It could be something like Dio here, or two or even more digimons at the same time, from what I've learned. You don't really know what you're getting into until it's too late." He said, before adding with a whisper and a sly grin, "...do be sure you have enough food to feed them though, just one of them eats enough food to make a chef want to tear his hair out."
Sitting back on his chair the man calmly nodded as he heard every single of Trevor's question, trying to answer them one at a time.
"Yep, it really is that easy, just go to either the Station with your digivice in tow or take a dip in the river, you should find your way easily enough. Though I advice against taking the river route, it's a bit too dirty for my taste." He chuckled, before following up the next (and seemingly for the teen, the most important) question.
"Funny you'd ask that actually! You're in luck cause as it turns out, there's a bit of a difference in how time flows in there. I...don't know how it works but what I do know is that one day here is about...I don't know, three, five days in there? Basically you can realistically spend a whole day after college in there and get back with time to spare for dinner."
While his entusiasm was understandable, there was a big elephant in the room he had to adress, even if it meant turning the kid away from that.
"Listen though...it's not all sunshine and rainbows. That place can be really freaking dangerous, and I mean really dangerous. Life threatening type stuff, not just a sprained ankle."
It was rather blunt and direct, yes, but frankly Carlos would have loved having someone else warn him that before he got involved. It wouldn't have changed his choice, but it would have certainly spared him of some rather bad close calls.
Dio sighed, knowing all too well what his partner meant by that, before asking Trevor,
"Even knowing that, would you still go for it?"
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Dec 6, 2018 1:56:02 GMT
He laughed a bit at Impmon's words "Come on, that's just rude. Though...I can only imagine how much good holo technology would cost..." he said, thinking about that. "Well I mean, how about that cat disguise? How do you explain that, exactly?"
Trevor scratched the back of his head at their food situation and just smiled "I'm sure I'll figure something out on that front." he said. He was only getting more excited at the idea. It was a mystery! Maybe even two of them! Though that might be a bit much for him. Still, curiosity was definitely getting to him "I'll have to make time soon, then!" he said.
Speaking of time, he listened to Carlos explain the weird time phenomena present between worlds "Oh man, that makes this so much easier. That's super convenient for a lot of reasons..." he said, thinking on how he could use that to his advantage. "I spend a lot of time getting work done at school after hours and just sort of hanging around the city, so that definitely gives me excuses to be gone for a while. This...this sort of thing isn't what I want to keep secret from my parents though. If...If I have to, I will, but it just doesn't seem right." he lamented.
Then Carlos got a little serious. Sounded like the Digital World had its own host of dangers. Pretty big ones too from the sound of it. He understood Carlos' concerns and the reasons he said what he did, however. Trevor crossed his arms and gave a confident smile "That only means people can be in trouble out there right? In that case, leave it to me. Look, I know I'm not invincible. My dad's in the U.S Air Force, so he made sure to teach me all about discipline and knowing your limits. But knowing your limits lets you break them, and that's what I intend to do out there. So I'll go there anyway, find my new buddy, and show the world what we can do."
He smiled at the two of them "So yeah, I'll still go for it, even if it is dangerous. My dad always tells me that all it takes for bad people to win is for good people to do nothing. That's my decision and I'm sticking to it, guys."
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Post by Carlos Rey on Jan 17, 2019 0:47:41 GMT
"Well, it's uh...a bit more complicated than just a hologram." Dio said, scratching his chin somewhat contemplative for a moment, thinking of the best way to explain how such an alien concept worked to a human. "It's more like...your entire body structure changes, but your core stays the same, so you change on the outside but you can move and act with the same mental effort as if you were still in your normal form...if that even makes sense for a human like you."
Trevor raised a good point, however: what was he going to tell his parents? Carlos didn't know a good answer, since keeping that a secret from his family was never a problem for him, what with everyone he knew living on the other side of the globe. It wasn't particularly hard for him too keep his insane adventures as a secret. What was someone like Trevor to do, however?
"Well, if you can trust your parents to keep it a secret I don't see why you should keep it to yourself, but just know it would probably be better if the least people know about it the better, you never know what someone could do with that kind of knowledge." Was he being too paranoid about this? Possibly, but it was better to be cautious about such sensitive information.
Regardless, he could only smile at Trevor's confidence. Carlos had reacted far less positively once he had gotten tangled into this whole insanity, but this kid was taking things in relative stride. Somehow...Carlos felt he would probably be fine.
"Hah, you sure sound convinced, I'll give you that." He said with a smile. "Well, if that's your final answer then I suggest grab as much food and water as you can carry before you decide to head to the Station. Your digivice should show you the way there." He explained. "Apart from that? What you do on the other side is up to you, but you'll figure it out soon enough, I'm sure."
"Or you can just die trying." Dio was quick to add. Sarcastically, of course. Or at least Carlos hoped so.
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Post by Trevor Hirano on Jan 21, 2019 2:57:48 GMT
Trevor listened intently on Dio's explanation "That's awesome..." he said, thinking about the possibilities for it. What other forms could Digimon take, in that case? "Yeah, it makes sense to me, in a science fiction sort of way...well I guess it's not so much fiction anymore, is it?" He said with a slight chuckle.
He sighed a bit and thought about what his parents would think about all this "That's tough...I mean my parents are pretty relaxed about a lot of things, but you can't predict how anyone would react to going on big adventures across parallel worlds. But I trust them if this is as important as you say it is. Aside from them, I...I'll keep things on the down low just so no one gets hurt because of it."
He smiled "Yeah, sounds like a plan to me. I'll head home and get prepared. Man this is exciting...I'm still kind of in the middle of just...accepting that this sort of thing is real, you know? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared, but if this device has really chosen me, then who am I to not at least give it a try and see who's waiting for me?"
He stood up and stretched before he looked at the device again before putting it away "I just wanted to say thanks to you both for explaining all of this to me. I'll admit I was a little freaked out when you got so serious, but now I know it was for good reason. Here, let me give you my number in case I need help or something...if you're alright with that." he would write down his number in one of his notebooks and tear the paper before handing it to Carlos. If Carlos gave him his own number, then he'd take that too before he turned towards the door "Well, I should get going I guess. Maybe I'll see you on the other side, yeah?" he said with a grin before he walked out. Whatever happened next, he was certainly not going to forget it.
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[Exit]
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