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Hitting the Right Notes (Ollie) (Armor Hunt)
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Post by Serena & Gem on Nov 21, 2023 1:42:11 GMT
"Serena, Serena! Dad sent me something cool!"
Serena Isono was in the kitchen grabbing a drink from the fridge when her Digimon partner, Gem the Gammamon, excitedly came flying up to her with some kind of parchment in his claws. It looked like it was hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and it surprised Serena that the parchment was still even in one piece. "What is that, a map of some kind?"
"Mhm!" Gem said with a nod. "Adrian and Dad said they were shopping in Rosewood, and they found this map for sale at one of the stores. They said it leads to a kind of temple thing that's all about music, in the Cipher Jungle, and there's supposed to be this Digimental there. He thought it could be a fun adventure for us to go on!"
"A musical temple, huh?" Serena said, a smile forming on her face as she took the map from Gem to have a look at it. "Wait, what's a Digimental?"
"It's some kinda artifact, shaped like an egg," Gem explained, moving his claws in the motion of an egg shape. "Both my parents have one of their own, and it lets them evolve into special kinds of Digimon. I really want one of my own. Can we go explore this temple, Serena? Pleeeeeeease?"
Serena chuckled. "You don't have to beg, Gem. If this temple is centered around music, then I'm definitely down for checking it out. I also want to see what these Digimentals can do. Why don't we head out in a little bit here?"
And that's how Serena and Gem found themselves deep in the Cipher Jungle. They hadn't visited it yet, so they couldn't just teleport there straight away; instead, they had to port to Rosewood (while saying hi to Shoutmon and the others in the process) then take a Trailmon there straight to the Cipher Jungle, which took a bit of time on its own. And then they could start following the map they had, which they were still attempting to follow after an entire hour. They REALLY underestimated how deep the jungle was... it was a good thing Serena opted to wear a short-sleeve shirt and shorts for this outing, along with some actual hiking boots.
What these two DIDN'T know, however, was that they were not the only ones with a map to this specific temple...
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Nov 21, 2023 4:59:15 GMT
"Ollie. Ollie, don't put your foot there it won't hold your..." Came a voice from up above them and to the side somewhere, up one of the clay packed slopes that hid dangerous rocky outcrops and were marked with the bending, twisting basket weave of ancient roots. Trying to climb up them just to get a better vantage point was a dangerous proposition because the undergrowth meant you couldn't see where you were setting your feet. Or, sometimes more importantly, what you were setting them next to.
As Serena and Gem would get a direct demonstration of when they heard the scraping of rock, the snapping of a vine, a boyish yelp and the sound of something heavy and uncontrolled beginning to snap, thump and rustle through the underbrush directly toward them. They would begin to see flashes of dark brown leather along with flailing, pasty limbs and sparkles of tropical sunlight off a pair of glasses attached to a face that was howling in surprise and shock as gravity had its way with him.
When he hit the ditch that separated the path from the slope he didn't stop, all his momentum rushing straight down into the U shaped bend and then right back out again like a skateboarder rocketing up a half pipe. He cleared at least four feet of open ground before slamming shoulder first into the dusty trail's center, rolling once so that he ended up, starfish splayed, on his stomach and face before coming to a final, merciful halt.
"I told you...I would find...the trail." Ollie mumbled, half audible from underneath his own head. So focused was he on his own tumble he didn't notice either the observers...or his partner the Black Toyagumon that had fallen down trying to run after him that was now crashing and thumping through his trail down the slope. Rather than just shouting, Procopius was letting out the kind of curses that would peel the paint of a battleship. When he hit the ditch, his lighter body didn't just hop, it FLEW across the entire trail, landing flat top of the creature's head onto the trunk of a weathered old tree and stopping the momentum dead with a teeth rattling THUNK. Procopius seemed to hang there for a split second before sliding down in cartoonish fashion. From where he landed, snout first he WAS able to point one eye up and see whose trail they had just crashed.
"Kid...kid? We have company." Procopius' tone half still checking if his young partner was still conscious.
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Post by Serena & Gem on Dec 29, 2023 5:12:21 GMT
As Serena and Gem were following the trail, they overheard a voice coming from above them and to the side somewhere. They looked up just in time to hear -- and see -- something falling down from the slope above. It looked like trying to climb up them in the first place was a dangerous idea, and it appeared that the aftermath of said idea was now playing out before them.
The one falling from the slope was definitely a human... a rather young, frail, and nerdy looking human at that. Serena and Gem just watched as the poor kid fell down the rocky slope, flying off the U shaped bend like a skateboarder going off a half pipe, and crash landing right in front of Serena and Gem, stopping them in their tracks. "Oh my god, are you alright?!" Serena asked, running up to the poor kid to attempt to help him up.
It wasn't long before he was joined by a Digimon this time, a black colored ToyAgumon. Instead of merely shouting as he fell, this Digimon was screaming all sorts of profanity that Gem had never heard before in his life... and that Serena hoped he wouldn't remember or repeat. When this Digimon hit the ditch, he went flying past the others and crashing head-first right into a nearby withered tree. Serena and Gem both winced once they heard that THUNK sound, and the way the poor ToyAgumon slid down the tree would've been hilarious if not for the whole "he's in pain" thing.
Gem would be the one to go check on the ToyAgumon, his blue-eyed smiling face being the first thing the Digimon saw. "Hi! I'm Gem, and I'm a Gammamon. Are you okay?"
"I was expecting it to rain cats and dogs here, but not humans and Digimon," Serena said. It was then that she got a good look at the kid's face. "Wait a minute... I recognize you, I think. You're that kid with the overly large backpack."
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Dec 29, 2023 5:24:14 GMT
Said overly large backpack was slightly falling over the back of Ollie's head, pressing and bending down around him so as to veil his head somewhat. Muffling his voice heavily as he tried to reply so that all she got out of him was an affirmative.
"Mmph." Came from the young man with a slight twitch as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He was COATED in dirt and slight scrapes though by some god forsaken miracle his already weathered glasses had come away from the cataclysmic fall with no extra damage on them.
"Oh. Exuberant company. My favorite." Procopius said as his pupils contracted like he was being woken up early in the morning by a sudden spear of sunlight directly into his vision. Considering the landing he probably had a similar variety of headache as his boxy body clumsily tried to shove itself to its feet, kicking up rocks and dust before finally getting some stability under it.
"Oh dear, yes. I recognize you too." Ollie said, adjusting his glasses' mounting on his ears and squinting slightly at her. "Sarah? No, ah! Serena. One of the more popular girls. My apologies we don't run in the same circles." Ollie stood, not taking her helping hand seemingly out of not noticing it was there, dusting himself off perkily and bouncing over to his partner's landing spot.
"One of the popular ones, mm?" Procopius said in a tone that, especially in his gruff inner city accent, sounded like the growl of a protective dog closing in around it's person's leg. His only frame of reference for "popular kids" was the stories he was told about how they treated his orphan partner. Which was the kind of social interaction that often left Ollie coming home crying with a few of his things smashed and fresh bruises on his forearms and cheeks. From just the way they stepped closer to each other it was very clear. These two saw themselves as a duo against the rest of creation.
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Post by Serena & Gem on Jan 8, 2024 4:00:52 GMT
Serena really should have thought to help the poor kid up first before asking if he was okay, especially with that giant backpack doing a good job keeping him pinned to the ground. She grabbed onto him and helped him get back on his feet, not at all caring if he refused the help or not. Poor guy was covered in dirt and scrapes from the fall, but his glasses were still in one piece. "You really need to be careful on this track. It's a miracle you're not hurt... at least, you don't look hurt. Dirty and scraped, yes, but not hurt."
Meanwhile, the Lego brick dinosaur Digimon didn't seem all too thrilled with the way Gem was checking up on him. "Does your head hurt from hitting that tree?" Gem asked the Digimon, tilting his head a tiny bit. "You might wanna put some ice thing on it. That's what I see people with headaches do a lot." The talking wouldn't stop there, and Procopius's headache just might get a lot more painful as time goes on.
Once he had his bearings back in order, the boy did confirm that he knew of Serena, mentioning that they didn't run in different circles. "You mean those circles that think pushing you around is fun? I definitely don't want to associate myself with those jerks. I've seen you talk to Matsui-senpai a couple times, you friends with her?" Serena may just be imagining things, but she could feel Procopius staring daggers at her for some reason... and she definitely appeared to be uncomfortable with it.
"Are you two looking for the music temple as well?" Gem asked, holding up the map towards Ollie and Procopius. "My dad and his partner told us that there was a Digimental in there, and we're gonna get it!"
"They said there were rumors of them, they didn't say there was one there for sure," Serena said to Gem, before turning her attention back to Ollie. "But yeah, it would make sense if that's where you two were going... but how did the whole falling thing happen? Did you two lose the trail?"
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Jan 8, 2024 4:21:42 GMT
"I'm...resilient." Ollie said, not meeting the girl's gaze with the unspoken "because I have to be" hanging in the air between them especially when she made it clear she was aware of the way he was treated at school. He cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up on his nose and making sure they were adjusted properly, a glimmer of bright light flashing across them as they caught the sun in their slight motion. He turned his head to one side and his eyes behind his glasses opened wide and filled with lively sparkles. All the pain and soreness in his body, even the weight of his pack seemed to vanish off of him in an instant as he zipped over to Gem's position. "My oh my, what kind of Digimon are you? You said your father gave you this information, when you say partner are you referring to a human ally or a romantic entanglement? Is it common for Digimon in human partnerships to raise children of their own?" Ollie said, having pulled a notebook and a pen out of his backpack so fast that it was almost a blur of him reaching in and grabbing them. His own questions seemed to match Gem's mile a minute style as Procopius turned slowly, never quite softening his gaze to Serena but at least speaking to her.
"Yes. We know her. And also yes, we're headed to the temple. Ollie wanted to survey a few outlying ruins up on the rise and we lost track of our footing in the underbrush. He wants to catalogue the entire Digital World into an almanac of his own design and as you can imagine a site like this is exactly the sort of thing he's looking for. We don't have any interest in the artifact personally. I can't carry a tune in a bucket." Procopius said, speaking in a rich and rough tone. His eyes flicked back and forth casually between Serena and Gem. He didn't trust them but that lack of trust didn't come off as overly hostile. It was clear from the ease of the motion that the little dinosaur didn't trust anyone.
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Post by Serena & Gem on Jan 29, 2024 2:06:27 GMT
Serena was more or less aware of the kind of abuse Ollie had put up with at school. She never knew his name, since she did run in different circles than Ollie tended to, but she did recognize him just from his look alone. Hard to forget a foreigner with big glasses and an oversized backpack like that... but it was even harder to forget seeing that same boy being pushed around. Serena was only fourteen herself, and her indecisive nature made it so that she never once looked in the boy's direction during those moments. The most she did was tell off whatever "friends" of hers were responsible before cutting all contact, which only happened once or twice. As soon as Ollie saw Gem, however, it seemed as if he just forgot about the pain that came from falling off of a cliff. He ran over and observed Gem from head to toe, asking the little guy all sorts of questions, which Gem answered as enthusiastically as Ollie asked them. "I'm a Gammamon! My dad is a Shoutmon and my mom is a Gatomon. I have two older brothers, a Hackmon and a Coronamon! And my dad's the only one in my family besides me that has a human partner. And yeah, I see lots of Digimon families all the time! Why, is that not supposed to be normal?"
Serena just watched incredulously as the two went back and forth like that for minutes. "Those two certainly hit it off, didn't they?"
Meanwhile, the little Lego block dinosaur Digimon said they did indeed know Kaya, and they were also heading to the same music temple that Serena and Gem were going to. Not that they had any interest in music or the supposed Digimental inside, but because Ollie simply wanted to document every inch and corner of the Digital World. "A Digital World Almanac? I don't know if my attention span would keep up with it, but the Digital World is interesting enough for me to wanna read such a book. How far have you gotten in it so far, Ollie?"
"Serena, I wanna keep going," Gem said to Serena, sounding a little bit like the impatient child that he was. "Yeah, who knows how much longer this track is... why don't you two stick with us? You'll fall off less cliffs if we travel together... hopefully."
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Jan 29, 2024 4:14:12 GMT
"I have no idea what normal is, that's why I'm asking you. It's always more scientifically expedient to ask members of a culture for their experiences directly. To attempt to infer normalcy from the scientist's perspective risks value judgements from that scientist's own culture biases which is how scientific imperialism is propagated." Ollie said, making it as a grand moral statement even as his voice remained as small and even as always. He didn't just want to get information, he wanted to understand it in its proper context. Straight from the horse's mouth as they say.
"If he meets someone he can learn something from, he's happy. It is also his position that you can learn something worthwhile from anyone." Procopius said with a tone that showed he didn't really fully agree with the sentiment but wasn't going to stop his partner from following it, especially if it kept him happy. "Here. He never lets anyone even BREATHE in the direction of the master copy but we have a bunch of note books that should illustrate." Procopius said, opening the single massive flap of the rucksack and rummaging about for a heartbeat or two before handing her a little trio of notebooks that would be filled with a dizzying amount of unsorted information written in a scribbled shorthand. Sketches of digimon, people, places, objects, short interjections of information and theories, transcribed interviews with dozens upon dozens of random, seemingly unremarkable digimon asking questions about their daily routines and livelihoods.
"Yes, well. I suppose we're all going to the same place. Traveling together is only the smart thing to do. My apologies however, I have yet to introduce my partner." Ollie said, gesturing gingerly toward his surly partner digimon.
"Procopius." He said, pausing for a second before he added. "After the Greek historian." He repeated with a practiced indifference that showed loud and clear that he was both used to having to explain or justify his name and thoroughly annoyed at the idea.
"So, if knowledge is not what you're after, then this Digimental must be your object. I confess we've collected a lot of rumors and hearsay about the objects but nothing concrete." He said, opening a half full notebook that seemed to have some of the collected notes about Digimental on it and it was mostly tall tales and half useless bites of passed down information inside.
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Post by Serena & Gem on Jan 29, 2024 4:47:31 GMT
Ollie clearly didn't realize who he was talking to. While he was going off spouting his big words, the little Gammamon simply stared at him with a blank expression, as if the gears in his head were slowly turning before breaking down altogether. "I like your funny words," Gem said with an innocent smile on his face. "But, um... what does "imperialism" and "propagated" mean?"
"I'm kind of the same way when it comes to learning new songs," Serena said to Procopius. "When I hear a new tune or read some new sheet music, I can't help but memorize it and fully master playing the song." Then Procopius handed Serena a trio of notebooks with all kinds of information on Digimon, ranging from scribbled notes and drawings to full on interviews with a few of them. "Oh my, this is definitely a lot..."
Serena flipped through the pages of one of the notebooks, particularly one that had the sketches and interviews with various Digimon. She saw two very familiar looking Hackmon children in this notebook. "Hey, I think I know these two... Alpha and Beta. We met them a couple weeks ago back in Shibuya. Small world, right?" The rest of the notebook was very in depth, something that could legitimately be found in the nonfiction section of the library. Serena was very impressed, even if she didn't follow along with all of it.
After she was done looking, Ollie agreed to have him and his partner join Serena and Gem on their journey to the temple. When he introduced said partner, he revealed his name to be Procopius, named after a Greek historian. "Very nice to meet you, Procopius," Serena said with a smile and a simple bow. "I'm Serena Isono, and this is my partner Gem."
"Hi! I like your name," Gem cheered with a smile. "But, um, what's a 'Greek historian'?"
"Someone from the country of Greece who is an expert at recalling history," Serena answered her partner. She faced back to Ollie and Procopius. "Gem already had his name picked out for him before he and I met, and I never did ask his parents why they named him that."
As the group continued on the trail, Ollie mentioned that they only collected a lot of rumors about the Digimental itself, nothing about it being concrete enough. "You know a lot about the Digital World by now, right, Ollie? What else can you tell me about these Digimentals? All I know is that they can evolve Digimon."
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Jan 29, 2024 5:03:59 GMT
"Oh. Sorry, one of my bad habits as a communicator is that I forget my audience and tend to get a little...what was the term you used, Procopius?" Ollie said, half turning to his partner as they walked.
"You tend to talk a little 'inside baseball' when you're explaining yourself." Procopius said, filling the hole in his human partner's otherwise excellent vocabulary with the ease of handing him an oft forgotten tool. It seemed the young man didn't have a good mind for turns of phrase.
"Right. Anyway what I meant was is that when you're writing about experiences and cultures that aren't yours, you should try to talk to the people who actually have them or else you might be assuming things from your own perspective even without meaning to. Which can be very hurtful and harmful and can even make the information come out wrong or send the wrong message." Ollie said. Empathy was key to empirical truth, which sounded like a contradiction but really was just how you communicated ideas effectively. Ask the people who knew, and communicate what you learn.
"Hmm? Oh those two? Yea. Got us into a heap of trouble there for a second or two but I'm starting to think that digidestined are made to attract it." He said, letting out a frustrated little sigh. He really just wanted to keep Ollie out of harm's way but between the young man's exuberance for exploration and the nature of the digital world, that was looking more like a pipe dream by the day. "Small world indeed. Though even if it wasn't we would have ended up running into a lot of the same people by nature of Ollie's reason for being." Procopius said, statistically they were going to meet everyone OR Ollie was going to die, which was a thought Procopius was not even going to pretend to dignify.
"Sure, it's a lot of cultural mythology and oral storytelling. Which shouldn't be discounted but should be taken with a grain of salt." He said, leafing through one of his notebooks and deciphering his own chicken scratch handwriting. "Most communities see them as objects of power, talismans passed down from a long forgotten age and a class of warrior digimon who embodied countless elemental concepts. Very 'War in Heaven' kind of archetypes, sealing away a great evil before the ranks of these Digimon split and in the civil war that followed, most of the warriors lost their lives and the Digital World was reborn into a new age. Though there's much cross pollination with the concept of elemental spirits, many communities believe their origins to be from the same source, or at least from related events and stories in the same cultural canon."
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Post by Serena & Gem on Mar 4, 2024 4:10:06 GMT
Now that Ollie dumbed down the explanation a bit, Gem actually felt like he understood what Ollie was trying to say. "I talked to a few humans and Digimon like that, ones who had 'different experiences' than me." That was all Gem had to say, as he was still a little child and didn't really have much else to add to that. Serena didn't either, but she was definitely going to keep that in mind for the future. Alpha and Beta were then brought up. Procopius mentioned that they got him and Ollie out of trouble once, and that he believed Digidestined just attract trouble. "You might be right about that. When I was first partnered with Gem, a Thunderballmon attacked the school and Kaya got hurt because of it. It was my first real challenge as a Chosen, and it painted a perfect picture of what I would be in for."
"But you have me to be with you, Serena! And I've got my family to help me out, so they'll help you, too!"
"Networking at its finest."
When Serena asked for information on the Digimentals, Ollie definitely provided. They seemed to be talismans of power from a forgotten age of the Digital World, although that's most of what Serena and Gem understood from his explanations. "You're doing that 'inside baseball' thing again, but I got the gist of what you mean... I think. There's no like, bad stuff that can come from the Digimentals, right? No ancient curses or anything we need to be worried about?"
After what felt like nothing but walking and walking, the group would come across what looked like a giant stone fortress, surrounded by a large water moat. There was a stone bridge crossing the moat, leading up to the castle that was sealed tightly shut with no visible way of getting in. "I don't suppose brute strength is going to be able to get us in... hm? What's this?"
Covered in the dirt and leaves that Serena began to brush away was what looked like two squares with eight arrow carvings on them, all pointing in different directions in a square formation. If Serena didn't know any better, she'd have sworn that this was a Dance Dance Revolution mat. She stepped her foot on the "up" arrow, and... nothing happened. "What is that, Serena?"
"It might be our way to open the door, but I think it might need to be powered up or something like that. If I'm right about what this is, I mean. Ollie, do giant temples usually have on buttons anywhere?"
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Mar 5, 2024 4:20:12 GMT
"Nine tenths of learning is listening." Ollie said as Gem added his "experience" in talking to people who weren't like him. The little dinosaur may have thought it wasn't much to add but from Ollie's perspective it was already the most important step.
"...can't be worse than the trouble he's in in the human world." Procopius said after a long pause. Even after all the walking, having to step over roots and stones and vines, his eyes were always pointed directly at Ollie. Not like, watching Gem as if he was some kind of threat just...watching Ollie. His every side and angle as if Procopius expected the world to just lash out and swallow the boy up all at once and was willing to fight back tooth and claw the moment it happened. "At least in the digital world when someone or something goes after him I can rip chunks of it off with my teeth. Just as satisfying to do it to orphanage staff...probably less sustainable in the long haul." Procopius said and it might take a pause of a moment or two to realize he was not even close to joking about his desire to visit harm upon the humans who harmed his partner but when Ollie piped back up to explain himself Procopius calmed some.
"Sorry. Basically all the stories agree they were weapons, wielded against some terrible evil in the digital world's prehistory, lost and scattered by a civil war in the heroes' ranks. They're related but not identical to the elemental spirits." Ollie said, running his fingertips down the writing on the page in front of him and humming, like he was trying to pick up information from between the lines of his own writing. "That depends on the user it seems. The talismans themselves are neutral, stores of power tied to some emotion or state of being. They can be used for good or for ill, just like anything really." He said with a shrug and a scribble of a note around a blank spot on the page. There was more context to fill in on these stories he just knew it and he was going to find it if it killed him.
"Holy smokes..." Procopius said as they walked out of the jungle cover onto the path of the bridge and up to the massive doors, large and sturdy enough to keep an army on the outside.
"Hmmm." Ollie got to work, marching from one angle to the next, sketching, scribbling, shorthand writing before something that looked like a light began to spark in his bespectacled eyes. "Call me fanciful maam but it seems hard to expect the temple to judge your dancing skill." Ollie trailed off, pulling his Digivice from his coat pocket. "When there's no music to judge you by."
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Post by Serena & Gem on Mar 16, 2024 4:07:40 GMT
Serena had a baseline idea of the kind of treatment Ollie had gotten in the human world. The ones that teased him, the rumors that spread about him... it upset Serena, but it was because of that that she just decided to tune it out, unlike Kaya who had always stood up for him. She just thought it would be easier if she just let someone like Kaya handle rough situations like that. Serena wasn't proud of it, but that was just how the world worked. Serena also caught on to how Procopius was watching over Ollie as they walked. It looked like he expected something to suddenly jump out and pull Ollie away... which, to be fair, was entirely possible of happening. Serena hadn't spent long in the Digital World, but she quickly learned of how dangerous it could be. Especially after the payphone incident... What made Serena slightly uncomfortable was how eager Procopius seemed to bring harm to humans back in her world. Regardless of how warranted it might be, that was not something she agreed with. "'Less sustainable' is right. If Gem's family's stories are right, there are too many human hating Digimon as is. Ripping peoples' arms off would just do so much damage in the long run."
According to Ollie, the Digimentals were indeed weapons used by the Digimon of ages past. At least they didn't seem to have any strings attached; the Digimon still had complete control over how the Digimental could be used, making them no different than any other weapon. "My dad's Digimental turns him into a big water Digimon," Gem said. "I can't wait to see what kinda Digimon it'll make me!"
"Oh, I'm sure it'll be the best Digimon form ever," Serena said, trying to play along with Gem's enthusiasm. "Adrian, Dad, Mom, Luneth, and Rory are all gonna go 'oooh' and 'oh wow, Gem, your Digimental is so awesome'!"
The group looked up at the fortress in awe as they arrived. As Ollie sketched the place out, Serena and Gem would inspect the arrow pads on the floor in front of the entrance. Ollie had a point; if there was no music playing, how were the dancing skills going to be judged? "Like I said, maybe there's an on button or something-" Right as Serena said that, she stepped on the arrow pad at the same time, and suddenly both arrow pads lit up with neon colors. A white holographic screen appeared in front of the group, transparent but still solid enough to be visibly seen. A loud, upbeat voice could be heard echoing from the temple itself: "Dance to the beat! If you want in, you must prove you can pop it and lock it... simply based off the rhythm itself!"
"Ooh, dancing! I wanna play too! Serena, evolve me!"
Serena smiled and nodded, activation her digivice. Gem was engulfed in the light of evolution, his body morphing into a more human-sized red dragon-like Digimon with a long, flowing blue scarf. "Gammamon Evolution! BetelGammamon!"
After he had evolved, Gem would walk next to his partner, who he was now almost as tall as. "So we need to dance along to whatever song will play without any arrows," Gem said. The way he spoke was now far more mature than how he had been speaking before, although his voice was still very young sounding. It was as if he had gone from being five years old to being twelve or thirteen. "How are we supposed to do that?"
"Maybe we'll know once the music starts?" Serena said with a shrug. She stood on one arrow pad while Gem stood on the other. "Alright, DDR guy, we're ready! Prepare to face the queen of DDR!"
The music gradually started playing. It sounded as if the music were surrounding the group. Serena and Gem focused on the white screen ahead of them... but no arrows were appearing. They both took a deep breath, focusing purely on the rhythm and not the screen telling them which directions to step in. Something then just... clicked. They still couldn't see the arrows, since the screen was still just showing a bunch of cutesy images and hypnotic effects. However, they still stepped on the arrows with confidence, and the combo number kept going up and up.
Despite not seeing any arrows, they weren't missing a beat. And the dancing itself looked amazing, as well. One could tell just from looking at Serena's and Gem's movements and smiling faces that they indeed loved music. As soon as the song had concluded, the screen displayed a green thumbs up symbol before vanishing completely, and the doors to the temple had opened up for the group.
"Well, then... shall we?"
(OOC: The type of song that was playing:) |
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Post by ollieandprocopius on Mar 16, 2024 4:43:47 GMT
Even when Ollie was looking about the temple and Procopius was smiling and being encouraging Serena would still be able to see the way he watched the boy, Like every single ounce of the world was going to be out to get the kind young man specifically and Procopius could only imagine staving it off by throwing himself bloody and ravenous to Ollie's defense. A boy who had never had anyone in his corner met with a digimon who had never been able to rely on anything other than his fists to keep the people he loved safe. The trauma that bonded them together was also forming a shell the may one day risk cutting them off from the world.
At the temple's activation though Ollie's eyes lit up like stars exploding against their dark color. He was writing furiously without daring to take his eyes off the pair, sketching gem, writing down about the mechanism.
"It provides some kind of data point as to the time dilation between the digital world and the human world that this mechanism, seemingly centuries or millennia old to the people of the Digital World is aware of an able to articulate the use of the turn "pop and lock", a style of dance that only appeared in the late 1970s at the earliest." He said, excited to the point of sweat running down over his temples in small beads as he rushed to get everything down before the two of them actually started. "Either that or this temple is able to assimilate and make use of cultural artifacts from after its foundation, I'm not sure which hypothesis is more fantastical!" He said, pushing himself up to the balls of his feet in delight at the mystery.
"Simmer down kiddo, let them work." Procopius said as the music started for real and...it was a revelation. It was beyond what Ollie had ever seen, it was beyond what Procopius would have been able to IMAGINE ten seconds before it started. The grace, the balance, the speed, all set to a beat that they could only follow by ear and yet they melded into and out of one another's moves without a single stop or stumble. Like the rhythm and music was possessing them to the core save that possession would make what they were doing far less impressive than what it actually was, them making it up on the spot.
Ollie and Procopius were staring with their jaws on the proverbial floor as the two of them came off the stone mats and when Serena had turned to him to gesture toward the open door he jumped like he was trying to launch out of his shoes, the blush on his face thick enough to resemble a rose bush along his cheeks.
"U-um would...would you like some water after that...amazing display?" He said, producing a metal thermos full of fresh water from somewhere in his seemingly infinite backpack, holding it out to the pair.
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Post by Serena & Gem on Mar 20, 2024 3:46:16 GMT
Even if Serena couldn't fully understand Procopius's motivations for why he was the way he was, she could still notice the way he was looking at Ollie the entire time they walked. That look just wouldn't change, even if Procopius was smiling and trying to encourage his partner. And she could tell he didn't necessarily like her all that much, likely due to her not being there for Ollie. It's not like she could've done anything, anyways... right?
Ollie was very enthused by the way this temple had activated, and he started doing his inside baseball routine once again. Oh well, it didn't matter, Ollie could have his fun while Serena and the newly evolved Gem did their thing. To them, once they got the rhythm down, it was easy for them. Serena often went to arcades just to play dancing games, and her only competition in terms of the high score was this "YJM" guy, whoever that was. And Gem's dad was a musically inclined Digimon, so he had dancing and rhythm baked into his code. After they were finished, Ollie pulled a thermos of water out from his backpack and handed it to Serena. It was easy to tell that he had a huge blush on his face.
"Oh, thank you very mu-"
"Thanks!" Gem suddenly cut in, swiping the thermos and chugging the whole thing down in one go. The BetelGammamon sighed with content as a furious Serena glared at him. "Man, that really hit the spot."
"What the heck, Gem?! He was offering it to me!"
"Well sorry, I was thirsty!"
"Sorry doesn't cut it, you water hog!"
"Who're you calling a water hog?!"
It didn't take long before the fight cloud began, like how Sims would fight in The Sims series. It wasn't anything serious, as after the fight (which ended with Gem winning) the two of them would just proceed on like nothing happened. If they were asked about the fight, they would both say that what they did barely counted as a fight to begin with, just a simple sibling rivalry. Clearly, things like this have happened before with them.
The room that the group entered start off dark. Then in an instant, the multi-colored crystal sconces on the walls lit up, providing the room with a dim yet colorful atmospheric rainbow light. There was a large paneled floor separating the group from the door to the next room, each square just slightly bigger than the average human foot. There was also a stone slab on a pedestal in front of the paneled floor, with five lines going across it with eight dots going across it. Some of the dots were simply circles, while others were filled in, and some had lines on the right side of the dots going upward...
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