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Post by cocoazielman on Mar 6, 2024 4:28:51 GMT
*Click, click, click*
Cocoa made a fairly distinctive sound even as she made her way down the sidewalk, her cane clicking against the pavement underneath her with every forward step. It was a gorgeous day near the end of summer, not too hot or humid as far as Japanese summer went and there were people out and about from every corner. Cocoa indeed saw a group of people who were making some merry and decided that she had to be in on it.
Some kind of garden market or other public fair, tables lined up on every side to make sure you couldn't go three steps without some local treats to be had. Well that was just perfect and the sparkle in Cocoa's eyes upon seeing it, especially with all the feet moving along the path to get to the high school just down the way it was too perfect by half.
She ran a gloved hand along a wooden table and, pulling her hand up to look for dust on her fingertips she nodded and shrugged off her backpack, unzipping it and beginning to lay out candies by the handful.
Artfully crafted hard candies shaped into dragons and seahorses, chocolates of perfect bon bon shape outlined with white icing and caramel and sprinkles, brittles and toffes and other half bitter sweets that filled the air with the rush of sugar that was the candy maker's life blood
Cocoa paused at the sound of a sob, turning on her good heel and seeing a boy in the midst of being targeted. Surrounded by other children, pointed out and laughed down for the only reason children even do such a think, because they can.
"FFFWWWTTT!!!" Cocoa brought the children's eyes to her by pressing her forefinger and thumb to her lips and blowing out in an ear piercing whistle that broke over every conversation around her, before anyone got mad they had caught sight of her table and young eyes twinkled with open hunger and desire.
*Click, click, click* she limped briskly up to the boy who had only moments before been at the center of the harassment and she hunched down on one knee. The boy sniffed and looked up to her and with a smooth motion she tucked her hand into her coat and opened up her fist to reveal...nothing.
"Oh my, must be on the fritz again." She crooned in her sing song accent, slamming her fist against her thigh and shaking it in the air in front of her like she was trying to fix a broken piece of old machinery. "Here we are~" She purred and opened her hand again, between each finger was a lovingly crafted hard candy, a red dragon, a green turtle, a blue unicorn, all small and delicate enough to pop into the mouth and with a sheen of perfection on their edges. "Now, why don't we stop all this unpleasentness and replace it with something sweet?" She spoke to the group.
To say the crowd of children gathered fast would be an understatement.
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Post by Kaya Matsui and Hawkeye on Mar 6, 2024 4:52:12 GMT
Today was a very important day for Kaya Matsui, as it was her very first day of attending a proper high school. Sure, it was located in the same building as the middle school she went to before, but it still felt like she would be in a new school altogether. Even her school uniform was different than the one she wore in middle school. As usual, she had her Hawkmon partner Hawkeye by her side, in hologram mode, but thanks to all the foot traffic she figured that cutting through Miyashita Park would be the best choice to get to school on time.
Not that she was in a rush, of course, considering she left home very early.
Kaya walked down the park path with Hawkeye walking by her side, a smile on her face and a spring in her step, and she couldn't help but hum a cheery melody to herself as she ate her breakfast toast.
"I never imagined you would be so excited for school, Kaya," Hawkeye said.
"It's a big life moment, Hawkeye," Kaya responded. "I'm a high school student now, meaning I'm one of the big kids! Life's just going to get more exciting from here on out!"
"Implying it wasn't exciting with me around," Hawkeye said with a slight smirk. Suddenly, something seemed to catch his attention up ahead. "Kaya, there seems to be some kind of commotion going on up there."
"Hm?"
Hawkeye was right. Aside from all of the tables lined up for whatever public fair they had going on, there was a poor little boy being bullied by three bigger kids for seemingly no reason. Kaya had half a mind to step in for the boy's defense, except that it seemed like someone else beat her to the punch. It was a woman that looked like she could be in college, wearing quite an elaborate magician-like suit. Kaya and Hawkeye watched from a distance as she whistled at the group, hobbled over to the young boy, and pulled something out of her suit that made him smile, although they didn't know exactly what it was that she gave him. And before they knew it, the crowd of children had gathered over to a nearby table, probably the same one this woman was stationed at.
"Huh, I wonder what this is all about?" Guided by their curiosity, Kaya and Hawkeye decided to get closer to see what was on display. Their eyes widened and jaws dropped when they saw the cornucopia of different candies that were clearly hand made. Ones shaped like dragons and seahorses, perfectly crafted chocolates and bon-bons... so many different kinds of candies on display.
"Kaya, it is imperative that we purchase some of these candies right now," Hawkeye said. His eyes were practically sparkling, and a fair amount of drool was pouring down the sides of his beak... not that anyone besides Kaya could see, of course.
"Oh definitely," Kaya said, who looked just as enthralled by the treats on offer as her Digimon partner was. The high school student then patiently waited in line for her turn to buy some of these fun looking candies.
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Post by cocoazielman on Mar 7, 2024 4:56:45 GMT
Cocoa wasn't slowing down even as she was mobbed by kids on all sides of the table, even some adults starting to drift toward the table and see what was on offer. Even with no time for set up Cocoa made a little show of arranging her candy so that just looking at them would be part of the experience.
Some of them were placed down in little shapes, hearts and diamonds of candies all arranged by color and type so that looking on the shape would be a rainbow gradient of color and flavor. Not a single sweet out of place until the presentation of the table was just as much a treat for the eyes as it was a treat for the nose and the tongue. When she was done with that she took a step back and leaned forward, both hands on the head of her cane she smiled as she rested her chest on the back of her hands and just watched the children at work as they each took a piece for themselves and walked away to enjoy it.
Most people were taking a long moment to stare at their candy first, hesitation as most of it looked almost too good to eat. Perfectly crafted and lovingly shaped. She swayed back and forth pleasantly on her cane as she watched the people taking their sample and the first cries of "MMM!~" came up from the first layer of the crowd.
As Kaya approached she could literally hear the woman begin to hum and mumble the first few bars of Pure Imagination just to complete the image without an ounce of cynicism. Her eyes, her smile, all were soft on a rounded, full cheeked face that showed the candy maker didn't starve herself on any account either.
"And what can I do for your enchanted self, today?" Cocoa said to Kaya as she approached, her Flemish accent twinkling on her words like a sprinkle of sugar. "Ah, a student? Yes, yes, I see~" Cocoa said as she looked at the uniformed girl. In her hand she held a sparkling little jawbreaker the exact shape, color and pattern of a miniature watermelon. Flicking it up on her thumb she tilted her head back, turned her head so the candy landed in her cheek and turned back to Kaya now sucking on the sour candy. "I've got fruity sweets, rich candies, taffies, brittles, toffees..." She paused and looked at Kaya, eyes darting around as she seemed to almost be considering the girl's aura and then after a moment she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and nodded like she had just seen through the secrets of the universe.
"Strawberries then~" She said with the sage tone of a woman who would not be denied and expertly, without looking down produced a skewer of candies strawberries. Three perfect berries wrapped in a drizzled shell of hard candy that glistened clearly showing off the supple fruit beneath. She tossed the kebab in midair so that candy landed in her palm and the stick was pointing out toward Kaya.
Her humming continued, wordlessly "Who can take a sunriiiise~..." The notes buzzed from her lips.
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Post by Kaya Matsui and Hawkeye on Mar 11, 2024 3:56:05 GMT
As Kaya and Hawkeye waited in line, they got to see the first round of customers be served sweets from this rather eccentric candy maker. They seemed hesitant to try it at first, but the vast amount of "mmmm's" that came from them was enough to make the crowd decide that they did indeed want to try this candy for themselves.
Kaya could hear the woman humming a tune to herself as she approached, a tune that Kaya was all too familiar with. Like many other kids, she grew up with and loved both the original Willy Wonka movie from 1971, and the more book-accurate remake from 2005, so she definitely could recognize that tune anywhere. The candy maker herself appeared to be just as sweet as her candy, for not an ounce of ironic cynicism could be felt from her.
"I don't trust her..." Hawkeye said, crossing his wings.
"You don't trust anyone," Kaya whispered to him. The candy maker then greeted Kaya, detecting that she was a high school student (as if the outfit didn't give it away) and then she seemed to be sensing Kaya's aura, to decide what kind of candy would be best for her. Kaya wasn't exactly sure what kind of candy to get, plus she was curious as to what this woman was doing, so she just went with it. It sure surprised her when the woman decided on a strawberry candy.
Okay, I'm convinced this lady is just magic.
The woman would then pull out a skewer of what appeared to be cut strawberries that were coated in a hard candy shell. She then tossed the kebab in the air, which landed perfectly in Kaya's palms with the stick pointing towards Kaya herself. "How much do I owe you?" Kaya asked in English. She had gotten better at English since that one encounter with an English speaking Chosen, and she figured that speaking English would be better understood by the foreigner.
After she paid the correct amount of Yen, Kaya waved the nice woman goodbye and headed off on her way. When no one was looking, she and Hawkeye hid behind a tree, allowing Hawkeye to become physical again. The two of them each took one strawberry candy each and took a bite. "Itadakimasu!"
Munch!
This... this candy... it was delicious! It was fruity, sweet and tart, much like strawberries usually are, but so much more so than usual! The way the sweet hard candy melted on the tongue, the satisfying way the candy broke apart when being chewed, the avalanche of sweet sugary strawberries that coated the tongue in pure goodness! Along with some rather cute satisfied faces, there was only one way Kaya and Hawkeye could react to such a treat:
"Mmmmm~!"
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Post by cocoazielman on Mar 11, 2024 4:12:01 GMT
"Het is gratis." Cocoa said with a dismissive flick of her wrist, her tone distinctively Dutch in flavor even if the specific words couldn't be understood. The candy maker grinned a knowing and twinkling grin as she waited just long enough for Kaya to get confused before repeating herself, in English "It's free, my dear. A good candy man never charges for his first bite. You'll find my confidence in my sugar is never misplaced." She said, holding out a hand to block the handing over of any money and making a 'shoo-shoo' gesture if Kaya would insist on paying.
When the Tamer and Partner pair walked away they would still see the confectioner in action, handing out treat after treat and never accepting a single cent for any of it. Though the way she seemed to float on air with every lovely smile and full cheek was clearly the actual payment that she was getting from any of this.
She quickly became a sensation, the crowd was a half dozen rings deep and the candy was flying off the shelves. No one ever had time to pick for themselves, before they could even spend a moment scanning over their options Cocoa had already taken a nice long look at them and popped something perfect into their hands before shooing them off if they tried to pay. The kids god the best of the show, seeing this eccentric woman, humming, leaning back and forth on the axis of her cane, the pure image of Gene Wilder in his iconic role.
When the backpack was finally emptied, she seemed more disappointed than anyone, throwing up her hands in an exaggerated shrug and tousling the hair of one of the children, the boy who had been the center of poor attention before she had stepped in.
"Let me leave you with one last treat." She said with a tap of the side of her nose and a wink like she was delivering some powerful wisdom. "Life is better spent on sweets and smiles, and people are better spent around the same table warming one another." She turned to step away before pausing and raising a gloved finger as if having forgotten something important. "Oh, and brush your teeth. Candy is less fun with cavities." She said, flashing a gleaming set of ivory teeth of her own before stepping away from the crowd and around the corner back down the street, still well within line of sight of Kaya and Hawkeye's hiding spot where they would feel the telltale crackle of energy and a smell of...burning chocolate?
No sooner had Cocoa picked up her head to smell to air than did she notice the sidewalk space beneath her having turned into sticky marshmellow. Trying to pull one shoe free the sticky mire bubble and, without a single notice of the people around her she sank beneath the tile like she was sucked into quicksand in fast motion with a yelp of surprise.
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Post by Kaya Matsui and Hawkeye on Mar 16, 2024 4:08:55 GMT
When Kaya tried to pull out some Yen to pay for the candy, the candy maker said... something that Kaya didn't quite understand. The confusion on the teen's face was apparent. She then said that the candy was free, and a good candy man never charges for the first bite.
"No, that's not right. Please, I insist, let me pay for it." However, the lady was simply not budging no matter how stubborn Kaya tried to be. An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object right here. Eventually, Kaya did have to admit defeat and walk away with her free candy, although she still felt bad about it. As Kaya and Hawkeye enjoyed their sweet treat, they had a good view as the candy woman seemed to become an instant sensation. It was impressive, the way that she seemed to just know what her customers would like the most, and the crowd was getting larger by the minute. Not only that, but she was humming and singing and rocking back and forth with her cane the whole time. Kaya was smitten by this candywoman-slash-performer, while Hawkeye still had his doubts about her. She was too perfect for his liking, there had to be a dark side hiding under that persona. As quickly as she opened up, she had unfortunately run out of candy to sell. She looked even more disappointed about it than the kids themselves, as odd as that sounded. She left the crowd with a nice little lesson before stepping away from the crowd. When she turned the corner back down the street, Kaya and Hawkeye could suddenly feel something was off. A crackle of energy and... an odd smell. "Do you smell that, too?" Kaya asked. "I do. It almost smells like... burning chocolate?" Then, the two of them heard someone yell. They turned towards the source of the yelling to see the candywoman from before sinking right into the sidewalk below her. Without a moment of hesitation, Kaya ran over to where she had sunk, with Hawkeye flying close behind her. When she got to the scene, she noticed how the sidewalk the woman was standing in had turned into melted, sticky marshmallow. "I can already tell how this is going to turn out," Hawkeye noted. "Just keep in mind what she said about brushing your teeth," Kaya responded before she willing stepped into the marshmallow sidewalk, also sinking in like quicksand in fast motion. "Digimon do not get cavities!" Hawkeye retorted as he followed his partner into the marshmallow. Presumably, this would lead them to a particular section of the Digital World...
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Post by cocoazielman on Mar 16, 2024 4:26:06 GMT
The transition between spaces was not clean and it was not kind to the candy maker. She fell through the thin and sticky liquid and while none of it clung to her it also didn't slow her down. She appeared through the sugary portal about six feet in the air above a patch of trees and a shallow little gully at the side of a country road. It wouldn't be impossible for a woman of her age and build to catch her weight and avoid hurting herself, in fact it would be easy to land on her feet and catch herself, just a little bend at the knee to catch momentum.
Problem was that Cocoa did not have two feet to land on. Her left foot hit the ground first and she canted hard, falling to the right as her cane was flung from her grasp and she was sent tumbling off the edge of the road and into the dirty gully beside. She rolled shoulder over shoulder, thumping rocks and sticks on the way down. The cane rattled to a halt in the middle of the street in the opposite direction that she'd fallen in.
Cocoa choked and the Digidestined pair might appear just in time to hear a flurry of words in Dutch that, despite not being able to speak the language could be easily identified as Cocoa cursing a blue streak that could peel the paint off a battleship. She pushed her hands down into the dirt and clay and pushed up to her hands and knees, turning left and right and reaching out to grab hold of a rock beside her. Leaning hard on her left side she shoved her entire weight up on her hands and , in a process that took several moments she found the leverage to eventually stand, leaning against the tree beside her.
She looked up the gully beside her, a hard 45 degree angle of mud and rock and clay that would be often literal child's play for most people to scale on hands and feet.
Cocoa stood there against the tree for a long moment, her head down and her eyes closed, her teeth gritting tight as her head spiraled. Raising her arm she thumped her closed fist against the tree for a long moment of frantic beats and looking closely perhaps a single tear rolled down her cheek before with a single sharp inward breath and a straightening of her spine she returned to the happy and graceful woman she had been a moment ago.
She didn't know Kaya and Hawkeye were there at that moment, or how much they saw but she called over the edge of mud.
"Is anyone there? I..." She paused, another curse "I'm down here and I've been separated from my cane."
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Post by Kaya Matsui and Hawkeye on Mar 20, 2024 3:46:50 GMT
The main things that Kaya and Hawkeye would instantly notice about this odd, sugary portal is that the marshmallow itself was very thin, meaning that it wasn't stopping their velocity at all, and that it also wasn't sticking to their clothes or feathers. Hawkeye was tempted to take a small bite of the marshmallow, but he figured that doing so when he didn't 100% know what it was would be a very bad idea. The two would then fall onto what looked like a country road, the portal opening not even six feet above the ground. Kaya's outfit would also change into one more fitting of a Digidestined person, sporting a long trench-like vest over a bright orange T-shirt with matching color shoes and beret hat, and a pair of jeans with one of the legs cut to more of a short length.
Kaya would first notice upon arrival that she was standing on something. Looking down, she would find the candy maker's cane underneath her foot. "Where did she go?" Kaya muttered as she picked up the cane. Then, the two of them could hear very angered muttering coming from... somewhere. Kaya didn't understand the language, but Hawkeye did. It sounded like the candy maker's voice swearing in Dutch, and just that fact alone made the Hawkmon smirk with satisfaction. Sadly, even he couldn't tell where initially it was coming from. "She must be nearby," Hawkeye said rather quietly. "Yeah, but I can't tell where she'd be," Kaya said, looking around. After a few more moments, the sound of her voice called out again. The candy maker was calling out for help. This time, Kaya was able to follow the sound of the voice and found the candy maker stuck in the gully beside the road, dirtied and leaning against a tree just to stay upright. "There you are!" Kaya held out the cane towards the candy maker. "Grab on; we're gonna try to pull you up!"
The "we" part of that statement would certainly raise eyebrows, on top of the fact that with Hawkeye's help, pulling Cocoa out of the gully would be rather seamless. As well as the part where Kaya couldn't exactly hide that she had a three-and-a-half-foot-tall talking bird monster following her around and helping her out. Quite frankly, if they were in the Digital World, it wasn't exactly worth it to even try to hide it.
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Post by cocoazielman on Mar 20, 2024 4:14:20 GMT
Cocoa did not question the pronoun at first, she was a bit busy. She wiped down her gloves on her pants and grabbed hold of the cane with one hand. Doubled over otherwise on her hands and knees, one glove clawing into the mud and muck, one foot pushing down into it hard enough to leave an imprint, half dragging the other one only to leave a winding snake trail behind it as the toes of her one custom shoe skated back and forth.
When Kaya was finally able to pull her all the way up, the candy woman, despite looking exhausted and for a heartbeat seeming to pitch toward the ground didn't fall, or lie, or sit. She very deliberately caught herself on her cane, her chest pressing down into it with both of her hands grasping its head like she was holding on for dear life. She hung her head, dragged both feet back underneath her and Hawkeye, no matter how satisfied by her moment of weakness would see her rise back to her full height and stand with her back straight and eyes up.
Then her eyes looked down and caught the hawk monster in front of her. She wobbled for a second, blinked, rubbed her eyes with one hand over the bridge of her nose, looked again, blinked again, rubbed one more time and then...leaned back, shoulder relaxing and letting out a sigh from her nostrils.
"I hope, miss, that you at least shared my sweets with your friend here. If I had known there were two strawberry orders to be fulfilled, I would have given you a second skewer." Cocoa said, after having seen Hawkeye for about ten seconds, upon seeing a Digimon for the FIRST TIME the thing she instantly clocked was the hawk's candy preferences. "I apologize that you caught me in a...compromised position. Generally I like to draw attention above my waist. People tend to change when they realize the cane is not an affectation." She said, just for a moment her fingertips tightened on the cane and something that might have been old anger flashed along the surface of her eyes.
She paused, picking her chin up and sniffing the air, sighing and shaking her head as she looked off down the trail and muttered.
"Now how on earth does one burn a chocolate recipe that simple." She said, marching off down the trail without waiting for warnings.
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Post by Kaya Matsui and Hawkeye on Apr 24, 2024 3:50:24 GMT
Despite the fact that this woman looked very tired after being helped up, she was still doing everything in her power to stay upright once she had been pulled out of the gully. She gripped on tightly to her cane that Kaya had given her and sprung like back up, as if she had been supercharged with energy. This concerned Kaya because she was worried for the woman's well being, as she believed forcing yourself to look okay when you're not was unhealthy. Then the woman got a good look at Hawkeye, and all concerns of that were thrown right out the window. Surprisingly, she only needed a few seconds to process the idea that a creature like Hawkeye existed before saying that she would've made a second skewer of the strawberry candy kabob if she knew that he was there. "So, that's the funny thing," Kaya said with a slight laugh. "He was right next to me the entire time, and yes, I did share the candy with him. Very delicious, by the way. I'm Kaya Matsui, and this is... well, my Digimon partner, Hawkeye."
"A pleasure," Hawkeye said, still looking at Cocoa as if she had something more to her than what she was letting on. The candy maker apologized for the trouble that was caused from her disability. She explained how she preferred to draw more attention to her rather than her bad leg. "All that matters is that you're okay. We saw you fall into this weird marshmallow portal and I knew that if I didn't jump in, then... okay, this is going to sound really weird, but you're in the Digital World."
The smell of burnt chocolate became far more prevalent to the group by this point, Cocoa especially. It seemed to be coming from down the trail a bit. Disregarding any sense of danger, Cocoa took it upon herself to see what was causing that burning chocolate smell. "Where are you going?" Hawkeye asked, hovering in front of Cocoa. "Without any sort of protection, you're at very great risk in the Digital World!"
"At least let us come with you. We can make sure that you're safe, and we can get you home very easily."
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Post by cocoazielman on Apr 25, 2024 3:42:00 GMT
"Oh well thank you darling you're too kind. I'm a bit self conscious that neither of you got a full portion but moving onward and all that." She said, still with that underlying Dutch twang in her voice that her every word floated on and seemed to come out coated in fresh steam and glitter.
Cocoa locked eyes with Hawkeye and despite being far too smart to not clock the suspicion and lack of grace in his gaze she only returned it with a smile. Her light cherry blossom pink lip gloss a little smudged but the fullness of her happy features made up for it in the grin.
"Digital world. Digimon. Right right." She said, still walking forward like a woman on a mission. She did seem to pause when Hawkeye brought to her attention the danger of the situation and she looked down at him. Looking over to where the smell seemed to be coming from and nodding with her eyes closed. "You said you shared the candy with him, That tells me that he can eat it, and he hasn't disputed your compliment of enjoying it. At this very moment that is all I need to know." She said with another resolute nod.
As she was speaking there was another note added to the sensations in the air. A new hit of acrid and unpleasant smoke that could only be REALLY burning food and the sound of panicked and accusatory voices just out of sight.
"My friend." She said, looking down at Hawkeye with a gleam in her eye of a woman who would never be moved. "What I know, at this moment in time. Is that there is fresh chocolate in terrible distress and some kind of gathering imperiled. That is an arena where I shine and it is well beyond any fear of the unknown to keep me from appearing and offering my services. I would be very thankful for the help." She said and then off she went, scooting around Hawkeye and then making good time down the trail
As they crested the hill the plume of cooking smoke became very noticeable coming out of an outdoor cooking area set up on the outskirts of a simple looking village. A gaggle of low level digimon all crowding around an outdoor oven. With every step the group took they became more aware of the gnarled, lumpy mess on a plate that might once have been a chocolate cake.
"Oh no! The cake!" "The summit is ruined!" "What will happen when they get here?!" The little digimon were all standing around the remains of the dessert in an awful panic and didn't notice Cocoa approach until she stood up tall, clicked the end of her cane on a rock and cleared her throat.
"Now, how about you tell us what's going on and we'll see what can be done. Mmm?"
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