The Cat is Under the Table [Syre] [Career]

"Wow... then I guess I'm in for a challenge!"

It was hard to tell just how long a 'long, long time' was, but the DemiDevimon's confidence was quickly noted by the cat. Still, UNO was such a simple game in itself, that it wouldn't have surprised her to know that one who knew the tricks to the game could outfox someone who didn't. Her ear gave a twitch at the question of the events at hand, to which the cat just gave a shrug: "Commonplace over here, maybe - out in the city, we don't have any of that stuff floating around. As for why, well, maybe I'll tell ya later!"

For now, UNO! The game, of course, was even by definition: went first, and the rest went as expected for the first few hands. Cards were played down when they could, and drawn when they couldn't. Skips, Reverses, and Draw 2s occasionally made a difference, but early hands were down to low scores and complete randomness... which is how it would be.

Until they went through the whole deck the first time. Throughout, Syre was simply being her jovial self, less reserved around a fun game - and in that hand, the demon would quickly be brought to an UNO, Syre still holding four cards. Syre looked flustered... but no matter how long that hand took, it would seem the PicoDevimon would always be forced to draw a card. Somehow, Syre never put down a card that matched what she was holding, even drawing a card herself - even though she could play that obvious 'Blue 3' on that 'Red 3'.

Having gone through the entire deck, Syre knew that the devil was holding a Blue 9. Low on cards, she would have always been forced to play from the top of the deck, whereas Syre seemed to be cycling around the cards in her hand around a size of five. Behind? Not at all:

"Let's see... Green Draw 2, Red Draw 2, Blue Draw 2. Blue Skip - UNO! - and Blue 3."

Well that was... a hand. PicoDevimon was forced to draw 6 cards on top of that Blue 9 she was holding - among them were two reverses, one trade hands, and even a Wild Draw 4! "Let's see... 99 points on that hand, right? Puts me right at 123!"

Amelie would know very well, even before today, that Syre knew how to count cards. Still, the cat tried to play it off, chuckling at that set of cards in front of her. "Well, we did play half the deck I guess... fun game!"

It was definitely a fun game... well, as fun as UNO could offer, Syre figured. DemiDevimon definitely knew the basics of this game... much more than she would have figured someone on the side of the Digital World to know. And it wasn't as if this rookie was a Terminus or Whitewater resident, where it would have made a little more sense.

Just who was she? What was her relation to humans, and why did she dislike them?

Eh, Syre didn't stick on that line of thought for long. "Mm, I'm listening!" Helping to pick up the cards, soon slipping them back into the box. Her ear flicked at the DemiDevimon's reasoning, and, well, it was pretty sparse. There was at least one point of interest: the D-Reaper (or 'pink jello') seemed to be residing in a cave, rather than spreading out further - and it sounded like all the Digimon that were sent out to investigate simply safely returned, with little ill effect. Something didn't sit right with her though:

"The Vilemon mentioned you in particular - have you been out to the cave yourself?" The cat gave a small, curious tilt of her head. "And even if they didn't 'bring back much', were they at least able to see something?"

If that was all she had, they woulda done a touch better just to go to the cave in the first place! Well, maybe...

PicoDevimon didn't know as much as the Vilemon said she did?

Honestly, that was fair enough: the bar was a rumor mill, and it was easy for information to get twisted back-and-forth like that. Despite not knowing the name, it seemed clear that she knew the danger of the D-Reaper - or at the very least, that it was dangerous. Putting the last of the UNO cards away, Syre closed the box, pushing them back towards her informant.

"A ledge they couldn't cross, hm?" The cat seemed a bit curious about that, but it was clear that she didn't know too much about it. Rather, Syre simply took that idea in mind, and gave her a small nod. "Alright, thanks for your help. Maybe I'll be back around for another game." Deciding to leave it on a more positive note, Syre gave a smile, waving as she pulled away from that chair - before climbing back up on the one next to Amelie.

"It seems we weren't the only ones who've poked around in that cave. Guess they didn't even know how to start looking."

She paused for a moment - then gave a chuckle, "Then again, neither do we."

"I'm not going to lie..." Taking a sip from her half-full soda, Syre gave a sigh. "The PicoDevimon seemed to know about as much as anyone else. She was part of an expedition group that went out to the cave - but, well, nothing happened. No-one was hurt, but they couldn't determine anything other than that the 'pink jello' was there."

"Though, there was one thing: they mentioned that there was a 'ledge' that they couldn't get across." What did that mean? "I don't know if its because the opening was too small on the bottom or that it was entirely caked in the D-Reaper so they couldn't risk climbing the wall - but it seems that there's at least part of the cave that hasn't been explored yet. So, that would be about the one lead we have!"

And that was better than nothing! Past that, she gave another sip of her drink, taking a brief glance around the bar. It didn't seem likely that there was another lead here, so Syre offered a simple suggestion:

"So how about we check it out ourselves?"

Syre nodded back at that small bit of praise - and it was true, if it was safe to at least poke a head into the cave, no reason that these two also couldn't check it directly out! Finishing her soda, the cat stretched her arms, and gave a small hop down off the chair. Of course, Auntie wanted the details: just how did it go?

"Mm... well, you saw the start of it." Making her way out of the bar - so that the DemiDevimon wouldn't overhear too much - she explained a bit of it. "The Vilemon said she wasn't good with humans, and, well, she already saw you and me together, so I put the information on a bet instead. That way, she'd be more likely to talk to me. Even if she thought of me as 'some human's Digimon', she would probably still talk out of respect of the game than anything else? I mean, it was UNO: I just waited for the deck to turn once over and... um... counted cards."

She gave a small chuckle at that, biting her lip. "I think it went well enough, though maybe I could have been a bit firmer asking questions? I dunno, but there's a lot of eyes on you in there... a bit scary." It was nice to get her own chance to work through these sorts of things...

... And as they made their way to the cave, the BlackGatomon would take a small look inside. Indeed, there wasn't much from the outside, but after a glance, Syre already started off: "Just a sec... let's see..."

She took a look at the front of the cave, picking up a piece of discarded plastic - a spent glowstick. "Looks like they used something like this to mark the front of the cave? Hm..." She didn't think that far ahead, but she did pull out a flashlight - quietly clicking it on, aiming it towards the cave floor. "I'll lead - stay close behind, kay?"

After all, if Auntie wasn't evolved into a spirit, Syre was the more 'battle-ready' of the two of them!

"Not liking humans was one thing - I just want to know how she got her hands on a human game." Curious, but not important enough for Syre to have asked.

Judging by Amelie's follow-up, Syre's method was more-or-less right, though she did give a small embarrassed look in her face on being called 'Amy's little girl'. She would have liked to say she'd grown out of those words, but with no-one else around, she simply let her ears flatten out for a moment, and let it slide off of her back.

After all, they had a cave to explore! Flicking that discarded glow-stick off to the side, the cat gave a shrug: "If they were still in there, wouldn't the glowstick still have some light left in it? If that's the case, I hope there's not another group inside..." She speculated, but that pessimistic tone wasn't kept for long. After all, there were no cries of panic coming from inside the cave, so it was more likely that the DemiDevimon's group simply left a bit of litter behind.

Leading along, Syre would keep a careful pace. She took care to keep the light low, creeping it up just a bit over time to look for anything that might trip them up. Stepping further into the darkness, over a few cracks and under some narrow spots, they'd eventually come to that red, luminescent mass: the D-Reaper. A sickly red light pulsed out from the mass, coating the walls and a bit of the floor inside - but there were no agents, no 'defenses' set up.

A bit wary, the BlackGatomon took a careful look closer. "Hm... dad said the D-Reaper appears to eat corrupted areas of data. So why would it be so far out of the way of where there would be any fights?"

She took a look around the cave walls, passing the flashlight over them. "Unless this isn't a natural cave... maybe something burrowed down here at some point?"

That thought, once said, made her give a nervous chuckle. "Eheh... s-stay close, Amy."