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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Sept 9, 2018 1:31:18 GMT
"Ugh..."
Well, it was inevitable. After doing the one thing that Mikemon had explicitly warned her not to do in the Dark Area - to fight or even touch the D-Reaper - the BlackGatomon found herself in hot water. Syre was grounded, and Mikemon had put her through the ringer: an intense lecture, no sweets for a week, and a tight nightly curfew, with no access to Tamernet after 7:00 PM. On top of all of that, she was made to do some of the more intense chores around the Library.
Like this: scrubbing down the back deck! With a towel under her knees, Syre once more reached into a soapy bucket, pulling out a fine bristle brush, before scrubbing down every inch of the 'ground-floor balcony', which always seemed to have a bit of a mud problem whenever the Library was made to move. She grit her teeth, mumbling under her breath.
"What else was I supposed to do, huh? You're still glad that totem is safe, right?"
Why was she being punished? The cat still didn't fully understand, it had turned out fine. Her right leg was tightly bandaged up, a small patch of blue showing through the tape (medicine Dio might have been familiar with), and at the tip of Syre's tail was a black, metal ring. Gritting her fangs, she pressed on, still in somewhat of a foul mood.
Mikemon couldn't be around every hour of the day to make sure Syre stayed on task, however. Right now, well, it was Carlos' turn.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Sept 9, 2018 7:18:15 GMT
Truth be told, this was not how Carlos nor Dio were expecting to be spending their day off.
Sure, the day they had witnessed the Doctor's daughter hatch and gotten to meet her both them as well as Amelie had taken up the responsability of becoming the small cat's uncles and aunt, promising the Mikemon that they would look after the young digimon and make sure she would be safe and out of trouble.
Clearly, that was easier said than done, as apparently her last adventure with the french girl had gone less than spectacularly. As usual, the duo didn't have the finer details, but they knew the important part: Syre had a bit of a close encounter with the D-Reaper, and was now grounded because of it. Of course, since the Doctor couldn't be around forever to keep tabs on her, that's where her beloved(?) uncles came in.
Apparently, the rest of the day would be spent mostly looking over the black cat as she took on the many chores around the Library. At least, that was the initial plan, but after about ten or so minutes Carlos couldn't keep to himself much longer, and possibly out of pity for the young digimon, possibly because he wanted to have the place cleaned up asap, he had gotten a hold of a brush and had begun scrubbing the dirty floor as well.
Sure, this was her punishment, but she was going to have to clean up the rest of the Library eventually. Surely if they helped her out just a smidgen it wouldn't hurt?
Well, one thing was for sure on this: Mikemon had been right. They were going to spoil Syre. Well, at least Carlos was. Dio was once again proving himself to be rather unhelpful, simply sitting on a chair by the side, fiddling around on the Tamernet on the man's device while keeping a vigilant eye on Syre as if he was guarding a prisoner.
"Serves you right, young girl." The imp shrugged in response to the cat's mumbling, his tone of voice sounding somewhat smug. "Next time, if you're gonna dissobey your dad, don't get caught."
"Dude that's like, literally the worst advice you could give your niece." Carlos frowned as he rolled his eyes, but focused back on the task at hand. After another good minute or two of unninterrupted scrubbing, he'd take a moment to sigh and wipe the sweat of his brow, before glancing at Syre. "Phew, so, that's about halfway done, I think. How you holding up?"
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Sept 9, 2018 20:23:16 GMT
Carlos and Dio both had their job about 'half-right' - but, unfortunately, they were both representing opposite halves of the argument. The Impmon played the role of the stern observer quite well, even if he completely missed the point of the punishment. Carlos, meanwhile, understood that this was Syre's job to do - but couldn't help but throw his hand in to help. To that end, Mikemon had already seen Carlos helping earlier, but simply rolled his eyes, before giving a stern glance to Syre.
'Even if he's helping, don't slack off'.
"Right, and how was I supposed to hide this? Say 'I tripped' and not get that... well, whatever that blue stuff was for my leg?" Still feeling that she had done the right thing, the BlackGatomon more-or-less kept her nose down and rolled with the punches at this point, continuing to scrub away at the deck. They would definitely be at it for a few more minutes before her impromptu assistant would speak up again - Syre gave a nod, reaching her hands back into the bucket, letting them rest under the water for a bit.
"Yeah... sheesh, how does it get so bad back here, though? Even the kitchen wasn't as bad as this deck. Ugh..." Yup, she had been at this a while - starting even before Carlos' shift - and the monotony of this deck was starting to get to her. "Hm? Oh, I'm holding up fine, I guess." Pulling up that brush again, she'd start scrubbing down to the far corner. So long, she'd simply worked in relative silence. But, eventually, she just gave a sigh.
"How much do you know about what happened, anyway?" As she worked, she just left that open question in the air for the two of them. "And, I mean, what would have you two done?"
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Post by Carlos Rey on Sept 18, 2018 23:27:20 GMT
While Dio couldn't help but roll his eyes a bit at the cat's response (seemingly deeming it too much of a goody two shoes thing to do), Carlos meanwhile smiled, nodding in approval at her honesty. Really, that was the only right answer to her situation.
"Yeah dude, it's not like she could hide...that. In fact that was the worst possible thing she could have done." He said glancing at the lazy imp, taking a short breather from the scrubbing before resuming the hard work on .
Indeed, Syre had done the right thing in telling his father, even if it resulted in her punishment immediately after. That outcome was far and beyond preferable to the alternative.
They had seen what D-Reaper corruption could do to a digimon, and the possibility of that ever happening to the BlackGatomon was...disheartening and terrifying, to say the least.
Judging by Dio's sudden shift in his expression from smugness to a more grim one, it was clear he understood that now all too well, so he decided to drop the subject and cut her niece some slack...at least for the time being of course.
When asked what he would have done in her place though, the purple digimon scratched his chin for a moment, thinking his response for a moment.
"Well...your mother once told us that we should never, ever fight the D-Reaper on our own if at all possible." He said, and after another moment added, "To be fair, she probably also told us to not fight in general unless we didn't have a choice, but that's neither here nor there."
"Frankly we...don't really have the whole story?" Carlos chimed in, "Just the general gist of it. Something about you and your aunt getting cornered by the D-Reaper, are we missing much?" Maybe a clearer picture would help the man give a better response.
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Sept 19, 2018 2:09:59 GMT
The threat of the D-Reaper infection aside, well, that red stuff just hurt while it was on her leg! What was she supposed to do, just try and hide it while it ate away at her leg?
Ugh, that was aside from the point - why was she being punished for doing the right thing in the first place? She continued to scrub away at the deck - relieved to finally reach the far corner in the back left - only to hear Dio speak up again. Her ear twitched as the Impmon spoke of something that K said - the 'mom' that she hadn't even had the chance to meet at this point - only to let out a sigh. "Of course she said that..." Her tone sounded more flat than anything else.
After all, Carlos had a fair point. Just what happened? "I wouldn't say we were cornered by it at all - but what we were helping was cornered by it." Placing the brush off to the side for the moment, the BlackGatomon took a moment to stretch out her back, and explain her side of the story. "Auntie and I were doing a bit of research for her article, so we went out to investigate a cave where the D-Reaper had apparently sprouted up - but we didn't know why. But it was just... you know, lichen on the walls and stuff? So we went in deeper, and found that the 'stuff' was growing around and trying to trap a... a 'spirit totem', I think its called? A small statue in the shape of a bird." And, well: "And we couldn't just leave it behind! So we went to cut it free - and we did, but the stupid D-Reaper managed to get a hold of my leg."
She shook her head. "So we cut that part too. Got out. Saved the spirit. Wrote the article. Came back. And got yelled at."
And... that was about the jist of it.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Sept 22, 2018 4:58:47 GMT
"Right, that sounds about right." hearing Syre's retelling of her (mis)adventure with Amelie sure gave the whole situation a lot more context, and made it a whole lot more complicated. One thing was clear however, he couldn't help but feel for her right now. Being yelled at by your father was the worst. Being yelled at for doing what you thought was the right thing was somehow even worse.
"Aw, I'm sorry sobrinita." He said with a sigh, feeling somewhat surprised at catching himself calling the young digimon "sobrinita". He was sure taking the whole uncle thing seriously...and he was taking after his aunt Matilda, it seemed, good grief.
But really, this had turned into a needlessly hard situation for everyone, and he couldn't blame neither Mikemon, nor Syre or Amelie for reacting the way they did. They were all doing what they thought best during a less than ideal situation.
He decided however, to do something a bit different than he initially planned: instead of trying to sugar coat things, he decided be as direct and honest as he could be. What harm could it make?
"Look, I know you're probably annoyed at your dad for grounding you despite doing the right thing, understandably so. Trust me, I've been in that place before, so I get how you must be feeling."
"But you have to see it from a different angle: your dad was worried sick about you, and all he wants for you is to be safe. He's not doing this to punish you from doing the right thing, he just wants to discourage you from doing something like it again." He reasoned, sitting close to the cat, careful not to do so on top of the recently cleaned floor. "Not because it's not right...but because he wants you to be safe and away from danger. You understand that, right?"
Last thing he wanted was to make Syre feel even worse about her choices, so he quickly redirected the subject somwhere else, as well as giving her an honest response.
"...that said, just between us three here: we would have totally done the same thing in your place." He smiled knowingly, then shot both Dio and Syre a somewhat playful glance, chuckling. "Hell, you how many times would we have been able to avoid a fight if your uncle Dio could keep his anger in check? A lot."
"Feh, said the idiot with the hero complex!" The imp scoffed a bit, seemingly offended, though his ensuing smug grin and laugh made it clear that wasn't the case.
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Sept 22, 2018 16:13:14 GMT
"Sobrinita?"
Giving an idle blink towards the tamer, Syre's frustrated expression turned a bit towards confusion. The word, well, the intent of it made sense to her - language was just something that came naturally to Digimon. But why that particular word?
Eh, it wasn't worth more than an idle thought. Grabbing that brush again, the frustrated feline continued to scrub across the far side of the deck. "Hmph..."
Of course, Carlos was right. Dad's lecture talked very little about the 'good' or 'intent' about what she did. No, it was more 'What if it was more than you could have handled? What if an agent got a hold of you? We wouldn't have been able to get you back!' She hadn't only disobeyed her father, she upset him. And that upset feeling carried right over to her punishment.
Carlos would have done it? "Right? Of course you would have. But no, I'm some cute cat to be protected or something..." No, that wasn't right - she was allowed to practice with Siris. She was allowed to pick her own appropriately ranked missions, too. So why was this different?
The cat sighed, as Carlos approached, the cat giving a small blink as she thought it through.
"Just how bad is the D-Reaper?"
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Post by Carlos Rey on Oct 9, 2018 0:05:08 GMT
"Hm? Oh, sorry, slip of my tongue. Sobrinita means "little niece", something my aunt used to call me back in the day."
Carlos explained, somewhat surprised at himself over that. He barely talked in Spanish nowadays, expect when giving his relatives a call. Guess he, in a way, also considered Syre as one.
"...wait, she called you niece?" Dio snickered, shooting a rather incredulous look at the human, who merely sigh and shook his head.
"She was old and a bit senile, I'm just glad she even remembered she was an aunt." He said, somewhat frustrated as he continued along with "his" work, sighing a bit more at the cat's comment.
Was the Doc probably being a just a bit overprotective? Probably, but Carlos wasn't about to fuel the fire of the conflict between the two. That said he froze up at her following question regarding the dreaded D-Reaper, the two partners sharing an uncomfortable look before looking back at Syre. There was no sugar coating the truth.
"It's...pretty freaking bad." Dio said, though it felt like a rather big understatement, so he decided to elaborate a bit more. "Being deleted? Traumatic, but if you're lucky you can come back from that after a bit. D-Reaper infection, however...it's a bit more complex."
"Now, I'm not the biggest expert on the subject to be honest, you might get more out of it asking your aunt, but what I do know is that if you get corrupted by that thing? That's it, you're pretty much done for, and there's no coming back from it. You'd spend the rest of your days as a semi conscious husk of what you once were, doing nothing but living to spread the infection further."
Should he add the very likely posibily that she would probably attempt to rip her former loved ones appart if such a thing were to happen? Probably best to avoid that graphic detail, she didn't need the nightmares.
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Oct 9, 2018 1:37:34 GMT
"Ah... guess that makes a bit more sense. Your aunt sounds nice." With a smile, and a tone that suggested that she was just trying to half-salvage the conversation (as well as hide a bit of a 'snrk' from Dio's additional comment), she pressed back on with scrubbing the deck. At the very least, she was able to at least do some of this work with a smile on her face, mostly thanks to Uncle Dio's passive involvement!
Of course, that happy tone didn't last for two long. Letting that brush soak once more in the bucket, her ear twitched at Dio's description of the D-Reaper. Carlos' addition was, well, pretty much haunting, Syre shuddering as Carlos aptly described it: a 'husk', living only to spread and control the world further. "T-that's..."
The cat shivered. She sat at the end of the deck, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was trying to stay warm in a fierce storm, her ankle burning lightly as she thought of that possibility. Just... just how close had she gone to becoming that? Had she made the wrong decision after all? She shook her head! "But if its t-that bad, we have to find a way to fight it, right?! I mean... who knows what that totem would have became if the D-Reaper got to it?"
Her heart was in the right place. But her tone was not.
She sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Oct 20, 2018 4:27:08 GMT
"Oh god." Carlos bit his lip, immediatelly regretting being this honest about the whole subject with Syre. Her reaction, was as understandable to him as it was devastating. Had he been a bit too graphic on his description? "I-I'm sorry Syre, didn't mean to-" Oh dear, she wasn't going to cry was she?
Try as he might, he was somewhat hopeless around younger people, human or otherwise, always fearing he might accidentally traumathize them without actually bothering enough to have some sort of filter for whatever dumb comment that came out of his mouth.
He sat next to the cat, slowly reaching out with a hand and if she were to let him, he'd gently pet her back in an attempt to calm her a bit.
"Something...catastrophically bad, no doubt." Carlos admitted with a sigh, not knowing the exact answer but knowing enough about the D-Reaper to be painfully aware of how bad things would get if it got a hold of a totem. Still, perhaps wanting Syre to at least have a good night's sleep, he tried to perk up a bit, a tiny smile as he also replied, "But you're half right, actually! We have ways of fightining it. And people are fighting against it almost every day. Clearly we're all doing something right, because that thing has not taken over. Sure, it's a scary and dangerous foe, but it's not unbeatable. After all you and aunt Amy made it out in one piece, right?"
He said, looking back at Dio, silently asking for some support on this.
The imp was quick to offer as such, he too feeling a smidgen of regret over scaring their niece like that.
"Exactly. Perhaps not now, but if you were to cross paths with that thing again, I'm sure next time you fight against it you'll be ready, and will show it just how strong you are."
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Oct 21, 2018 1:37:26 GMT
Cry?
Oh, Syre had already started to cry. Her hands hugged tight around her arms, the BlackGatomon shivering as she sat on the end of the deck. The sheer bluntness of Carlos' description had shook the cat to the very core - just how close had she been to the edge? What if it was worse next time?
What it it had happened to Amelie, when she tried to save her? The fear and hypothetical guilt wracked at her mind, and in her stammering, she felt very alone, not even hearing Carlos' words... not until the tamer put that hand on her back, at least. Her ear twitched, Syre looking right up at her uncle. That small smile, those encouraging words... and the sheer fact that it hadn't overtaken them yet. If anything, it was that last point that brought Syre back down a bit from her emotional outburst: giving a sniff, she rubbed her eyes against the back of her gloves, giving a nod. "Of course we did... we weren't going to leave each-other behind, after all."
They did what they could - and apparently, that was all they could do. She had to be more prepared, she had to get stronger - and, it seemed, she had to prepare herself mentally for what was to come. Rather then respond with further words, Syre grit her teeth... and lunged her arms around the tamer, in a tight hug.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Oct 30, 2018 22:32:55 GMT
"Exactly, you're still here with us Syre. That's what matters." By now Dio would have joined efforts with the man to try and help the cat, softly petting her in the head as well (all the while giving one or two ugly looks at Carlos for his lack of tact, of course).
Somewhat (un)expectedly, the niece turned and began to tightly hug her human uncle, which he soon reciprocated.
"There there, it's ok. You're fine." He'd repeat again and again, letting her try to let all the fear and doubt out for a solid minute or two. Dio, feeling a sudden and unexplained feeling of absolute misery at seeing Syre like this would also try to reach and hug her some, though not as much as the human as he didn't want to smother her between the two of them.
"H-hey...wanna take a small break? We could eat something, after all you've been working pretty hard for a while now!" Carlos would suddenly say, trying his best to seem a bit cheerier and improve the situation somehow, though Dio seemed ever so doubtful about that.
"Carlos..." Obviously he didn't want to see their niece feeling down, but doing so and having the Doc find out would only lead to more trouble for her (and if he was in a particularly bad mood, for them as well). Carlos sigh, all too aware of this.
"Right...alternatively I could just bring everyone sandwiches or something?" He offered with a somewhat doubtful tone, but smiling nonetheless. Sure, the first option could make Mikemon upset, but if thats was what it took for Syre to feel better, Carlos would be more than happy to take the blame for that one when the time came. "What would you rather, Syre? Lunch break here or there?"
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Post by Syre the BlackGatomon on Oct 30, 2018 23:41:16 GMT
With that hug, of course, all of the cat's emotion spilled out at once. Carlos and Dio were here for her, of course, but the BlackGatomon couldn't help but cry, burying her head against the tamer's shirt as she bawled her heart out.
Of course, Srye wasn't left alone. Carlos returned the hug, and even the Impmon managed to get an arm around her in there - and for the next few minutes, the cat just let it all out. Slowly, she'd find herself leveling out, down to a bare sniff as she pulled away. "Of course... of course we're all still here..."
That was definitely a bit of a ride. Clearing her eyes with the back of her gloves, the BlackGatomon's ear perked up at the next bit. A break? Lunch? Obviously, the cat was still grounded, but if Carlos was offering, well... no, no, at this point, she didn't want to get double-grounded. "Y-yeah, I think you should try and bring something over. I'll, um, wrap up this end, alright?"
Sheesh, how long of a break had that been? As Carlos would make his way back inside, though, he'd be met by the doc cat - sitting just around the corner, arms crossed, ear peeking in on the conversation. As the tamer passed, he'd shoot a brief, stern look in his direction...
... Then just roll his eyes. With a smirk, he'd set the plastic bag he was carrying down, and make his way back to the office. ... Yup. Chinese food.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Dec 10, 2018 5:28:30 GMT
"Alright then, be back in a minute. Look after her for a bit, ok Dio?" The imp didn't even had to answer to the man, merely giving a small nod to the human as he left the two alone. Dio continued his gentle petting, only stopping for a moment to look behind and check that Carlos had indeed left. He looked back at Syre, and after a moment of silent let out a rather disgruntled sigh. Grabbing a hold of one of the brushes left behind by Carlos, he too began scrubbing away the floor, wondering to himself when he had gotten this soft, and how much he was going to blame his human partner for this. That said, he'd glance at Syre, and giving her an odd mixture between a look of complicity and a slightly chastising glare, he whispered something to her.
"Not a word about this to Carlos, ok?"
Carlos meanwhile made his way back into the Library and was going to head for the kitchen...when came across with the Doctor, who was very clearly just done having listened to their conversation. He froze in place as the Mikemon's gaze met with his.
"...hi Doc." He awkardly greeted him. How long had he been listening? Judging by his stern look, it was safe to assume that he'd been there for a while. Or at least long enough. The man sighed, looking down and clearly feeling rather ashamed: not only had he been rather lacking on his "job" as a lookout, but he had also managed to make Syre cry. He'd probably be rather pissed at him, right? "L-look, I take full responsability for everything and..."
So it would be a huge understatement to say he was completely taken aback when the cat not only didn't say a single word, but smirked back at him, and left without a word, leaving behind a bag that Carlos quickly identified as chinese food, still hot by the looks of it.
Carlos coughed awkwardly a bit. "...thanks." Was all the man could barely muster, but the Doctor was already walking away. It was uncertain if he had even heard him say that,
Probably something to discuss with him at a later time. For now he simply grabbed the bags, before making his way back into the room with the other two.
"So guys, who wants some chinese?"
[Exit]
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