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Stranger In A Strange Land [Carlos]
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Post by Rin Jenova on Dec 22, 2018 22:42:44 GMT
Downtown Shibuya. A place, crammed with people of all walks of life. Churning away in the great melting pot of Tokyo like bits of onion in a soup, they all walked the streets, heading to whatever meeting, date, or event they wanted to see. Among them, an unusual young girl was walking. Hand behind her back, nose to the wind, the blonde teenager seemed to follow some sort of call only she could hear. Her face was vacant, her simple smile expressing not the slightest bit of emotion. At the entrance to a small side alley, she stopped, and felt the brick wall. She then scratched her chin. "Hm. Where could they have gone?" She absentmindedly reached into a pocket of her simple white gown and pulled out a music player. Rather than putting earbuds into her ears, she stuffed the player into her mouth and bit it in half, chewing with loud crunches.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Dec 23, 2018 14:15:04 GMT
There was one thing the man named Carlos had come to terms a long while ago, and there was no way around it: Shibuya was weird. Even ignoring the whole Digimon thing, it felt as if though every resident he came across had at least a small degree of quirkiness to them. Hell, not even Carlos was safe from that, as he too had been dragged into a rather large number of bizarre happenings for the past months. And today it seemed as it would not be any different.
As he began the walk back to his house after buying some assorted groceries with Dio (who was resting in the safety of the man's backpack on his usual black cat holosuit), it seemed as fate conspired against him: as he turned to look at his left out of a whim, his eyes happened a rather odd occurence: a girl taking a bite out of a music player. Not just biting at it like one would do with a pencil either, she had taken a literal chunk out of it with her mouth. It took a full second for the man to properly register what he had just seen, finally coming to a stop a good five seconds after the fact, and kept looking back at the girl, as if not entirely convinced this was happening.
"...what the hell...?"
Even Dio found himself staring in a frozen stupor. From what he understood of humans, even for them it was weird to bite down on electronic devices just like that. At least he assumed so, Carlos was kind of his best reference point for how a human acted.
For a moment, the white haired man's instincts told him to simply go on his merry way, act like nothing wrong happened and just forget about the whole thing later. But as usual, that primal instinct of curiosity got the better of him. There was visible hesitation in his movements, but eventually Carlos walked up to the girl(?) and waved a bit at her, Dio still glaring at her with visible wariness.
"Er....you alright there girl?"
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Post by Rin Jenova on Dec 23, 2018 15:58:51 GMT
Rin turned around. A human had approached her. Humans. Mum always called them "weak and useless things with no data content". She had also encouraged her to make no efforts to talk to them. But on the day she had eaten her first ramen bowl she decided that beings that could make food that good were worth talking to. Rin managed to smile without her cheeks narrowing her eyes. "Oh! Yeah! I am! Who are you? I'm Rin! Do you like ramen? I love ramen!" Her dad had said the best way to make people not be worried about you was to seem nice and friendly. The ramen shop had taught her that people were always nice and friendly when eating. So what better way to make this human be at ease than to bring up food?
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Post by Carlos Rey on Dec 24, 2018 20:36:37 GMT
To say the man was ever so slightly unnerved by the girl's rather odd appearance and mannerism would be an understatement.
"Uhm, hi?" He greeted her back, looking a bit uncomfortable. "I'm Carlos." He added.
The first thought of course was to wonder if this Rin character was maybe, just maybe, a mentally disturbed girl. The white gown certainly helped giving her the look of someone that recently broke out of an asylum. That presented a bit of a problem, to say the least, as he was rather unsure how to proceed. Was he supposed to call the police? Try to help her back to whatever place she had come from? Just let her be? And what if she wasn't a mental patient and just a very quirky person?
And there was the other possibility that this wasn't even a human to begin with, but merely a disguised digimon trying (and failing) to pass off as a human. This wouldn't be the first time he came across one, and most likely wouldn't be the last.
The possibilities and variables were nearly endless. His possible options even more so. As such, he decided the best way to proceed for now was to continue talking to her, and see if that got him anywhere. Of course, as soon as she brought up ramen out nowhere it already felt like a lost cause, but he wasn't about to back down just yet.
"Y-yeah, ramen's nice, I like it well enough." He said, nodding a bit, trying his hardest to seem as nonchalant and relaxed as possible. He looked around a bit, scratching the back of his head before asking her, "Rin, are you alone? Did you get lost?"
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Post by Rin Jenova on Dec 24, 2018 22:36:12 GMT
The smile remained on Rin's face, unchanging. Oh hey, someone else who likes Ramen! This is going great! "Hello Carlos! Yeah! It's great! It got noodles and egg and meat and spices and loads of spices, it's perfect!" She looked back down the alley. Hm? The human asked if she was lost? Well, she wasn't! "Oh I'm not lost! I am after someone! They ran away from me and now I wanna find them again! I saw them run in here, but I can't find them!" She sniffed the air. Hmmm, she smells something! Without warning, she walked behind Carlos and opened his backpack, looking right at the Dio cat. "Oh, a cat, how boring."
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Post by Carlos Rey on Dec 25, 2018 21:18:18 GMT
How and why was Carlos talking about ramen to a completely random stranger on the street was something he didn't even bother questioning at this point, though his question had given him a somewhat straightforward answer from her.
"I see, and who are you looking for?" The man inquired, and tentatively asked, "Do you know why they ran away?"
He wasn't able to ask much more than that, as the blonde suddenly walked behind him and opened his back, and would find herself with the startled looking black cat that was his disguised partner.
Dio, finding himself suddenly so close to this peculiar person practically jumped to the back of the bag, hissing while the hair on his back rose. There was something...off about Rin, and it wasn't just her not having any qualms about invading personal space. Furthermore, Dio noticed something not immediatelly apparent about her: she smelled...oddly. Like a mixture between a tempura shrimp plate and hints of something more sterile. A hospital perhaps?
Carlos quickly turned himself around to face Rin again, and to keep his partner from probably trying to scratch her face off.
"Y-yeah, his name's Dio. Don't mind his grumpiness too much he's...a bit wary of new people: he used to be a stray, you see." He'd force a chuckle, clearly still taken aback by her sudden movement. "I take it you don't care much for cats."
He sighed a bit, pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn't really want to ask the obvious question, but there was really no avoiding it.
"Rin, do you need help in finding who you're looking for?"
After saying this he could already feel the glare his partner was giving him from the relative safety of the bag, and even he was doubting if helping Rin out would really lead anywhere. But leaving her alone and lost in the middle of the street felt wrong.
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Post by Rin Jenova on Dec 27, 2018 18:52:23 GMT
Rin seemed entirely deaf to Dio's aggression, just keeping her smile. "That so? That's ok! Not everyone likes strangers! Yeah, cats are boring!" She then quickly closed the backpack, and skipped back towards the alley. "Oh, I spooked someone, and now they ran off!" She put her hands behind her head and huffed. "I dunno why they were so spooked, or why they ran, but I wanna find them!" She then turned to Carlos, smiling wider, which just looked creepy. "It would be super nice if you could help me! Come on, this way!" With that, she ran down the alleyway.
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Post by Carlos Rey on Jan 2, 2019 18:07:08 GMT
While relieved she was no longer invading his personal space, Dio couldn't help but feel a bit miffed, almost offened by Rin almost dismissive attitude towards cats. Why he cared so much about her opinion on something that to him was nothing more than a simple disguise? He didn't know, but it annoyed him nonetheless. "Cats are boring"? Quite the bold statement coming from the girl wearing nothing but a white gown!
Carlos meanwhile nodded at Rin. So she wasn't just wandering aimlessly, but rather following after someone else...who hopefully was a real person and not some sort of hallucination. Though her explanation only raised more questions. "Spooked? Did you do anything to scare them?"
He didn't get much time to ask for more details, as she then ran down the alleyway not a second after accepting Carlos' offer for help, leaving the rather confused man behind.
"Hey, Rin, wait up!"
While her wide smile and calm tone was anything but reassuring and he much rather not get involved into...whatever she might be up to, Carlos couldn't just let her go around on her own with a clean conscience, so as soon as she began running down the alleyway, he was quick to follow, ignoring the low growl from his partner complaining how stupid of an idea this was.
"Sure, follow the weirdo, that'll end well for everyone." He whispered, just low enough so that Rin would probably be unable to hear. Carlos didn't respond, instead asking the girl, "So who are we looking for? How did they look?"
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Post by Rin Jenova on Jan 2, 2019 20:05:42 GMT
Rin pouted. Did she do anything to spook the one she was seeking? Not in her mind. "I did nothing! I just said I was hungry! Some people!"
Rin was quite nimble for a girl her size, it was easy for her to stay ahead of Carlos. That said, when he called out and told her to wait up, she did, only running again when he had caught up with her. What the one she was seeking looked like? "Oh! They're red, with blue stripes! They got these long ears, and got a whole lot of feathers on their bum!" Sounded like...an Elecmon? Was this girl looking for a Digimon?
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Post by Carlos Rey on Jan 4, 2019 22:17:50 GMT
Well...if her diet was anything like that music player she had been eating a minute ago no wonder someone would be spooked. But before he could ask her why she was eating that (the reason he had approached to her on the first place), her description of the fleeing person they were looking for triggered every alarm and red flag on Carlos' head.
Red, blue stripers...long ears? Bum feathers? That didn't sound quite right, certainly not human and most certainly not like any animal he knew of. It didn't took long for Carlos to put two and two together and figure she was more than likely refering to a digimon, specifically an Elecmon of some description.
"Im guessing it wasn't a painted rabbit by any chance?" He wondered aloud, though he already suspected the answer.
If it was really a digimon that...complicated matters, to say the least. Was the digimon she was looking for her partner? Someone else's? That was a bit unlikely, since she didn't talk about them with any type of familiarity. Was it a stray, then? Regardless, it was all the more reason for him to get involved if there was a digimon prowling around.
He kept on following after Rin, eyes now darting around in search of any signs of the missing electrical digimon, as he kept pressing her for answers. "So why are we looking for them? Are they a friend of yours?"
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Post by Rin Jenova on Jan 10, 2019 13:03:13 GMT
Rin blinked. Painted rabbit? "Eh? Oh, nah, it was an Elecmon!" She was -quite- frank about that, as if the existence of Digimon was common knowledge. In Rin's experience, people either asked what she meant, which meant she could brush it off and mark it as a nickname, or the person knew what she meant, which was good for her! And why they were looking for them? "Oh! We're looking for them because they have something I really really want!" Which was the truth. They did have something she really wanted. And once they had caught up to them, she'll be taking it~
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Post by Carlos Rey on Jan 17, 2019 18:02:44 GMT
Well then, Rin was certainly straight to the point with Carlos. No sugar coating it or dancing around the issue, she just straight up admited she was looking for an Elecmon. "I...see." He replied, not even bothering to hide his surprise anymore. It was quite odd to have someone openly mention the existance of digimon out on the street, certainly, but knowing what he knew about Rin this all matched her behaviour so far.
"Did they steal something from you or what?" He asked, ever so slightly concerned about what she meant with the Elecmon having something she "wanted". That was the most pressing question in his mind right now, as he hoped that some more answers would come up as soon as they finally caught up to the digimon.
As for Dio? He simply kept to himself inside the backpack, waiting anxiously for things to wrap up and for them to part ways with this weird person, though deep down he suspected their problems with her were just about to begin.
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Post by Rin Jenova on Jan 17, 2019 19:48:38 GMT
"Eh? Steal? Naaaaaaaah! I just need something they got!~" Which, again, was nothing but the truth.
Eventually, the two, or rather three, came upon a back alley with many boxes and trash bins littered about. Rin sniffed the air. "Oh, they're close! Let's look!" How was she so sure? This was getting all very strange. She began to lift boxes and turn over bins, looking for the errant Elecmon. If Carlos decides to help her look, he'd find an Elecmon indeed, hiding under one of the boxes. The Elecmon looked...-quite- scared, and urged him to not say a thing by putting a claw to his lips as if to say "Shhhhh"...
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Post by Carlos Rey on Jan 23, 2019 2:38:10 GMT
Without really stopping to question the fact Rin had sniffed out the Elecmon's location, Carlos began searching, lifting and flipping over cardboard box after cardboard box, not quite sure what he would do once he found the digimon. Dio would come out from the backpack to aid in the search efforts, pawing somewhat half heartedly at suspicious boxes.
It didn't take long for them to eventually find a box that seemed heavier than the rest. A quick look inside revealed what he suspected: the Elecmon was hiding in there!
"Rin?" the man called out to the girl, but suddenly stopped homself from saying anything. There was something on the digimon's expression of sheer, complete dread that seemed off. Why was it so terrified of being found out? Between that and Dio giving the man a rather concerned look it was enough for him ti have se ind thoughts about helping the odd girl.
Something was definetly going on, and Carlos wasn't going to just hand over the mon without knowing why.
Positioning himself between the box and Rin, trying to hide the cardboard container from the girls' sight, the white haired man turned to the pale girl once again. "So...what exactly is it that you want from that Elecmon?"
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Post by Rin Jenova on Jan 26, 2019 14:28:51 GMT
Rin was lifting a dust bin that was bigger than herself when Carlos called out to her. "Eh? What I wanna have from the Elecmon??" She fell deep into thought. Her dad always said "Never tell anyone what you do with Digimon, they would not understand.", and her mum always said "Humans and other Digimon are not yet ready for what you do, so never tell them." So obviously, she should not tell this Carlos guy. ...yet deep inside of her, a voice told her that this Carlos guy was different. He was nice, he helped her, he listened. Surely, if anyone would understand, it would be him...would she defy her parents like that? The very notion was unthinkable! And yet, she felt the urge to. She looked visibly torn as she thought, but eventually resumed her same, soulless smile. "I want their Data! I wanna make them part of me!~" She said this as if she was talking about eating a bagel with cream cheese. No malice, no smugness, just innocence. For the first time in her life, she had listened to her own voice.
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